by Brooke Page
I exited out of the website and headed for bed. As I fumbled in the covers I wondered what tomorrow would bring. Would this place really be a good fit? I sure hoped so; I didn’t have any other option for it not to be.
Chapter 2
I woke up to my alarm and immediately shot out of bed. I hadn’t slept well, worrying I would oversleep. I jumped in the shower and started getting ready. I methodically blew my hair dry with my hairbrush and straightened out all of the waves. Once I finished straightening my hair, I started on my makeup. I would normally only put on some mascara and eyeliner, but for the first day I thought I should add some eye shadow and bronzer. I put on basic gloss and did a subtle nod in the mirror. This will do.
I had 45 minutes to spare, so I thought I would grab some tea on the way to work. There was a nice little self-serve café a block from the Conklin building that I could stop at. My apartment building was within walking distance, so I headed out with my bag and walked quickly. My feet were going to be killing me after walking in these heels. I was going to need to buy some more respectable flats.
I picked up my tea and a pre-packaged bowl of berries and headed to wait in line. There were two registers open, and I was three back. Through my peripheral vision I noticed two sharply dressed gentleman standing in the line next to me. One was on his phone, not noticing anything going on around him. He seemed very focused on who he was talking to and didn’t seem to care if anyone else heard what he was saying. He had gray suit pants with a dark purple shirt and a matching gray tie. I tried not to turn to look at him because he was so loud. The other man sparked my attention more. He was taller than the gentleman on the phone and was very masculine. He had a strong jaw line and messily styled short brown hair. His eyes were covered with aviators and his expression was un-readable. After all my observations I brought myself back to the line I was in, which hadn’t moved. There was a woman at the register who was trying to run a credit card that wouldn’t go through, and she was searching her purse for money. She had a little boy with her tugging on her skirt repeatedly saying he was hungry, and his demands were getting louder. The gentleman in front of me was becoming annoyed.
“If you can’t pay for it, don’t get in line,” he sneered.
I looked at the man in disgust and nudged past him.
“Let me get it,” I said, smiling at the flustered woman. I put my fruit and tea on the counter and handed the cashier a twenty.
“Oh! You don’t have to do that!” she said turning red, still fumbling in her purse. I smiled back at her, “Don’t worry about it.”
Her shoulders shrugged, and she smiled warmly. She grabbed the bagel and gave it to her son. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.
I turned to walk away as the gentleman who was being crabby winced, worried I would lash out at him. I kept my head down, feeling a little embarrassed that I had given the man such an abrupt nudge in the first place. Then I felt another pair of eyes on me. I glanced to my left and noticed the two gentlemen finishing up at the register. The one was still animatedly talking on the phone, oblivious to what was going on, but the other dressed in all black had his head facing the door, his eyes hidden by his aviators. I shook the feeling of being watched and marched out the front door to head into work.
The Conklin building was one of the larger buildings in the city. There were at least 30 floors. Each floor consisted of a different department: marketing, sales, finance, landscaping, interiors, graphics, etcetera. I hadn’t realized their company did so much on their own work instead of contracting out the services. I was in the commercial architecture department, floor 12. Normally I would take the stairs, but in these heels I decided to pass and take the elevator. I showed the security guard my ID tag and headed to press the button.
Will Summers was the head of the commercial architecture department. I had been working with him while I was going through the process of interviewing and hiring. He was very young to be the head of a department; he had to be in his mid-30s and had green eyes with glasses and bright red hair. It was cut short, but you could tell it would be curly if he were to grow it longer. He wore a brown dress shirt and khaki Dockers.
“I’m so glad you made it!” He greeted me with an extravagant smile. “Let me show you around the office and introduce you to everyone,” he said in a bit of a hurry.
Will took me around and introduced me to at least a dozen junior architects and Corey, his personal assistant. Corey was very sharp with dark brown eyes and sandy hair. He was in his mid-30s as well.
“Corey handles a good portion of our accounts. If you ever have any questions, he is the man to go to if I am unavailable,” Will said as I shook his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you Becca,” he said shaking my hand. He turned to Will and said, “Why don’t we bring her to the meeting today with the Conklin brothers to break her in.” He smirked.
Will nodded his head enthusiastically at me, “That’s a great idea! Let me show you your desk and you can get comfortable, and in 15 minutes we will come pick you up to head to the 14th floor.”
Crap, I didn’t think I would meet any of the top dogs for a while and only by chance if I did. I was extremely nervous. What if they could tell I am fresh out of college? What if they ask me a question and I bomb the answer? Hopefully there will be a lot of people so I could hide in the back, at least for now.
I sat down at my desk, trying to acclimate to my new space. If everything went according to plan, I would be at this desk for a while. I thought about bringing in pictures of my family to put up and maybe a goofy picture of Jamie and me that would help me feel more at home. I turned in the swivel chair and rubbed my finger on the drafting table. It made me smile. It was top of the line and had wonderful light and all of the drafting supplies were in a cabinet neatly organized next to the table. This was heaven to me. I could get lost in drafting plans and coming up with new ideas for buildings. I loved making commercial plans, but residential was my favorite. They hadn’t had an opening when I applied, but I didn’t mind. I would enjoy this job just as much. I turned on the computer and surfed around to see all of the programs they had for me to use. Everything seemed so top of the line. I was a kid in a candy store. I couldn’t wait to start working on Conklin’s blueprints.
Fifteen minutes flew by and Will came up to my desk to grab me for the meeting. He handed me an iPad, “Here, this is for you. You can keep it and take notes on it. I forwarded the PowerPoint to you so you can follow along.”
I took the iPad and nearly gasped. Whatever happened to paper handouts? Oh well, I can’t complain I guess. The iPad would make things a lot easier to follow and take notes.
As I followed Will, Corey joined us along with two other gentlemen. They were both junior architects as well.
We took the large elevator up to the 14th floor. This floor was filled with conference rooms and served as the HR department. We all got off the elevator and headed into a very large conference room that had a theater like setting. There was another group of people already sitting down. Will introduced me politely to my new co-workers. They were the residential architects. I couldn’t help but notice I was the only female out of all the architects at this meeting. Soon, a small group from the marketing and graphics department came in, followed by the advertising department. Last but not least, a man followed by four supermodel-looking women silenced the room as they walked in. The man looked very kind, but the women all had their noses in the air. The gentleman came up to me and looked over at Will who was sitting next to me. “And who might this be?” he said to Will with a gleam in his eye.
Will grinned and introduced me, “Clayton, this is Becca. Clayton is head of the commercial interiors department.”
That explains it. I had minored in interior design. I couldn’t stand more than half of the girls in the classes. They were either obnoxiously gorgeous or insanely dim witted. I couldn’t stand the combination, and I hated to stereotype, but it was the truth.
Clayton ga
ve me a megawatt smile, “nice to meet you, beautiful. I love your necklace.”
One of the women came up to him and huffed. “Clayton, is there going to be coffee for the meeting? If not, we are going to need to get some.”
“Of course, I’m sure Nathan will be here soon. He doesn’t like to waste time. Sawla, this is Becca. She is new to the commercial architect department. It will be nice to finally have someone on our side. She has to know good design with that gorgeous outfit,” He said, looking over to Will.
Will just smirked at him and shook his head. “We will have to see won’t we?” Will replied.
Sawla gave me a glance over and plastered on a fake smile. It reminded me of Ashlynn. I instantly didn’t like her. I put my hand out to shake hers, and she gave me a very gentle grasp. I wanted to roll my eyes at her, but I put on a smile, hopefully not one as fake as hers. Clayton and Sawla sat in front of us with the rest of their immediate team. Then the door flung open and a man came flying in. He threw down a bag of bagels and began talking immediately. “Good morning everyone, help yourself to bagels and coffee!” He exclaimed. He sped over to the projector closet and pulled out a laptop and started fussing with it. A woman followed behind him with a box of coffee and coffee cups. She started organizing everything on the table in front of the conference room. The man looked very familiar; actually, his voice sounded more familiar than his looks.
My head turned to the door and another man walked in, sliding by the woman who was frantically organizing the bagels and coffee on the table. He was utterly beautiful. He wore black from head to toe, black shiny shoes, black dress pants, black belt, black dress shirt, and a black tie. His jaw was firm and his dark brown hair was messy as though he ran his hands through it a thousand times. He was tall and broad and athletic. He looked familiar too; why couldn’t I put my finger where I had seen these men before? Then it hit me. These were the two happy looking Conklin brothers in the picture with Robert Conklin, Sr. and Robert Conklin I saw on the website.
I flushed as his eyes met mine. Crap, did he notice I was staring at him? I quickly looked down at my iPad, hoping he thought I was just merely observing my surroundings. I was trying not to look flustered, but his eyes felt like they were going to burn a hole right through me.
Will leaned over to me and whispered, “That’s Nathan Conklin. He tends to run the show when his dad RJ isn’t here for presentations. The woman sitting off to the side of him is Jessica, his assistant. I will introduce you after the presentation. As you can see, he is very focused.”
“Who is the other gentleman?” I asked, trying not to sound too curious, even though I had an idea of which Conklin brother it was.
“That’s Tyler Conklin and his assistant, Cooper. Tyler doesn’t say much. I think he is more of a numbers kind of guy. He leaves the talking to his brother.”
“What about the other brother? Aren’t there three?” I asked inquisitively.
Will rolled his eyes, “Yes, that would be Mitch. He is on the construction side of the company. He doesn’t do a whole lot on the business side.”
From Will’s reaction, I figured Mitch was a bit of an outsider with this family.
“Ok, let’s get started!” Nathan shouted with a loud clap of his hands. He stood off to the side of the projector and had the remote in his hand. Tyler took a seat off to the side by the table of goodies next to his assistant, Cooper. People were scurrying back into their seats from getting coffee and bagels.
Nathan started talking about where the company was at numbers wise and wanted to discuss going completely green and eco-friendly with our up-and-coming projects.
I tried not to let my vision drift from what Nathan was saying, but I kept feeling like someone was watching me. It was almost an eerie feeling. I finally turned my head without thinking, and Tyler was staring at me. I got caught in his stare. I couldn’t tell what color his eyes were from the distance that was between us. They had to be a lighter color; if they were brown I would be able to tell.
His eyes drifted back to his brother, as though he wasn’t even looking at me.
Stupid. How could I think he was looking at me? He was way out of my league. But for whatever reason, I felt like I was being watched throughout the whole presentation.
“Okay, does anyone have any questions about the material?” Nathan said with another loud clap.
Sawla, from the interior department stood up. “I have a few issues,” she said a bit too sassily.
“Some of these ideas are just not going to work with the design concepts we have been working on. For instance, the solar panel windows are giant boxes! And the trimming cannot be replaced in order for them to work. How am I supposed to infuse a concrete block with a hardwood interior! And our projects are in the Midwest, the sun is only out half the year!”
Nathan rolled his eyes then looked to Clayton. Clayton stood up quickly and said, “I’m sure we will figure it out. That’s our job Sawla.” Nathan looked pleased with Clayton’s answer. Clayton noticed and gave him a grin. Nathan uncomfortably looked away.
“The windows are just the beginning though! More heat efficient flooring? I bet they only have a handful of styles that are safe to use with carpeting and hardwoods! ” Sawla exasperated.
Wow, this lady is ridiculous. I tried to hide my amusement. I had taken a few classes on how to have more eco-friendly homes. There are plenty of textile companies converting to meet these demands.
Tyler was watching me again, “You. What do you think?” The room stilled as he pointed his finger at me. Everyone in the conference room turned their heads to look at me, except Nathan. He looked dumbfounded at his brother. Shit. Tyler must have seen my amusement towards Sawla’s comments.
My tongue was caught in my throat.
“Do you have any ideas regarding this?” He asked curiously, holding his thumb up to his lips.
I looked over to Will and he shrugged his shoulders at me as if to say, go for it. I stood up and began to speak, hoping I wouldn’t trip over my words. “There is a company down in Florida who had been trying to figure out how to make flooring more sustainable because of all the hurricanes. They started to venture out and come up with water repellant flooring, but in their attempts to do that, they realized they were not only repelling water, but they were repelling heat as though it were a mirror. The heat would effectively bounce back and linger for longer periods of time. I’m not sure how they figured this out, something to do with the molecular structure.”
Sawla looked at me as though I had grown two heads. She was pissed. “I bet it’s hideous,” she sneered at me. I winced at her demeanor.
“Actually they have a large selection. A well-known company in Seattle was interested in the study and funded them to create more products geared towards a colder environment,” I whispered.
She glared at me. Clayton was trying to stifle a chuckle while looking at the ground, “We will just have to see about that.” Sawla voice was scarily low.
Nathan was gawking back and forth between Tyler, Sawla, and me. Nathan looked at me and said, “You’re new right? Are you a part of the Interior department?” He said a bit confused.
“Actually I am with the commercial architects. I did minor in interior design though. I had quite a few classes that focused on creating buildings with sustainable energy,” I said quietly. I felt out of place, being on my first day and having spat back and forth with Sawla. I slowly sat down.
Nathan had a huge grin on his face, “Double threat, I like that!”
He looked back over to Tyler who was hiding a smirk with his fist. Nathan shook his head at his brother with a quizzical expression on his face. Nathan dismissed everyone and quickly started to put his things together. Will gestured for me to follow him as we came down to where Nathan was.
“Nathan, this is Becca Stine. As you already found out, she is our newest junior architect,” he said proudly.
Nathan quickly looked up from what he was doing and put his hand out to
me. “Hello, Miss Stine. I think you will be a wonderful asset to this company,” he said hurriedly. I gave him a shy look, “Thank you. I think I am going to like it here.”
He looked over to his brother Tyler, who was still sitting amongst the commotion of the other department teams making their way back to their floors. “This is Tyler, my brother,” Nathan said.
Tyler casually stood up and gave me a nod. “Well, we have to be off. It was nice meeting you Becca; see you around Will. I will email you those stats you asked for.” Nathan said, clearly loosing focus on us and moving on to his next task at hand. Tyler held his gaze at me, then slowly turned around to follow Nathan, their assistants casually walking behind them.
“Wow, Tyler never talks during meetings.” Corey said looking at me.
Was it that obvious how annoyed I was with Sawla’s reaction? Geez I didn’t mean to have it written all over my face.
We all headed back to our department. Will started me on a small project that I instantly fell in love with. It helped block out the weirdness Tyler Conklin showed towards me at the meeting. I got lost in my project until it was just after 6pm.
“You don’t have to stay any longer; you have put in more than eight hours. Did you even take a lunch?” He asked.
“I ate at my desk; I guess I’m just really focused on this project,” I said sheepishly.
“Well, my wife will not be happy with me if I’m not home in 10 minutes, and it’s a 20 minute drive. You are welcome to stay as long as you want, but don’t feel like you have to. The building is open 24/7 as long as you have your ID tag. You are welcome to use your space anytime.”
I smiled then thanked him and started to pack my things as he was walking out the door. Once I had everything in order, I headed for the elevator. My feet were killing me, so the stairs weren’t an option today. I might even skip going to the gym because of it. I needed to get more respectable flats. I wasn’t used to wearing heels for this long. I slouched over waiting for the elevator. My eyes were so tired. They weren’t used to having this much makeup on, and I had been focusing on the computer screen for most of the day. I stood there tiredly waiting for the elevator. My mind quickly wandered to Tyler, thinking how I never got a good glimpse at his eye color. During my thought the elevator doors opened, and there he was standing in front of me, looking at the ground as though he were in deep thought. I had the feet in concrete feeling again. All of a sudden his eyes pushed up to the ceiling of the elevator, then at me. Smoothly he said, “Are you going down?” I nodded my head praying that my feet would listen to my brain. I slowly stepped into the elevator on the side of him. The doors closed, and it was painfully quiet until the cart started to descend.