Author's Note
Thank you for all the encouraging emails and comments. I apologise this chapter took so long.
Special thank you to Maonaigh for editing (I tinkered post edit).
Enjoy and please, please let me know what you think.
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"Zara, two o'clock is the earliest I can manage, sorry hen," the man apologised in his strong Edinburgh accent.
"It's all right Andy," she sighed, her hand already moving the mouse to an appointment in her calendar. "But since the clocks went back we're only going to have a couple of hours of daylight."
"Aye, I know, I know. But one of my boys has hurt himself and I'll need to go to the scene."
"Well, that takes priority," the young woman conceded, swapping a meeting with the revised site visit.
In truth, it wasn't throwing her schedule off too badly and as long as they had an hour of daylight, Andy, one of the building contractors Zara used regularly, could do his job. What was concerning the architect was having to change Joanna's plans. She'd scheduled the visit for the morning, knowing Joanna was available, and whilst the young woman's trepidation of the professor had quelled over the past few weeks, she didn't want to seem incompetent.
"Cheers, Zara. Hope it doesn't disrupt your day too much."
"No worries and I hope your guy's alright. See you at two." Zara hung up but kept the phone in her hand as she stood. Although the call she was about to place was of a professional nature, she had no desire to make it in front of her colleagues. Moving through the open-plan office, past whitewashed walls peppered with photos of the company's portfolio, Zara made her way to the back door.
Buchan and Bruce
, Zara's employer, occupied the ground and first floor of a former post office and whilst its guts resembled any modern work place, there was no denying the building's character, an element of which was the substantial yard space to the rear of the premises. However, over the course of the property's evolution someone had lain a lawn, planted shrubs and generally tried to promote outdoor living.
Despite the plummeting temperature it was a nice day and the sun, which spilled onto her face, still had an autumnal glow; so long as Scotland's East Coast stayed relatively dry, winter was Zara's favourite time of the year.
Her breath condensed on the exhale as she listened to the familiar tone of Joanna's phone ringing. "Hello?" came the answer. Zara was almost sure a smile was tugging at Joanna's mouth, the thought of which caused her to grin.
"Hi," she beamed, before reminding herself of the reason for the call;
better get it over with
. "Look, Joanna, I'm sorry but I've had to reschedule this morning. There's been an incident at another-"
"To what time?" she didn't snap, but wasn't overjoyed by the revelation as Zara explained. "Fine," Joanna sighed, "But I'm at work this afternoon until about half two," she paused briefly. "Tell you what, I'll drop the keys round at your office. I don't suppose I have to be there for most of it anyway; I'd just like to meet the man that'll be ripping apart my house."
"Of course. We'll probably be there until about three-ish?" Zara estimated as she watched a blackbird hop rhythmically amongst the baring branches. "Thanks for being so understanding."
"Oh, can you not tell?" Joanna husked. "I'm absolutely furious."
"I'm sure I can make it up to you" the young woman's stomach jolted at the prospect.
"I'd expect nothing less," Joanna purred before leaving Zara shivering, and not from the icy morning air.
Hours later Zara was standing, tablet in hand, as she manipulated a 3D drawing. Her efforts were projected onto a large screen, being regarded closely by Robbie. "What software are you using just now?" she asked, glancing at the placement student.
"
Sketch Up
, mostly," he replied sheepishly.
"The free version's pretty good, isn't it?" she said, giving him a knowing smile. "Don't worry about it; I remember what my spending priorities were when I was studying. But," she continued, glancing back to the technical drawing, "you want to be learning to use
Revit
as soon as possible. In fact," she glanced at her watch, "we still have ten minutes; I can show you how to get started and then I'm sure you can find a tutorial online?" The nineteen-year-old nodded enthusiastically and she began.
"Zara?" the young woman's head snapped up from showing Robbie how to alter blueprint dimensions. "These were dropped off for you." Stephanie, her boss, said before entering the room and tossing the keys into Zara's reactive grasp. "I literally bumped into the owner on my way in."
"Oh right. She, eh, happy enough with how things are proceeding?" Zara asked in what she hoped was a casual tone.
"Well, she's pretty frosty. Said she was happy, but then again it was early days to say how satisfied she really was."
Zara glanced back to the screen as she attempted to alter her creeping smile into the appropriate frown.
Early days to say how satisfied she was.
Really, had she expected anything less from Joanna?
"She's fine. Just has high standards," Zara shrugged, her eyes meeting Stephanie's once more.
"Regardless, I'm glad you're on the receiving end of her and not me."
You have no idea,
the thought causing the young woman to smirk yet again.
"
Actually," Zara swallowed, desperate to change the subject as warmth crept up her neck, "Robbie, we'll have to finish this up another day. You here next week?"
"With us for two weeks, aren't you, Robbie?" Stephanie asked, but without waiting for the boy to answer looked back to her subordinate, "Are you going to the McKenzie property now, Zara?"
"Yeah, the builder's coming for a look, so we'll hopefully get quotes pulled together next week. Perhaps even get the work penciled in for the New Year."
"Excellent. You can take Robbie with you; be good for him to see the process."
"What?" Zara snapped, unable to hide her dismay at the suggestion. "I mean," she began, trying to dig her way out of the hole she'd fallen into, "I mean it's fine. It's just an extension. Hardly anything exciting. Anyway, the contractor had an incident on-site today, so he'll most likely be late and I don't want to keep Robbie past five."
"I really don't mind. It would be great to see the process," the student interjected, showing far too much diligence for Zara's liking.
Why wasn't he being stereotypical and leaping at the chance to get to the pub?
"You see?" Stephanie said, looking pointedly at her delegate. "Plus, I dare say you were going to walk and it's pouring, so Robbie can give you a lift. Can't you Robbie?"
True to Stephanie's observation it had begun to rain, hard; perfect timing for Zara, Andy and the tag-along, to traipse around 12 Albert Street. Not that the young woman minded the downpour, she was cocooned in a company branded B
erghaus
, however the thick cloud meant they had lost yet more daylight.
"So, I take it here is where the L-shape will come to?" Andy asked as the three of them stood in the spacious back garden.
"Roundabout there," Zara squinted before retrieving her distance meter. Pointing the laser at the wall she took a measured step backwards, her boots sinking into the damp grass as she did so. "To here, Andy," she confirmed upon seeing the desired reading.
"Ok good. We should be able to tie into the original foundations in that case; never a bad thing. Do you have the layout of where the gas and water pipes are?"
"Yes, but let's look at them in the house," she shivered. "If you've seen enough out here?"
Although Zara had spent at least half her time over the past few weeks in Joanna's home, letting herself in was an alien sensation. Furthermore, despite being here for work, she couldn't dispel the sneaking suspicion that Joanna rarely let just anyone into her space unaccompanied.
Having entered the kitchen they went through the changes that would be required internally, then Zara took Robbie through the detailed plans as Andy wondered around muttering to himself. "It's a decent size space already, Zara. What's the owner - you said she was on her own - needing to extend it for?" the balding man asked, scribbling some final notes down.
The question hit Zara; Joanna had mentioned she was moving but there had been no further discussion on the subject. "Maybe to sell?" Zara shrugged, "In fact, you can ask her yourself, I think that's her now."
