Chapter 142

Sophia glanced at her phone and saw a call from her college mentor, Zachary.

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, she picked up the call.

It turned out that Zachary was hitting her up for a meal.

He was in town for a scholarly conference and knew she was still around, so he wanted to catch up over some grub.

Sophia was kinda taken aback.

Zachary had been her uni mentor.

Back in her freshman year, she’d snagged an award at the Architectural Design Competition and caught Zachary’s eye. He’d taken her under his wing ever since.

During those years, it was Zachary leading her through projects, from group gigs without any credit to solo designs where her name could shine. His mentorship paved the way for where she was today.

So, for her old college mentor, Sophia had nothing but respect, gratitude, and admiration.

When she nailed her grad school acceptance here, she’d buzzed Zachary with the good news first thing.

Life, work, and studies had gotten in the way, and while they hadn’t worked together in a while, they stayed in touch. But since she hadn’t managed to go back home, she hadn’t had the chance to visit him in person.

Now with Zachary swinging by for a conference, Sophia was both surprised and stoked.

She was down for the dinner date.

Zachary had set it up for the evening at a joint near the campus.

was

was over sixty, a retiree from academia.

the odd invite to lecture. Post-retirement, he’d shifted gears to focus on architectural research and boosting domestic design.

looked older than his years, with a head mostly silver, but he still had this refined and gentle vibe, always talking with a twinkle in his eye and a smile at the corner of his mouth, real

smile upon seeing Zachary

standing to greet her. “You made

from the menu, he

“Just graduated, pretty chill

plan after graduation?”

this same tune before Brandon asked, her

then head back home to job

not thinking of taking up that gig at Star-Dempsey Architects?” Zachary threw out there.

froze, giving Zachary

mentioned it

was sorta her senior by the same mentor, both Zachary’s

concern, “In our design biz, sure, talent and smarts matter, but so does finding your patron. Our job’s about pleasing aesthetics, but beauty’s in the eye of the beholder. Before you make a name for yourself, your masterpiece might be treasure in A’s eyes but trash to B. With your bold style, you’re gonna polarize – your fans will adore you, but the naysayers might not get it, you’ll be stuck in a

the clock. Between radical and safe, most would rather play it safe to secure their livelihood than take

quietly. “I

knew the job hunt’s ups

the compromises in the work process.

was not just about transferring thoughts to paper. Aligning

on the same wavelength, a project could suffer

just from the

you got a client who’s all over the place, you were back in endless revision loops, needing a boss who

Sophia

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