Silently Falling in Love: Race (THE EDITED VERSION)

Chapter 23 - Architect for Hire

Anjali – November 1993

My work phone rang which was unusual – I rarely got calls at work, clients communicated directly with the partners not the lower-level staff.

"Hello this is Anjali Malkani," I answered.

"Why hello Anjali Malkani, I've heard you're an incredible architect, and I'd like you to build my mansion on 5th Avenue. Are you free for lunch to discuss the details?"

I laughed, "I'm so sorry, I only do commercial buildings. Should I refer you to an architect who works on residential properties?"

"No, I must have you as my architect. In that case, I'd like to build an office building. Have time to meet?"

"You want to meet now, Alex?"

"Yes, if you're free. I'm at the bottom of your building. I had a meeting in this part of town. I thought I'd stop by and see if you have time for lunch."

"I need twenty more minutes before I can head out. Can you wait that long?"

"It's cold out here," Alex said huffing and puffing into the phone. The cool air had set in.

"Come up to the 20th floor and wait in our lobby until I'm ready. Is that okay?"

"Sounds good, see you in twenty," Alex said and then hung up the phone.

I quickly finished work on the blueprints I needed to hand over to my boss before lunch.

It surprised me to hear from Alex, but it was a good excuse to get out of the building. I'd been working non-stop for the past few weeks and seeing a friendly face would be nice.

I pulled the files together and walked into my bosses' office.

"Hi Ned, here are the blueprints you asked for. Do you need anything else?"

"Thanks Anjali just leave them on the table. Give me a couple of hours to look at them and then stop by my office and we can review them," Ned said without looking up from his desk.

"Sounds great. Thanks, see you in a couple of hours."

I grabbed my coat from my cube before heading to the lobby to meet Alex. On the way to the front, I bumped into Alison the receptionist.

"Hi Alison," I said.

"Anjali is that you boyfriend in the lobby?" Alison asked.

"You mean Alex? No, he's a friend."

"Is he taken? He's so hot; if you don't have dibs on him, can I ask him out?"

"I don't have dibs on him but someone else does," I said.

"You know the hot guy in the lobby," Gabby, another woman I worked with added, overhearing our conversation, "wow is he hot!"

"Okay, back off ladies he's in a committed relationship," I said.

"Such a shame," Gabby said, and Alison nodded in sync. A couple of other women laughed in agreement.

I waved them off and made it to the lobby.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey Anjali," Alex said as he stood up from the couch and I watched his six plus feet straighten out and his unbuttoned coat revealed he was wearing a button-down shirt and slacks.

He was overdressed for his new position as a programmer; nonetheless he looked like he walked off the pages of GQ straight into my office. I took a deep breath, no wonder the women I worked with were in a tizzy. He was like a twelve on a scale of one to ten.