Come Closer

by Sara Gran

We were renovating a clothing store in a strip mall outside the city. Nothing tremendous. I finished the proposal on a Friday morning and dropped it on his desk with a cheerful little note—“Let me know what you think!”—while he was in a meeting with a new client in the conference room.

My father was an architect. He's now gone, but when I was writing this, he helped me with the details in Amanda's work life. He got a kick out of the fact that I made Amanda an architect. I chose architecture for her because a lot of architects are frustrated fine artists, and while this doesn't come up often in the story, I thought it was fitting for her character.