The Delivery Girl

47. Selfless

Callen

This meeting could have easily been an email.

I sit stiffly in the meeting room, surrounded by instructors, professors, and doctors.

Dean debriefs us on how last week's AGM went. As a part time instructor who's only doing this as a favour, most of it doesn't concern me.

Though I've admittedly met some interesting people here today. Doctors with PhDs who've spent decades researching and working in their fields. Scholars who did their fellowships all over the world. A few like me, balancing teaching on the side while running businesses.

Impressive, but not untouchable. I exchanged a handful of business cards before the meeting started. Just because I'm stuck here doesn't mean I should stop thinking about the company. Always be working, always be making connections.

Just as the dean calls for a 15 minute break, I begin getting a call from Julie. I step outside and answer.

"Hey Julie, is everything ok?"

Her voice is quiet, uneasy. "Yeah um, I left home a little while ago, but I think I saw Jacob in his car across the street... shouldn't he be with you?"

That idiot. Couldn't he have been more discreet?

"Oh, don't worry about him," I say, forcing my tone to stay calm. "Did he see you leave?"

"Yeah, he's a couple cars behind me now."

At least he can do something right.

"It's probably just a misunderstanding. Don't worry about it, I'll talk to him later," I say. "Love you."

I don't want her to worry, now more than ever.

She pauses briefly. "Ok, Love you."

I head back inside and over to the table to refill my coffee. "Oh, Dr. Kim." I step to the side to let her pour her coffee first.

She smiles. "Thank you Mr. Sterling."

Be disarming, personable.

"Please call me Callen."

She chuckles. "Alright, call me Andrea."

I don't know much about her. All I've heard in passing is how impressive she is. One of the few female engineer instructors. A PhD, confident and bold. She doesn't let herself be stepped on.

She stirs her coffee. "I'm so glad to hear they're increasing the number of TA's we get to hire. I have one TA for a two hundred student class." She shakes her head in disbelief. "I'm so lucky to have her though, she's such a hard worker."

I keep my mouth shut. No one needs to know how many I have. "Yeah it's great."

She continues. "I'll admit that she worries me sometimes. She's brilliant and going to achieve great things, but at the cost of pushing herself too hard." She absentmindedly fidgets with her bracelet. "I was like her once. I was offered a perfect job right after graduation, but had a mental breakdown in my first month. I ended up in the hospital."

Her honesty catches me off guard. My stomach twists with worry. "Sounds a lot like my girlfriend."

She looks at me sympathetically. "I hope you can help her. I want to say something to my TA, but it's not my place to try and stop her. She's a student... there are boundaries I'd get reprimanded for crossing."

"I hope so too."

–

I peer through the office door's small window. Inside, Julie sits at a table with two students, showing them something on her laptop screen. They nod attentively, scrawling down notes in their books.