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She scoffs. ‘It’s always interesting.But – did youenjoyit?’
I’m not sure there’s such a distinct difference between those two things as she obviously thinks there is, but I reply, ‘Definitely. It was a real eye-opener. It’s great to get a more hands-on look and a different perspective on some of the projects, since it seems like my team are dealing with it at a higher level, so some of that nuance gets missed.’
Nadja holds my eye and smirks. ‘Textbook answer,’ she informs me, not unkindly.
‘I liked the bit with the coolants,’ I blurt out. ‘What you guys are doing to find more effective ways to prolong the battery life, and stuff. But that might just be because all the test tubes and everything look kind of cool.’
There’s a beat before she lets out a brash bark of laughter. ‘Cool. For the coolants.Cool.’ She laughs again to herself for a second before shaking it off as the lift pulls to a stop on the eleventh floor, where both of us get out. She reaches to hold the door and look back at Lloyd. ‘Topher’s gone home, if you were looking for him.’
‘Huh?’ He looks up from his phone and pulls out one of his AirPods, startled and confused. Then he smiles at her, shaking his head. ‘Oh, no. I just left a couple of things upstairs I need to pick up.’
It’s only later, when I’m back in the lift at gone eight o’clock to head home, that I realize why his words sounded so familiar.
The next day, I’m so bogged down in spreadsheets that when I look away from my screen, the pale grey outline of cells swim in front of my eyes. My brain is stuck in a series of SUMIF statements, until the jarringpingof a message on Teams disrupts me from this god-awful task.
Lloyd Fletcher
Is Craig at his desk? He’s not online.
I open the message, wary and confused. The fact Lloyd is messaging me aboutanythingis weird. I know he’s been quite chatty with some of the other interns, but we haven’t spoken one-on-one outside of our few less-than-great conversations so far.
It’s so weird, in fact, that I message back the first thing that comes to mind.
Anna Sherwood
What, not even a ‘hello Anna’ first? So much for agreeing to be polite and civil, Fletcher.
Lloyd Fletcher
You last-named me? Ouch.
Hello, Anna.
Is Craig at his desk? He’s not online
He just got back from a meeting, so yes. I’m sure he’ll be online in a minute if you need to ask him something.
Lloyd Fletcher is typing …
And then the little message disappears, and there’s no reply from him. Not so much as a thank you. A moment later, his status changes to ‘away’.
Well. Fine. If that’s how he wants to be, fine.
I return to Excel, but now the numbers swim on the screen and I can’t quite remember what I was supposed to do next. I’m still replaying the last few minutes of my work and trying to block Lloyd’s weird messages out of my mind when I hear someone calling, ‘Craig! Hey. Alright?’
As Lloyd walks to the bank of desks across from mine, he catches my eye and nods, half a greeting, half thanks.
Well, still. He might have at least had the time to messagethanksbefore rushing on down here. It’s not that difficult.
I wrench back around to face my monitor, teeth gritted … eyes drifting over to watch the two of them rather than focusing on my work. Craig, one of the older members of the team, who wears cufflinks and a tie without fail, stops plugging his laptop back into the dock to look up with a ready smile for Lloyd.
‘Hiya, Lloyd. Haven’t seen you around much lately!’
‘Ah, you know me. Always keeping busy.’
‘Always chatting someone’s ear off,’ Craig quips, and it’s with a stern sort of look that a parent might give their kid – but then he rolls his eyes and settles into his seat, pushing it out from the desk to face Lloyd better. ‘My turn now, is it?’
‘Yep, your lucky day. It was just about the latest updates on the Phoebus IV …’
