3 Chapter 2

Two weeks had flown by, and before she knew it, Estefani was heading out from her apartment with Liam, the company car was awaiting the two. It looked like a black Lincoln Town car. On the inside were black leather seats, and in the backseat, a brown towel was laid out for Liam to lie on. She quickly got in, and they took off to San Jose.

For the first ten minutes of the ride, all she could see were endless wheat pastures with cows and horses, since she lived near farms and vineyards. Once they were on the freeway, they passed a set of outlets, the parking lot filled with cars. They crossed a bridge where the ocean could be seen, the surface of the water reflecting the sun. If she looked for too long, her eyes would hurt, so she kept them on the city that could be seen from afar.

Estefani wondered when they would arrive at San Jose. She had never been to a city before and was excited to see what one looked like. It wasn't until halfway to San Jose that they finally got to see several different cities up close. They went under a green bridge with bronze statues of people on each end. Getting closer, they hit traffic. Estefani sighed; she had been sitting in the car for more than an hour, and petting Liam wasn't helping in passing the time. She took out her phone to see how much longer the ride would take. Thirty minutes. She never felt a car ride take so long. All she could see were discolored buildings and cars getting off of the freeway.

They finally arrived at Eleanor Software. Estefani looked up in awe to see all the skyscrapers. Eleanor Software was eight stories tall.

Inside the lobby, there were white chairs all around the first floor. People were sitting, many of them having coffee and engaging in small talk.

As Estefani looked around, a woman with a tight knee-length black skirt and a brown blouse with kimono sleeves came toward her.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the woman asked.

"Yes, I have a meeting with the head of Eleanor Software," said Estefani. "I'm from Jupiter Computer Hardware."

"Name?"

"Estefani Guera."

"Please take a seat while I give her a call," said the woman, walking behind a black desk.

Estefani obeyed, taking the nearest seat she could find and waited. Liam laid at her feet giving a loud sigh. If she thought the car ride was long, this felt like an eternity.

"Miss Guera," a loud voice called, echoing throughout the first floor.

Estefani's cheeks took on a tinge of red as she felt all eyes on her. She hurried to the front desk, where the woman stood there waiting with a young man.

"This is Miss Evans' intern. He'll be taking you to her."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Estefani, and this is my service dog, Liam," she said. Her voice was rising a few octaves higher. She extended her hand in greeting.

"Oh, yes. Miss Evans mentioned you would be bringing a dog," said the intern. "My name is Gabriel."

Gabriel was a little bit taller than Estefani. He had the same light sepia skin that she had and maple-colored eyes. He wore a light grey button-up shirt and nice jeans. His short black hair was pushed to the side.

They headed toward the elevators, which were next to the front desk. The elevators were closed, and right next to them was a sign, written in big letters "EMPLOYEES ONLY." Gabriel took out a card and swiped it on a box between the elevators. The elevator opened, and they were able to go in.

In the elevator, Estefani took a deep breath, building up the courage to speak to Gabriel. She was never very good at making conversation with a total stranger; they always made her a little nervous.

"So...what's it like being Miss Evans's intern—she strict?" she asked.

"Not really; it's not like I've been her intern for long, though," he replied in a monotonous voice. "I used to work for her father, but he transferred me over here."

"Oh, I see." Her voice rose as she tried to concentrate her attention elsewhere. She could tell that he wasn't very happy about being transferred and she felt bad asking. The rest of the way up, they stood there in awkward silence.

Miss Evans' office was on the top floor and had windows all around. She could see a view of the city—half of it was city buildings and the other half, you could see a park. There was a desk in the middle of the spacious room where a woman was sitting, which she assumed was Miss Evans. The woman got up when she noticed them walk out of the elevator. She was tall with incandescent red hair and the closer Estefani got, she noticed Miss Evans had freckles on her nose.

"Finally, Gabriel has brought you here," she said as she came forward, unable to hide her excitement. "I'm Eleanor Evans, and I can't believe I'm finally meeting you. Sorry—you must think I'm weird, but I'm actually a big fan of your work. I love the rococo style that you have; I'm a big rococo art fan myself."

"Thank you," Estefani said, her cheeks burning up

"Please, sit down," said Miss Evans as she motioned toward the chairs in front of her desk.

Estefani saw a glimmer reflect from the back of Miss Evans's hand as she sat down behind her desk. Once Estefani sat down, she had a better look. On Miss Evan's left hand was a ring embellished with diamonds, and in the center was a big one. The ring was breathtaking, but Estefani didn't ask who the lucky man was for fear that it wasn't an engagement ring. She had trouble differentiating regular rings from engagement rings. All rings looked the same to her; they were all beautiful in her eyes.

As she tried to move her attention to Miss Evans, she couldn't help but notice a picture frame with a photograph of her and William together. Miss Evans had her arms around him; they looked happy. Seeing the ring on Miss Evans finger made her wonder what their relationship was.

"I called you over here to convince you to work for me," said Miss Evans.

"Um—thank you, really, but I don't know if I'm fit for your company," replied Estefani as she shifted her gaze to the window behind Miss Evans. She was trying to refuse her job offer without candidly saying no; it wasn't working.

Just thinking about how big Eleanor Software was made her nervous; there were more people here than at Jupiter Computer Hardware.

"You'll get paid better here," encouraged Miss Evans.

"No, I'm not interested in the pay."

"Then why don't you do a trial run for a month or so?" she suggested. "Then you can decide if you want to stay. We will pay for housing expenses if that's what you're worried about."

"I don't know if it would be all right with Mister Montgomery," she lied, hoping that it would discourage Miss Evans.

"With Will? You don't need to worry about him. He'll agree." She gave her a mischievous smile.

Miss Evans stood up and walked Estefani to the elevator as Gabriel walked behind them.

"I'll give you a tour of the company," said Miss Evans excitedly.

"Okay." Estefani's voice cracked

They got into the elevator, and Gabriel pressed the number two button.

Arriving on the second floor, Estefani's heart started beating so fast she could have sworn that Gabriel and Miss Evans could hear it.

The elevator doors opened, and in front of them were many white desks, which ended in the middle of the room. Once they got out of the elevator, there was a clear glass railing to their right. Looking down, she could see down to the first floor and the front desk where she checked in.

They walked straight past desks and stopped in front of a door. Miss Evans opened the door; the room looked similar to the office she currently worked at.

"This will be your office—if you choose to stay here," said Miss Evans. "How do you like it? We still need to order a few other things, but we can talk about that once you start working."

"It's very nice," she replied as she looked at the empty room that only had a white art desk and bookshelf. The color of the wall was a pastel pink and behind the art desk was a pastel blue.

Then all of a sudden, someone's cell phone started ringing with the ringtone "L-O-V-E" by Frank Sinatra.

"Hold on," Miss Evans said, glancing down at the caller ID. "I need to take this. Gabriel, could you finish giving Estefani the tour? If I'm not back before you're done, can you accompany her to the exit? I apologize in advance."

Gabriel did as he was asked and showed Estefani the rest of the second floor. He showed her where the conference room, the break room, and other offices were located. Heading back to the elevator, they heard someone call out Gabriel's name. Estefani turned around to see a tall man with dark blond hair who looked like he had just woken up from a nap. He had on a sky blue button-up shirt, a skinny, black tie, black skinny jeans, and light blue dress shoes that complimented his shirt.

"Hey Gabriel, who's the girl?" he said, ignoring Liam's growl.

"This is Estefani. She might be working here for a month," said Gabriel. "Estefani, this is my friend, Ian. He's a sales representative."

"Nice to meet you, Ian," said Estefani as she extended her hand, but Liam kept pushing her towards the elevator not letting Ian shake her hand. "Sorry. My dog Liam seems to be in a hurry to get out."

"That's all right. We can see each other once you start working. Try not to miss me too much," Ian joked.

In the elevator, there was no longer such an awkward silence.

"Sorry about Ian. Just for a future warning, don't listen to him when he talks. He tries to get as many girls as he can. He dates them and then dumps them. To him, dating is like a game." He sighed. "I don't know why I'm still friends with him."

"That's okay. You've warned me," said Estefani. She took a deep breath. "I hope for the month that I'm here we can become good friends."

"I hope so, too."

The elevator doors opened, and Estefani headed out, waving goodbye to Gabriel as she left the building.

Just as she stepped outside, her cell phone started to ring. She peered at the caller ID; it was William.

"Hey, I just got out," she said.

"So how did you like the company?" he asked.

"It was all right." There was a bit of silence. She took a deep breath and all the courage in her to ask the burning question, recalling seeing the ring on Miss Evan's finger as well as a photograph of them. "Um, hey. I saw a picture of you and Miss Evans. Are you, by any chance, engaged?"

"Yeah," he responded after several seconds. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason... No reason at all," she said, trying to clear her throat.

"So are you going to do the trial?"

"I'm not sure I want to, but I think it would be rude if I don't at least try it out," she said unsurely.

"All right then. I'll see you at work tomorrow," he said and then he hung up.