Alpine

Gambit 3 - Switch

The next few weeks rolled by with uncomfortable ease. We engaged in necessary, polite small talk without hesitation. Without an underlayer of subtext, we discussed presentation strategy and what to feature in the live demo. When he would come back from a smoke break with a glass of iced tea, he took to bringing one for me as well. I had never tried Janice's iced tea. My main excuse was that I was not a fan of the stuff. My real reasoning was that it felt like Janice made it for him and him alone. Sure, other people were encouraged to have some, but dodging his territory was my reflex.

So, when he placed the glass before me the first time, I was horrified. Back then, acting like this was normal as per our agreement had taken all my will power. Now, accepting the offering without hesitation was the reflex. Plus, Janice really did make good iced tea. When I ventured to compliment her on it, she took the opportunity to gush about how she grew the herbs herself. We must have talked for thirty minutes. After that, she started to say hello to me in the morning. Over time, it morphed into a daily chat.

Things also changed with Dave. Switch only knew the basics of coding. Any time we talked to Dave about my half of the presentation, if Switch asked something, it was usually misinformed. Sometimes, his understanding of a concept was so bad that his questions were incoherent. I understood what he meant though. So, I would correct him or translate what he was saying into something workable. Half the time I ended up answering the question. Having a programming novice to compare me to helped Dave realize that I was at least somewhat competent. Dave started asking me what I meant when I misspoke instead of just telling me how I was wrong. If Boss wandered by, Dave would let me answer the questions directed at me.

Then there was the incident with Clara. By the time Switch and marketing settled on the Alaska conference, there was only two weeks left to finish our preparations. We started working through lunch to get everything done. Normally, he and Clara ate together to talk about fashion and pop culture, while Ryan rolled his eyes at both of them. Switch was more than capable of multitasking between socializing with Clara and collaborating with me, so the three of us ate together. Ryan did not join us. I will get to him later.

Anyway, on one of those days, I was deep in thought, trying to scribble out an explanation for one of the features Dave had coded. I wanted to be technical enough to sound informed without being too jargony. My most recent attempt was meandering, long winded, and embarrassing. My eraser obliterated it with gusto. In the process, I elbowed Clara's coffee.

Thankfully, I only dumped it on myself and not on her. While I apologized profusely for the ruining her drink, she grabbed napkins from the dispenser at the center of the table to help sop up the mess. Switch decided to add his two cents. "All knees and elbows as usual. It looks to me like you owe that girl a new coffee."

I mumbled something to the effect of, "I could pay for it, but I can't order it. I can't pronounce Coffee-ese."

"I teach Coff-ese classes nights and weekends," Clara quipped effortlessly.

"Guess I better sign up then." There was another sentence hanging off the tip of my tongue. The words faltering at the gulf between my status and Clara's. My thoughts were the spasming tick of cog teeth trying to push forward and jolting back. Somehow, they ground past the grit of my lack of self-worth and spun free like a well-oiled machine. "I guess I wouldn't be much of a gentleman if I couldn't get a pretty gal the coffee I owe her."

She rolled her eyes, so I thought my banter fell flat. Except, after that, I swear I caught her watching me out of the corner of her eye while she talked with Switch. And later, when he and I picked up our papers to move back to conference room, he gave me a thump on the back, teasing, "About time you said something." So, I guess I flirted with Clara. And she liked it?