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.

Zachary was already

over sixty, a

academic rep and clout, he still got the odd invite to lecture. Post-retirement, he’d shifted gears to

silver, but he still had this refined and gentle vibe, always talking with

with a smile upon

to greet

order from the menu, he turned to Sophia. “Have you been swamped with work

chuckled, shaking her head, “Just graduated, pretty chill for

your plan after graduation?” Zachary

this same tune before Brandon asked, her dad asked, and

head back home to job

taking up that gig at

Zachary a puzzled

chuckled. “Ivan mentioned it to me.”

the

job like that fresh outta school isn’t a cakewalk. Especially since that Zenithan-style resort proposal you cooked up got the green light,” Zachary advised with a hint of 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

their livelihood than take risks, unless you’re the big cheese

“I get

knew the job hunt’s ups

the compromises in the

about transferring thoughts to paper. Aligning with leadership’s

mentor on the same wavelength, a project could suffer

that was just from the higher-ups.

all over the place, you were back

Don, Sophia hadn’t felt much of this pressure.

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