The Intern (BWWM)

Chapter 2

Time was winding down.

Leilani took another gulp from her coffee mug. It was black and had "Hustle" painted on the front in gold. And that's exactly what she had spent the last nineteen hours doing. It was 3am. Her eyes were red and she most definitely had bags under her eyes.

She hadn't even gotten the chance to change out of the clothes she wore to her interview. She had only managed to get her jacket off. And that's only because it felt like it was a thousand degrees on the city bus coming home.

"Baby girl, you still up?" Leilani heard her mother's voice as a knock followed up by the creaking of the door opening, piercing her ears. 

For the last few hours she had only been surrounded by silence. The little noise hurt.

"Yes, mom?" Leilani groaned, highlighting a view portions of the last manuscript. 

"You need to go to sleep. Your first day of work shouldn't be like this." Leilani's mother complained. Still not looking away from her work, Leilani sighed. 

"I'm almost finished. I'll be in bed within the hour." Leilani assured her mother.

She heard her mother sigh as well before making her way out of Leilani's bedroom. 

"I'll be back in an hour. If you're not sleep by then, I'm calling up that prick and quitting for you." She heard her mother mutter before shutting the door behind her.

Thirty minutes later, Leilani had finally finished revising and the last manuscript. She couldn't believe she had actually finished. She made sure to put her work next to her purse, along with the notes she had made. She needed to be absolutely prepared for tomorrow. She didn't want to disappoint Mr. Vanderbilt.

The next morning, feeling and looking like absolute crap, Leilani waltz into the office, work in hand along with the large iced coffee in the other. She was also 20 minutes early.

"Good morning, Mr. Vanderbilt." Leilani greeted her boss, cheerfully, despite her tiredness. 

Unbothered and not acknowledging the greeting, Mr. Vanderbilt looked up from the document he was reading and up at Leilani.

Seeing the manuscripts in her hand, he readily gave her the next instructions. 

"Make copies of the revisions and leave them on my desk. You can send your edits back to the authors." Mr. Vanderbilt told Leilani, who was a bit disappointed that he hadn't taken a look at her work right then and there but she tried her best to think nothing of it.

"Okay." Was all she said, exiting her bosses office and dragging her feet to the copy room.

"Wow, I remember that feeling." Leilani heard a female voice say. 

She managed to get her tired eyes to focus on the face connected to the voice. It was a brown haired, petite, well dressed woman who wore bright red glasses. 

"What feeling?" Leilani asked, intrigued.

"Working for Carter. I was his assistant for six months before I finally landed a job as one of the senior editors. Don't worry, you'll get there." The woman told Leilani, playfully squeezing her shoulder.

Smiling, Leilani spoke back. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name..." she trailed off. 

"Sally. Sally Goldstein." Leilani and Sally shook hands before Sally headed out of the room.

After downing her coffee and copying hundreds of papers, she sent the revised originals back to the authors. T

hen, she dropped the copies of her revisions right on Mr. Vanderbilts desk. Still, he didn't address her. This was starting to bother Leilani. But, she said nothing and went with the flow.

At her desk, as she waited for her next thing to do, she pulled out her journal and began writing about her experience with the internship so far:

Day 1.

I'm convinced Mr. Vanderbilt hates me. He won't look at me, he won't talk to me- he just doesn't acknowledge me in general. Was it because I took too long in the bathroom yesterday? I'm tired. I can barely keep my eyes open. Writing this is the only way to keep me up. I'm lonely. I'm miserable. I'm out of coffee and I still haven't found the break room. I'm most certainly not asking Mr. Vanderbilt.  This internships sucks.

After dropping her pen on top of the journal, Leilani stood up to stretch. And then her worst nightmare came true.

Just as she stretched out her arms, she heard an "ouch" directly behind her.

"What in the world are you doing?" Mr. Vanderbilt angrily questioned Leilani, his roar causing everyone in the office to focus their attention on the two.

"I was tired. I needed to stretch." She told him, simply and innocently, hoping he'd understand. 

"Well, next time drink more coffee." He said through gritted teeth, rubbing his chest to ease the pain from Leilani's fist going against it.

Leilani had enough. She wasn't going to let any man talk to her any kind of way. She knew she could find a better internship if she searched hard enough. 

"You know what... you don't have to be such an asshole!" Leilani barked at him. 

Well, there was no going back after that statement.

As Mr. Vanderbilt glared at Leilani, shocked at her words, she quickly and angrily grabbed her things. She threw her journal in her purse and grabbed her blazer off the back of the chair.

Leilani made sure to drop her key card and name tag onto Glenda's desk, giving her a brief goodbye, speed walking to the bus stop. Just assure as she walked to out of Vanderbilt Publications, the bus drove past her. She'd have to wait thirty five minutes for the next one.

It was 97° F outside. She thought to go back inside with the air conditioning, but her pride got the best of her.

Twelve minutes into the heat, Glenda found Leilani outside fanning herself with one of the company's pamphlets.

"Miss Jones," Glenda called out to her. 

Leilani looked up, somewhat annoyed. She no longer wanted anything to do with Vanderbilt Publications.

"Mr. Vanderbilt would like to see you." Glenda told her.