Chapter 13

You both made your way back to Benthouse building, and up to the Chambers offices. Your lunch had taken an hour and a half, but you were still coming in with plenty of time to spare. The secretary at the front smiled warmly as she saw Sabrina, though to her credit she didn’t drop it when you followed Sabrina in.

“Hey guys, welcome back,” she said. “Everyone is in our staff meeting right now. Just head on back to the secondary conference room and we’ll get you two started again when we have the chance, alright?”

“Sounds good,” you said, taking the lead. “Anything interesting happen while we were gone?”

“No,” the secretary said, with a questioning look. “Why? Should we be expecting something?”

“Oh, um, no?” you said, surprised at the response you got.

“We’ll just head back, thanks,” Sabrina said, bumping you to start moving past the secretary desk.

The main office area was empty of people, and you could see they were all packed into the large conference room with the lights dimmed and some sort of presentation going on inside. No one even turned to glance at you and Sabrina as you made your way down to the side hallway and back to your shitty little “office space.”

“OK, I thought you said talking with her would make things better?” you asked. “Why the hell did she give me that look?”

Sabrina rolled her eyes with a sigh. Part way back on your walk from the restaurant she had redonned her sweater, and now she smoothed it out again as she sat back into her seat at the table. “It’s not just talking, John. It’s what you talk about, and what sort of impression you made at first. She thinks you’re weird, so when you asked a random question like that it came across as more weird.”

You blew out a breath and sat down beside her, slumping in your seat. “I’m hopeless, aren’t I?” you asked.

“Pretty much,” Sabrina smirked. “At least you’ve got me to cover for you.”

“Secretary-whisperer,” you chuckled. “Going to put that on your resume?”

“Sure, right next to nu-”

“Knock knock,” said the Office Administrator lady. The older woman leaned around the corner of the door, just poking her head in. “I saw you two headed back here. We finished our staff meeting earlier than expected, are you ready to start on the rest of the surveys?”

“Absolutely,” Sabrina said, recovering from the slight moment of panic she had when she got cut off about to say something naughty.

“Great,” the woman said. “Just two minutes.

“Maybe no jokes in the office,” you suggested.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “At least not during business hours. Or without a lookout.”

Soon you two were back at it, going through the mind numbing paperwork and questions with each employee of Chambers Architecture. The thing was, you were having a good time doing it. Even if the faces and names started to blend together, the minute or two between questionnaires with Sabrina were fun. After particularly strange answers, Sabrina had a tendency to tap the toe of her heels a few times, and you made it a game to place your own toe over hers before she could start tapping.

There were also the looks. Soft smiles through pursed lips, playful and meaningless at the same time. Little winks when she knew you two were on the same page about something unsaid. She even started touching you more, though not in an unprofessional way. Just a brush of her fingers on your arm as she asked you for something mundane, or her fingers trailing across your shoulder as she went out to the staff kitchen for some water.