31. Clarissa

31

CLARISSA

S tarting a new job is always nerve-racking. It didn't help that Leo chose this morning, of all mornings, to not want to go to school.

"You liked school yesterday," I reminded him as I helped him to get his coat on.

He whimpered and whined through the whole process.

"I will be there to pick you up after daycare," I said.

"But I wanna stay with you," he said as I pulled his hat down around his ears.

"I want to stay with you too," I said, "but I have to go to work."

"You didn't have to go to work yesterday," he pointed out.

"That's because Mommy is starting a new job today. I didn't have that job yesterday."

"You can't play with me anymore?" I thought my baby boy was going to start crying. He was miserable. If he started, then we would both be late because I would have to stop everything and cuddle with him until he felt more secure. Leo didn't dissolve like that much anymore. He was getting to be such a big kid that sometimes, I forgot he was still only five.

I lowered down in a squat until I was at his level. "You know I love you more than anything."

He nodded and his lower lip quivered. He was breaking my heart.

"How about tonight when I pick you up, you and I go find a pizza place to bring home dinner for Aunt Marci? We can all have pizza for dinner."

He nodded without much enthusiasm. I knew his reluctance was for leaving me and going to school, but I couldn't help but think I felt the same way over the prospects of finding a decent pizza in Seattle. We had only been here a few weeks, but I was still in search of something that would remind me of all my years in Chicago and the exceptional pizza I could find anywhere in the city.

With much cajoling and promises of dinosaur movies in the middle of the week, I managed to get Leo out the door.

I was breathless when I arrived at the new office.

"Sorry I'm late," I said to my new manager and senior architect, Dominic. "My kid didn't want to go to school this morning."

"My kids never want to go to school. But they're in high school." He laughed. "How old is yours?"

"Leo is in kindergarten," I mentioned. "He only goes for a half-day and then he spends the rest of the day in childcare, unless his aunt picks him up early."

"Right, right, you moved out here with her? I seem to recall your saying something along those lines during the interview."

"Yes," I answered. "She and her husband (I didn't feel like going into the details of their relationship, especially since I knew that while Marci was thrilled with being pregnant, she wasn't so thrilled that Davey wasn't putting a ring on her finger) transferred out here for his family. I decided it would be a good time to take the opportunity to also get out of town."

"Well, we are glad to have you. Okay, okay, this is your desk. IT is up on the fifth floor. Rosalie will take you upstairs to get you introduced and get you all of your computer logins."

It took a minute to remember who Rosalie was and where her office was located. I pointed back toward the front of the office space we were in. I had already met so many new people that names and faces were starting to blur.

"Right, right, she was that first office just beyond the receptionist desk on the first floor," Dominic confirmed.

I had never been in an architectural firm as large as this one. They even had their own IT department. It wasn't just the receptionist and the draftsperson left troubleshooting to make sure the plotting printers were connecting to computers.

After Dominic gave me a brief tour of where I'd be working, he left me on my own to find my way back to Rosalie's office.

"Think of it as trial by fire," he said jokingly when I accused him of pushing me into the deep end of the pool without even knowing if I could swim.

The hardest part of getting back to Rosalie's office was getting myself out of the maze of cubicles my workspace was in the middle of and to the elevator bank. Fortunately, Rosalie's office was close enough to the elevators on the first floor that I didn't get too lost. Besides, all the offices with doors had those glass walls, so I could see which one she was in.

I knocked on her door and she waved me in.

"Did that man abandon you?" she asked with a broad smile on her face.

"He did seem to take great pleasure in my panicked response when he told me I was on my own to get back here," I said.

"Dominic tries to be a hard ass, but he sucks at it. He's too nice." Her phone rang, and she laughed as she looked at it. "Speak of the devil." She answered the phone, and Dominic's voice filled her office.

"Has the new kid made it there yet?"

"She's sitting right here, and you're on speakerphone."

"Good, good, you didn't get lost. I knew you could make it," he said with his quirky double words.

"I managed to find my way here, no help to you," I said, jumping into the easy camaraderie that was in the office.

"Try not to scare her off, Rosalie. And have her back to me after lunch."

"Thanks for making my job easier." She laughed as she hung up the phone and turned her attention back to me. "We have paperwork for you to fill out, and we have to get your employee ID badge. Oh, and we need to make sure that you're set up with IT for computer and network access. Then we need to spend some time going over how we track billable hours."

I smiled to myself. I was going to have billable hours. I was so excited.

"Everything okay?" Rosalie asked.

I nodded. "It's just my first time having billable hours. It kind of feels like I made it, you know?"

"But you've been working in architectural firms, I thought," she said.

"Yeah, I spent the last few years as a receptionist for one while I finished up my degree. I pretty much helped around the office. I'm pro at getting the plotter back onto the network. Other than that, I've worked as an intern, and none of that is billable."

Rosalie nodded in understanding. "I admire your enthusiasm." She gestured in a circular motion with her hand before bringing all of her fingers together quickly. "Please keep that in mind when you are actually tracking your work. It is probably the one thing the creatives moan about the most."

I suppressed a giggle.

"Why don't we get started?" Rosalie stood up.

I followed her out of her office and into an empty room with some equipment. She walked me through the process of having a picture ID made. We waited around while my ID card was processed. It was still warm when she handed it to me.

"Don't lose that, it is also your key card." She began rummaging through a cupboard and pulled out a box of different colored lanyards. "You don't have to use one of these if you don't like them, but until you figure out what you want, these are handy. You need to keep your key card on you at all times."

As she started going over the specifics of working at Brennus Enterprises, my head started to fill up and all I could do was nod and hope I remembered all the details.

"How are you feeling about everything?" She checked in with me as we rode the elevator up to the IT department on the fifth floor. "Are you hanging in there? Okay?"

"It's a bit overwhelming. I hope there isn't a quiz at the end."

She laughed. "You're going to do just fine here. You aren't from this area originally, are you?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I recently moved here from Chicago."

"How do you like it so far?" she asked.

"So far, it's a lot warmer."

"That's just because it's winter. In the summer, you'll wish it was warmer. Do you have any questions for me so far?"

I let out a sigh and tried to think of anything reasonable and pertinent to ask. "I feel like a blank whiteboard and you're just beginning to leave notes on it. I'm sure I will have questions later, but right now, I'm just trying to keep up."

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open.

"Now, don't let the folks in this department intimidate you. They can be a little surly and cranky, but they keep our computers up and running, so we all put up with it."

I followed her through another maze of cubicles.

"I thought of something I want to ask. I know this isn't necessarily job related," I started.

She looked over her shoulder at me. "Sure, what can I help you with?"

"Do you know a really good place for pizza?" I asked.

"We have a place called Windy City Pizza, and they have that deep dish style from Chicago. I can't tell you how it compares since I've never actually had Chicago style pizza in Chicago."

"That sounds like a good place to start," I confessed. "I'll let you know how it is in the morning. I promised my son we'd have pizza for dinner, and so far, all we've found are the chain stores that aren't exactly the best, are they?"