Page 9 of The Interns

She looked to her left to see Reed taking the empty spot beside her. “Yes. Do you have a problem with that?”

“No. I’m just surprised since we’re going back to the office after this.”

“We’re not. Al said we all get to call it a day after this.” His face was blank. “Oh, you didn’t know?”

He shook his head and a grin spread on her lips. Finally, she had the scoop before him. She raised her glass in the air to celebrate. “Cheers.”

“Cheers,” he said, raising the glass of water in his hand, though it sounded more like a question. She looked straight ahead and took a sip of her wine, expecting him to order a drink and move along, but he stayed.

“So how ‘bout them Braves?” he asked after a few moments. “They’re havin’ a hell of a summer.”

“Wouldn’t know,” she answered, still staring ahead.

“Phillies?”

“I don’t follow baseball,” she answered. She could just imagine having to sit there as he ran through every National League team trying to find common ground between them.

“Okay, what do you do for fun then?”

He was clearly trying to drum up some kind of small talk, but, in the name of self-preservation, she was hesitant to learn more about him. She couldn’t afford anymore curveballs when she was trying her best to salvage this associateship. She would keep things completely professional and keep the personal stuff superficial.

“I…” Coming off a particularly busy spring semester, fun hadn’t been on the top of her priority list. “I like to work out. You?”

“I do it because I know it’s good for me, but I wouldn’t say I like it. It ranks up there with doing laundry and mowing the lawn.”

She cast a sidelong glance at his trim physique. He could have fooled her.

“What else?” he asked. “There’s gotta be something.”

She let out an exasperated sigh. “I…”

“You like music. I heard you and Al doing karaoke over here earlier.”

A small laugh escaped her lips. “That’s not what that was.”

“You were listening to music when you walked into the office this morning. You looked like you were enjoying it.” He grooved his neck side to side trying to reenact what he saw. Trying. She almost sprayed her sip of wine across his dapper suit.

“Stanton. Stop.” He didn’t. Instead he doubled down, now getting his upper body into it. A puff of laughter filled her cheeks as she pressed her lips into a firm, straight line.

“What were you listening to?”

Music was deeply personal. That kind of knowledge was reserved for family, friends, or guys who had made it past at least the fourth or fifth date. She most certainly would not tell him that she was listening to the Maya’s Summer of Law playlist she’d created in anticipation of this associateship. In fact, he could never know because she would die of embarrassment.

She shook her head no then grabbed her glass and looked away to find an out, but the first face she saw was Lauren’s, watching her like a hawk over the shoulder of a co-worker. Maya tried to pretend she didn’t see her, but it was too late as Lauren arched an inquisitive eyebrow. She looked at Lauren, then Reed standing next to her at the bar, then back at Lauren again…shit. She was really going to do this even though it went against her self-imposed rules. She groaned then gulped down some wine and turned to face him, her now open stance making Reed give her a curious look.

“So do you have a girlfriend?” she tried to ask casually.

“What?” He nearly choked on the sip of water he had just taken. He probably thought she was nuts, and she couldn’t blame him because this place had her feeling out of her mind. “Uh no. Do you have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend?”

She froze for a split second, equally caught off guard. “Uh, no,” she spat back. Her cheeks were on fire again. “We don’t have to do this small talk thing,” she leveled, motioning her free hand between them. “It’s just weird. We didn’t come here looking to make friends, we came to work, right? So why don’t we just stick to that?”

“I think that’s weirder, but sure, whatever you want.” Now he was the one to look away and raise his hand to wave the bartender over.

She nodded affirmatively then turned and walked away with her head held high though she was rolling her eyes at herself. That was so not smooth, but hopefully it would be worth it. If Al wouldn’t let her on the case, maybe she could live vicariously through her new friend. And maybe if there was some sort of love connection between Reed and Lauren, they would be distracted and she would sort of get the solo position she had come for. She headed straight across the room, watching as Lauren excused herself from the conversation she was only half-engaged in once she saw Maya coming her way.

“He’s all yours,” she whispered once she reached Lauren’s side.

But instead of stopping to squeal and open herself up for a game of twenty questions about Reed Stanton, she kept on walking right past her.

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