14 My Mentor (1/2)
”No thanks,” he replied curtly while gesturing shortly towards the glass in his hand.
”Are you alright?” I asked because it's been weeks since I saw him smile or joke around. He was usually a serious man but he knew how to have fun from time to time. We all felt that he was stressed about something but no one knew what happened to him.
”Yeah.” and the silence had once again taken hold of the atmosphere, pushing me to say something, but I didn't know what. I was never good at consoling people since that meant I had to understand what they were going through, and sometimes I just couldn't.
I smiled automatically as I always did and looked over at him as he was swirling the dark brown drink in his glass with a slight move of his wrist...
”Is this new project going to be hard?” I asked trying to lighten the mood. Gray wasn't really a talkative person but he would always answer my questions about anything related to work.
”Not really, just a simple design for some events taking place at one of the companies. Even a total newbie could make them,” he grumbled obviously annoyed at the simplicity of the task while moving his unlit cigarette around in his hand.
”I'm sure not anyone can do it.” I tried to make him feel better by complimenting him, that much I could do. He turned and stared at me for a moment then a slight glimmer passed over his green eyes that were usually darkened with worry, enlightening them for just a second before it disappeared again.
”Want to try?” he simply asked and I could feel my mouth opening and closing like I was a fish gulping for air. ”I'll teach you!” he added almost enthusiastically and entered the office.
I didn't really have time to process what he said as he gestured for me to follow him into his office and used his hand to gently sit me on the chair in front of his computer.
”This is the program I use and although it has many functions you will soon see it's easy to understand.” he started patiently explaining to me how to do the most basic of operations, the cutting and resizing of a picture. I looked at him amazed and amused at the same time.
”I know how to do this much.” I chuckled as he looked at me with a weird look on his face. ”I'm not really an expert but I can crop and resize a picture at least.” I continued as his frown softened and a smile appeared on his lips.
”Of course you would, sorry, I've seen too many people who didn't even know the most basic of the operations, I just assumed...” and he looked at me almost ashamed of his thoughts.
”It's fine, I'm used to people thinking I know nothing about computers, even though I spent plenty of my free time on them.” I almost felt sorry for the way I was making him feel but the fact that he showed a smile after such a long time made me feel it was worth it.
”Then let's see what you can do.” I could see a mischievous grin flash over his lips as he took the mouse from my hand and opened a folder on the desktop.
”There is going to be a seminar at this company and they need us to design their banners with the same colors and logo as we did their website. Here are the dimensions, now show me what you can do.” and as he said that he left me sitting at the desk while he poured himself another drink and got comfortable on the sofa.
About half an hour passed and I was already running out of ideas, or better said knowledge on how to make the program do what I want. I glanced over to Gray and became transfixed when I saw him looking at me, brushing the empty glass on his lower lip which had his mouth slightly open and in his eyes, there were strangely bright lights I had never seen before that deepened his stare more than I ever thought possible.
His coal like hair was messy and falling slightly over his eyes giving him an almost ruthless look. I could feel him looking at me, observing my every move and I shivered under his intense stare.