5 Chapter 4

Estefani stretched, "All right"

Mountain View would be the new place that she'd call home—at least for a month. Her heart started to beat faster, and she took a deep breath, looking at Liam. "Today is the day, Liam. We will take the light rail to San Jose. My goal is to make new friends no matter what."

She headed out as if she was going on a mission. It didn't take her long to get to the light rail since it was walking distance from where she was staying. She stood looking at the ticket machine box.

"How in the world do you use this?" she complained, looking at the screen for a few minutes. Then she clicked where it said "one-way ticket," not knowing if that was right. "So glad that we left an hour early, or we would've been late for our first day of work."

The light rail that read "Winchester" was right on schedule. Estefani headed in to find a seat. She didn't arrive at San Jose until an hour later and was dropped off in front of the convention center. She decided to walk slowly over since she still had some time before going to work.

Passing a small park with musical swings, she tied Liam's leash on a bench in front of the swings and went to try them out. Hearing the melodic music as she swung made her feel all giddy inside. As she kept swinging, a familiar person passed by. When the swing got close to the ground she put her legs down to stop. The familiar person stopped in front of her and smiled.

"You're Gabriel, correct?" she asked as she got off the swing and walked towards him.

"Yeah and you're Estefani, right?" he said.

"Yeah and this is Liam." She pointed at Liam, who started to wag his tail as she started walking toward him. She pats his head gently.

"You're here early," he said.

"Yea, I'd rather be early than late on such an important day like today."

"I guess so. I know it's still early, but do you want to get coffee and then head over?"

"Sure." She tried not to sound too excited about being asked to hang out. It was just coffee after all.

The coffee shop was next to a fitness center. There was outside seating, and past it, she could see the light rail.

Gabriel took out his Smartphone and asked, "What do you want to get? I'm ordering through the app."

"That's okay; I'll get in line."

"I'm treating you. Consider it a little welcome present to our company. Also, the line is long, so you'd never make it to work on time."

"Thank you," she said softly. She considered. "Then I want a white chocolate mocha, please."

"Okay," he said as he tapped the screen of his Smartphone. "Ordered. Let's wait inside."

The inside of the coffee shop was nice and toasty. It smelled strongly of freshly-grounded coffee. The sound of blenders could be heard as a barista tried to call out people's names over it.

"Gabriel, your mobile order is ready," said a barista.

Gabriel got their hot drinks.

"Thank you," she said.

"No problem. Should we head over?"

She nodded "Yeah."

Eleanor Software wasn't too far from the coffee shop. Looking up at the building, she remembered the first time arriving at Eleanor Software. Gabriel opened the door for her.

"Thank you," she said, taking a deep breath before stepping in.

Inside of the building was quiet since it was still early. They went to the elevator and headed for Miss Evans's office. Miss Evans was already waiting at her desk.

"Aren't you here early? Excited to start work, aren't you?" she said, opening a drawer.

"Yeah," Estefani gave a strained smile. Miss Evans then handed her a card. "What's this?"

"It's a key card. Since you're not officially working for us yet, we can only give you a temporary access card. It also opens your office."

Estefani looked at the card that was handed to her. It looked like a white credit card with the name of the company. Gabriel then accompanied Estefani to the second floor. She stared at the closed door of her office.

"Well, try out your new card," prompted Gabriel excitedly.

Taking out her access key, nervously she hoped there wouldn't be any problems with the key card. Hearing a light ping, she felt like she could breathe again. Her office didn't have much—there was a drawing desk with pencils within a pencil holder and a pair of scissors. It had a clean smell to it. The boxes she sent from her other office were stacked neatly in the corner. Grabbing the scissors, she cut open the top box, revealing all of her art supplies.

Gabriel came in and looked over Estefani's shoulder. "Need help?"

Estefani tucked her hair behind her ear and softly said, "Yes, please."

As they took everything from the boxes and put them in their new place, a familiar face popped its head in the room.

"Hey, how's unpacking going?" asked Miss Evans.

"Morning, Miss Evans," said Estefani. "We just finished unpacking actually."

"Call me Eleanor," she said.

"All right, Miss Eleanor." Estefani gave her a shy smile.

"It's just Eleanor."

Estefani's cheeks felt warm. "Oh, okay." She looked away.

"Just came here to ask you if you wanted to get drinks after in celebration of your first day at work."

"Drinks? When are we going?" asked a familiar voice.

"Ian, she wasn't inviting you," said Gabriel as Ian walked in.

"Of course she was," he said as he looked at Estefani. "It would be less stressful for Stef since she'll know familiar faces." He pointing at himself and then to Gabriel.

Eleanor sighed. "All right." She started heading out. "I'll meet you guys in the lobby after work."

As they looked at her walk to the elevator, Gabriel broke the silence: "She must really want you to stay."

"Does she usually not ask someone new to go out for drinks?" she asked.

"No," Gabriel replied.

Ian looked at Gabriel."Anyway, I think we should head out,"

Heading out, Gabriel stopped and turned around. "Before I forget, I need to give you your company laptop. I'll be right back."

He left her with Ian. There was an awkward silence.

"So," Ian started, "I saw you got coffee with Gabriel...,"

Her eyes lit up. "Yes! He invited me." Then she lowered her gaze and softly said, "It was very nice of him."

"Right, right." Ian cocked his head and mumbled, "'Cause that's the type of guy he is."

She looked up at him. "Did you say something?"

He smiled at her. "Nope."

Gabriel walked in. "Hey, I got your laptop." He handed it to her.

"Thanks," she said.

Once Ian and Gabriel left, she opened her laptop to see if she had any assignments from Eleanor. Her first assignment was a sketch to advertise a new software. It was due in a week. The advertisement was going to be out for a year or so. Eleanor wanted a futuristic sketch. If approved of the sketch, she had until the end of the month to digitally draw it.

Estefani took out sketching paper and started the assignment until it was time for her to leave for dinner. Heading to the elevator, she pumped into Gabriel.

"Hey," she greeted. "Why are you on the second floor? I thought you had to be with Eleanor."

Gabriel rubbed the back of his neck. "I had to drop something off. Anyways should we go down to the bottom floor?"

Estefani nodded.

On the first floor, Ian was surrounded by a few young ladies, and then Gabriel and Estefani came out of the elevator, catching Ian's attention.

Ian moved towards them. "Hey."

Estefani looked around. "Where's Miss Eleanor?"

"Probably running late. When I was about to head to the second floor, she said she had to finish up something and would meet us down here." Gabriel stared at the people behind Ian. "Ian, did you invite them to come with us?"

"Yea, but I didn't invite that many. I thought that maybe Steph could use some friends."

Estefani clenched Liam's leash, "I don't know them,"

Ian looked at her. "But you will. No need to thank me."

A vibration came from one of Gabriel's pockets. He took out his phone. "Miss Evan's just texted me. She says that she will meet us at the restaurant."