The Intern (wattys2014)

Chapter 2: New Client

I sat at my desk, recalling the event of the weekend before Robert had gotten engaged. How things had changed in less than seventy hours, and I’d gotten surprised in the worst possible way.

On the drive home from the wedding I planned, Robert had been moody. It was unusual, since the wedding had gone so well. I was pumped, and had gotten just slightly tipsy from the one glass of champagne Andrew had snuck for me. Being underage was the worst, especially at special events. My twentieth birthday was coming up quick, but it would still be a while before I could enjoy the expensive drinks I was ordering for open bars at events. I decided to break the silence in the car, getting Robert to speak to me.

"The wedding was great," I said. "Even Lucinda should be happy with it. Did you have a good time?"

"Yep," Robert said shortly.

"Ok," I said. "So, how are...things? We haven't had a chance to talk since..."

Robert and I hadn't spoken since we'd had a big fight, four months ago. We were assigned a different event together, a charity ball. He'd kissed me nights before the charity ball, and I had thought that maybe things would turn around. But the next morning at the office, Robert sat there while his mother gave me a verbal lashing for something that had been her fault. After a twenty minute session of public humiliation, I ran out crying. He didn't even come to find me, because Lucinda would have seen that as taking my side. I found him later and asked him if he even cared that Lucinda treated me that way.

"She just treats her employees like that. It's not personal Ann."

But it was personal, because she pushed me more than the others. She didn't want me to forget for a second I wasn't good enough for her son or her business. I was too good and successful to let go, but she didn't want me to forget that I was just some girl who'd been hired off the streets. I was some nobody to her, and the thought that Robert agreed on some level always bothered me. I told him, again, that unless he was willing to stand up for me we couldn't be together. That night at the charity ball he'd met someone his mother could approve of; he'd met the infamous heiress Lucy Ravinne.

 

So, imagine my surprise on that drive home from the wedding when Robert was angry at me. I'd done my job, I'd let him go, and he had met Lucy. But Robert wasn't happy with Lucy, and I knew it. I knew him. My life had become like a Taylor swift song, but the adult version didn't have a fun music video or catchy melody. It just sucked. So, in the car ride home from the wedding, we finally talked about our feelings.

"So, are you like dating that Andrew guy?" Robert had asked me in the car.

"What?" I said. "Slow down pilgrim police, it was just a dance. We are allowed to have fun, right?"

"Yeah. It just seemed like more, Ann."

"I haven't dated anyone since you, Robert. Andrew seems sweet and good looking, so who knows. I definitely found myself attracted to him.  I think it might be time for me to move on...you clearly have with Lucy."