As she walked into her office, she was greeted by Jessica, the new summer intern Carol had hired. "Good morning, Mrs. Weiss" she said with a smile. Dawn shot her a look with a raised eyebrow and said, "Nope. It's Dawn. You know that."

"Sorry" she said back sheepishly.

Dawn asked "Hey, why are you up here? Where's Kim?"

Referring to their usual receptionist, Jessica replied "she called out sick today."

"Oh. Ok" said Dawn, pausing for a second before adding "Well, good morning!" before heading to her office. Dawn and Carol's office was quite unique. Aside from the reception area that was separated by a solid wall, the rest of the office was essentially just one big room, with 3 drafting tables in the middle and 4 separate desks surrounding them. Two of them were occupied by their two junior designers and Jessica the intern sat at another one. The fourth desk was unused and piled high with leftover fabric and various other design supplies. While Dawn and Carol both had private offices, they had glass walls which kept the whole place feeling big and open. The main reason for the glass was that it made the offices soundproof, allowing Dawn and Carol to focus on their jobs in peace and quiet if need be.

Dawn was currently handling a decent sized project by herself, working on a private home which had undergone a kitchen and dining room remodel and Dawn was putting the finishing touches on the display boards she was planning to present to the clients in just a few hours. Luckily, their preferences were right up her alley as they lived in an amazing home right on the beach and definitely wanted to keep the beachy vibe in their new kitchen. Dawn came up with three different concepts, the first being a darker and more rustic beach look with the cabinets a slightly unfinished dark color, reminiscent of driftwood. Another one was much lighter and modern, with white, cream and tan accents and simple plain white subway tiles. She was very happy with both ideas but her favorite was the design that was a little more out there, with white quartz counters flecked with glittery silver spots, light wood for the cabinets and a really unique spanish style mission style tile for the wall backsplash. It was a flower print in light and dark blues, a small pop of yellow and a little white that matched the countertops, making the room very cohesive. If she had her way, the walls would be painted the same light blue color in the tile as well.

Dawn was positive that between the three choices, the client would like at least one. Before getting ready to head over, she poked her head into Carol's office, whom she hadn't seen yet that morning. "Hey you" said Dawn. "Happy Friday!"

Carol looked up. "Oh, hey sweetie. Busy morning?"

"Just a little" Dawn replied. "I'm heading back out to meet the beach house clients but I just wanted to say hello first. Just then, the main phone rang and Dawn heard a voice over the wall, saying "C&D Designs, how may I direct your call?" after a short pause she heart "one moment, please" as the call went to one of their other designers. Dawn thought she sounded so professional so she looked back at Carol and said quietly "She's working out pretty well, huh?"

Carol gestured for Dawn to come in her office and shut the door and then she said "Yeah, I like her a lot. I think I want to bring her on board."

Jessica didn't look much older than 18 and Dawn commented "She looks pretty young, Carol. Is she still in school?"

"She just graduated from OCC."

Dawn smiled, as Orange Community College was where she went to school too.

Carol continued on. "Her major was graphic design but she also completed the same design certification program that you did."

"Well, I don't know much about her yet" said Dawn. "but maybe we should have her do more work and have her stop bringing us coffee and sandwiches and stuff?"

Carol laughed "yeah, probably."

Just then an idea came to Dawn and she said "Tell you what. Why don't I have her assist me on this project? She can learn the ropes and see what it takes to actually complete a project instead of just watching?"

Carol's eyes lit up. "That would be great, Dawn!"

"Ok. Well, I need to head out but we'll talk about that later, ok?"

"Sounds good. Hey, don't forget you guys are having dinner with your Dad and I tonight." said Carol.

Dawn felt pretty happy as she walked out to her car, excited at the opportunity to start mentoring someone the way Carol had mentored her. She knew how lucky she was to have found a great career and definitely wanted to pay it forward to someone else. Then she was off to the beach to meet the clients..in a VERY good mood.

Dawn's good vibes continued on the way back home to pick up River. The client had chosen Dawn's wild card design of the blue tiles, and she couldn't wait to get the project going.

Unfortunately for Dawn, the good feeling of that day wasn't going to last very long..