Page 16 of Interning For A Billionaire

“You were fabulous,” she said with a smile.

“So were you,” I said. “Did that actually happen, the incident with the tornado?”

“You mean the pastor and the principal? Not exactly like that, no,” she said.

“It was a good story,” I said.

“I do know how to tell a good story,” she answered.

She caught my eye, and something passed between us, an acknowledgement of what had happened between us before, the weirdness around having seen each other naked and now pretending not to know each other at work.

“This was an excellent idea,” I said, looking out over the club. “People are having a good time and it’s a lot of fun.”

“Thanks. I’m hoping you’ll let me stay on.”

I wondered what Josie had told her, how did she know I’d wanted her fired?

“Of course, you’ll stay on,” I said. “Can’t wait to see what your next idea will be,” I nodded to her as I walked off.

But as I left the club a bit later, I realized that it was true. I was intrigued by Belle, in more ways than one.

I also thought about what she’d said about being able to tell a good story. Was that a reference to her email to me about her past trauma and how she had been seeing a therapist for years to help her cope…. Was that maybe a story too?

It certainly was a good one.

I had bought it hook, line and sinker.

I hadn’t so much as looked at her in the past month.

But suddenly, my interest in Belle was back, and even stronger than before.

Chapter 7

Belle

“You did it!”

My colleague Samira came rushing up to me, hugging me rather wildly.

“Well done!”

The comedy night was a huge success. Everyone agreed. Even though the voting process had become messy, there was a clear winner. One of the designers, a young guy called Piotr, had done an excellent routine on the pressures of being the son of Polish immigrants, the expectations his parents had on him to succeed when he really just wanted to get a date, any date. His disastrous dating stories had everyone in stitches, and it had helped that he was one the last acts of the night, so everyone could still remember him.

“Wasn’t Michael just awesome?!” Samira was trying to whisper but her voice was very loud. I realized she was already drunk. But she was right, Naked Guy’s routine had been one of the surprises of the evening. Everyone had loved his act of pretending to be some old guy from the basement. He had gotten the jokes exactly right, and had managed to make everyone feel good about the company. I had not expected him to be so funny or so nice. It didn’t fit with my picture of him at all.

“I thought he was away for work.”

“Are you talking about Michael?” Josie had come to join us. She looked spectacular in her Cher outfit, even though she had a few more curves than Cher did.

“I couldn’t believe he lied to all of us about being busy and then he just rocked up like that!” Samira exclaimed.

“It’s very typical of Michael, though,” said Josie. “I know he looks very serious and driven at work, but he is a fun guy too. When we started the company seven years ago, there weren’t that many people to begin with and things were much more relaxed,” she said. Her tone sounded wistful, and I wondered whether she maybe cared more about Michael than she let on.

“I used to be a copywriter,” she said, rolling her eyes as if that was the last job in the world she should have done. “Can you imagine me, writing copy?” It was true, Josie had a bit of a spelling weakness. She had to run all her emails through spell checkers to ensure she didn’t make mistakes.

“I once had to do this marketing campaign for a client, sending out weekly newsletters in which I misspelled the company name! I will never forget it! Instead of saying Arro, I wrote Arrow, like in bow and arrow? I was mortified when the mistake came out!”

Samira giggled. “Did you get in trouble?”

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