by Laws, Tara
The Intern
Full Submission
Tara Laws
The Intern – Full Submission© 2012 by TARA LAWS
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means – electronic, mechanical, photographic (photocopying), recording, or otherwise – without prior permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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1Alexandria could see the Whitson Engineering Services building from blocks away. The large steel and glass structure was an architectural masterpiece and projected the billion dollar image the company was worth. The men that worked there were some of the best engineers in the country and she had been fortunate to even be interviewed by them for an intern position. She had been damned lucky to actually be hired. Today would be her first day of work and she was extremely nervous.
She had spent nearly two hours last night deciding what to wear and then another hour this morning second-guessing her decision. She had wanted to look regal and sophisticated, but didn’t want to be labeled as anything less than professional on her first day. When you were going to work in a mostly male dominated industry, it was best not to set yourself apart from the boys. In the end, she elected to stick with a simple black skirt, a plain beige blouse and sensible shoes.
She completed her look by pulling her long auburn hair into a loose knot and donning her glasses rather than her contacts. She looked smart and efficient, which was the image she wanted to convey. It would be bad enough that she was the only female intern hired this year. She would have to work twice as hard to earn a permanent slot on the staff.
The receptionist led her to the human resources department where she filled out all of her paperwork and was directed to a large office on the fourth floor. “Each intern is assigned to a specific engineer, Alexandria. You will be working with Drake Whitson.”
Alexandria felt her heart suddenly pounding out of her chest. Drake Whitson was the son of the owner of Whitson Engineering. He was in his early thirties and already an accomplished engineer with a multitude of patents and engineering marvels credited to him. On one hand, she was excited to be able to learn from him. On the other, she wasn’t sure if she could measure up to his high standards.
They arrived at the door to his office and her escort knocked softly on the frame of his open door. “Drake? I have your intern here. Her name is Alexandria McCord. She recently graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology. I’m going to turn her over to your care,” she told him.
Alexandria was mesmerized for a moment. He was beautiful. His sandy hair was clean cut on bottom with a shock of loose sun streaked curls on top. His piercing blue eyes were looking her up and down. A perfectly chiseled jawline and high cheekbones completed the wonderful features. His soft, full lips were more than a little inviting. The Armani suit and silk tie he was wearing looked as if they were form fitted to his long, lean body.
“Alexandria?” he asked again.
She realized that she had been in a trance for a moment and he was speaking to her. “Oh, I’m sorry. Yes?” she replied.
He let out a low chuckle. “I asked if you want to go see your office.” he told her.
“Oh, yes…definitely,” she responded, trying desperately to regain her composure. She was sure she was flushed. Her heart was racing. Get it together, Lexi, she thought to herself as she watched him walk around his desk and toward her. She thought she was going to hyperventilate as he placed his hand on her back and walked her to a doorway on one side of his enormous office. It led into an adjoining office with a small desk and bookcase. While his office was impeccably decorated with various prints of Deviance’s engineering drawings, hers was completely bar other than the two pieces of furniture, a phone, printer and computer.
“This will be your office, Alexandria. You may requisition whatever office supplies you need from Claudia in inventory and you may decorate however you see fit. I only ask that it be tasteful and fit in with the general atmosphere of the building,” he told her.
“Lexi,” she replied.
“Excuse me?” he said.
Lexi felt so retarded already. “Everyone calls me Lexi,” she clarified.
“Ah, good. That will be much simpler,” he said with a smile that revealed two incredibly enticing dimples on his cheeks.
Lexi just nodded at him. Speak, Lexi, speak, her mind screamed at her. Snap out of it already.
“Okay, Lexi. We have a meeting in five minutes. I would like you to put down your things in here. You should be able to log into the computer using your first initial, last name and last four of your social security number. Your password will be the same and you will need to change it to something else once you are in the system. Do not write it down and do not give it to anyone. If you lose it, you will have to walk down to the IT department and request a password reset in person. They will require your full name, full social security number, mother’s maiden name, a retinol scan and a drop of blood in order to process it for you,” he said without a hint of a smile.
Lexi looked at him and smiling awkwardly. “Hmmm, that’s going to be a problem with my glass eye,” she said solemnly. He looked startled for a moment and she could see him trying to get a better look at her eyes without appearing to be looking at them. She winked at him and laughed. Ah, that’s better, Lexi, she thought to herself.
He laughed. “Well played, my friend,” he told her. “Now, get yourself set up on the system and meet me in my office in five minutes. I will need you to take notes during the meeting. We will discuss your responsibilities afterward, for now you just need to know that your job is to learn from me while keeping me straight. You are my best defense against not fucking up,” he said blithely.
“Yes, Sir,” she said. He raised an eyebrow in her direction and smiled.
“Yes, Sir, indeed,” he said to no one in particular as he walked back into his office.
2.Lexi sat down at the computer and got logged in without an issue before walking into Drake’s office as instructed. “Mr. Whitson, are we ready to go?” she asked. He looked around over his shoulder.
“Is my Dad here?” he asked. “I’m Drake. Don’t ever call me Mr. Whitson. I’ll think my overbearing father is behind me and shit my pants,” he said.
Lexi wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be funny or not, so he just smiled faintly and nodded in his direction. “Yes, Sir,” she said.
“I like the Sir bit, you can keep it,” he said as he got up and walked around his desk. “Let’s go, Lexi. Lock and load.”
Lexi had no idea what to expect. Drake had handed her a small steno pad and a pen as they walked out of his office. She felt very nervous as they stepped into the large room filled with other members of the engineering staff. She didn’t see anyone else that looked like an intern in there. Drake patted the seat beside his, indicating that she should sit there. She sat and looked around, all doe eyed and trying to figure out what to do with her hands. She settled for resting them on the steno pad.
The meeting was more or less just a standard staff meeting. Apparently, she was the only intern in attendance. It became evident that Drake seemed to run the show. She watched as he accepted or vetoed the ideas of the other engineers. Lexi wondered if it was just because his father wasn’t at this meeting. Whatever the
case, she was struck by his ability to quickly comprehend their projects and ideas and make a decision as to whether he felt they were on track. Many of the men were older and she could tell they didn’t like someone so much younger rejecting their thoughts, but they all seemed to respect his decision.
She also noticed that none of the men seemed concerned with whom she might be, even though Drake had not introduced her. Perhaps they had already been briefed on who she was. Once the meeting was over, none of them bothered to linger even long enough to speak to her. Granted, she was no one for them to be concerned with, but common courtesy usually dictates that at least some of them would take a moment to welcome her. She snapped out of it when she heard Drake speak to her, “Lexi, come.”
“Let me see your notes,” Drake said once they were back in their office. Lexi cringed. She had thought she would have time to clean them up before he viewed them.
“They, um, aren’t…I don’t think you can really read them,” she said.
Drake cocked a single eyebrow up at her and then stood facing her, looking over her face as if trying to assess something. “I can’t read them because you are not providing them to me for that purpose, Lexi. Please hand me your pad,” he said politely.
Lexi looked pained but extended the steno pad out towards his waiting hand. He took it from her with a furrowed brow and began to read the notes she had written down. Lexi was mortified. She watched his face as it solemnly skimmed down the page. He looked back up at her with pursed lips. “Please tell me, Lexi…which of my esteemed colleagues is “Mr. Bulldog” and which one is “Mr. Weird Mole?” he said without a hint of a smile.
Lexi turned beat red. She felt as if her entire face was on fire with humiliation. Due to the fact that no introductions had been made and there was nothing to indicate the staff member’s names, she had settled for a description of each of the gentlemen that she would remember when she saw them again. She had intended to get someone to take her around for introductions, since Drake had not yet afforded her that opportunity. Then, she could put their names together with the way she remembered them and clean up the notes. Drake’s demand to see the notes immediately had been unexpected and now, horribly embarrassing.
She stammered a bit, “I…I’m sorry. I had not intended for you to see that. I just did not know their names and was going to figure that out before typing up the notes,” she said, trailing off a little at the end.
Drake looked her up and down. “I see. Fair enough, Lexi. Please go up to the fifth floor and look for Mrs. Silicone. She should be at the first desk you see as you exit the elevator. Tell her that I would like her to take you on a tour of the building and introduce you to everyone you will need to be familiar with. Take this with you,” he told her, handing back the steno pad. “You can make corrections to the notes as you go,” he said. He waved her away and sat back down in his chair.
Lexi slumped her shoulders and left the office. She was beside herself. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard a chuckle as she walked down the hall and got into the elevator, trying to regain her composure. When she stepped off the elevator on the fifth floor, she saw a large glass desk sitting in the center of the room it opened into to. The lady sitting there was a bleached blonde wearing a red dress that seemed a bit too snug for her.
Lexi approached the desk,” Yes, are you Mrs. Si…,” she hadn’t got the words out of her mouth when she noticed the small nameplate sitting at the front of the desk. It said, “Rebecca Robinson, Executive Assistant.” Lexi looked at the woman, noting her enormous fake boobs. Mrs. Silicone. He was making fun of her notes that she had given him. She was so glad she hadn’t finished saying it. She let out an involuntary chuckle.
Mrs. Silicone pursed her lips at her. “Can I help you?” she asked impatiently, scowling at Lexi.
“Yes, I’m sorry. Drake Whitson sent me up here to ask if you could take me around the office and introduce me to everyone,” she said.
Mrs. Silicone’s frown immediately transformed to a large smile. “Why, of course! You must be his new intern, Alexandria,” she said.
“Please call me Lexi,” came the reply.
“Okay, Lexi. Well, let’s get going,” she told her. Mrs. Silicone buzzed another office and announced to the person on the other end that she was giving a new employee tour and would return shortly. Then, she stood up and she walked Lexi around the entire building telling her who everyone was, what he or she did there and any gossip about them that she felt pertinent. By the time they finished up, Lexi had replaced the descriptions in her notes with all but one name.
Lexi then returned to Drake’s office to find it empty. She walked into her office and laid the steno pad on the desk, unlocking her computer and starting a word document for the meeting notes. She still had not seen Drake by the time she finished up, so she finished up the notes and found his email address in the directory, forwarding them to him.
3.Lexi began to look around her office and contemplate what she could do to decorate it. She had no clue. Decorating wasn’t exactly her forte and certainly not anything she had experience with. Lexi had grown up in a poor household. The truth was, Lexi had grown up in a trailer park in Macon, Georgia. Her father was an alcoholic and rarely showed up at home and her mother worked two jobs to keep a roof over their heads.
Lexi had been smart enough to get good grades and a partial scholarship to attend college. What the scholarship didn’t cover was taken care of by federal grants, student loans and the part time job she had waiting tables after classes each day. It hadn’t been easy but it had been worth it. She had made it through despite losing her father in a drunken brawl when she was a freshman and her mother in a car accident when she was a senior. Lexi had no one. It was sometimes surreal knowing that you were all alone in the world at such an early age but it was what it was.
Now, here she was in one of the most respected engineering firms in Atlanta and it was important that she do a good job as an intern in order to garner a position as an engineer with them. It was a lot of pressure and she had already made an ass of herself on day one. She stared at the large beige wall in front of her trying to visualize what would make an impression there. She jumped as she heard Drake’s voice from the other office.
“Lexi, come,” he said. Lexi wondered if he would be calling her like she was a bad dog the entire time she worked for him. She walked into his office and stood in front of his desk. “Yes, Sir?” she asked.
He looked up at her with just a hint of bemusement in his eyes. “Thank you for the notes. They were very meticulous for your first staff meeting,” he told her.
Lexi smiled. “Thank you,” she said.
“I think that will be all for today Lexi. I have a personal appointment this afternoon that I need to get to. Tomorrow, I will teach you the ways of my people, grasshopper,” he said with a smirk. “You can stay until five and get whatever you need for the office requisitioned. Tomorrow, I will get you a company credit card and you can begin to pick out décor for your office.”
“Yes, Sir,” Lexi responded. He began to tidy up his desk and she took it as her cue to leave. She turned and headed back towards her office. She heard his voice behind her as she walked away.
“By the way, Lexi. You need to make a quick correction to the notes. There seems to be a typo. I believe you meant to put the name of Mr. Charles Williams where you had typed Mr. Unibrow.”
Lexi stopped and turned towards him for a moment. “Oh, yes…I’m sorry. He must have been away from his desk when Mrs. Silicone took me for my tour,” she said with more than a hint of sarcasm.
Drake smiled broadly. “Indeed. Nice lady, isn’t she? Very upfront too,” he said, as he picked up his things and left the office on his way to who knows where. Lexi scowled at his bad pun and continued to her office. Once she sat down, she thought about his weird sense of humor and chuckled a little. This was going to be interesting.
Lexi ordered her desk supplies and surfed the net a bit looking for suitable office décor but came up with nothing. At five, she clocked out using the online system HR had shown her and left the building. She walked down to the parking garage and retrieved her banged up Volvo from the garage. She made her way through the end of day traffic to her tiny little one bedroom apartment on the other side of town.
She had no more than settled in, when she heard a knock on the door. She opened it to find Samantha, a neighbor and friend. Sam, was the typical blonde bimbo that guys gravitate toward. What she lacked in intelligence, she made up for in personality and looks. She worked as a stripper at a nearby club called The Cheetah.
“Well, tell me about your first day,” she said as she bounced down on Lexi’s second hand plaid couch that doubled as her bed when she folded it out. “I brought some wine to celebrate. I even chilled it while I waited for you to come home,” she told her. Lexi looked at the bottle of Strawberry Hill in her hand. Nothing said classy like Boone’s Farm. She went to the kitchen and grabbed her only two wine glasses. They were actually pretty nice. She had bought them at a thrift store, along with most of her other dishes.
She sat on the couch and they opened their bottle of cheap wine. “Well, I got lucky somehow and got assigned directly to the son of the owner. His name is Drake Whitson and he is gorgeous, but intimidating. I felt so awkward around him and made an idiot of myself on the first day. Good thing that he seems to have a sense of humor,” she told Sam.
“Oh, yeah…Drake. He’s an odd one,” Sam responded. Lexi raised an eyebrow at her.
“You know him?” Lexi asked.
“I know about him, not him personally. He used to date one of the girls at the club. It was Sandy. The one that was studying some sort of mechanical design,” she said.
Lexi considered this for a moment. She knew that many of the strippers at the Cheetah were actually highly intelligent. They were putting themselves through school using what they had and she saw nothing wrong with that. It wasn’t something she could ever do but she didn’t judge them for it. Still, Drake hadn’t struck her as the stripper groupie type.
