Page 78 of Interning For A Billionaire

I woke up to a typical San Francisco morning. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and my next-door neighbor was having a bipolar meltdown over the phone with his girlfriend.

“I know… I know...” yelled Tank, a skinny dude with impressive tattoos over his whole body. “But you’ve just gotta know, I’ll love you till I die!” His voice sounded slightly hysterical, and I wondered who he was talking to. Heidi or Hannah. Or maybe Hester. I’d noticed he seemed to like girls whose name started with an H.

I knew he was off his medication again because the music had been pumping at eleven o’clock last night when I was desperate to get some sleep. I’d come home late from work, yearning for some peace and quiet and the wonderful bliss of sinking my head into the delights of the SuperPillow 2000 best-selling Amazon downluxeGoose Feather Down Pillow that Michael had bought me when I moved into my own flat. With a smile, I thought of my gorgeous boyfriend, no fiancé.

I wondered where he was right now. I had lost track of which city he was in at the moment. Maybe Austin or Chicago. I knew he was in New York last week and we’d talked about me flying out to meet him for a few nights. But we couldn’t co-ordinate our schedules.

“It’s almost over, honey,” he said to me. “Just a few more cities, and I’ll be home.”

I was so proud of how his new company had taken the country by storm, the educational videogame he had helped build was the top app in every online store and in schools across the country, kids were using a fun game to learn mathematics. He had quit his job at his old company, where I still worked in HR, and within months of launching the game, he was doing road shows all over to show how games could change children’s lives for good.

My eyes were still closed but I automatically felt for the rock on my ring finger. It was big. Bigger than I might have picked for myself but there was something a bit larger than life about Michael. There always had been. He was big in every way…

With a sigh, I rolled up and out of bed. I was clearly awake now, no point pretending otherwise. Next door, Tank seemed to have quieted down. I checked my phone, there were no messages from Michael. I felt a small twinge of disappointment. I said we should wait, before moving in together and before getting married, all of it had been my decision. He wanted me in his penthouse, but no, I wanted to have my own apartment, first. Even though the only place I could afford on my salary, was this tiny studio with paper thin walls.

I heard some odd noises coming from next door and turned to face the wall. It almost sounded like it was coming from my bathroom. The walls might have been flimsy, but this was not next door at all! Someone was in my bathroom! I definitely heard taps opening.

What kind of burglar washed his hands?

Was this maybe a serial killer with OCD?

I made my way over to the front door as quietly as possible. I was about to go rushing out into the street, probably screaming at the top of my voice, when I noticed a set of keys on the kitchen counter.

Wait a minute, I thought.

Those are Michael’s keys.

He had a key to my place, of course. But he was not supposed to be here. When had he arrived? My heart started beating faster. I turned around. Was he in the bathroom?

I had a flashback to the very first time I’d met him, almost two years ago, in a hotel room where I had accidentally seen him naked. It had been an embarrassing incident at the time, but it set up the scene for our whole eventual romance. I wondered, surely not, was Michael…?

The door opened and I waited with bated breath.

And then Michael came out, stark naked, just as he had been back in that hotel room when I’d first seen him in all his glory.

“When did you get back?!” I asked him, overjoyed to see him, running into his arms.

I felt a stirring against my leg and pulled away, laughing.

“And what’s this?!”

“We’ve missed you,” he said, looking absolutely irresistible. I let him pick me up and take me to bed.

He shook his head.

“Do you remember the first time we saw each other, and you thought how incredibly well hung I was?”

“That is not what I thought at all,” I said. “I thought you were arrogant and overconfident.”

“I didn’t even know I was naked,” protested Michael with a grin. “I had forgotten that I offered you the other bedroom in the suite. It had slipped my mind.”

“Yeah, right,” I said, “Slipping your mind like this?” I slid my hand over his chest and between his legs. He groaned with pleasure. I straddled him and felt him push inside of me. The wave of pleasure was instant and intense. For a moment, I forgot about the teasing and the joking. I was simply glad to have him here, to be with him.

Afterwards, he told me he’d cancelled his last meetings and decided to surprise me.

“The flights came in early, so I thought to myself, imagine if I came out of the bathroom like I did that day…”

“I’d never have taken you for a romantic, Mr. Billionaire Tech Genius,” I said.

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