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Enough!
I try not to think about him, and the fact that he is out of sight has helped me. One of the requirements of this job is having a valid passport that is ready for travel. I have never traveled outside the United States, so I had to get that done. My passport picture is very similar to my ID, and I have given up on trying to look cool. All ID images are cursed.
“He goes to Portugal a lot,” says Jake about Ethan Knight, as we wait for Jessica to give us an important briefing. She has turned out to be wonderful, helping me adjust with two-to-three-day projects, allowing me to get familiar with the tools and machinery, and get my hands dirty on scrap materials. I patched up a few pieces to make tote bags for my roomies and they were thrilled. I can see why Jessica hired Jake. As a coworker he is street smart, knows how to sweet talk the important people to get what our team needs. There is a fully state-of-the art computerized embroidery machine that he managed to borrow from another team, and we have made good use of it. He is comfortable around women and talks a lot about his relationship with his girlfriend.
“We met on an Alaskan cruise, but the real journey has just begun” he said dramatically earning our accusations of being cheesy. I do question his choices on color and cuts of materials, but he takes it professionally.
“Just got out of a conference call, and the big boss was on the phone from Portugal.”
Ah so that’s where he has been all these weeks. Enjoying himself in some exotic country. Seducing unsuspecting women in whirlpools.
Jessica seems excited. “When the CEO tells you something, you tend to listen carefully. You know what I mean?”
“We always know what you mean Jessica,” says Jake, making fun of her habit. He keeps a daily score on a separate note pad and every time Jessica says, ‘you know what I mean’he adds a sad round face.
“Okay out with-it Jake, what’s the score?”
Oh, wow she knows!
“So far this day your ‘you know what I mean’ score is 17. Which is lower than yesterday.”
Oh okay, he knows that she knows.
“Okay not bad, not bad, you know what I mean?”
“And that brings us to 18.”
“Dammit, Jake, you made me do that! Anyway, the gist of it is that Elysian is going all in on Green Leather. So, team, we have our first assignment… We have been tasked to create 3 test products with sample Cork Leather. We must deliver prototypes in two weeks though…and that’s the hard deadline?”
“And this is coming straight from the top?” confirms Jake.
“Ethan Knight C.E. O of Elysian,” says Jessica, “and he is going to test the whole process. He is not giving you the samples Jake, he wants to see intercommunication, how you are able to obtain the Cork Leather sample from within our company all the way to a finished prototype.”
“Yeah, he is known to be weird like that, but I got you.”
I finally jump in. “I kind of get why Ethan Knight would do that. He wants to see how we as a team function within the company. He is testing our team’s resourcefulness.”
“Well said Brooke,” gushes Jessica. “I like how you always get it. You are C.E. O material.”
I make a mental note to thank Jessica for her genuine kindness and her ability to laugh at herself. If women behaved in a supportive manner like her, we would conquer all challenges. Too much is going on right now, and perhaps it’s too early for a group hug.
Jessica is pumped, “Alright team, hip, hip…”
“No-way!” shouts Jake rhyming withhooray, which is good enough as we scramble to get going.
This is my chance to show Mr. Ethan Knight that I can deliver. Across all this noise I hear only his rich, syrupy voice, challenging me, as he did in his bright office:
The big question is can you deliver?
I will show him what I am about.
CREATING THE PROTOTYPE
BROOKE
The next three days are spent in planning and design. Jessica, it turns out, is a master craftswoman, who cuts through all kinds of fabrics better than a machine. Jakes works his charm on several departments, ordering different samples of dyed Cork Leather. In just three days we have the materials laid out on the design table along with all possible variations of steel and bronze buckles, the velvet material for the internal space. My brainstorming resulted in a list of 17 items that we could prototype in cork leather. Painstakingly we bring these down to just three items:
Cell phone cover
