by Claire Angel
“You stopped coming to the college Richard. It's hard to see you, when you don’t come.”
“I just got busy. It wasn't because I didn't want to.”
We both just kind of stood there, staring at each other for a bit, not knowing what to say to the other. I saw her biting her lower lip and I knew that I wasn’t the only one that was thinking of our dance.
I didn’t know exactly what was on her mind, but I knew that there was something between us. I could feel it every time I was near her and from the reaction of her body, she could feel it as well.
“Well, each year one of the interns works closely with me. I want you to be that intern this year Sarah. You have the most potential and I think you can learn a lot with me. It would mean different hours and you would be responsible for different things, but you would also still have your same intern duties with the rest of the crew. Would that be something that you're interested in?”
I was framing it as best as I could, but really, I just wanted more time for us to spend together. I hoped that she didn’t see through my guise. But even if she did, she still agreed. That was enough for me.
When she agreed, I just smiled and told her that I would personally give her a tour.
“I am going to show you parts of the building that you will never see as a regular intern. You get to see the world behind the curtains.”
“I feel like you're going to take me down into the dungeon or some, Richard. You're not making me feel any better about my first day.”
I had missed Sarah. She was always so quick to say something back and, in a world, where nobody went against my word, it was hard to not be thankful that Sarah wasn't that way. It felt like I was just surrounded by yes men, and I needed someone that was actually going to tell me the truth. I really wanted her to be that person.
Chapter 7
Sarah
As much as Richard was completely professional, listening while we were walking down corridors to some of the main places, he was walking just a little too close to me. He was sending me flashbacks of our dance and he wasn’t even touching me. I could feel his body heat next to me like before though.
“You're really quiet today Sarah.”
“It's just a lot to take in. This has kind of been my dream internship since I started at Statfords University. I was hoping I would get to meet you one day and now I’m working for you. It’s just sort-of surreal, you know?”
“This is just one step on your way up Sarah. I meant it when I said that you were scheduled for great things. I can feel it.”
While I felt that he meant what he said, I also think that some of his faith in me, was based off of the fact that he was attracted to me. I didn’t date much, but I knew what a man looked like when they wanted me. Something had changed in Richard’s eyes and he now seemed ravenous. Silly me, I thought that he was going to forget about me all of these months. I was rather surprised that he knew who I was.
Then he pulled me aside and gave me a special promotion. I knew that the others were going to be jealous, Amber was going to make a huge deal about it, but that didn’t matter. That aspect of it, was actually a bonus. Amber made my life hell, every chance that she got, and I was happy that now she didn’t have the chance. All of her dad’s money had gotten her the internship, I was sure of it, but she didn’t get the coveted first chair like I did.
It was lunch time and he left me to go with the rest of the interns.
“I would go with you, but it would be unseemly. Maybe we can get together after work soon?”
He left it open and I left it as an option. I didn’t know how to handle him, but I knew that I was in over my head. I’d known that the first time that we danced together. It was a feeling that hadn’t left me in months.
When I got back to the rest of the group, I was getting dirty looks. I wasn’t sure why, but Amber was first to let me know where I had gone wrong.
“I see that you’re starting at the top Sarah. I am rather surprised that you have taken that route. I never would have thought that about you. I guess you have learned a few tricks while you're in college. Your senior grade point average was a lot better than it should have been. Now I guess I know why.”
“Amber, school is over. We graduated and none of that matters anymore.”
“You say that Sarah, yet here you are, taking the position over in this internship as well. You shouldn't have even gotten it. Now you are getting special tours from the boss. It all just seems a little fishing to me Sarah.”
I knew she was pretty right about the last bit, but I wasn’t going to worry about it. Or try not to anyways.
I had worried about it, as soon as he pulled me off to the side, but I had gone anyways because I wanted to talk to him. I didn't want people like Amber, to dictate my life. But now I was seeing the repression of the facts, wasn’t going to help me.
Not only did I have to work with Amber, but at the moment, I was living with her as well. Grant Holdings had paid for an apartment that we all shared. It was part of the perk of being an intern, but at the same time, it kept us close to the office, so that they can use us for slave labor.
I had spent so much time, worried about it when I have found out about living with the interns. I knew that I wasn’t very good with roommates. I missed Donna. I was used to her. I wasn’t used to living with a bunch of people, that wanted to make my life harder.
His assistant, Charles, gave me an encouraging look and ushered us to get some lunch. He kept talking about some of the great places around the office to eat. He had been working out of the New York office for the last eight years and he seemed to know quite a lot about the area. I was just thankful that Charles had taken some of the pressure off me, when he walked up. I didn’t want to listen to Amber’s ideas any longer.
Amber gave me dirty looks most of the time and tried to make it as uncomfortable as she possibly could. I had never understood how somebody who had everything going for her, could be so unhappy. She was pretty, same from good family and plenty of money. She was also very smart and had just graduated from the same University that I had. None of those things made sense, paired with her attitude. There was no reason for her to be the way she was.
She tried to make my day a bad one, but I insisted that I wasn't going to let her. If I was going to work with her and stay at the internship, I had to learn to live with her. When I first moved in with Donna, it seemed almost impossible that I would be able to get along with her. She seemed so different. But at the end of it, we became fast friends and I knew that it was a relationship that would last forever.
While I didn't think the same thing would happen with Amber, I was hopeful that we could at least not hate each other. That sort of animosity had become tiring.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. There was more paperwork to fill out for HR, as well as a few different classes to sit through. One of them was a sexual harassment class and I found that one particularly humorous. Every one of the harassment examples, Richard had done. But funny enough, I didn’t feel harassed when it was going on.
When it was finally time to leave, I was about as nervous as when I had walked in this morning. There was so much to learn and so little time to do it. Since I was going to be help Richard with some things on the side, I was going to have even more duties to take care of. Just being a regular intern was going to be quite a bit.
I knew that it was going to be hard work, but maybe I hadn’t imagined that it would be this much. I followed everyone else back to the apartment and unpacked some of my things. Amber had a couple of her goons with her and I had to wonder if it was a set-up. Of course, they would come with her. Sophie and Della had made the cut. More of her daddy’s money?
Not all of her squad was able to make it to this office, but Amber had enough people around her, to make me immediately rethink my living arrangements. I could always call my dad and get the money for an apartment in the city. Something I wouldn’t h
ave to share with nine other people.
It was an idea, but one that I was pushing to the back of my mind. The truth was, that I wanted to stick this out, as well as do it without asking my father for anything. I had heard enough that I needed to get out on my own. I was trying to do it, but it was more complicated than I’d thought it would be.
When I got my room set up, I called my parents, to tell them that I’d made it here safely and that everything was fine. It was to not just tell them, but to remind myself as well. I was freaking out a bit, but it was all going to work out.
Dustin answered the phone, my teenage brother that was a pain in the ass. He wanted to talk about the city, but I hadn’t seen much of it yet.
“I am not here to sight-see Dustin. I’m here to work.”
“So, you haven’t seen anything, not even Time Square?”
I laughed. “No, not yet. I have been here a day. I will take some pics when I go though and send them your way.”
“Cool. I got your room.”
I knew that he was poking at me, but I wasn’t going to be too upset about it. I hadn’t stayed with my parents for a long time, not since the first year of college. Soon as I started my second year, I got the place with Donna and hadn’t looked back. They’d kept it ready for me, my parents sure I would come home, but I’d tried my best to make that not an option. I was trying to do it on my own.
“That’s good. It’s way bigger than your old one.”
“You don’t care?”
“Nope.”
I heard him sigh on the other line and I didn’t have to see his face, to know that he was disappointed. He wanted me to get all worked up about it, but I just wasn’t going to. It made no sense to do so, so I wasn’t going to.
“Well sure, I will get mom. If you're not going to play nice.”
He didn't tell me that he loves me or miss me, but I didn't need Dustin to say it. I knew what the truth was. It was a love/hate relationship between us, just like most siblings and especially because there was such an age gap between us. It made things a little bit more difficult, and if it was added to the fact that he was annoying as hell, there was no question that we would probably never get along in the traditional sort of way.
Dad got on the phone a little bit later and asked me how everything was going. I told him that everything was fine, but he could hear something in my voice that gave me away.
“Tell me what the matter is.”
“I just ended up with some roommates that I wasn't looking forward to staying with. It's nothing that I can't work out on my own. Like you said before, I will have to work with all kinds of people, so I might as well learn to get along with them, right?”
I was hoping that he would give me some of his fatherly wisdom, so that I would do the right thing. He always had some of the best advice, even if it was usually the exact same thing I was telling myself. For some reason, it was easier to take from someone else.
“You know what you have to do Sarah. It is easier to make a friend, then an enemy.”
“That sounds good in theory dad, but it's not always the truth, sometimes it is a lot harder to be friends with somebody. It would be easier to be her enemy.”
He chuckled a little bit and agreed. “It will be worth the effort. Bad peace is better than good war.”
He always seemed to have a saying for everything and even though I didn't quite agree with what he said at the moment, I knew that I already had all of the information that I needed. I was supposed to learn to get along with Amber. That was the best-case scenario. It didn’t seem possible, but I knew it was the best way to go about it.
“I am going to try to take the high road on this dad, but I don't know if I'll be able to.”
“Well dear, if you need anything, you know all you have to do is ask. I know you want to do this on your own, but New York is an expensive place to live.”
It was like he was reading my mind and I had to ignore the urge to tell him that I did need some money. It would certainly make things a lot easier, but it would also make things more complicated. I needed to do this myself. No matter how hard it was going to be.
I felt a little better after I got off the phone with him. I guess I just wanted to know that if I did need some help, I would get it. I had already known that though, my family had always been good about supporting me in whatever I wanted to do. They didn't agree with me all of the time, but they at least let me live my life.
I don't know if I agreed with dad as far as how to take care of Amber, but he at least gave me a little bit of peace and I was able to get through the night. It was just me letting it all get to me. It wasn't that big of a deal.
Chapter 8
Richard
The first week that the interns started, did not go how I planned it would. I tried several times to get Sarah alone, but she was making it impossible to do so. It seemed like she knew what I had in mind and was trying to avoid me. That was rather hard to do, considering that I had her doing special errands for me. Either way, I didn't get my alone time that I wanted.
The way that my office was set up, I could watch everything that was going on around me and nobody could see inside. The windows were a little tinted and reflected back to them, but I could see everything. It was usually to appease my mind and to show me that everyone was doing what they were supposed to do. I had control issues that I was still working on. But now I wasn't using it for that. Instead, I was using it to keep track of Sarah.
One thing that I noticed pretty quickly, was that she spent very little time conversing with everyone else. Most of the other interns never shut up. I found Amber to be the worst of all. All she did was talk to one person or another the whole day. I don't know how she was actually getting any work done. But Sarah wasn't like that. Sarah kept her head down and did what was asked. She was an innocent and sincere girl. She was just adorable. I wasn’t able to focus on my work since the day she had entered the office.
Whether she was conversing with everyone, didn't really matter though. What mattered was everyone around her could watch her and she didn't even pay attention. Every man in there, had looked at her in a sexual way. I know it wasn't just me being paranoid. That's what I saw.
My observations showed me something else. Something that I wasn't quite expecting. Amber apparently had it out for Sarah. I was not sure what it was about, and Sarah had not told me, but I had a feeling that it had to do with Amber being jealous. Sarah was the kind of woman that every man wanted, and even though Amber tried her very hardest, it was clear by how she dressed and how much makeup she used, it wasn't enough. She could never outmatch Sarah and I think deep down she knew it.
I had learned a long time ago that the ways of women were mysterious and a little brutal. I didn't want to get into the middle of it, but I had a feeling that it was going to cause problems later. Amber was not the type of woman that would get a coveted spot here. It was just that I knew her father and had to accept his request to provide her with this internship.
***
Friday came around, and I did not want to spend the weekend without talking to her. There had been a connection between me and Sarah. I knew it. I wasn't the only one that had felt it and I wondered why she insisted on pretending like nothing had ever happened between us. We had that dance and I wasn’t going to let her forget about it. I was ready to move on to something else. Something more.
I found Sarah in the break room. She was getting one last cup of coffee, before she would clean it out and load it for the next day. It was supposed to be a job for the interns, but Sarah was the only one that would actually do it. She was also the one that was running on coffee all day. She was actually going to give the rest of them a run for their money, just on the consumed caffeine that she drank every day. I drank quite a bit, but she even had me beat.
Watching her from the doorway, I could hear her humming to herself. I don't know what got into me, but the sound of her voice was
dreamy and put me into some kind of daze. I was right behind her before I said anything, or she realized that I was there.
She grabbed her chest and told me that I had scared her. Sarah had turned around, to find me rather close.
“There's no need to be so jumpy Sarah. I was just trying to find out how your first week had been. I haven't seen you very much.”
“Well, there has been a lot going on and maybe I should be jumpy. You guys really get your money-worth when it comes to interns. I am so tired, if you want to know the truth.”
“The work load is used to weed out the weak ones. I can tell you, that out of the ten that started here, about half of them will be gone in six months. By the time the year is up, there is usually two or three left.”
“That sounds pretty rough.”
She kept making the coffee for the next day, trying to ignore my presence. She would have convinced me of that, if her hand wouldn’t have been trembling. That gave her away.
“So, was there something that you needed?”
It was an open and innocent question. I had to stop myself from giving her the kind of answer that sprang to mind. It wouldn’t help the situation though. She was already nervous as hell around me. I had gotten a bit too liberal with her during our dance and she’d been different ever since. A lot of time had passed, but I was still thinking about the curves of her body, pressed up against mine.
“Just wanted to say hi. See if you were doing anything after work tonight?”
It came out of nowhere and I hadn’t expected to say such a thing. I stopped and wished that I could suck it back up.
“Um, I haven’t made any plans yet. I am still trying to get used to the city. It’s not at all what I expected.”
“Let me show you around. Maybe you just need to get out with a local, that can show you a good time.”
She looked indecisive and I knew before she said no, that she would. I made her nervous and she was avoiding me. That was saddening, because I finally had decided that I wanted her, and now she was running scared.
