The covers

He seemed surprised at my answer even, maybe he didn't expect me to play along with him. I just continued staring at him for a while, awaiting what he would say next.

He just looked at me and smiled. I just smirked back at him.

"Where would you like to go?" He asked me.

"Would you be fine?" I replied with another question.

"Hmm?, me?"

"You just started working here, could you handle skipping work being an intern?" I asked. To which his expression suddenly changed.

"I guess I could handle it?... I hope so." He said trying to sound unbothered.

I just let off a small laugh and nodded my head, saying, "You hope?".

"It's fine, forget it. Anyways, why don't we work on the book covers?" I suggested.

"Okay." He said finally.

"Do you have a place to work?" I asked wondering whether he had a personal work space since he was still an intern.

"Yes, of course." He said confidently.

"Okay, then. Let's go" I said standing up from my seat while he also stood up.

I left my office following the new designer. On the way I tried to peek into his identification card, as I couldn't clearly remember his name. I couldn't work with him without knowing his name properly, and if I was to ask it from him directly, it would be too rude, I thought.

"Is everything fine?" He asked suddenly, making me look straight forward from peeking onto his identification card. I just cleared my throat and said yes. Maybe he saw me trying to look into his identification card that hung down from his neck.

"It's 'Adrien'" He said to my surprise. I looked at him as guilty as much as I was honestly feeling inside.

"I know, I was just trying to confirm if I could remember your name properly." I said trying to hide my embarrassment.

"Here" he said and showed me a room.

"This?, It's your office?"

"Yeah" he said.

I didn't say anything but just went in.

"I gave it a whole upgrade, doesn't it look great, now." He said.

"You know?" I asked.

"That, this was the storage room?" he asked.

"So, you know."

"Yeah, recently heard from Mr. Paul."

"Paul?. He really goes around spreading all the stuff he should and shouldn't tell." I said.

"I like it here, though. It's just a little dark, that's all." He said.

He really had given a fine glow up to the old storage room. It was all organize and neat.

"Have a seat." He said pulling out a chair at his desk with a huge computer screen which stood on it. I sat down and saw some papers covered with strange doodles. I took some and kept on looking at them. Adrien came and took a seat too.

"Yours?" I asked.

"Yeah, I just drew them out of boredom." He said.

"If boredom created these, what comes out of your real work?" I asked smiling.

"Is it a compliment?" he asked.

"Doesn't it sound like one?" I asked back to which he just smiled.

"Why don't you hand draw and design the covers for the books too?" I made a suggestion.

"Oh, I'm not that confident about that. I think digital illustrations are better." he said.

"But I like these." I said still holding his work.

He didn't say anything but looked at me in silence.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." He said and looked away. I looked at him confused and was going to question him again when I got a call. It was Paul.

Paul was surprised to find out that I had disappeared from my own work space, so I had to ask him to come over to where I was now. I just told him to come over to Adrien's office, which he barged in after some time. He had bought a lot of different kinds of sweets to which my mood enlightened just as I saw it all.

"Do you like sweets?" Adrien asked, seeing me all happy over some sweet boxes.

"She craves sweets, when she's moody, stressed or... upset." Paul quickly answered for me. I glared at him in one go but didn't say anything.

"You can call me if you need anything." he said as he left quickly.

"You want any?" I asked Adrien.

"No, it's fine. Thank you." he said, to which I just ignored and showed a piece of chocolate crêpe cake right in front of him.

"Try and see. You won't regret it." I said to which he just laughed.

His work space was comfortable for some reason. It was small with no windows, just in a corner of the big company. It was dark but he had made it cosy and aesthetic. I liked it.

We just enjoyed the sweets and discussed over the book covers. I kept on suggesting him to try a hand drawn illustration but he wasn't much open with the idea. But finally he agreed on coming up with some hand drawn covers and to consider the idea while coming up with some digital ones at the same time too.

Just as he had told me before, he was already aware of the books and had read them with a great understanding of them. I was moved by his ideas and suggestions. He was creative and much lively of a person than I thought him to be. I enjoyed his company.