Page 70 of The Interns

“Hey.”

“Is everything okay? It’s one in the morning.”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he promised. “I just wanted to talk to you…say hi.”

The line went silent and his heartbeat drummed all the way up in his ears as he waited for her response on the other end.

“Maya? You there?” he asked after what seemed like forever.

“Yeah.” She breathed out before sniffling quietly. “It’s just really good to hear your voice again.”

The break in her voice stopped him in his tracks in the middle of Main Street. He brought his fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose and dam the tears that had started to form in the corners of his eyes. It felt so good to hear her voice, like a salve to a wound, but it didn’t take long before he felt that wound rip right open again as he was reminded of everything he missed about her.

“I’m sorry, Maya, I shouldn’t have called, I just thought—”

“If it wasn’t you, it would have been me. You don’t know how many times I’ve almost called.”

“How are you doing?”

“This is hard, Reed.”

“It is. I know it is.” He wished he could reach through the phone and hold her right now, for both of their sakes.

“How are you holding up?”

“Same.”

She paused again. He swore he heard the wheels in her mind working from hundreds of miles away. “Are we doing this right?” she asked.

He wanted to tell her that he would start looking for jobs up north tomorrow. That she didn’t need to compromise to have the career she had worked so hard for and him by her side if that’s what she wanted. But the last thing he wanted to do was get her hopes up for something he wasn’t even sure was possible, so he would keep that to himself for now.

“I don’t know…but I still think you owe it to yourself to finish what you started. I know that’s not wrong.”

She went silent again. This is what they had decided together. They’d take some time to let their relationship cool, and more importantly, focus on job interviews and graduation. It was the rational thing to do, but his head and his heart were at odds, and it seemed that hers were, too.

“But I’m here,” he said after a moment. “I just want you to know that. I’m always thinking about you.”

“I know. And so am I.”

“You get back to sleep now. I’m sorry I woke you.”

“Good night, Reed.”

“Good night, Maya.”

He held the phone to his ear, waiting for her to disconnect. Muffled sounds and light breathing lingered on the other end for a few more moments before the phone went silent for good. He shoved his phone in his back pocket and slowed to a stop as he brought both hands up over his face then dragged them downward until they ran off his cheeks and fell to his sides. He took in a deep breath and looked up at the sky for a moment before he started the lonely walk home again.

37

Maya

“As you know, Lindler and Shaw is considered a tier one firm by US News and World Report.”

Maya followed the svelte raven-haired attorney down the main hallway of the modern space that was a study in gray and white. “We have five offices here in the U.S., and two internationally. I’m not at liberty to disclose any of our clients,” she said as she turned to her with a confident smile, “but I can say that they are well represented on the Fortune 500 list. Especially the top one-hundred.”

They moved briskly through the corridor, her guide occasionally extending her perfectly manicured hand to allude to her talking points. Maya looked through the plate glass wall that lined the hallway, taking in a sea of cubicles, each one punctuated by the top of a head whose face was masked by the partitions.

“This office is our U.S. headquarters. We have fifty paralegals supporting about one-hundred-fifty attorneys, over half of which are junior associates, so you’ll be in good company.” They came to a stop in front of the partially opened door of an office. “That completes the tour of the office, so I’m going to hand you off to Kevin Montgomery, one of our partners, for your final interview of the day. Knock, knock,” she chirped.

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