“It was a design for a lobby of a major office building. The idea was to turn an old lobby from the eighties and make it modern while reusing the building materials so there wasn’t much waste. I was given a concrete-style lobby that didn’t have much to work with, so I decided to use stains and paint to update the space, divide it into sections, and then with the minimal budget that I did have, I added a slat board front to the lobby desk that was twelve feet long, stained it black, and added as many plants as I could to bring nature into the concrete jungle. And they had a bunch of old computers lying around, so I had those taken apart and then mounted on the wall to give this blast-from-the-past feel of where technology originated. The computer was my favorite because upcycling those made the space feel modern but also authentic to its original glory.”

I sit there . . . stunned.

Absolutely fucking stunned.

I knew she was good and that she had an eye for design. I knew that from what she did with our house in Chicago, but this . . . this feels like next level.

“That sounds fucking amazing, Myla. Do you have any pictures?”

Her cheeks redden as she says, “I actually have my computer with me if you want to see.”

“I do.”

Smiling brightly, she hops off the bed and pulls her computer out of its bag and then brings it over to me. She sits with her back against the headboard, her shoulder bumping into mine. I loop my arm around her shoulder, and she snuggles in close. Fuck, I’ve missed this. How long has it been since we simply snuggled in bed and shared something about our lives? The fact that I don’t know shows what an utter asshole I am.

She turns on her computer as she says, “I just have mock-ups since this is a fake project, but the cool thing is, the building is real. It’s in downtown LA, so I got to go view it and plan it out. I took pictures of my own and could play off those in my design program.”

“That’s really cool, babe.”

“And our teacher said that she’s going to submit the top five to the building owner and see if they’re interested in any of them. If they are, there’s a possibility to be hired out.”

“Holy shit, really?” I ask. “That’s awesome, Myla.”

“I know it’s a long shot.” She taps around on her computer. “But it would be pretty cool.” She opens a screen and shows me a picture of a plain concrete lobby. Expansive windows reach up to the ceiling, but that’s about it when it comes to any architectural appeal. “So this is what it looked like before. The best thing about it was the sunlight coming in.” She clicks around and pulls up a picture. “And this is what it would look like with my special touch.”