Page 5 of It's Only Make Believe

“I’m meant to be starting work here today. I’m Louisa Sanchez,” the beautiful blonde says.

I try to hide my surprise. She is the last thing I expected when I pictured Enrique’s daughter. I thought she would have black hair and olive skin. In short, I didn’t expect her to look like a damned Viking queen like this woman before me does. I realize I have failed to hide my shock when she smiles at me.

“I take after my mom. She’s Swedish,” she says.

That should clear things up, but it doesn’t. I’ve met Enrique’s wife and she’s Latina too. I guess Louisa must be Enrique’s child from a previous marriage, but no, I have met her older sister too, who is also Latina. Could she be Enrique’s love child or something? I tell myself to get a grip. She could be adopted or anything. And whatever it is, it’s definitely none of my business.

I stand up, smile, and walk towards her with my hand extended.

“I’m Luke. Luke Jackson,” I say.

She smiles back and gives me a nice firm handshake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Jackson,” she says.

“Oh, just Luke please,” I say. “Being called Mr. Jackson makes me feel like I should be twice my age.”

She laughs and it’s a pretty, feminine sound. God she’s gorgeous. She’s actually the first woman in ages who has captured my attention in this way, who I feel like I want to get to know. And who I definitely want to be inside of. Typical she hasto be a board member’s daughter, and therefore off limits to me, especially while she’s working for me.

I gesture to the seat opposite mine, and she sits down, and I go to my own seat and sit behind my desk. I wipe my suddenly sweaty palms on my knees and then I place my hands on my desk. I tell myself to get a grip. It’s not like I haven’t seen a beautiful woman before.

“Tell me about your degree and your experience,” I say.

“My degree covered the basics in most areas of IT, but it’s main focus and my main area of expertise was web development. I did several placements throughout my degree where I designed and built websites, apps, that kind of thing,” she says. “And I also did a bit of web building and maintenance prior to going to college.”

I nod.

“Ok,” I say. “Now keep in mind that this position is an internship, and you will learn as you go. Sitting through lectures and actually doing the work are often very different things and there’s no shame in admitting it if there’s something that comes up that you don’t know or aren’t sure about.”

Louisa nods her agreement. So far, she’s surprisingly enthusiastic in her approach and she isn’t coming over as entitled or spoiled, but to be fair, I haven’t actually asked her to do anything except sit down and talk about herself yet.

“Until I think you’re ready to get into that side of things, I have some tasks for you to complete. The first thing you need to know and remember is Americano with milk and two sugars,” I tell Louisa.

I wait for some sarcastic comment about her not being a barista or a waitress or a servant or something like that, but she just nods her head.

“Noted,” she says. “For the record, mine is a caramel macchiato.”

“I can think of no circumstances where I will need to know that, but thanks for the information,” I say. I stand up and Louisa follows suit. “I’m going to introduce you to my personal assistant. She will show you around and show you where you will be working. Once that’s done, come back here and I will give you your first task.”

I head out of the office without looking back to make sure Louisa is following me. I hear her footsteps behind me which confirms she actually is. I take her to Mel’s office and tap on the door and go inside when she calls out to come in.

“Louisa, this is Mel Rose, my personal assistant and general superwoman. Mel, this is Louisa Sanchez, the new intern and general dog’s body I told you was starting today. Can you give her the tour, get her set up on the systems, all of that kind of thing?” I say.

Mel nods her head although she is looking at me kind of strangely. I know why. It’s the dog’s body comment. Something I would never normally say about a new intern, especially not in front of them, not even as a joke. I felt Louisa bristle beside me at my words too, but to her credit, she didn’t comment on them. Maybe her mean girl side will come out more with Mel, someone she probably thinks is beneath her if she’s so entitled, rather than with me, her boss. If it does, she will be sorry, because Mel is one of my most valued employees and if this jumped up intern upsets her, there will be hell to pay.

Chapter

Four

TIA

This morning has been a roller coaster ride already and it’s not even a quarter past nine in the morning yet. I came in less than a half an hour ago – it feels like so much longer than that - and met my boss, Luke. He’s younger than I thought he would be, definitely not out of his twenties. And he is smoking hot, although he’s an asshole to boot, so good looking or not, at least I don’t fancy him. No, really, I don’t.

I used my coffee joke, where I tell the boss my order when he tells me his, and I have found that in most of my work experience placements throughout college that all of them have laughed. The better ones actually bought me a coffee at some point. Luke just basically told me I wasn’t important enough for him to need to know that about me. And then the way he described me as a general dog’s body to Mel made me want to punch him. I did see Mel look briefly shocked before she covered the expression with a more neutral look and that definitely made me lean towards liking her. She’s almost certainly loyal to Luke, but she isn’t oneof those mindless employees that don’t have their own thoughts and opinions.

She’s almost as tall as me, and she has black skin and black hair that she wears in a funky updo. She’s really pretty, with eyes of a golden shade that I would kill for. She looks sophisticated in her form fitting dress and bolero jacket, especially next to me in my black pants and white blouse. Could I have chosen anything more boring? I am going to have to up my fashion game here. At least it’s not like the placement I went on where I wore a full skirt suit and smart blouse, only to find out the rest of the staff were wearing jeans and oversized hoodies and sneakers. At least my boring outfit doesn’t stand out and make me look silly.

I’m glad when Luke leaves Mel’s office and it’s just the two of us. I feel some of the tension go out of my spine and Mel smiles at me warmly which helps too. I want to quiz her about Luke, about why he is being so mean to me for no reason, but I figure that even though she’s being nice to me, her loyalties obviously lie with Luke and she’s not going to bitch about him with me, and there’s also the possibility anything I ask about him will get back to him, and I don’t want him to think I even noticed he was being mean. I want him to just think I’m unaffected by him.

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