Coworkers

Ahh it's a rainy Friday morning as I write this. It's gloomy and cozy and Brett and I are in our cubicles.

He's on a big conference call and he expresses worried looks when I make too much noise. A moment ago I heard a distinct pooting sound on the other end of his phone and before I even inhaled my amusement he had a disciplinarian's finger pointed at me even though he was also grinning. The guy talking right now speaks so slowly Brett can't believe it. He does seem to say a word at each one second interval, as though he's relying on a sluggish metronome.

I've rearranged "our" office space to accommodate the "his and hers" file cabinets. I cleared my art supplies from the bookshelf to make room for math textbooks and construction manuals; big red binders of diagrams and volumes of codes from decades past. The floor around his desk is littered with scratch paper of "fast math" and rough sketches of beam connections. My desk is accented with overpriced colored pencils, fabric swatches and books about flowers. Brett still has my office chair and both dogs sleep under my desk where my feet go so I'll always be the most uncomfortable one in the room.

In the time that Brett has been working from home I've learned key details about the engineering world. Engineers are not great communicators. They are mathematicians, which means they spent lots of time alone as children. The most lively engineering conversations take place when there is more than one approach to solving a problem. They are enlivened by creative solutions. The worst engineering conversations take place when things are going alright and there's nothing but small talk needed to complete the phone call. There's a lot of "umm" and "yeah". Lot's of them make cringey Dad jokes, likely because someone had to sit them down and explain the importance of warmth and team work. Others say as little as possible. Most conversations go like this:

"Hey John, this is Brett from JMT. How you doing?"
"Hey Brett."
"Hey man, so listen, did you get a chance to look at the cable barriers?"
"I did. I did."
"Great."
"....."
"So how's it all looking?"
"... it's good. Seems to all be in place."
"Ok, well the original drawing with the rated wall assembly ... blah ...blah... blah... very long paragraph of information puntucated with questions and talking points ...."
"Yep...."
"Ok .... well if there's nothing left there then I'll let you go."
"Ok. Thank you."
"See ya, John." 

And then Brett hangs up and throws his hands in the air and will later receive an email from John with all the things they should have discussed on the phone call. Several times each week Brett is presented with corrections to make because the construction engineers and the manufacturing engineers couldn't have a translatable conversation that resulted in clarity of any kind. So Brett has to call both sides, gather their thoughts, and then combine them in an amended set of plans that will need further revisions because some Big Wig somewhere forgot to explain one of main purposes of the project. I've learned that engineers with good social skills are the ones that will go places. The ones you can't talk to seem to have another person in place to facilitate their communications. 
On the other hand, Brett does work with this one architect up in VA Beach (super nice guy) who can't ever seem to stop talking. It's mostly not about work but about life and his younger years and marriage and covid-19. He talks and talks and sometimes asks Brett questions to make sure he's still there and then talks and talks. Brett checks-out and does his computer work and lets lots of time pass before he responds to let the nice chatty guy know that Brett is busy. Brett has no problem letting a conversation go awkward so that it will end and I'll be over at my desk cringing and shriveling up just waiting for Brett to say something. He won't though and finally the guys goes, "Alright man, it's was good talking to ya..." 
Then they finally hang up and Brett throws his hands in the air. At the end of the day, Brett and his boss call each other to muse over all the fruitless and awkward conversations they had that day. The Boss Man's thoughts on the matter always crack us up.

On my end, Brett has learned that my Tuesday flower shipments never arrive on time. Wednesday is much more reliable. One day he impressed and amused me by looking over at my screen and saying, "That would look best with gold chargers." I wasn't working on table settings. He said it just to be part of my day and then we laughed and laughed and I'd have lost money that he knew what a charger was. He's also learned to identify some of the more common wedding blooms that I use and will address them by name as I bring them in. It makes my day. 
He also go to meet my main wholesaler a few weeks ago (a huge, manly guy - farthest thing from what you'd expect) when he delivered my late blooms and Brett and David wound up in the garage together discussing woodworking and welding for half an hour. They loved each other and now David asks more about Brett than he discusses my shipments. The best is when Brett remembers a specific troublemaking bride and months later, when I'm working on her flowers he'll realize who it's for and he lets out an exasperated "Ugh! That girl is the worst." This makes my day because something about Brett makes it seem like he isn't paying attention but almost every time I call him on it, he's heard every word and it turns out that I'm the jerk. Most of the time I don't expect him to be paying attention at all so when it loops around later and he relates my current predicament to a previous rant, I'm always confused by his understanding. 

We're still dreading him ever having to go back to the office. We listen to music and eat elaborate lunches and sometimes just run through the house squealing to get the pups excited. It'll be so lonely here without him. Though he did run out for a few hours the other day and having the house to myself felt like going into a school after hours. It felt strange and thrilling and eerie. I was giddy and confused by the privacy. I didn't know what to do with myself so I tidied up, watched a little tv in the daytime, and then just waited for him to come home. I wonder if we'll both have Stockholm Syndrome when all of this is over.