First Impressions

Chapter 2. I'm in awe of you

The new company consultant, Brett was frequency seen through his glass office wall, sitting at his desk, appearing to be completely phased out.  He would just stare into space with a dead-pan expression. Eddy spent most of his time at work in the laboratory and did not have much opportunity to actually see Brett sitting in his office with his own eyes,  however, he often overheard other staff make snide comments about how they just witnessed "Brett's spirit leaving the building" or "Brett being in a trance" or "Brett being lost in his big head". 

Some of Eddy's colleagues and teammates would complain bitterly.

"Eddy, you should go and have a bloody look.  He just sits there, staring into blank space and he probably gets paid twice as much as we do for doing nothin'!"

Eddy tried to stay neutral about the subject.  He didn't agree with his colleagues and join in on making snide comments but did not want to reprimand his colleagues for talking like that.  He just gave an understanding smile and appeared like he was on neither's side.

However, deep down Eddy couldn't help feel a little bit excited when he overheard that or saw Brett in his "trance". This was because even though Brett drove Eddy nuts with his antics, Eddy actually knew that when Brett came out of these "trance" moments, he would present some of the craziest yet innovative ideas.  These ideas would make the whole team work long and hard hours for the days that followed, which did not win Brett any popularity, but ultimately always delivered some kind of brilliant result.

Ever since his arrival, Brett had been the thinking tank for the company and he singlehandedly not only pulled the struggling business out of its rut and brought it to the surface but had kept the company afloat, in fact, it was now starting to flourish.

So as much as Eddy could not stand Brett, he was fascinated with him. As weird as it may sound, Eddy was in love with Brett's brain, his brilliant intelligence. While others said Brett was "out of it" as if he was high on drugs when he was lost in thought, Eddy knew Brett was most definitely not "lost" when he was meandering around in his brain. And when Eddy and the rest of the team leaders were called in for an urgent meeting and were told of Brett's ideas, Eddy would have to contain his excitement and suppress what he could only express as a brain-gasm, a tingling sensation that started in his head and travelled down his spine.  Such sensations would often assault him multiple times, even days later when Eddy came to realise how extensively Brett had thought everything through. Eddy could never bring himself to tell anyone about this but It really was a turn on for him.

How could I be fascinated with someone's intelligence and dislike every other aspect of him?

Eddy wasn't an imbecile either. Even though he couldn't help but feel inferior in the presence of Brett's intelligence, Eddy was proud of his own academic and professional achievements to date and was frustrated that Brett did not give him due credit and the respect Eddy thought he deserved. He didn't dare confront Brett about this issue though as he knew other project leaders had in the past and whatever they were told by Brett made them either burst into tears or leave the company. Eddy liked his job too much and didn't think it was worth it.

Eddy also wished Brett would stop dissing Queenslanders. He may be meaning it to be just a bit of banter but Eddy found it terribly insulting. Eddy thought Brett had not built any rapport between himself and his colleagues to get away with an insult like that.  As a result, Eddy was developing a rapid dislike towards the state of NSW and Sydney-siders because of Brett.

In the end, Eddy just decided that he did not like the guy, even though he had a history of being drawn to intelligent people and Brett may have been one of the most intelligent people he had ever met.  It was just that Brett's personality and mannerisms were way too off-putting to even contemplate to getting to know him on any personal level.  So Eddy had made a ruling in his mind that he would just have to get on with his job and that was all there was to it.