Now when I looked up at the sky rise building in front of me, it suddenly hit me that I'd never have a real summer again. But I didn't dare say that to James. If it was up to him I'd never work. Even just thinking about that made me bored out of my mind. And now I wouldn't even have any friends to hang out with during the days while he was at work like I'd normally have in the summer. Everyone around me was suddenly a grown up and I refused to be left behind.
"You ready?" James asked. He dropped my hand and opened up the door for me.
"As ready as I can be."
I had been inside the building countless times. Lunches, late dinners, just to stop in and say hi. Even a few late night rendezvous, which I hoped he wouldn't want to repeat now that I was going to be coworkers with all these people. James owned the whole building, but he rented it out to lots of businesses. His company was located on the top two stories. At one point I thought his office had the nicest view of the city, but now I thought that title belonged to our apartment.
He smiled at me as he pressed the button for the elevator.
"Stop looking at me like that." I smiled back at him.
"Like what?"
"In that way you do."
He leaned forward. "You mean, in that way where I'm undressing you with my eyes and wishing I was about to fuck you in the elevator?"
My face had turned redder with each word that came out of his mouth.
"I'm not sure this not touching you thing is going to work out so well," he said.
I laughed and quickly stepped onto the elevator.
He leaned against the elevator wall next to me. His arm brushed against mine. "Sorry," he whispered.
He was going to try to be distracting all day. There was no way he was actually going to try and keep things professional. I was starting to wonder why he really hired me.
I followed him out of the elevator and up to the reception desk. His office was to the right. The blinds were drawn along the glass walls. He usually kept them open during the day. I could feel my face blushing again. Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure the last time I had been here we had to close those blinds. Geez, no one's going to take me seriously here.
"Good morning, Mr. Hunter. Good morning, Penny," the receptionist, Nita, said. She was already busy typing something on her computer.
"Good morning, Nita," James said and tapped on the desk. "Penny's joining the marketing team with the new interns. Can you take her over? I need to hop on a conference call."
Nita smiled. "Of course. I didn't realize you accepted the position."
"It was kind of a last minute decision," James said for me. "See you at lunch." He kissed my cheek and walked over to his office.
My face was going to be red all day. I turned around and quickly followed Nita into the expanse of cubicles. Even though there were cubicles, it wasn't like other offices I had seen since moving to New York. It was more laid back, but still professional. The dress code was business casual, but the tech guys pushed it a little. Some of them wore t-shirts underneath their suit jackets. And there was always a hacky sack being kicked around the break room. The first time I had come, I had been surprised. James was always so professional. But maybe he just had to be since he was the boss.
The walls were bright colors and they changed depending on the department. And the smaller departments had desks in quadrants instead of cubicles. Each pod of desks didn't have any separations between them except for the employees' belongings and computers.
The marketing department was huge and its color scheme was lime green. The walls were lime green, the desks were black with lime green chairs, and even the staplers were lime green. It was made up mostly of cubicles, but Nita walked me over to one of the few desk pods.
"This is going to be you." Nita winked at me.
There was nameplate on my desk and beside it was a huge bouquet of flowers. Oh my God. It wasn't PDA, but it was still ridiculously inappropriate. And I couldn't even hide them anywhere since my desk was open to everyone. Crap. Maybe I can put them under my desk? None of the other interns were there yet.
"Everyone else is in the conference room," Nita said. "You're a few minutes late, but I'm sure they didn't start without you."
Shit. "Thanks, Nita!" I hurried over to the conference room she pointed to and quickly went inside. "Hi, I'm so sorry I'm late, Andy." The three other interns were all staring at me, but my boss smiled.
"It's fine, Penny." He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "And most people here call me Anderson."
"Oh, sorry Andy...erson." I coughed awkwardly. James always called him Andy. And when we had met during my interview he hadn't corrected me. This wasn't exactly a great start. I could feel the interns staring at me like I was an alien. I pressed my lips together. Maybe I just shouldn't say anything else.
"Penny, this is Tavon, Zach, and Sierra," Anderson said and pointed to the two guys and one other girl in the room. Tavon had tight braids that ended right above his neck and he seemed really laid back. I would have guessed he belonged in the tech department if I had just run into him in the building. He didn't attempt at all to hide his yawn. Zach was the opposite of him. He looked super intense and super serious. He had dark hair almost buzzed right against his scalp. I could see a tattoo peaking out the top of his dress shirt. And Sierra looked as nervous as I felt. She had curly blonde hair and she was holding her purse like she thought a mugger might snatch it. Maybe she was new to New York. Either way, I thought we might get along pretty well.
"Hi, guys." I waved awkwardly. They all said hi to me.
"So this is our new marketing team, full of fresh ideas. We're going to be bouncing off all our pitches on you guys. And you'll even be getting an account of your own that I'll supervise. I think we can all learn a lot from each other, and hopefully this will be the experience that you've been seeking. Or if you're looking for a more permanent position in the future, this is definitely the way in. There's an orientation meeting in a few minutes. All the new interns from the different departments have to go. Let me show you to your desks so you can drop off your stuff first."
Great. No time to hide the flowers.
Anderson walked us over to our desks. "I'll be right back. I have to grab a few notes for the meeting."
As soon as he walked away, Tavon plopped down in the desk next to mine and put his hands behind his head. "Damn, your boyfriend doesn't wait long to make sure everyone stays away."
"No, he doesn't." I tried not to look embarrassed as I sat down.
"Well, I guess your fiancé," Sierra said. "Your ring is amazing." She sat down on the other side of me. "Can I see?"
God, I didn't want to have to be doing this right now. "Thanks," I said and put my hand out for her to see. "Yeah, we're getting married at the end of the month actually."
"This must have cost a fortune," Sierra said and looked back up at my face.
I just shrugged. I didn't know how much it cost and didn't want to know.
"How old are you?" Tavon asked.
"22. Same as all of you I assume."
"Right. So aren't you a little young to get married? Geez, I can't even imagine dating a girl for more than a few weeks. And you're going to marry someone in a couple of weeks? Aren't you worried you're going to get bored with him?"