Unconditional Love (camren)

1

Lauren

        I take a deep breath and sink back down into the chlorinated water. I let myself fall back into place and let my body do all the work. I move fast across the water and come up for air as I move through it, going from one end of the pool to the other until my body can no longer take it. I lay back and float, closing my eyes and enjoying the relaxing feeling of the water holding me. The weightlessness feels like all the problems in my life have disappeared. If I stay here long enough maybe they will. I decide it's time to get out when I feel my fingers start to prune, on my way out, I grab my robe and throw it on. Riding the elevator up to my condo is awkward because I'm being side eyed by my neighbor and her high priced rat of a dog for creating a small pool of water around me. It's not like she's the one that has to clean it up.

Back in my condo I head straight for the shower to rinse off all the chlorine and to freshen up before work. I rummage through my closet, trying to find an appropriate outfit fit for today's schedule. Most days it's a tailored suit but today I'm spending most of my day on a job site and a suit just doesn't seem like the smartest of choices. I end up going casual and throw on jeans and a green button down and for safety reasons I put on the only pair of work boots I own. On my way out I grab my satchel and a green apple.

  I ride the elevator down to the parking garage where my dearly beloved Aston Martin Vantage Awaits me. She's the newest model in a ultramarine black exterior and black leather interior with blue trim. Im not very materialistic but the second I saw her, I knew I couldn't live without her. I hold out the key fob and watch it come to life, I will never not love that sound. Manhattan traffic turns what's supposed to be a 20 minute drive into an hour drive which is always great.

When I do finally make it to the job site I'm greeted by Eric my project manager. He's a 40 something year old, tall, blue eyed, blond ish hair guy with 20 years of experience and my right hand man. I can't be at the site making sure things are on track everyday but Eric's job is to be and to give me a day to day report.

He holds out a orange work vest and a white hard hat which I take and put on. "Should we get started?" He asks.

"Yes, lead the way." I grab my clipboard from my satchel and follow him.

He gives me a walk through of the building and updates me on how the foundation is holding up so far and how the framing and plumbing are going as of now. The job site is buzzing with life, you have guys walking on thin boards of wood three stories high, sawing away and nailing wood in and down below there's a guy on a excavator while another lays down pipes. Everyone is doing something and the area is full of noise, I love it. By the time we're done it should be a 20 story building. So far we're a little less than a quarter of the way there. We would be farther along if my architect wasn't so indecisive. We've had to stop production a few times because of minor changes she's made.

"Well as you can see Lauren, we're a little behind from meeting the deadline but I think hiring another crew would really give us room to play catch up." I like Eric instead of giving me problems he offers me solutions.

I nod, " I agreed, talk to the Forman and see how soon he can get another crew out here." I point back to the trailer behind us, "I need to look at the blue prints, are they back there?"

"Yes they should be laid out on the table, make yourself comfortable. I'll go talk to the Forman." He hands me the keys and walks off.

It's mid fall and not nearly as hot as it used to be but I worked up a sweat and walking into the cool AC feels amazing. I take my hard hat off, wipe off the sweat and gulp down a bottle of water. I get to studying the blueprints and compare them to the notes I took. So far everything is looking good, just a few minor quirks that need to be fixed. Nothing to be alarmed about. It's common for these minor things to come up because you don't always have the perfectly level ground or wood. Sometimes the employees don't cut and measure perfectly, sometimes we get the math wrong or the architects design is flawed. You'd be surprised to know that even something as small as a millimeter makes a difference. Things can't be perfect no matter how hard we try but we can try to get it as close to perfect as we can.