Page 59 of Interning For A Billionaire

“Right here?” I looked around as we were quite in the open.

Giggling, Belle pulled me behind some trees and straddled me.

Chapter 23

Belle

The weeks turned into months and fall quietly arrived in San Francisco. The weather was still lovely, and the temperatures cooled slightly but apart from that, there was no indication that winter was coming. I was still in the love bubble with Michael, and we spent every weekend together and at least one night during the week. I still got occasional calls and messages from Sven, but I had stopped answering his calls and I told Samira to watch out for them. I didn’t give him a second thought though. I was sure he’d find someone else sooner or later. Maybe if I’d broken up with him sooner… But I was not the type to look back in regret.

We had so much to look forward to! Michael had some exciting work projects lined up that required his attention, and he was working on an idea involving educational video games for schools. He had to fly frequently to Washington D.C. for meetings with education officials and would come back for meetings with the developers, only to take telephone calls from investors and plan other meetings with game designers.

I kept busy too, with new wellness initiatives. I had basically become the wellness officer at Pyramide and even though the job title wasn’t official yet, I was in charge of most of the programs around employee wellbeing. I had signed a contract and was now officially a permanent staff member.

“Do you wanna grab a coffee?” Samira asked me one morning.

“Sure, but let’s go out,” I said.

“Good idea,” Samira smiled at me and winked, looking over at Josie’s office. “She won’t mind.”

“She won’t even notice!” I said and we both giggled.

My matchmaking had worked, and Josie and Eugene were an item now. She was constantly chatting to him, going on long lunches and dreamily researching romantic getaways on the Internet.

We were about to leave when my phone rang.

It was my father.

He didn’t usually call me during the day.

“Dad?”

“Belle? Sweetheart? I’ve got bad news.”

Everything he said after that was a bit of a blur. It was my aunt. She’d collapsed and had been taken to a hospital in Wichita. He didn’t know anything else at this point and he said he’d keep me posted.

“No,” I said. “I’m coming. I’ll get a flight right now.”

“I don’t know how serious it is,” he said.

“I don’t care, I’m going to get a flight to Wichita right now,” I said.

Samira had heard the whole conversation and told me to go home right away.

“I’ll tell Josie, I’m sure it will be fine if you take a few days off.”

I nodded, unable to talk.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked, squeezing my shoulder.

I nodded slowly.

I wanted to speak to Michael, but he was out of the office today, in some pow-wow workshop with gamers.

“Let me organize the flight to Wichita,” Samira said. “You go home, pack a few things and I’ll call you with details, okay?”

“Thank you,” I said, biting back tears.

I took a cab back to the apartment, threw a few things into a bag and headed out to the airport. Samira had gotten me a flight in a few hours. I hung around the airport, sitting in a chair, feeling numb.

---