Codes and Lies (BWWM)

The Presentation

The next morning I felt refocused.

The night before when I returned to the hotel I couldn't wait to brief June on my encounter at XIU. I told him it was almost like a movie the way everything happened, and how charming Mr. DuMonte had been, and how he had said "next time."

June waisted no time bringing me back to reality. He aptly reminded me how potentially dangerous Canaan DuMonte was. He also pointed out that I had no way to contact him, nor did I have any indication of when we would meet again if even at all. The whole situation was happenstance, and June was right. I couldn't afford to get caught up. I couldn't afford to be careless.

After the sobering conversation, I woke up got ready and went to the office. I was able to get pretty far on my project. I converted my rough sketches into a more professional format and made sure everything was measured to scale.

By the end of the day I was satisfied with my progress, and decided to call it a day. Part of me was tempted to go back to XIU that evening, hoping to run into Mr. DuMonte, but I opted to go over my presentation for the next day. After I felt comfortable with my presentation, I decided to catch some early z's.

The next morning, I arrived to the office early to finish up the final drafts I had been working on the day before. Mr. Monroe would be arriving at 3:30pm, and I wanted everything to be perfect when I presented my ideas. Even though the whole architect thing was just a cover, I truly took pride in the designs I was creating. To me buildings had personalities, and I wanted the persona of the company to be evident in my design. Every line, every curve, every color had intentionality behind it.

By 11 I was nearly finished with the third concept, and decided to take a quick half hour lunch. That would give me plenty of time to add my finishing touches before Mr. Monroe arrived.

I decided to venture outside of the office cafeteria today and try some of the local cuisine. There were a few food stands outside serving up noodles and kabobs. What better way to experience authentic Chinese food?

I walked to the man preparing lo mein. It smelled so good. "Duoshao qian?" I asked.

"San kuai." He replied.

Only three Kuai? I couldn't believe it. Even three dollars in American currency was a steal, but in Chinese currency it made it close to fifty cents. I was really gonna love China.

I watched as he put in a generous portion of the egg noodles, cabbage, and beef in the the wok. He added sauce and chili oil, and a few moments later handed me a delectable looking bowl of lo mein and a pair of chopsticks. I handed him the three kuai. The first bite was heaven. It was the perfect amount of sweet, savory, and spicy. It took me less than five minutes the devour the whole thing. I was almost tempted to get another one, but I decided to use self control. I pulled out my compact and reapplied my lipstick before heading back in the building.

Once back on the 32nd floor I made my way to my work station to finish up my last design. This was my favorite of the three. I liked it's angular construct and the stark contrast of dark and light colored glass that paneled the exterior. My favorite aspect however was the terrace like garden the protruded from the center of the building providing, a potential place of escape from the confines of cubicles and computer screens.

I finished the final details on my designs with twenty minutes to spare. I reviewed my presentation once more for good measure and was soon on my way to the conference room.

When I walked in two of the team members were already seated at the table. I greeted them and set my large portfolio down and took a seat quickly the rest of the team filed in. We talked briefly about some of the different ideas we had come up with, but not in depth.