Chapter Text
There was something about working on a construction site that bothered Cortana. If she were to sit down and think it over, it would probably be the fact that she was working at a construction site and not literally anywhere else. There was nothing wrong per se, but it was construction. Her degree, that she’d spent years getting, was not in construction. It was in programming.
Unfortunately, there were very few paid jobs available for a newly graduated Cortana and so she had taken her mom’s offer to work as an on-site secretary-like person—there wasn’t really a job description—while she worked as an unpaid intern at some B-rated software company halfway across the country. All of her free time went into impressing her supervisor there. She would do just about anything to get away from the boredom of running errands and filling out paperwork all day.
Not that everything was bad about working on-site. Yes, it was blistering hot most days. Yes, the hours were brutal and it had definitely been a challenge to adjust. But she was a hot-blooded young woman. She could recognize the benefits of having her ‘office’ be in the only air-conditioned building. The workers always tended to linger a little longer than what was strictly necessary, but she wasn’t going to complain.
College had mostly been studying and working to impress professors into writing good recommendations. That’s not to say she was inexperienced when it came to the human anatomy. It was just that any programmers that Cortana was with were not as… big as the ones she did now. For obvious reasons.
She was on the smaller side of average height but these men were big, regardless of how tall they were. Every one of them could snap her like a twig, and more than a few she would say thank you to. Granted most of those were married very happily and Cortana was hardly one to step on those kind of toes. Emphasis on most of them, though.
There was one she had her eye on that wasn’t married or in any kind of relationship. From what she’d managed to squeeze out of Miranda, he was fair game for anyone who could get him to look more than twice. She’d heard from her husband that he wasn’t adverse to taking home girls home, but no one had stuck around yet. Cortana immediately took it as a challenge.
The problem was, she only saw him if she was running an errand that brought her out of the office or if he was inside to turn in some paperwork. Which, to be fair, was when she saw all of the workers. He just didn’t stick around. Nor did he much go in for small talk either. Which Miranda had told her not yo take personally, he was like that with everyone.
While it soothed her to know he wasn’t purposely avoiding her, it still threw a wrench in her plans to seduce him. How was she supposed to get in his good graces if he wouldn’t say a word to her about something other than working construction.
.
.
.
"Have you met the new girl yet?"
John didn't look up from his lunchbox, but he couldn't help but zeroing in on Locke's question.
Ralph looked up from his sandwich, "The one in the office? Cortana?"
John might've laughed. Ralph was probably hoping he'd stop talking if he pretended not to know. Cortana was the only new hire they'd had in two months, there was no question who Locke was asking about.
"That's the one," Locke nodded.
He couldn't help but look up then, pretending to look past them and to the crane baking in the hot Arizona sun. It was cool enough in the shade of the building they'd been working on for six months, but he didn't care to have to share it with men like Locke.
Ralph let out a long, resigned sigh. "Why do you ask?"
Locke pointedly didn't look at Ralph, probably in an attempt to appear nonchalant, "I heard from Kai that she's unattached."
Immediately, John knew where the conversation was going to go. It wasn't Ralph first time talking about women on site, but it had never been about one they worked with. Not after Linda had knocked him into the dirt with a solid right cross.
"Locke, if you think you have half a chance with a girl with a college degree, you're fooling yourself."
"I'm not saying there would be a whole lot of talking going on, if you know what I mean. You don't need a college degree for that."
That all too familiar rage bubbled up in John's chest, but he pushed it away, focusing instead on eating his own packed lunch.
"First, gross. Second, she's a nice girl, a smart girl. Kai said that Miranda and her are getting to be good friends and if I hear that you ran her off because you made unsolicited advances, I will knock you so hard upside the head you won't know your mouth from your ass."
Miranda had been having a hard time making girl friends since her and Kai had moved to Arizona. Kai talked about how much he worried about her occasionally, and John couldn't help but feel for him. She was six months pregnant in a thousand miles away from any of her friends or family. Everyone liked her, but there wasn't really anyone who clicked with her. Linda and the other female workers didn't really share the same interests and it wasn't like they could take a pregnant lady out for a drink.
"Cool your shit, Ralph. I'm not going to do anything she doesn't beg me to."
The rage almost made John shoot to his feet, but instead he settled on squeezing the life out of his fork. He could feel the cheap metal give slightly, but it was far cheaper to buy a new fork than it was to find a different job.
"She's working another job on the side, so I doubt she'd have time to deal with your bullshit," Fred said as he walked past the two to sit down next to John.
This was new information. She'd been around for a few weeks already and most of the talk about her was just echoes of what had been gleaned the first week combined with the scraps Kai had shared from whatever Miranda had told him. Trust Fred to have had an actual conversation with her.
Ralph nodded, "No way she plans on working at a construction site for the rest of her life."
"Not with a degree in Computer Sciences," Fred said as he zipped open his lunchbox.
"Which begs to question why she's here," Ralph said.
"She's Halsey's daughter, you dolt," Linda said, settling down next Ralph.
Also, new information. Useful information that settled like a rock in his stomach.
"How do you know?" Locke said, leaning slightly forward.
"Kelly saw the two arguing when she came by to pick me up yesterday."
"What about?" Locke pressed.
Linda gave him a look resembling the one she'd given him moments before knocking flat and he leaned back away, averting his eyes back down to his food.
"That's no one's business but their's."
And just like that, the conversation was over. Much to John's relief, as he found it significantly easier to listen to speculate on the rumors that hours were going to be cut or someone was going to be laid off. Easy conversation that he'd listened to so many times in the past. Hours were going to be cut back a little, a few people would threaten to leave, and then things would go back to normal. If someone was going to be laid off, it would either be glaringly obvious or a complete surprise. Easy conversation to tune out of.
Instead he thought about the new girl.
He hadn't really ever talked to Cortana, but he had seen how she talked to the others. Professionally when appropriate, but not so much as to be unapproachable. He knew that she worked hard. Kai had alluded to the fact when he hadn't had anything bad to say about her. Miranda was a hard worker, she wouldn't have put up with any sloppy work. Cortana wasn't used to much manual labor if the way she hauled cases of water was any indication. Every time, he wished he could go to help, but he had his own job to do. Not to mention how wildly inappropriate it would be.
And she was pretty. He could admit that. Objectively, from any perspective, anyone could see that she was pretty. Including him.
The first few times he saw her, Cortana had stuck out like a sore thumb. Shorts that were way too short to be anything but decorative. The brightly colored shoes were better suited for a leisurely run than they were a construction site. Her dark hair, while short, was left loose. The way she was constantly brushing it out of her face in a way that grew more and more annoyed was endearing. She'd clearly dressed to be outside, but not to actually work outside. To be fair, she spent most of her time in the air conditioning with Miranda and probably hadn't known what to expect.
Within a few days, Cortana looked like she'd had a reverse makeover. The jeans she were wearing were worn and were a little too big, just like her boots. The boots he recognized as Miranda's from the way one of the laces was a dusty white, and the other a dusty black. Her hair, which John hadn't thought was long enough to braid so intricately, was never loose again. It stirred something in him to see her adapt to her situation so quickly. Even if she still struggled to move bottles of water from the company truck to the coolers.