“Ben,” a woman’s voice from the neighboring room called out. He hurried forward, hastening his last few paces through the open doorway. Once through, he was met by three disheveled-looking individuals, all scurrying about the room. He glanced around at the three tables, each of which, he knew, did have computers hidden somewhere beneath the gigantic, sprawling sheets of paper that had been laid on top of them – some of which had been printed from top to bottom with walls of text, and others with the compacted, neatly arranged architectural drawings of a residential building. Ben recognized the structure, and the project name that was typed in bold lettering…

BENJAMIN felt such an agonizing disdain for the work that was laid out before him. Mind you, it was only in the quiet moments in which Mara would emerge from her hidden spaces, to gnaw at his hands, his feet, so that he would simply have to get away from his desk. She would claw at his eyes, get in the way of his screen, move his mouse into the search bar, and then type any number of things that popped into her mind, “How to build a beehive,” or, “Flights from PIT to KEF.” When BEN was with his boss, then Mara would seem to behave, and things would…

An hour went by in short order as the five all worked in their own little worlds. Benjamin was drawing up the exterior elevations of a new home when Lydia eventually packed her things and left. An hour or two later, when he had moved on to a set of floor plans for a two story addition, Maria and her intern packed their belongings and drawing pads and moved towards the door. Stopping at Ben’s desk, Maria asked, “Are you bailing out early, too?” loud enough for Marci to hear. A belligerent “hmph” could be heard from the adjoining room. “No,” Ben looked up at her, “I’ll be here till…

Ben happily chewed his second bite of egg roll, himself now slowly rotating in his swivel chair. The office was silent, empty, and the egg roll was delicious. The clouds had parted late in the morning, and now the one o’clock sun was flooding in through the windows. Before sitting to eat, he’d turned off the fluorescent lights and cracked open one of the windows for a bit of fresh air. The honks and sirens of the roadway were soothing. He gazed out the window, at the sunny distant hills of trees, and the sunny buildings next door, as he took another bite. He glanced up at the duct above…