Page 1 of The Interns

1

Maya

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Ms. Maya Hendricks.”

Maya’s eyes shifted from Alvin King, founding partner of the eponymous law firm, to the two women and one man, all at least twenty years her senior, lined up in the lobby to greet her.

“Maya, these are our unparalleled paralegals.” He chuckled at the play on words that she imagined he used each and every time he introduced them. It was kind of corny, but more endearing if anything given what a big deal he was. “Meet Cynthia, Marcus, and Patti.”

She looked each of them in the eye, lobbing nice to meet you’s from a distance since Mr. King was already hurrying her down the hall for the next wave of introductions. She repeated their names in her head a few times in quick succession, making a point to commit them to memory since she didn’t have her trusty planner out in order to jot them down.

“You know, I was thinking on my way into work this morning, I don’t believe we’ve ever had a summer associate quite as accomplished as you.”

Mr. King was a strapping man in his fifties with a commanding presence, he was also as warm and gracious as could be. Perhaps to a fault. She picked up on his effusiveness in the few meetings they’d had during the interview process. He showered everything and everyone around him with superlatives, which she happily accepted since it was in each of their interests to believe they had found the best in each other. For her, a top law firm that would advance her career, and for him, a budding talent he might recruit someday.

“I was trying to recall all of your credentials,” he continued. “Top five percent of your class at Penn Law, moot court, volunteer at the Intellectual Property Legal Clinic, and Outreach Chair for the Black Law Students Association?”

Her cheeks flushed with pride as he ran down the list of accomplishments she’d worked so hard to achieve throughout her first two years of law school. So many of her peers would respond with faux modesty during an interaction like this, but that was silly. She had put in too much hard work, so she always owned them. Recognition from esteemed attorneys like Mr. King was exactly what she was looking for after all, even if he didn’t have it all right.

“I’m also on Law Review, sir,” she added politely.

“Ah, yes.” He chuckled. “My apologies. I knew I had to be forgetting something. It’s a wonder you have time to eat and sleep.”

She let out a small laugh. If she was being honest, some weeks both were hard to come by, but he didn’t need to know that. She pushed herself especially hard this past year to make sure her grades and resume were in order when it came time to apply for junior associate positions in the fall. As they neared the end of the hall, she saw that they were about to turn into the corridor that led to the office reserved for their summer associate. The office she had been dreaming about since the day of her interview.

It was a corner office on the twenty-fourth floor with views of downtown Atlanta and beyond. The space was well-appointed with traditional decor without being overly formal. Though over-the-top for a lowly summer associate, it was all part of the show firms put on, even if the next time she set foot in an office like this would be at least seven years into her career if everything went according to plan.

She was going to live it up, though, and had dressed the part in her smart black heels and perfectly tailored gray skirt suit. Her thick black hair was straightened and gathered into a simple, low ponytail. She finished her look with a bold red lip and the pearl earrings her parents had gifted her upon graduating from college, both of which popped against her deep brown skin.

Just before they made the turn, however, Mr. King slowed to a stop. “There’s something we need to discuss.”

For the first time since she had arrived, he was finally standing still, giving her his undivided attention instead of walking and talking at a hundred miles a minute. His voice, which usually projected enough for anyone in a twenty-foot radius to hear, had dropped to a near whisper which unnerved her. She went to answer, but nothing came out, so she nodded, tense with anticipation.

“As you know, it’s always been tradition at my firm to take on one associate each summer…”

Of course she knew. Big firms usually accepted an entire class of summer associates, but his well-regarded intellectual property firm took just one, making it one of the most prestigious associateships a law student could get. It was the reason today, Monday, June 2, had been circled and starred in her planner for months. It was also the sole reason she had accepted this offer over the many others she had. Alvin King was regarded as a “lawyer’s lawyer,” and she wanted to learn everything she could from him this summer.

“…the reason being, we’re all about a personal experience.”

She nodded along, bracing herself for the but.

“Well, this year, we had a unique situation where we had two exceptional candidates, so I decided to host both of you for the summer.”

Maya grit her teeth to keep her face free of disappointment as her carefully constructed summer plans unraveled in a matter of seconds.

“Now, I hope you’re not disappointed.”

The quickness with which he said that made her wonder if she hadn’t done as good a job hiding it as she thought. “Not at all, sir,” she lied. Advanced notice would have been nice, though, so she could have had time to process this news.

“You’ll be sharing an office and a caseload because we don’t have the space or work to spare right now,” he admitted, “and I do apologize for that, Maya, but I promise this should not lessen your experience at all. In fact, I think it may even enhance it.”

She was not convinced but gave him a tight-lipped smile. What else could she do? It was too late to go crawling back to the other firms she had passed over now. She was stuck here, so she followed as he began to walk down the hall again, her stomach turning as it all sank in.

“Your fellow associate is a very nice, talented young man. A few years your senior but born and raised in the Atlanta area just like you, so you have that in common,” he carried on casually as he gave a quick knock on the open office door to signal their arrival.

“Maya, I’d like to introduce you to Reed Stanton,” he said with a smile. Mr. King stepped just inside the office to clear the way for her.

And there he was, looking so unbothered by any of this. Dressed in the standard-issue prep uniform of khaki pants and a light blue dress shirt, he had one hand on his hip as he stared out of the floor-to-ceiling window. His silhouette was long and lean, his neck and forearms glowed with a summer tan, and his light brown hair picked up flecks of gold from the sunlight streaming through the window.

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