Chapter 5 - Returning to the Drafting Table
The sun was streaming through the large warehouse windows of the Chicago design studio on a crisp Tuesday morning.
The space smelled of fresh pine, heavy cardstock, and the familiar, sharp scent of ink and drafting markers. For the first time in six months, Aara Deir stood at a high-angled drafting table, a mechanical pencil held firmly between her fingers.
Across the room, Celin sat comfortably in a padded ergonomic chair, sketching landscape designs on an iPad while listening to classical piano through wireless earbuds. Her recovery had progressed to the point where she no longer needed a cane indoors—a milestone she and Aara had celebrated quietly with homemade pancakes three days prior.
The door to the studio opened, and Cassian walked in carrying two cardboard trays of coffee from the corner cafe. He stopped a few feet away, watching her work in silence for a moment.
"You're slanting the roof pitch too steep," Cassian observed quietly, setting the coffee cups down on the edge of the table.
Aara didn't look up from her sketch. "A steeper pitch prevents snow accumulation during Chicago winters. Basic architectural physics, Cassian. You financiers only care about flat roofs because they're cheaper to pave over."
"I care about structural integrity," Cassian countered, walking closer and leaning his hip against the edge of the table. He looked down at the blueprint spread out before her—a complete architectural redesign of the historic Sterling Room building, transforming the archaic, stifling dining rooms into a modern, open-concept culinary arts center and community hub.
"You haven't told me what you're planning to name the new venue," Cassian said, his eyes shifting from the blueprints to her face.
Aara finally set her pencil down and straightened up, stretching her arms above her head with a long, satisfying breath. She looked around the sunlit studio, then back at the man who had stood beside her when the world had tried to drown her in soda and humiliation.
"We’re calling it Celin’s Table," Aara said softly. "And the architectural firm handling the renovation is going to be run by someone who used to be a junior architect before she had to take a detour."
Cassian smiled, a genuine, warm expression that rarely appeared in corporate boardrooms. "And who is going to manage the restaurant operations?"
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"We're interviewing candidates next week," Aara said with a playful spark in her eye. "Though I hear the previous management team has a lot of free time on their hands. Maybe we can invite Paxton in for an interview. Teach him how to smile when things don't go his way."
Cassian laughed, shaking his head. " nějak think he’s currently busy learning about legal compliance from a federal judge."
