Page 14 of Interning For A Billionaire

Sven: You shouldn’t joke. I’m worried sick about what is happening to you out there.

I fell back on my bed.

It was such a drag having Sven in my life. For years I had felt that we weren’t good together anymore. We didn’t want the same things. He wanted to settle back home, and I wanted to see the world. He’d been there for me in college, always loyal and dependable. Sven was convinced we were meant to be together, and it always felt easier to give in and take him back.

My phone pinged again.

Sven: I’ve really missed you.

I knew he wanted me to say that I missed him too, but I didn’t want to lie to him. I had barely had time to think about him over the past two weeks.

Me: I know. I’m sorry.

Sven: When?

Me: I’m not sure.

Sven: I could come visit you?

The thought of Sven coming up to San Francisco made me feel like I was suffocating.

Me: I’ll have to see when I get some time off.

Sven: K. Let me know.

I needed to find the courage to break up with him, I knew that. I was being a coward and it wasn’t fair to him. I thought of the way he always drove with both hands glued to the steering wheel, sitting straight up in the driver’s seat, his eyes checking the dashboard every second to ensure he wasn’t going over the speed limit.

He was a careful, responsible driver.

But I wanted to take my foot off the brakes a little, go a bit faster. I had been so careful all my life. Now it was time to be a little reckless.

Chapter 6

Michael

The comedy night was set for a Friday after work at a club in the city. Everyone at work received an email invite stating that we would have a minute to tell a few jokes and we could be in costume or not, as we preferred. There would be voting afterwards.

I hadn’t planned on taking part but as I drove in to work that morning, I thought to myself, why not? I liked the idea of surprising everyone by showing a different side of my personality. I was fairly certain they all thought of me as dry and boring, probably a demanding boss who thought about work all the time, which wasn’t completely untrue.

For my plan to work, though, I had to fool everyone. I told Josie I didn’t know if I could make it, which she correctly interpreted as that I would probably not attend.

Then I took off a few hours to organize my costume and disguise. I wanted it to be perfect. In the email, there were instructions about a backstage changing room, but I didn’t want to use that because I knew I’d be recognized. I really wanted my plan to work. I entered a fake name on the spread sheet for participants so that I would be on the schedule.

Later in the day, I called the office and spoke to my personal assistant, Maya.

“Hi, I’m going to meet Oscar from ClickGo for a drink.”

“Okay, so you’re not coming back to the office?” she asked.

“No, I’m not sure how long the meeting will be,” I said.

“You are still coming to comedy night, right?” She actually sounded like she was disappointed at the thought of me not being there.

“I want to, but I don’t know if it’ll happen,” I said in a matter-of-fact voice.

“It will be good for everyone to see you there,” she said.

“I’ll do my best,” I said and put the phone down.

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