Closed Doors and a Guitar Pick - Sen Cal Kapimi

We Say It Best When We Say Nothing At All (4)

Continued ......

A new day arose – Serkan an early riser watched the rising sun and felt somewhat content. He felt more confident he could win Eda over again. On the other hand, Eda, who never really saw the sun so early in the morning had woken up with a different resolve. She was aware she hadn't really managed the situation so well last night. She shouldn't have sat in his car at all. The nearness , the intimacy, the shared space had aroused many memories and made her weak. But now that was done and over. She had behaved unthinkingly, as if she was a deer blinded by headlights, doomed to be a prey; but in the clear light of the day she felt stronger to be able to resist him. 

  There is nothing better than a clean break she thought, as she rummaged in her dresser drawer for a box to place the flower shaped engagement ring, which she now wore as a dress ring. She clicked the box shut and her finger felt a bit bare. She thought back to the guitar pick and wondered if it should be returned too.. but then she found it hard to let go of the only genuine gift she had from him. It probably had no value for him and she wanted to keep it in honor of a young boy who was lost, not only because it was given by Serkan. She left for Efe 's office dressed in tan colored cowl neck dress which did wonders for her self confidence because she looked knock dead pretty.

Today was a big day for Efe who had to make a presentation to an important client who planned to create a indoor garden inside his hotel building. Efe and Eda had been working very hard on this project and Eda had had this wildly brilliant idea about recreating a 80 foot high indoor waterfall, almost covering the glass wall with landscaped gardens at different levels, almost as if a tall waterfall was falling gently over the cliffs into a pool. Efe loved the idea and was busy designing and drawing up plans for it. Since it didn't require much architectural support, Efe was doing it on his own and not with Art Life. 

Eda and his other junior designer were with him as they went to this huge office where the clients waited. They were taken aback by the huge presence of architects and the client's own team. Eda was supporting Efe at the laptop while he explained the projected slides on the giant screen and she was unprepared when Efe called her to stand by him. She stepped on the makeshift stage, hesitantly, a beautiful young girl, who looked for assurance at her boss and mentor, and finding her confidence as he encouraged her wordlessly, addressed the audience with her natural charm and ease. Together they laid out a presentation with a design that truly knocked the grounds from under the feet of the client, because they proposed an indoor garden scaling almost three floors along with a silent waterfall that fell down from that height with plants across the wall to mimic a real waterfall. It was an audacious design, breathtaking in what it wanted to achieve and controversial in how it would achieve the look of a waterfall and landscaped interior covering one whole wall. There was a hush as Eda explained the idea followed by an excited buzz as people debated how it could be done. Efe and Eda together took the floor to explain the vision.

At the end of the crowd, shielded by the fading lights at the edge of the mini auditorium, Serkan stood with Engin, silently watching Eda, at once punch drunk proud of the vision she presented so that he wanted to yell to people how proud he was of her; and at the other upset by the ease between Efe and Eda, wanting to somehow puncture the camaraderie they shared. It was one thing he had let her go away from him, but he surely didn't expect that he would be replaced as her mentor so easily. 

Engin was quite impressed by the new project and also aware that watching Efe and Eda finish each other's sentences was irking Serkan.. He turned to Serkan and said," You shouldn't have let her go. Period.". Serkan said "Shut up Engin" with unnecessary violence.

The client had invited Serkan and Engin as they were known to him and the client  had assumed that since they worked with Efe Art Life would be involved in this project as well. Serkan and Engin came finally face to face with Efe and Eda. Efe was taken aback as the client dropped the bombshell that the project as designed by them had a lot of architectural structuring, and he would like to keep Serkan and Engin involved in the architectural side of it. Efe had no choice but to accept it a little ill humoredly, Eda on the other hand was very cool during the exchange.