The Intern: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Read online

  “Glad you could make it Nicole,” she said. “I was worried you wouldn’t have time to talk with me what with your busy schedule and everything.”

  “What do you want Christine?” I asked. Surprisingly there was some heat to my voice. She arched an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. I kept waiting for the explosion, but nothing. What was going on here? This was nothing like the Christine I thought I knew. The one who was the terror of the seventh floor. If anything that had me more worried than usual. A mellow Christine was a plotting Christine, and I didn’t like the idea of being the one in her cross hairs while she was plotting.

  “I think I’ve found an assignment that is worthy of your time. Something that a busy person like you could really appreciate, and it might help take some of that load off,” Christine said.

  “Oh?” I said, trying my best to keep my voice neutral. This seemed too good to be true. Too good to be true was usually exactly that where Christine was concerned.

  “Of course! I wouldn’t want to overwork my best asset, now would I? Corporate just told me we’re going to be getting a new intern. Getting ready for their last year of college. I’m sure you’ll be able to show them the ropes and find time to do everything else on your plate, right?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. Sure enough here was the other foot dropping right down on top of me and making me completely miserable. A new intern? Sure in a perfect world that would mean I had someone to help me out with everything, someone to give some extra work to, but the reality was that training someone who knew absolutely nothing about our systems, bringing them up to speed, and trying to keep an eye out for mistakes would easily eat up more time than it would take me to just do the damn work myself.

  Something about the smile on Christine’s face told me she knew that.

  I gave the door a jolly good slam on my way out. Some of the glass rattled and I even saw a couple of people popping their heads up over their cubicle walls which was usually something to be avoided at all cost. It wasn’t safe to draw undue attention to yourself working in this department. It was just my bad luck that I seemed to draw all the attention just because I could get things done on time.

  I headed back to my cubicle. It was going to be a long day, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I was getting done by five at this rate. There was already too much I had to do, and if I had to start training some idiot business major in how our system worked and get everything going tomorrow then I wanted to make sure I had as much of a head start as possible.

  Oddly enough as I got to work I thought about that girl one final time. It really was a pity I didn’t get her name or number or something, as inappropriate as that would be. Then again it’s not like I was going to have any time for a social life for the near future if things kept going the way they were.

  I was trapped. I needed a change. I just didn’t know how the hell I was going to pull that off.

  2: Family Tradition

  I sighed as I moved through the massive rotating door into the lobby. I tried to think of a time when I was actually happy to be stepping into this building. Maybe when I was younger. Like, really young. Before the accident. Before dad withdrew from the world while at the same time seeming to think that the weight of the world was now on my shoulders because I suddenly became the only heir to the Zeidner name.

  I felt terrible for thinking that was worst than losing my mom and older brother in one fell swoop thanks to a private jet with a malfunctioning phalange, or whatever the hell it was. I wasn’t an aircraft mechanic. I wasn’t going anywhere near anything that flew higher than five feet, for that matter.

  Yeah, maybe I’d felt good about coming in here when I was a little girl going to see daddy at work. He’d been all smiles then. These days going to see daddy at work was a chore, though. It meant that I was going to feel that weight of the world, of ZeidnerCorp, settling on my shoulders again. One nice thing about going off to college was that I could just be me for a little while and forget about everything that was waiting for me when I graduated and got out of school. Even the summers used to be a fun distraction from the bullshit, but now with this stupid internship I had a feeling the real world was about to come crashing down around the perfect college bubble I’d built for myself in a major way.

  Damn.

  There was a reception desk at the front with a guard, but I didn’t bother to stop there. Sure I was supposed to act just like a regular intern showing up at the building, though that was a little ridiculous considering I was going to be interviewing with the owner of the company rather than some middle manager. Not to mention that the internship was a shoe-in considering my name was on the building and I stood to inherit it when the old man finally kicked it.

  I jabbed at the button on the elevator with perhaps a little more force than was strictly necessary, but it’s not like the elevator was going to feel it and I needed something to take my anger out on. I knew it was ridiculous to pull the poor little rich girl routine, but at the same time I couldn’t really help myself. Sure I actually liked all this business stuff, I was my father’s daughter after all, but at the same time it galled that no one had ever bothered to ask me what I wanted to do. No one ever checked in to see if I really wanted to take over rather than just taking my inheritance and doing what I wanted. It was always assumed that I was going to be the good little scion.

  The elevator doors opened and I stepped in. Hit the button for the top floor, but it didn’t light up. Whoops. I always forgot that I needed my card to get up there. A guy wearing a cheap suit who had “middle management” written all over him stepped in right behind me and chuckled before I had a chance to bust out the card. I turned in time to see him look me up and down in a way that really annoyed me and impressed me at the same time with the way he was able to combine a dirty old man looking at a young woman with someone who thought they knew the ropes at this company laughing at the young girl obviously making a mistake.

  “You need special access to get up there honey,” he said, and I bristled at his tone of voice and comparing me to bee vomit. Whoever he was, he had casually condescending down to an art form. “Are you here for intern interviews? If so they’re doing those on twenty.”

  “No, I’m actually here for a meeting with Mr. Zeidner,” I said, fixing him with my sweetest smile that definitely didn’t match the cool tone. I pulled out my key fob and tapped it against the elevator controls. They beeped and I hit the button, enjoying the surprised look on the guy’s face.

  I turned back to the elevator doors and my breath caught. There was a girl standing on the other side of those doors and she had me feeling weak in the knees. She looked about my age, or maybe a few years older. I wondered if she was here for the internship program or if she worked somewhere in the tower. I wouldn’t mind working under her, if you catch my drift, though that would probably annoy the man to no end. Not because it was with a woman, that was something he’d been surprisingly fine with when I finally worked up the guts to tell him, but because she worked somewhere in the tower.

  He wasn’t a big fan of interoffice romance between the owner and the help unless we were talking about one of his secretaries. And unfortunately being the future owner didn’t grant me any leeway when it came to that sort of thing.

  Still, this girl was nice to look at. Blonde hair cut short enough that it had me wondering if she might swing my way. A gorgeous face with blue eyes I could lose myself in. She was wearing a work outfit that looked like it wouldn’t be out of place on a runway somewhere, and the way she filled out that button down shirt and the skirt underneath that went just down to her knees and the edge of the corporate dress code policy for that sort of thing had me wanting to unbutton that shirt and see what happened as I was running my hand up her legs and…

  I shook my head. I shouldn’t be thinking things like that. Not when what I should be doing is steeling myself for doing battle with the old man. Still, that girl was just so fucking gorgeous. She had a casual beauty that said
she didn’t even realize how hot she was, and I fucking loved that. I wanted to pull her into the elevator with me and kick old condescending cheap suit with his bad cologne out so we could have a little fun.

  I moved back up her body one final time and my heart skipped a beat. She was staring at me. Pretty fucking intently. That was the kind of look that made it absolutely clear she was interested. And then the elevator doors were closing and I sighed.

  It probably wasn’t to be anyways. Someone working somewhere in the building dating the heir to the company fortune? Even if I did manage to figure out where she worked there was a good chance she wasn’t into girls despite the way she’d been staring at me so intently that I thought my clothes were about to catch fire. And of course there was the old man’s hypocritical rule about dipping your wick in the company ink, even though I didn’t technically have a wick to dip.

  “So how did you manage to get that access anyways? Are you one of the old man’s new secretaries?” cheap suit asked.

  The guy reached into his pocket and handed me a card with a smile on his face that managed to be at the same time smarmy, condescending, and more than a little sleazy. It was a wonder that a man could fit that much snaky charm into one look, but I dutifully took his card even as I couldn’t believe he was talking to me like this! Then again it’s not like he probably knew who I was. It’s not like I’d spent much time at the tower since I was a little kid, and the company was big enough that I could walk these halls mostly anonymously.

  “If so maybe you could stop by my office when he’s done with you. He gets tired of his secretaries pretty fast, you know, and I’d be happy to see how well you take dictation. Maybe give you some more long-term career prospects as long as my wife doesn’t find out.”

  He chuckled at his own joke and winked at me. He actually winked! My mouth was hanging open. I couldn’t believe someone like that was actually working here. I couldn’t believe he was talking to me like that! If this was par for the course at the company then there was definitely going to be some house cleaning when I eventually worked my way up, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to work my way up. It was fucked up, but as much as I hated the way the old man was hard on me, at the same time I always saw that as a challenge to live up to. This building would be mine someday, and not just because I’d inherited it. Because I’d earned it.

  Also because it was my last name on the outside, but you get the point.

  “Actually my name is Erica. Zeidner. And I was going up to have a meeting with my father before I start an internship here at the company tomorrow,” I said.

  The way the look froze on that guy’s face was well worth having him hit on me in that clumsy and disgusting manner in the first place. It was obvious he was seeing the end of his career flashing in front of him as he stared down at him. As I smiled up at him with my best syrupy sweet smile. I held up his card as the door opened on his floor.

  “And thank you so much for giving me your card! It’s going to be so helpful when I tell my dad all about the nice things you said about him.”

  The guy eyed the card for a moment and it was clear he was debating whether or not it was worth it to try and snatch it out of my hands. Not like it mattered. I’d already memorized all the pertinent details just in case he tried something like that. Instead his shoulders slumped and he stepped off the elevator. He turned to stare as the doors closed.

  “Have a great day sir!” I said just before his face disappeared behind the doors.

  I let out a sigh of relief and fell back against the wall giggling. I had to admit that had been fun. It was too bad the old man wasn’t going to give me an undercover assignment so I could do more stuff like that. Really get in and figure out how things in the company worked from the bottom up. Maybe root out some managers who’d gotten a little too complacent in their petty positions of power.

  No, I figured I could look forward to a job up in administration on the top floor. I really would be nothing more than a glorified secretary, learning how board meetings worked by sitting in on them with the old man and making sure I soaked up all the things he’d learned over the years. Though I definitely didn’t have to worry about some of the other things that his secretaries did.

  The door opened onto the top floor and I made my way to his office, squaring my shoulders and preparing for battle as I breezed past his latest secretary, some pretty little blonde thing that reminded me of the girl I’d seen down below, though of course this one would be into the gentlemen if she was working for dear old dad. She raised her hand as though to stop me but I ignored her. The less I thought of the string of mistresses he’d had since the accident the better.

  “So glad you decided to join us,” dad said as I stepped into his office, an expansive room that made up a good portion of the top floor with a large floor to ceiling window that looked out over the city. Off to one side was an equally massive conference room with the same view that was separated from his office. Right now the glass was clear, but I knew it could frost over at the flip of a switch to give them privacy.

  Amazing the little technical marvels people came up with.

  I glanced down at my watch and grimaced. I was only five minutes late, and it’s not like he was one to talk about being late anyways. He’d famously shown up to my graduation thirty minutes after I walked onto the stage, and I’d heard it was the same with meetings here.

  “I’m just learning from the best,” I said.

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, I figure around here everyone waits for the owner, right?”

  Dad blinked and then a huge smile split his face. Now that was interesting. He hadn’t done much smiling since the accident a few years ago. He held up a finger and wagged it in the air.

  “You’re already learning. I like that. But remember that only works if you’re meeting with someone who’s lower on the totem pole than you, and I’m as high on the totem pole as you can get these days.”

  I sighed and took a seat. “Right. So what’s going on with this internship anyways? Am I going to be licking stamps with Barbie out there, or are you actually going to let me put my degree to use?”

  “Is that what you want to do?”

  I paused and thought about that for a moment, wondering if this was a trap or something. Ultimately I shrugged and decided I might as well be honest.

  “Not really. I’d rather be in the trenches. I just had an interesting encounter on the elevator with a gentleman who thought I was going up to be your latest secretarial sacrifice, and he said some things that he’d never say to the owner’s daughter. Makes me think interesting things could happen if I was out in the wild where no one knew who I was.”

  Dad cocked an eyebrow. “Now that’s interesting. Did you get his name?”

  “Even better,” I said. I dug into my shirt pocket and pulled out the card. Slid it across the table. “He basically propositioned me in the elevator. He’s a walking sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.”

  Dad pocketed the card and turned back to me, suddenly serious. “I’m going to be honest. When you were coming in this morning I had to potential internships ready to go. One was licking stamps and one was really getting into the weeds and seeing how the company works.”

  “I’ll take the weeds, please,” I said.

  Dad smiled and pulled out a manila envelope that he slid across the table. I picked it up, ripped it open, and dumped the contents out on his desk. The thing that most drew my attention was the name badge. It had the ZeidnerCorp logo on it, and a picture of me that he’d gotten from somewhere, but that wasn’t my name. At least it wasn’t my last name.

  “Erica Smith? That’s the best you could come up with?”

  He shrugged. “I figured it’s be easier if you only had to deal with one name change. Are you sure you want to do this? You’re going to be treated no different than a regular intern, but I expect you to keep your eyes open.”

  “Open for what?”

 
; “I’m not sure. If I knew then I wouldn’t be sending you out into the world to look at things with a fresh set of eyes, would I?”

  “Fair enough,” I said. I picked up the badge and looked down at it. Erica Smith. This was going to be interesting, to say the least. “So where am I going to be doing my undercover boss routine?”

  “I was thinking we’d start you in Statistical and Data Analysis,” he said. “Seems like that would be right up your alley. They’re down on seven. I have a feeling posting you there will be interesting, at least.”

  I locked eyes with him and suddenly wondered what he was up to. What I was getting myself into. Usually when he said things were getting interesting that meant nothing good, but it’s not like I was going to find out unless I went down there and threw myself to the wolves. Besides, if he thought this was “interesting” then I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to get out there and prove myself.

  “Fine, I can do interesting,” I said. I stood, but he held out a hand that stopped me in my tracks and I sat back down. It was like he was using the Force to move me around with his hand waves. “Something else?”

  “You might be going down there as Erica Smith, but you need to remember that you’re Erica Zeidner,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes and suppressed a sigh. I was starting to hope we might go the entire meeting without launching into this, but apparently I’d hoped in vain. His own eyes narrowed at my eye roll but he didn’t say anything. That brief scowl was more than enough to get the message across. Supposedly that scowl was enough to liquify the bowels of unsuspecting junior executives, but I’d seen it often enough that it didn’t bother me.