Page 46 of Interning For A Billionaire

That’s what he’d done after all, I thought, but didn’t say.

“Belle is actually very accomplished. She’s started a new wellness program at Pyramide that is very popular. The Feelgood Fridays have really lifted morale.”

“Oh?”

“There is research that massages relax and destress employees,” said Belle.

“How lovely,” Crystal said blandly.

“And where are you from?”

“Kansas, a town called Nolan.”

“No… what?” Crystal looked bewildered as if Belle said she was from Norway.

“Nolan, it’s really very small, my father runs a family practice there?”

“He is a lawyer?”

“No, a doctor.”

“A doctor! Oh, good!”

There was an awkward moment of silence as Belle obviously tried not to think about why it would be a good thing that her father was a doctor.

“We’ve been to Kansas, haven’t we?” Crystal asked my father.

“No,” my father said, distaste all over his face.

“Yes,” Crystal insisted. “That wedding remember? A few years ago? What was that family’s name?”

My father ignored her.

“We flew in on an itsy bitsy plane and when we got to the airport, everyone was so fat? Don’t you remember. Like cows, you said?”

“That was not Kansas,” my father said. “I think you’re thinking of the Letterman bar mitzvah. That was in San Bernardino.”

“That is still in California,” I said.

“Is it?” Crystal shuddered, “I remember everything looking so awful, the buildings were all so shabby and dirty.”

“Nolan isn’t like that at all,” said Belle. “We look after our town.” Her voice faltered, “Some of the farmers had some tough years, not enough rain…” her voice faltered.

“I find the country so inspiring,” I suddenly said. “I was out on Lake Tahoe the other day, far from the city, surrounded by only forests and mountains and I really got some perspective.”

Belle looked at me gratefully.

“I find the city so corruptible, so decadent, when you think about it. It’s all about money and how much who has.”

“Says the billionaire,” Crystal muttered.

I gave a big smile and said loudly, “Now, what are we all eating?”

The evening was even worse than I thought it would be. We didn’t stay for dessert. When Belle went to the bathroom to freshen up, my father nodded at me.

“Your brother seems fine?”

My brother wasn’t speaking to my father at the moment. They had an argument about Liam, Nathan’s son and my father had threatened to disinherit him.

---