Page 35 of Interning For A Billionaire

The house was truly spectacular, with plenty of views of the lake and the mountains. The interior was not ostentatious, but it was clear that money had not been spared when it came to building and decorating the living spaces.

“This is … awesome,” I said. “I don’t think I’d ever want to leave.”

“I’ve been staying longer and longer,” admitted Bernard, who was a couple of years older than I was. “Most weeks, Sam and the kids come for the weekend and then they head off of to the city for work while I stay here with the dogs.” Right on cue, two Retrievers came into the room, sniffing my shoes and wagging their tails.

We had a light lunch of locally caught trout on a rye sandwich, which was delicious.

“I thought you were vegan?” I said and he gave me an ironic lift of the eyebrow.

“Must have been the article that said I also take ice water baths twice daily and meditate for hours.”

“So, you don’t?”

“Fuck, no, but don’t tell anyone!” He laughed out loud. Then he relented, “I do try to live more sustainably, more authentically. Be more natural, you know, healthy. So, I avoid screens, don’t watch TV and out here, it’s all renewable energy and my own water.”

“No screens?”

He grinned “Hard to believe, right?”

“Considering you’re the founder of Glint, yeah.”

He took us out to his Jeep, packed the rock-climbing gear in the back and drove us out to a popular climbing spot called Spooner Crag.

“This isn’t too much of challenge, but it’ll give you a good go. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to Donner Summit, if you’ve got the time.”

“Hell, yeah!”

Now that I was here, I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of me getting up those rock faces. I forgot about work, about Bernard and whatever was going on with Glint, even about Belle. For a few hours, it was just me and the mountain, finding crags to put my hands in and hoist me up the rock face.

Even though the climb was not particularly hard, sweat was pouring down my face. We took to the boulders as well and I was impressed by Bernard’s climbing ability.

“I didn’t know you climbed,” I said, when we were taking a break at the top of a boulder.

“Started a few years back,” Bernard said. “Part of the reason I bought this place.”

We had a great view of the lake and the forests, the tops of the trees all round. It was incredible being in nature like this, no houses, or highways in sight, only birdsong and the wind in the trees.

“The lake is so blue,” I said. “It’s incredible.”

“That’s because the water is so pure, so clear. There are very little algae, which is why it has that turquoise color.”

“Magnificent.”

We sat in silence for a while, I looked over at Bernard and noticed he was sitting very quietly, with his eyes closed. His face was lined and wrinkled, tanned deeply by the sun. He wore a bandanna to keep his hair out of his eyes. He didn’t seem to notice that I was looking at him and I turned my gaze back to the lake and the view.

“I like to come here and sit,” Bernard said suddenly. “Some might call it mediation or prayer. I call it sitting,” he grinned at me. It struck me that he might be mad as a hatter.

In the afternoon, we did some bouldering and made it back to the house in time for dinner.

We ate outside on the stoop, which consisted of delicious sushi prepared by a private chef. I kept waiting for him to bring up work. He was the one who’d invited me after all, and I had a sense that he might not take it well if I brought it up too soon. Bern seemed to want to talk only about climbing and different routes, nature and all kinds of mountain man stuff. It was definitely weird and some kind of test. But I had no problem with that. The climbing was fantastic, and I loved being out in the wild like that. The next morning, we were out early again and despite some soreness in my knee, we did a few more hours of climbing before we called it a day.

It was only once I headed out to my car that Bern called out to me, almost as an afterthought, “Oh, about our agreement with you…”

I turned to face him, waiting to hear what he was going to come up with. This was why I’d come after all, to talk about work.

He walked slowly towards me, a sly grin on his face. “We want to double it.”

“Double it?”

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