Lucky Coincidence // Stuart Twombly

VI

"Okay, that was everything for today. Are there any questions?" Chetty ended the meeting.

"Yes, actually." Lara raised her hand slightly and Chetty offered her his attention. "My boyfriend is participating in this program, will that be a problem?" She asked softly. Chetty looked to Dana with a questioning look.

"I don't think it will form a problem. Most tasks are based on points and facts anyway," Dana said with a kind smile. "But he has to go through an interview first before he is officially a part of the program so it's possible that he's not included."

"I understand, thank you. That was all," Lara smiled. Stuart hadn't mentioned the interview yet.

"I'll see you all next time," Chetty concluded the meeting and everyone left the room.

Lara had to keep herself from skipping down the hallway as she walked back to her workspace. She found a sticky note on her monitor.

Meet me in the cafeteria.

-Watts.

With a slight frown, Lara read the note. She then shrugged to herself and went to the cafeteria where she found her boss and a young man sitting across from him.

As Sebastian's blue eyes landed on her, he waved her over. "Lara, please meet Andrew, he will be taking your place when you make it through this program successfully, which I think you will, so I thought it would be a great idea if you could show him around and explain everything you do," Sebastian explained.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Lara." She held out her hand to Andrew.

"H-Hi, nice to meet you too." He offered her a nervous smile as he shook her hand.

"Are you alright?" Lara asked him softly as she noticed his flabbergasted eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting someone as... I wasn't expecting you," he shrugged slightly.

"Who were you expecting?" She asked with an amused smile.

"I don't know, some sixty-year-old lady perhaps," He replied, earning a giggle from the blonde girl.

"Well, I gotta go. I'll see you two later." Sebastian stood up.

"Alright, see you," Lara smiled at her boss before he walked away from the two of them.

"So we could start at your future workspace?" Lara suggested and Andrew nodded, agreeing with her silently.

She took him to her desk. "This is the computer I use, most of the stuff happens on there. I just have a paper diary because I like that more, but you can do whatever you like of course," She explained. She turned on the computer and her wallpaper popped up.

She showed him all of the programs and applications on her computer before she shut it off again. "If you have a question, don't be afraid to ask." She turned to the boy, who seemed awfully distracted. 

"Y-yes, of course. Don't worry," He quickly rambled.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Lara explaining everything she does and Andrew gaping at her every word. 

As the two were walking outside the building, Lara explained Sebastian's meetings. The way she took notes, the way she searched for information beforehand, the way she turned those notes into information for next meetings, etcetera, etcetera. 

Andrew listened intently and Lara realized he hadn't said anything for the past twenty minutes. "Andrew, are you sure you're alright?" She asked him. He let out a sigh. 

"You don't remember me, do you?" He said softly. Lara looked at him with squinted eyes as she tried to figure out what he was talking about. "We were Freshmen together?" 

Lara's jaw dropped. "Oh my goodness, Andy?" She gasped. 

Andrew - or Andy - chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I changed, huh?" 

"You have actually. You dropped the glasses and cut your hair, it looks great," She smiled.

He chuckled. "Thanks." 

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you, it's been a while." She awkwardly tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Nah, don't be. It's fine," He waved off her comment. "Where were we?" 

"Right, the invoices." Lara quickly took this opportunity to move away from the awkwardness from just a few seconds ago.

***

"I'm such an idiot." Lara faceplanted onto the couch. She had put her phone on speaker as soon as she had entered the house and the phone now bounced on the couch and almost dropped on the floor. 

"And why's that?" Stuart asked her. He was meeting some people from his college tonight and Lara didn't feel like joining them. She was eager to start working on the assignments she had received from Roger Chetty via email.

"Andrew from High School will be taking my place as Sebastian's assistant and I didn't recognize him until he said it," She sighed. She took her laptop from the coffee table and pressed the button to start it. 

"Andrew Saylor?" Stuart asked. 

"Yeah," Lara answered. 

"Awkward," Stuart sang. 

"That's an understatement. I felt so insanely stupid. How can I not remember my best friend from High School?" She asked no one in particular. In the meantime, her laptop had started up and she quickly found the email with her To Do list. 

"Don't know, babe," He said. 

"Gee, thanks for the help." She tied her hair up in a messy bun to keep it out of her face. "I heard you have to go through an interview before you can participate in the program, did you know that?" She asked. 

"Yeah, I got an email about that today," He replied. "Hey, I'm gonna go. The guys are waiting." 

"Okay, have fun. Don't go with strange men," Lara sang. 

"Very funny. I love you." She could just hear his eye roll through the phone. 

"Love you too, I'll see you tonight," She giggled before ending the call. She read through the To Do list and saw she had to come up with a question to ask the participants to see how resourceful they were. Lyle had also mailed her, asking her about the Quidditch Match. 

She saw Chetty had added a list of people who were participating and happily found Stuart's name. Behind every name, it mentioned the participant's age and the city where they lived. A lot of people were her age and most of them lived in the area. But two particular names stood out. Billy McMahon and Nick Campbell. Both of them were far older than everyone participating and she saw they lived not that close to Los Angeles.

She was curious to see why they were participating and more than anything, she wanted to know if they could make it through the interviews. The two had just started at Phoenix University, an online university, and their majors were physics and sales, two very different things. 

Without giving it more attention, she started working on her assignments.