Page 17 of Interning For A Billionaire

“I thought I was going to be fired!” Josie said. “But Michael was very nice about it. It was he who suggested I move into human resources.”

A good move, I thought as Josie was very good in dealing with people. She was friendly and polite, but never too chatty or silly. From what I had seen so far, she was very efficient and seemed to have her finger on the pulse of the industry.

“Let’s get shots!” Samira said and went off to order drinks.

I didn’t really want to get too drunk, but the evening was essentially over, and it had been a hit. I could relax and let my hair down. Samira returned with a tray of drinks, and we downed one after the other. Things got a little blurry after that and I decided not to drink any more.

“You did good here, kid,” Josie said to me, in between drinks. “I think everyone had a great time.”

“Thank you,” I was so pleased that my first event had gone well. “I have a few other ideas, but I’ll tell you about them on Monday.”

Josie winked at me, “Good idea, let’s not talk about work anymore!”

When she went to chat to someone else, Samira leaned in and whispered in my ear. “I think she likes Michael.”

“Really?” I had gotten the same feeling.

“He’s hot though, don’t you think?” Samira was giggling again. She was very attractive, with curly dark hair and almond-shaped brown eyes.

“I don’t know,” I said, uncomfortable.

How could I explain that in my head, he was still Naked Guy? Or to be honest, Naked Boss Guy. And tonight, he had been Funny Naked Boss Guy. The name wasn’t working anymore, though. I was now beginning to think of him as Michael as well, and that was dangerous.

When I had spoken to him earlier outside the bathroom, there had definitely been a vibe between us. I was sure he had felt it too. Chemistry like that is hard to ignore. I didn’t know what it meant, however. I thought I hated him, that his arrogance was annoying. But he wasn’t arrogant tonight, he had been one of us, his stand-up act showed that while he knew he was the boss and needed to have our respect, he also wanted us to know that he had a sense of humor and wanted us to feel happy at work.

I liked that about him. That was the mark, not of an arrogant man, but someone who cared about his employees.

“Is he married?” I asked Samira, casually.

“Definitely not!” Samira said. “There are quite a few girls at the office who keep tabs on him. They’d love to date him, of course, but company policy forbids it.”

“It does?”

Samira nodded. “There was an incident a few years ago, a relationship between co-workers that went south and after that, they wrote it into HR policy that co-workers can’t be romantically involved unless they’re married. Something like that.”

“Do you know who it was?”

Samira peered over her shoulder. “What I heard, is that it was the head of marketing, Darian Slater. He was moved to the Chicago office after that. He was dating one of the interns and when she got appointed permanently, some people said he organized it because he was sleeping with her.”

“An intern!” I could feel myself blushing.

Samira playfully punched my arm, “Don’t worry! I don’t think you need to worry about anyone bothering you! Although, you are gorgeous. I’ve been meaning to ask you, how do you get a body like that? I’ve seen your lunches and you definitely like to eat!”

“I exercise, I guess,” I said.

“So do I!” Samira exclaimed. “But I love ice-cream too. And chocolate… and pizza!” She laughed, patting her stomach. “No wonder I don’t look like you do!”

“You look great!” I disagreed with her. “I must say, I love ice-cream too,” I confessed. “My favorite is mint chocolate chip.”

“Oooooh! I love mint chocolate chip!” Samira agreed.

“Some nights, when I need a little pick-me-up and I don’t feel like cooking, I’ll finish an entire tub for dinner,” I confessed. “Then I go for a six-mile run in the morning to make up for it!”

“Six miles!” Samira sounded impressed. “I go kick boxing.”

“I’d love to go kick boxing,” I said. “We didn’t have anything like that back in Nolan. I mean, we kicked and we boxed. But not together.”

Samira laughed. “I would love that,” she said enthusiastically. “I’ll send you the location, I usually go on Saturday mornings. I don’t know if I’ll make tomorrow though.” she pulled a face. “I’ll probably be too hung over.”

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