Built a Bridge.

Maya adjusted her hard hat as the wind off the river whipped her hair into a tangled mess. She was feeling hostile, and not afraid to show it. She stabbed a manicured finger at the structure on the blueprint spread across the hood of Silas' dusty truck.

" The pedestrian walkway is the central focus of the entire park, Silas. It needs to curve gracefully. It. Cannot. Be. A. Straight. Boxy. Slab." Maya insisted, shooting him a dark, cross glare through her rain-splattered glasses.

Silas leaned against his truck, crossing his arms over his heavy flannel jacket. A slow, infuriating grin spread across his face, as he looked from the design on paper to the muddy construcrion site.

"Graceful is lovely, Maya. But in my line of work, we call graceful 'gravity-defying', or a 'lawsuit waiting to happen'. We're building a bridge here, not a sculpture."

"I'll have you know that I have a Master's degree in Structural Engineering, Silas. I don't need you to give me a lecture on gravity from a man whose primary uniform is steel-toed boots covered in dirt."

"And I have fifteen years of actually building the things that people like you sketch on napkins and tissues." he countered, dropping his voice an octave lower. He was smoothing things over, with an annoying sense of practical calm.

"If you want the curve, we use custom-bent steel beams. But your budget does not allow for custom made, so you aim for the structurally sound, brilliant, straight angled line I proposed."

Maya huffed, crossing her arms and refusing to blink. She hated that he was right. She's spent weeks agonizing over this design, and the budget cuts were a danger to her vision.

'You're an impossible, infuriating Neanderthal," she muttered.

"And you're a genius with an unfortunate flair for the dramatic," Silas said, unrolling the blueprint and pulling a pencil from behind his ear. But since I'm it nice guy, I propose a bridge. A literal bridge between our ideas."

Maya leaned in, the tip her nose nearly bumping his, as she examined his offering of an alternative design. "This is nothing like I designed," she grumped, "there is way too much concrete! Like all your plain label coffees!" She searched his piercing, keen eyes. Her stare wilted under his gaze, as she wondered why her insides fluttered and felt all gooey.

"What do you really think are best left unspoken". She thought. Her internal feelings about Silas seemed to have flipped. She was not game to call him "Hotsie" all of a sudden. "You're a mature woman, get a grip!" she told herself. Somewhat reluctantly, she accepted his offer of a practical bridge plan.

"Deal," she said quietly, as the tension in her shoulders seemed to melt away......Four weeks later, the skeleton or framework of the bridge spanned the narrow part of the river, linking two parts of the park. The theme was that of native flora, supporting a habitat to re-establish local birds and insects. The construction site was flat chat, messy and muddy.

Maya stood on the edge of the embankment, shivering in the afternoon chill, as she watched the gangs of tradesman working on the main suspension cables.

Silas approached her from behind, his boots squelching in the mud. He handed her a steaming paper cup, saying, "Drink this. It's herbal tea. I assume you don't drink real coffee, because you're already vibrating. Your frequencies could shatter glass."

"I am a very passionate woman!" Maya corrected him, taking the cup. The warmth spread through her freezing hands. "And I would like to say thank you. I'm sorry I insulted your coffee habits earlier."

" I accept your apologies, even it it was really bedgrudging," Silas chuckled, his gaze briefly, tracking down her face, before shifting to look at the bridge.

"Here's the latest update," he continued, "We got a shipment of cross-bracing steel this morning." His tone was turning very serious. "The mill certificate is a mess. I rejected the whole lot. The tensile strength was subpar. We're delayed by two days."

Maya swivelled to look at him. Most foremen would have tried to cut corners to stay on schedule. Silas was fiercely protective of this project, and by extension, her end result. Each project formed the essence of her work as an engineer.

"Thank you for catching that. It would have compromised the integrity of the whole structure."

"My name is on this, Maya. But more importantly, so is yours. I'm not letting anyone put out a stuffed up construction. On with the show." He stroke away, to slam the door of his muddy truck before he drove off in a flurry of gravel.

She gazed at his mud spatters and could not resist heaving a sigh. She felt a pang of wishing there was some way to stop wondering about Silas after hours. She was all ready to place feelers for a new project. She was hoping to sign on with yet more vast ecologcally sensitive construction to create. Perhaps building bridges might become her signature contribution to magnifying her capabilities. She did not have a clue what to do about her innermost girlie bits, betraying her innate good, sound common sense. Silas might be dynamite.

The construction process of building a bridge a river, from riverside to the far shore, was advanced. Step by step, Maya could see her plans and designs become reality. Finally, she could stand and look at the completed river span. Silas approached, not quite wanting to leave Maya behind in his personal designs. Maya glanced up at his face, as pleased as he was. She exhaled a long, contented breath. "It's perfect. The curve is exactly what I wanted, and the structure is solid as a rock."

"We built something pretty great, didn't we?' Silas turned to face her, his broad shoulders blocking the chilly night wind. Maya glanced back at his mudded vehicle. Silas had left his truck door wide open. Would this sign change future Maya and her role forever?