Hidden by Design

Not so average

"hey, I'm Charlie Deece,"
She almost doesn't hear it from her autopilot,but she turns and extends a hand to the team member,who smacks it rather than a handshake and it stings her nerves.

"I tried for the exam too,"he explains and smiles something venomous.

The girls are nowhere to be seen, probably with Elijah. Majestic name though, doesn't suit him at all.

She clasps her hands together,till she realises that's not ideal for her plan. She needs to blend in and be sociable.
"What are your guys specialisations?" She hopes to sound timid.

"Sustainable urbanism." Gary Reed quips and Charlie Deece takes a look at him before turning to Aida,"stitching and alignment diagnosis."

"Nice,sounds like work." She doesn't know shit about either of those.

"And you? What's your selection criteria?" Reed asks curiously.

"Obviously better than us that's why she's our Boss-" Deece gripes and Aida feels horrible already about him.
Her selection was a blur to her,drawing drawing until she got shortlisted,studied fashion theory and gave the exam,easy peasy.

"I have an attention to details ability that a novice may nonpluss." There,a complex English sentence to shut them up. They hum pleased and smile at her but Aida fiddles with the spinning ring on her right hand.

Shifting in her seat she notices the men walk away and wave to Elijah in the balcony who grins. The girls are to his right idly chatting and she's just. There.

Should she go? But why even bother, she'll stand there like a moron.
But-
"Remember to blend with people,if they're an ass you also become an ass."
That's one good peice of advice.

Getting up she fixes her hair, grabbing her phone and connecting to the printer to atleast walk out with a valid ID card .
She feels her heart sink when all the chatter dies down when she enters the balcony,it's oddly reminiscent of the police academy days.

He seems immersed in some talk when she taps his shirt and furrows his brow at her,"what?"
"The Milan project.." her eyes drift to the gleaming builds and how his hair starts to curl at one point, frustrating.
"Yes..?" He trails off to mimic her .

"There's one in the year twenty four as well,this firm does sponsor the trips there?"  That seemed like an important question,she needed the exposure before she could exceute her plan.

"Yup." He nods and goes back to talking,with Sarah and two more girls who seem to fawn over him.

But whatever,her ID card is printed by now. Heading back she makes sure to get a photocopy and folds it nearly in her palm.
It's not time yet to leave and the team is leaving already,while Elijah seems to be on a call. She busies her self with her old Mughal inspired block print sketch.

There's a beauty in the rounded off squares,with flowers in middle of the lines and delicate leaves in the middle of those squares,firm pencil presses into making the edges more defined.
As soon as the sound of boots echo in the workspace,she stops drawing.

"Did you stop because of me?" He towers over her seated form. She shrugs ."let me have a look at that." His fingers trail over the sketch paper.

"Simple, but pretty. What colors are you filling in this?"
"Rough draft,no colors get filled in a print design. Those limit the prints capabilities." She takes the sketch back from him ,draws a tall stalk flower in few lazy strokes of her pencil and rolls her sketch up.

"Where is this print even going to work,if you don't mind me asking." He leans against the table.
"I see it working very well in tie up blouson tops." She replies, already envisioning the idea in her head.

He hums,"You're a great one."
"Not a good one?" She asks,looking up to him.

"Yeah. All those girls just chatted about drinks and having a casual meeting after this,while you're there only thinking work. I think that's great." He looks away,from her hair falling into her side profile with swoops. "Not exactly good. Too much work isn't what I like in my team."

That sentence makes her half terrified and half scared,was he going to kick her out the team because of this?
"That's just how I am, that's why I got here." She states. A good confident response although she feels an apology may be apt. Damn the social relations programmes.

"I hope you'll steer the team into being like you. But someone in there told me that you're not very likeable." He smirks.

Classic. Classic behaviour but her breath hitches. It's totally academy days again. People said that they don't like Aida and then nobody liked her because they would rather listen to those popular people than actually befriend—

"Not my problem,I'm not very likeable and relations isnt a cause for success in this industry." His smirk falls. And her comes on. "You and I could be at each other's necks and we'll still ensure the team is working properly."

"Oh really?" His jaw clenches at that, and how when she stands up she's nearly his height. He's got to invest in the Woodland shoes now.

"Really." Her tone is dry,and she heads for the elevator. It closes promptly shut when Elijah is about to enter and she chuckled at that.

Approaching the receptionist she flashes the paper and puts it in her desk with a sickly sweet smile. "You're welcome by the way."

End scene! She thinks and calls up Cameron for picking her.