Page 9 of It's Only Make Believe

I look around with everyone else. I want to see this new girl because it’s good to know I’m not the only newbie, and it might be good to befriend the other new starter. No one stands up and Luke calls the name again. Tracy gently digs her elbow into my ribs.

“Stand up Louisa,” she whispers.

I feel the blood rush to my face with embarrassment as I get to my feet. I am embarrassed because for a moment there, I genuinely forgot that I’m meant to be Louisa, but I’m confident that anyone who notices my obvious discomfort will think it’s because I have to stand up in front of everyone. In fairness, I probably would have blushed at that anyway so they wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

“Everyone, this is Louisa. Louisa, this is everyone,” Luke says.

I do an awkward little wave while people shout out greetings and welcomes to me. Although it is embarrassing, it’s also kind of nice because of the welcome I receive.

“Louisa is our newest intern,” Luke explains. “Please make her feel welcome here.”

The room starts to clap, and I feel my cheeks reddening once more. I don’t know where to look so I look down at the ground, wanting it to open up and swallow me. Finally, the applause dies out.

“Welcome to Sold, Louisa,” Luke says. “That’s the meeting over. See you all tomorrow.”

He walks back out of the meeting without another word, or a backward glance and I’m relieved that I am no longer the only person on their feet. I say goodbye to Tracy and hurry away. I goback up the stairs because I figure the elevator car will be packed full. I don’t know what to do. Luke made it clear it is home time for everyone, but as an intern, am I expected to stay until I’m dismissed? Or until I finish my task? God, I hope that’s not the case, I’ll be here until midnight next Tuesday.

I come through the door at the top of the stairs, and I see Mel walking along the hallway in front of me. I call out to her, and she stops and turns around. She smiles at me and waits for me to catch up.

“How’s your first day gone?” she says.

“It’s flown by actually,” I say, which is both true and a nice way to avoid having to answer the question based on my menial task. “I’m just wondering what happens now. Do I finish the task Luke has given me before I leave, or do I wait for him to come and dismiss me, or …?”

I tail off at the end, not sure what else to add. Mel shakes her head.

“No, you don’t have to wait for permission to leave. As long as you’ve done your eight hours, you can leave generally speaking. Obviously, there might be times where there is urgent work needed and you will be expected to stay and work over if you are a part of that, but otherwise, you finish at five unless you’re late in or told otherwise,” Mel says.

“Thanks Mel,” I reply.

“No worries,” Mel says. We have reached our respective offices and Mel smiles at me. “Catch you tomorrow. Assuming you’re coming back?”

“Oh, I’m coming back alright. See you tomorrow,” I reply.

I go into my tiny office and retrieve my coat and my purse and then I make my way to the end of the corridor, and this time, I choose to wait for the elevator. The doors open finally, and I step in and turn to see Luke getting in behind me. I hit the ground floor button and look up at him.

“Ground floor?” I say and he nods his head.

“Who told you that you could leave for the day?” he says.

“Umm, Mel,” I reply.

I don’t want to get her in trouble, but it’s true and I figure she is much less likely to catch a pile of shit than I am.

“Oh, right. That’s ok then,” he says, and he looks at me for a moment and then he smiles. “I was joking, Louisa.”

I manage to fake a laugh that sounds reasonably normal, but I don’t think he was joking. I think he just said that to save face when I said Mel said I should leave. I think if I hadn’t have said that he would have had a go at me, maybe even demanded I stay over to finish the shredding and sorting.

He’s definitely one to watch, this man, and he’s easy enough on the eye that I’m more than willing to watch him.

Chapter

Six

LUKE

Idon’t know why, but as I’m sitting at my desk working on a report, Louisa pops into my head. I try to tell myself it’s not because I fancy the ass off her, and it’s certainly not because I’m intrigued by her, it’s just because I’m wondering how far along she is with the task I gave her yesterday. Probably not very far. I would expect a motivated employee to take a few days to get through that lot, but a work shy one, God it could take weeks. The thing is though, despite Enrique’s warning, Louisa seems anything but work shy to me at the moment. She must be a bloody good actress is all I can say, or else she’s appearing motivated at first until she figures she’s out from underneath my radar and then her true colors will show through.

I decide to go and see how far she has gotten and tell her she needs to hurry it up and stop wasting company time. I feel a bit harsh for doing it, but I promised Enrique that I would whip her into shape, and I’m hardly going to do that if I just believe she’s actually working out ok and just ignore her, and if she doesn’tleave here better than she was when she started, I won’t have Enrique’s favor when I need him to vote with me.

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