Zap

zap
verb, transitive. To destroy or obliterate. To cause to move suddenly and rapidly in a specified direction. To cook or warm food or a drink in a microwave oven.
verb, intransitive. To move suddenly and rapidly, especially between television channels or sections of a video recording by use of a remote control. Also a noun.

Chloë's manager, Margaret, did her job by wandering around the office with a mug of coffee clenched in one fist. She never seemed to linger at anyone's workstation for long, until she came to Chloë's. She would stand at Chloë's left elbow, silent, sipping, for a minimum of five minutes, watching the younger woman work, then move away at last.

Chloë always took a deep breath of relief when the scrutiny ended. She reviewed her every move at the light table, wondering what she had been doing to warrant such intense interest. She was new at her job and didn't feel comfortable talking about Margaret's behavior with any of her unfamiliar colleagues.

One day, Margaret interrupted Chloë's work by speaking. She had paused to watch, as usual, then said, "You're the only one who does that."

Chloë raised her head and looked at the manager, startled.

"Beg pardon?"

Margaret sipped at her coffee, made a face, then jerked her head toward the studio door.
"Walk with me," she commanded.

Chloë placed her Xacto knife against the ledge at the table's lower edge, slid off her stool and followed as Margaret left the room. The two women walked down the hall without speaking. Chloë was relieved when she realized they were going in the opposite direction from Margaret's office, then apprehensive. Was Margaret going to walk her to the entrance of the building, only to order her to leave and never return? Why? What had Chloë done? Quelling her panic, she reflected that if Margaret was planning to can her, she would have ordered Chloë to collect her things. At least, she thought that would have been the case.

Margaret turned into the break room door, walked to the microwave, and placed her mug inside. After she keyed the buttons to zap her coffee, she turned to address Chloë.
"You're the only person in that studio who uses a triangle with the T-square. Where did you learn to do that?"

Chloë blinked. "Drafting class," she replied after a moment. She wondered how the others were drawing perpendiculars if they weren't using triangles. She didn't know any other method.

Margaret withdrew her mug from the machine, sipped and, for the first time since Chloë had met her, smiled.

"That explains it," she stated.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.