Page 5 of It Started with a Sunset
“Good. Now if you two will vacate my office, I’d appreciate it.”
They both let out a huge breath as they left Tess’s office. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who had been holding onto some stress in there.
Summer seemed to go straight from exhaling her relief to inhaling optimism in the span of a single breath because then she smiled that broad smile, clapped her hand against his shoulder, then said, “Well, partner. It looks like we have some work cut out for us. I was supposed to meet with Pavani at three. Does that work for you?”
He couldn’t flip from annoyance to optimism so quickly, so he just nodded, and Summer turned and walked down the hall toward her office.
Brock was in touch with himself enough to acknowledge that there was a small part of him that was not fully annoyed about the arrangement. But he had opinions, and he wasn’t about to let them get trampled by someone just because she had a great smile.
Chapter Three
Summer
At three o’clock, on the dot, Brock knocked on Summer’s office door. She waved him in, but he just opened the door and stayed in the doorway.
“Want to meet in my office?”
“Why? We’re both already here in mine.”
He glanced around her office—a space filled with LBSU swag, pictures of her with friends, padded chairs in front of her desk complete with cute LBSU-colored teal and purple throw pillows instead of the standard boring facilities-provided ones, a couple of office plants, and a giant painting of the view of campus from the Student Center that Valeria had painted specifically for the wall behind Summer’s desk. He was trying to act all nonchalant as he looked, then gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Mine just has a little more space.”
Summer put a hand on her hip. “Brock, our offices are the exact same size. What are you really trying to say about the differences in our spaces?”
“Mine is just more neat and orderly. Minimalistic. Yours is...”
She lifted an eyebrow, then finished his sentence for him. “Full of liveliness and vitality?”
“Chaotic.”
“And yours is a graveyard where ideas go to die. Now take a seat already. I’ve got everything we might need to plan for Aquamoose Tracks right here.”
He glanced at her chairs like he was judging them. Knowing Brock, he wasn’t judging their colors or shape or size or overall design—he was judging whether or not she broke a rule or code by using them. For the record, they weren’texactlyagainst the rules. When she’d asked to have the boring chairs removed, the guy in facilities had said that they didn’t really have any rules on whether or not an employee could bring in their own super stylish and comfy chairs. But it still gave her happy rebel vibes to have them.
“Brock, we can pull a chair from your office if you’d rather not sit in mine.”
He must’ve realized how ridiculous he was being because he took a seat in the one with the fuzzy teal pillow. It was worth it to push for the meeting in her office. She was going to be smiling all the way through it. He would appreciate it, too, when he saw how much more creative this space made him.
Although by an hour into their meeting they had figured out some of the details on the first part, where all the students were together, they still hadn’t come to any kind of agreement on the presentations. Summer wanted to show them all the fun stuff they had to look forward to as an LBSU student, and Brock wanted to show them all the boring stuff.
She looked up from her piles of papers and her tablet. “You should go with me on a campus tour.”
“Thanks, but I know the campus well already.”
Summer rolled her eyes. “Not just me and you. I mean we should take one of the groups of prospective students on a tour. The first week of school is always tough, especially for the ambassadors who are freshmen. They don’t quite know what to expect when it comes to classes and the homework load, and there’s always at least one ambassador who’s supposed to lead a tour group who stresses out and can’t make it the first week. When that happens, go with me.”
He turned his head slightly, eyeing her, trying to figure out her motivation. “Why?”
“Because I was an ambassador forsix years, Brock. Long enough to know that those kids ask lots of questions. You’ll get to experience firsthand what kind of questions they ask. It’s a good way to understand what kinds of things they need in an overnighter.”
He smiled like she was playing right into his hands, but she smiled, too, because little did he know that he was playing right into her hands. He had made his way to working in the Welcome Center by starting as an admissions advisor. He didn’t know prospective students like she did.
He gave a curt nod.
“Deal.”
“Good. Because I’m telling you, Brock, we need to focus on getting them to have fun with each other. To make connections with people who might be their future classmates and with the ambassadors who already know the ropes. If we get them to connect with people here, that’s what’s going to help them feel like there’s a place for them here. And if they feel like this is their place, then they’re more likely to choose Lake Baldwin State.”
“But that’s not the most important thing they need to get out of the overnighter,” Brock said. “What does any of that matter if they don’t believe that they can get the money they need to go to school here? Then you’re just dangling candy in front of them and telling them they can’t have it. We need to show them how to get it.”
