AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I think you are.”
“Because I left on time one night?”
“Because you’ve been glowing.” Lola grinned at me, gleeful. “You’re glowing right now. You’ve got this spring in your step, like?—”
“It’s my pitch! I’m excited about moving up.”
Lola arched an eyebrow. “No one gets that giddy for a maybe-promotion.”
“They do if they love their jobs.”
“Fine, fine, don’t tell me.” Lola pooched her lip out. “Only, it’s a shame. If you had met someone, we could double-date.”
I leaned forward. “You met someone?”
“Yeah, and he’s awesome. You’ve got to meet him. He’s so cute and so funny, so charming, just perfect. It’s been almost a month now, and I can’t find a flaw. Even his moles — his damn moles are perfect. Actual beauty marks. He could be a model.”
I sat back and listened to her rattle on. Well, I listened at first, then pretended to listen, my thoughts drifting back to my big presentation. I was ready, I knew it. I was beyond ready. I should’ve moved up by now, but this was my chance. All I had to do was dazzle the partners, and I knew I could do that. I’d blow their damn minds.
“I should head up,” I said, when Lola ran out of chatter. “Wish me luck.”
“You don’t need it.”
“Wish me luck anyway.”
“Luck. Now, go kill it.”
I headed up to the office, and I frowned to see Mark and Jim with the partners. They were in the big meeting room at one end of the table, huddled up laughing at some joke I wasn’t in on. Harbison Sr. clapped Jim on the shoulder. Harbison Jr. leaned back, still chuckling. Stern caught me staring and beckoned me in. I hovered in the doorway, one hand on the door.
“I can come back when you’re done here. I think I’m still early.”
“No, you’re right on time.” Stern waved me in. “Come and sit down. This is a bake-off.”
I gaped at him. Surely I hadn’t heard right. A bake-off? With the douche squad? But this was my shot.
“We loved your idea,” said Harbison Jr. “Letting a junior associate head up the Rio job. It’s the perfect opportunity to show us your chops, plus make some contacts that’ll serve you well. We’ve invited all three of you to make your best pitch, and whoever nails it, Rio’s all yours.”
Stern nodded along with him. So did Harbison Sr. Jim winked down the table and I wanted to smack him. I slapped on a smile to keep my disappointment from showing.
“Why don’t you go first?” said Stern, gesturing at me. “Is that a model you’ve got out in the hall?”
I grabbed my model off the table and carried it in, and set up my sketches on squat mini-easels. The partners leaned forward to peer into my model. Mark leaned over and whispered something to Jim. I ignored all of them and launched into my pitch.
“As you can see, it’s three towers connected by four low-rise podiums over commercial spaces, with an inner quadrangle, fully landscaped. It feels airy, wide open, but it’s high-occupancy. I’ve got four hundred tower units and eighty in the podiums, with eighteen of those being three-level townhomes.” I tapped the end of my pen on my first concept. “This complex is a neighborhood unto itself. It has two shared roof gardens and a mini-park in the quadrangle, while still leaving space for private terraces for each ground-floor unit. It’s a luxury complex, both Energy Star and LEED platinum compliant, with full gym facilities and an indoor pool. Here’s my rough rendering of a typical unit.”
I opened my laptop and fired up the screen, to show off the 3D model apartment. It was airy, high-ceilinged, with big picture windows, engineered wood flooring, a gleaming chef’s kitchen. Stern put on his glasses.
“This would be one of the three-level townhomes?”
“No, it’s a two-bedroom. We’d have two hundred of those, a hundred and fifty one-level condos, then fifty two-level, with the kitchen you see here.”
“Let me see the commercial space. What’s the square footage?”
I switched to the commercial space and ran through the specs, and how I saw it fitting into downtown. How it would help the neighborhood grow. Harbison Jr. reached for my laptop. He flipped back to the model home and poked his way through it. Harbison Sr. watched, but said nothing. Stern had questions, and I fielded them all, and by the time I was done, I felt like I had him.
“It looks good,” he said. “I like all the green space.”
“I designed it around that, the shift to a greener view. People wanting to be more environmentally conscious. Buyers can look forward to low energy usage, which means lower bills, and that’s a big draw. Especially for the larger commercial tenants. With the drop in their overhead?—”
