First Sight (16 page)

“So, how was everyone’s weekend?”
Elizabeth
asked.

“Too quick, as always,
”
Marissa
answered.  “I went out dancing Saturday night
, which was awesome.
 
I tried to call
Maddy
to invite her, but she was busy
show
ing
Travis around DC.”

“
Oh, t
hat’s great,”
Elizabeth
said, seeming slightly confused by this piece of information.

Out
of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Travis had a slightly
a
mused expression on his face. 
His mouth was twisted slightly, like he was trying to hold back a smile. 
Did he think that I’d run to
Marissa
this morning, telling her that Travis and I spent the afternoon together
on Saturday
?
I flushed, feeling slightly embarrassed at the thought.  Maybe he just
found it funny
that
Marissa
was the one
telling everyone
how Travis and I
had
spent our
weekend
.
  He
spoke before I could gather my thoughts enough to respond.

“Yeah, I ran into
Maddy
on Saturday afternoon,”
he
said easily.
 
“I was wandering around the sculpture garden at the National Gallery when I saw her.
”
  He started telling
Elizabeth
and
Marissa
about the
exhibits that we saw
when Jennifer interrupted us.

“All right,” Jennifer said, bringing our
conversation to a close
.  “Let’s get started. 
The website is doing great. 
The restaurant section is immensely popular, and w
e’ve had a continued increase in traffic
overall
,
which is exactly what we want.”  She paused, looking around at us to make sure that she had our attention.  “
But the big news
is that
instead of producing our magazine twice a year,
we’re now going to
make it a
quarterly publication. 
This will help to really get our presence known in the DC area. 
We’d like to become more competitive with the monthly magazines, and publishing twice a year just
doesn’t allow us to do so
.  With that being said,
management wants
the first quarterly
magazine
to be
published
in
April.
”

“But that’s two months earlier th
a
n we’d planned,” Marissa said, looking surprised.

“I know,” Jennifer said, looking serious.  “I’m going to need all four of you working on this.  I know Elizabeth usually focuses on the Web side of
things
, while
Maddy
and Marissa do the print work, but we don’t have enough time this go around.
  We can hire extra freelancers if needed to
write
some additional
reviews to meet the new deadline
, but the responsibility of editing and doing the layout fall
s
on us.
”

We all nodded
and took notes
as she continued to explain the details of the
changes
. 
I hastily scribbled down a few of her ideas, but
I found my
mind wandering as I imagined
the
new things
that
we could now incorporate into the magazine.  Moving to a quarterly publication would allow us to more prominently feature seasonal activities, such as the Cherry Blossom Festival in the spring, outdoor concerts and movies on the Mall
in the summer, and the
numerous
fall festivals that took place in September and October.  I was
looking forward to
hopefully incorporating
these new
activities
and to the challenge of producing a quarterly magazine
.  Although I enjoyed working with
Marissa
on our
twice
-
yearly publication
, it would be fun to work on something
different
.  We’d be able to see the results of our work much sooner
since this was a quick turn-around
project
.  And, I had to admit to myself, I was very much looking forward to the idea of working closely with Travis.

“
Maddy
will be the team lead,” Jennifer
said
.
  “I’ve divided up the initial workload,
so that you’ll each know where your focus and responsibility lies.  A
fter that, if you have any questions about how to proceed, you can go to her.
 
And on top of all this,
I do have some other
news. 
The company’s
decided to have an off-site
next week
—a teambuilding type of thing.
 
T
he four of you
haven’t all worked
on a project
together
since Travis joined us,
so
this will be a good
opportunity
to
work together and get to
know
other people in the company
better
as well
.”

“Where’s the off-site?”
Marissa
asked.

“
Maryland
,” Jennifer
replied
.

“Really?”
Elizabeth
asked, puzzled.
  “
Why are we going there
?”

“You’ll see,”
Jennifer
said with a secretive smile.  “We’re going to be doing some teambuilding activitie
s.
 
I’ll send you some more information this afternoon, but
I think you’ll all enjoy it.”

Marissa
and I glanced at each other, and I knew she was thinking the same thing as me.  Why were we going to an off-site
in Maryland
? 
We were surrounded by hotels with meeting spaces right here. 
What could we possibly be doing
that c
ouldn’t
be
do
ne
in a hotel conference room
right
here
in DC?

“Can you believe this?”
Marissa
asked as we headed back to our office.
  “Why do we need to go on a retreat
in Maryland
?”

“I have no idea,” I said in confusion.  “If
we’re increasing publication to four times a year and suddenly need
to get the magazine out two months sooner,
why would they send us away?
  This will just take time away from that.
”

“I know, right?  It totally doesn’t make any sense.”

We reached the door to our office and walked in, each lost in our own thoughts. 
Marissa walked across the room to her desk, and I sank down into my own chair. 
I glanced down at my cell to see if I had any missed calls
and right
then
Elizabeth
and Travis
stopped
by, both of them hovering in the doorway.

“So, what do you think?”
Elizabeth
asked.

“About the super stressful
magazine deadline
or the horrible retreat?”
Marissa
asked
.

The rest of us laughed, and I rolled my eyes in
Elizabeth
and Travis’s direction.
 
“I was referring to the retreat,”
Elizabeth
clarified.  “Seems kind of random, huh?”

“
Totally.
  I wonder who came up with this
idea?
” I asked.

“Probably someone who needed to put corporate team building as an accomplishment on their annual review,”
Elizabeth
said, laughing.

“I
can’t say I’ve really explored Maryland since I’ve moved here
,” Travis said.

“Trust me, you don’t want to,”
Marissa
sighed.

“
Marissa
’s allergic to
t
he suburbs,”
Elizabeth
joked
to Travis.
  He laughed easily
just as t
he phone on
Marissa
’s desk started ringing
.
S
he
hurriedly picked it up,
ignoring an
y further conversation with us.

“I’d love to grab a drink,” Marissa purred into the phone
.

I glanced back to the others.  “I guess that’s the end of that conversation.”

“Who’s she talking to?” Elizabeth mouthed.

“Gym Guy,” Travis said knowingly.

I laughed, and this time Elizabeth looked a little puzzled.  I was surprised that Travis remembered our conversation with Marissa the other day, but then I realized that she’d
mentioned him again this morning.  “Travis is up-to-date on Marissa’s love life. 
Marissa
likes to keep us all informed.”

“
Well,
no wonder I’m confused.  T
here’s really no keeping up with her,” Elizabeth said with a laugh.  “Anyway, d
o you guys want to go to happy hour tonight?
 
That was the real reason that I was stopping by.”

“Priorities,” I agreed wit
h a smile, and Travis laughed.

“Actually
,
I need to write a review of that new bar that opened over on F Street.  We had a freelancer covering a few things this week, but she
unexpectedly had to go out of town
for a family emergency
.
I’m trying to check out a few of the places on her list so we
can keep on schedule
.”

“I’d love to, but I’ve got to finish
editing a few different pieces
. 
I was supposed to have
a review
on my desk by 8:00 a.m., and they just sent it to me a few minutes ago. 
I
need to get started on it ASAP. 
I’m also in the middle of writing a review of that art exhibit I saw over the weekend. 
There’s no way that I’ll get out of here
early tonight
.”

“How about you Travis?”
Elizabeth
asked.  “I don’t think we’ve had an office happy hour yet since you arrived.”

“Maybe another tim
e, when everyone can come,” he offered
.

“
Yeah, we
’ll have to
plan
a happy hour
that’s not last minute
,”
Elizabeth
said agreeabl
y
.  “
I’ll let you guys know if this place
I’m checking out tonight
is any good
—maybe I’ll drag my husband along with me.
 
Back to work
for now
I guess.  S
e
e you
guys later.”

“Bye,” Travis and I said in unison.  Marissa was still on the phone, but
she
glanced up to wave
goodbye.

Travis lingered in the doorway a moment after Elizabeth left. 
My heart unexpectedly skipped a beat as I realized he was staying here just to talk to me. 
“Hey, let me know if you need any help with the write-up you’re doing. 
I loved that exhibit and
r
eally enjoyed walking around the gallery
this weekend.”

“Me too,” I said with a smile.  “If you want to take a look when I’m done, that’d be great.  Maybe you can add something I missed.”

“I’m sure you covered it all,” he said
politely
, “but I’d
love to read it.
”