Page 16 of It's Only Make Believe

“Thank you,” I say.

I nod to Luke then I get up and leave his office. What he said to me wasn’t exactly the answer I had hoped for – an instant yes – but it was much better than what I had dreaded – an instant no. And it is still possible that Luke is going to trust me with something challenging. And I genuinely believe he will think about it, because he had no reason to lie to me. If he had already decided what I would be doing and it was something else menial and he wasn’t willing to at least consider changing his mind about it, I think he would have just said so. He doesn’t seem to be too worried about keeping me happy and I don’t think he’d start now.

I head back to my desk, upping my pace when the telephone starts to ring. As much as I have settled into this role, I won’t miss the sound of that damned telephone ringing every few seconds.

Chapter

Twelve

LUKE

Ihave spent the afternoon debating Louisa’s request for a more challenging role next week. In truth, I would have handed her over to the web development team on the first day of her internship and let the team leader there assess her capabilities and assign her work if she had been any normal intern. But because of Enrique’s warnings, I haven’t done that; instead, I have kept her with me so I could keep an eye on her. She hasn’t shown any of the negative qualities Enrique had told me to expect, and for that, I think she does deserve a chance at going and doing something IT related. But at the same time, I’m left wondering if she is just acting like she’s a hard worker until I drop my guard a little bit and send her somewhere where I won’t be her direct line supervisor.

I really am not sure what to do for the best, and it doesn’t help that anytime I come down more on the side of giving her the chance she has asked for – a move I greatly respect for the record – and probably deserves, I then begin considering the fact Iwon’t get to see much, if anything, of her. I know deep down that I can’t let myself decide Louisa’s fate based on that though. It isn’t right for the company, for Louisa, or for Enrique’s pocket. But it’s still not easy. Every time I think I know what I’m going to do, I consider something I hadn’t thought of. Finally, it gets to the point where I’m annoying myself going back and forth on this. I have never been indecisive like this, especially not over what really should be a simple decision. In that moment, I decide on my best course of action.

I decide to have Mel call Karl to come to my office so I can discuss it with him. If I am going to let Louisa loose on a real project, it will be something in the web development area because she said that was where her expertise lay, and I trust her to know her own abilities. Karl is the supervisor in charge of that team, and I want to know what he thinks about taking Louisa over there and having her lend a hand, with the obvious caveat that if she stirs up trouble or refuses to do her work, to send her straight back to me.

I pick up my desk phone receiver and call through to Mel’s office.

“What’s up?” she says in the way of greeting. She obviously knows it’s an internal call or I’m sure she wouldn’t make that her greeting.

“It’s Luke,” I say. “Can you find Karl from web development and have him come to my office please?”

“Sure,” Mel says. “Anything else?”

“I’d love a coffee,” I tell her.

“Should I ask Louisa to make it?” Mel asks, confused because I told her at the start of this thing to always have Louisa make the coffee.

“No,” I say. “I’d actually like you to make it and make her one too while you’re at it. She drinks caramel macchiato.”

“OK,” Mel says.

The part about the coffee is just a last minute thing that came to me while I was on the call to Mel. I want Louisa to know that I do value her both as an employee and as a person, even if it turns out that now isn’t the right time for her to take on more complicated jobs. I think she’ll like the fact that I remembered her coffee order. I tell myself I don’t care about shit like that, but the truth is, I do care. And I want her to be happy about it.

When there’s a knock on my door after a few minutes have gone by, instead of calling come in I get up and open the door. I want to be able to hear Louisa’s reaction when she gets her drink, and if Mel asks why I’m opening the door, I’ll tell her I just figured I’d help her because her hands are full. I’m greeted by Mel with three steaming mugs of coffee. I smile at her and take mine from her.

“Thanks,” I say.

I watch her walk to her office. She presumably off loads her coffee because she comes back out after a few seconds with only one cup in her hand. She approaches Louisa’s door and smiles.

“I brought you a cup of coffee,” she says.

“Oh. Thank you,” I hear Louisa say. “But isn’t making the coffee my job?”

“As an intern I guess so, but you’re acting as Rachel at the moment and while she does make the majority of the drinks, I sometimes make them.”

“Luke said I had to make his coffee for the foreseeable future,” Louisa says. “I hope he isn’t angry about this, thinking I’m trying to get out of making it.”

Mel shakes her head.

“He won’t. In fact, it was him who told me your coffee order,” Mel says.

I can imagine the smile on Louisa’s face as she says ‘oh ok’ back to Mel. Mel goes back to her own office, and I go back into mine and close the door. I think Louisa did indeed appreciate mygesture. I tell myself I don’t much care one way or the other, but I know it’s a lie because of course I do care, and I’m pleased that she is happy.

Not long later, Karl comes to my office. After I tell him to sit down and we exchange a few pleasantries, I get right down to business.

“Work is beginning on the new app on Monday. Correct?” I say.

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