about her experiences. Her journal was purposefully understated, but that was intentional. She talked about the people she met and the progress of the StuTech towers being built. The plan was to either publish the journal or make it a blog. It was genius marketing, really.
The company was already in the Fortune 100 category, with plenty of room to grow. She played along and wrote her journal entries in hopes that it would benefit the people she wrote about. It was also therapeutic.
Her father had already sent away Luke for some unknown amount of time. If she couldn’t be with him, why not take the time before he returned and they got married to accomplish some good deeds? Made perfect sense. Almost. But the oddities of her efforts were mounting. She was an accountant, now living in a jungle tent. She’d done what her father asked, when that was the last thing she’d ever wanted to do. She was engaged, but pretending to be single. She should be here with Luke, not forced to ignore that he existed.
Luke was a real man who wouldn’t manipulate a situation like her father. He was really the best man she’d had ever met. He was caring and intelligent. Unfortunately the drive and passion she wanted in Luke was currently keeping them worlds apart. She knew he needed to prove himself and she was willing to give him the space to do it for some period of time, but not forever.
It was funny really. They never talked about work, even after they moved in together. They toiled in different areas of the company and never saw each other during business hours. Engineers and accountants only had meetings when something was amiss.
They met through a chance encounter on the company campus. StuTech had taken over a large campus just outside of Seattle when a software company moved its operations to China. Dozens and dozens of buildings were scattered all over the campus, connected by a series of private roads.
Rachel was steadfast in her commitment to take 60 minutes for herself in the middle of each workday. Her colleagues who worked through lunch got fat and burned out. She didn’t want that. She was sitting in an over-stuffed chair, with her legs tucked under her in the employee learning center one afternoon, reading a murder-mystery novel. The learning center was a library where employees could come and study for compliance exams, read the newspaper or just take a quiet break.
Rachel had nearly dropped her e-reader when, from a nearby study room a man yelled, “Son of a bitch!” He came bursting out of the room with a large brown coffee stain down his white shirt and khaki pants. He was carrying a thick text book that was dripping with coffee. It ran off his fingers too. Rachel knew immediately that the coffee stain wasn’t his biggest concern. He wore a red badge clipped to his belt, signifying his status as a network engineer. The network engineers were taking compliance exams that week. She guessed he was taking his final test, which was timed. The clock was ticking.
He took off for the nearest bathroom to clean up.
“Wait,” she called after him. “You probably don’t have time for that.”
She pulled out a clean towel from her gym bag, intended for her after-work run and handed it to him. He didn’t look her in the eye until after he mopped up the spill from his clothes, hands and tried to dry the text book. Luke would say later that she looked like an angel who saved him. Rachel would always counter by asking, “Why didn’t you say ‘thank you’ then?”
Rachel was packing up to get back to work 30 minutes later when Luke came out of the study room again.
“I think I passed, thanks to you,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m Luke.”
“Rachel. I’m glad I could help.”
“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”
“That’s probably not your best move, Luke,” she said, pointing to his shirt.
“Right, how about dinner?”
“Big leap from coffee to dinner.”
“Well, you’ve already seen me at my
The company was already in the Fortune 100 category, with plenty of room to grow. She played along and wrote her journal entries in hopes that it would benefit the people she wrote about. It was also therapeutic.
Her father had already sent away Luke for some unknown amount of time. If she couldn’t be with him, why not take the time before he returned and they got married to accomplish some good deeds? Made perfect sense. Almost. But the oddities of her efforts were mounting. She was an accountant, now living in a jungle tent. She’d done what her father asked, when that was the last thing she’d ever wanted to do. She was engaged, but pretending to be single. She should be here with Luke, not forced to ignore that he existed.
Luke was a real man who wouldn’t manipulate a situation like her father. He was really the best man she’d had ever met. He was caring and intelligent. Unfortunately the drive and passion she wanted in Luke was currently keeping them worlds apart. She knew he needed to prove himself and she was willing to give him the space to do it for some period of time, but not forever.
It was funny really. They never talked about work, even after they moved in together. They toiled in different areas of the company and never saw each other during business hours. Engineers and accountants only had meetings when something was amiss.
They met through a chance encounter on the company campus. StuTech had taken over a large campus just outside of Seattle when a software company moved its operations to China. Dozens and dozens of buildings were scattered all over the campus, connected by a series of private roads.
Rachel was steadfast in her commitment to take 60 minutes for herself in the middle of each workday. Her colleagues who worked through lunch got fat and burned out. She didn’t want that. She was sitting in an over-stuffed chair, with her legs tucked under her in the employee learning center one afternoon, reading a murder-mystery novel. The learning center was a library where employees could come and study for compliance exams, read the newspaper or just take a quiet break.
Rachel had nearly dropped her e-reader when, from a nearby study room a man yelled, “Son of a bitch!” He came bursting out of the room with a large brown coffee stain down his white shirt and khaki pants. He was carrying a thick text book that was dripping with coffee. It ran off his fingers too. Rachel knew immediately that the coffee stain wasn’t his biggest concern. He wore a red badge clipped to his belt, signifying his status as a network engineer. The network engineers were taking compliance exams that week. She guessed he was taking his final test, which was timed. The clock was ticking.
He took off for the nearest bathroom to clean up.
“Wait,” she called after him. “You probably don’t have time for that.”
She pulled out a clean towel from her gym bag, intended for her after-work run and handed it to him. He didn’t look her in the eye until after he mopped up the spill from his clothes, hands and tried to dry the text book. Luke would say later that she looked like an angel who saved him. Rachel would always counter by asking, “Why didn’t you say ‘thank you’ then?”
Rachel was packing up to get back to work 30 minutes later when Luke came out of the study room again.
“I think I passed, thanks to you,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m Luke.”
“Rachel. I’m glad I could help.”
“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”
“That’s probably not your best move, Luke,” she said, pointing to his shirt.
“Right, how about dinner?”
“Big leap from coffee to dinner.”
“Well, you’ve already seen me at my
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