Page 31 of Boss's Baby Surprise

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I was wondering if you would be interested in letting me buy you lunch?” she asked.

I was always interested in lunch. And lunch with Clarissa seemed like a very intriguing prospect. “Lunch sounds like a good idea,” I said.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” she admitted. “Is this an okay time?”

I shifted my gaze from her to the proposal on my laptop. I hitSaveand closed the computer. “Now is a perfect time. I can’t focus, so lunch sounds great,” I said as I got to my feet.

“I’m buying, so don’t expect anything fancy,” she said as she walked out of the office. “It was really good to see you again,” she said, pausing in front of Alayna’s desk.

“You, too.” Alayna gave her a smile.

As Clarissa stepped out of the office, Alayna turned to me with a ‘what the hell is going on?’ kind of expression. I shrugged and shook my head. I certainly didn’t know what was going on.

We didn’t say much as we walked down the street.

Clarissa stopped in front of a gyro shop. “I hope this is okay,” she said as she opened the door for me.

“This is great. I haven’t had Greek food in ages.”

“I don’t know if I would necessarily call this particularly authentic, but it sure is tasty,” she said.

“Trust me, compared to what I got in Hong Kong, this is Greek,” I said.

“Did they have Greek food in Hong Kong?” she asked.

“They have everything in Hong Kong. It’s just not what I’m used to,” I admitted. “For instance, I could get pizza, but it wasn’t Chicago dish pizza.”

“I don’t think you can get that anywhere outside of Chicago,” Clarissa agreed.

“Don’t get me wrong, there is great food in Hong Kong. There’s nothing like Hong Kong street food.”

We waited in line before carrying orange plastic lunch trays with our sandwiches and drinks over to a small table with a beat-up Formica top and old wooden chairs. I bit into my sandwich and got lost in the play of flavors over my tongue. It was amazing. It was a whole sensory experience, not just the flavor and the texture. Food could bring back memories and feelings. There was nothing quite like savory lamb and beef with cucumber sauce mixed with tangy red onion and tomatoes. After several bites, I opened my eyes and looked up at Clarissa.

She was smiling at me. “You’re really enjoying that, aren’t you?” she asked.

I nodded and took a drink of my pop. “I haven’t had one of these for years.”

We both continued to eat our lunch without any chit chat before Clarissa started talking.

“I need to ask you a question. Well, it’s not exactly a question.” she paused. “I’ve got a possible problem.”

I looked at her. She was so nervous that I was concerned that if I said something I would break her seemingly fragile ability to talk. She set her sandwich down and wiped her hands on a napkin.

“Did I tell you I’m finishing my studies this semester? I already made arrangements with James to do my final internship with the Stone Group, but…” She paused. She bit her upper lip the way she did when she was thinking. “Are you going to buy the Stone Group?” she blurted out.

“I’m thinking about it. It seems like it would be a good fit and a great way to instantly get reestablished in Chicago,” I admitted.

She nodded and took a deep breath. Her chest strained the fabric at the front of her blouse. “You see, I have made arrangements with James to do my internship with the Stone Group, but if you take over… I asked him what he thought about being able to complete my internship with you. He said I needed to talk to you about it.”

“About your becoming my intern?”

She nodded.

“What are your expectations here?” I asked. “How long is a semester?”

“Our semesters are fifteen weeks long, and for the program, they expect me to be in an internship for ten to twelve weeks full-time.”

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