Page 43 of Touch Me

“You can come this way,” Julie says, heading further down the right side of the room and stopping at a cluster of four desks at the end with one left empty. There are two women and one man occupying the seats, all hard at work.

“Good morning, this is Cassie Sinclair. She’ll be interning for the summer. Ashley, please show her the ropes if you could. Mrs. Rae is a little, uh, busy at the moment.” Their eyes peruse me head to toe but say nothing. Julie reminds me she’ll be back with paperwork and heads up to the front.

I set my purse and laptop bag on the desk and take a seat. My eyes bounce between the three of them, an introduction on the tip of my tongue as they type away, paying me no attention. No smile, no wave, nothing.

New girl treatment.

I’ll just keep my head down and get to work. I can find the restroom and kitchen on my own until Mrs. Rae is available, if she doesn't manage a critical injury before she remembers I’m here. Peeking over my shoulder, I send a silent plea for her to appear and break the tension.

The dark-haired beauty with onyx eyes turns around to watch Julie’s retreat. “Coast is clear,” she says to the other two—laptops slap shut, the guy props his feet on his desk, and the trio finally graces me with genuine smiles.

“Hi,” the girls say in unison.

“I’m Ashley,” the first girl says. “That’s Jen.” She points to the brunette with golden hazel eyes. “And that’s Alex.” She gestures towards the guy with perfectly styled blondish-brown hair, blue eyes, and the most perfect white teeth I’ve ever seen.

A sigh breezes past my lips as my shoulders sag in relief. “Hi, I’m Cassie.”

“Sorry about the cold welcome.” Ashley waves toward the front. “Julie is a brown-nosing snitch so we have to pretend we actually work when she’s around.”

Alex looks up from studying his cuticles and winks. “Good thing they put us way in the back.” They all laugh.

“Oh, thank god. I thought no one was going to talk to me until Mrs. Rae came out.”

“Yeah, about that….” Jen looks over her shoulder toward Mrs. Rae’s office. “She isn’t coming.”

“Oh, she said she would be right out to show me around,” I say, motioning behind me.

“Nope,” Jen says as they all shake their heads.

“You’ll be lucky if she remembers by Friday. She’s a little... flakey? Frazzled? I don’t know, something.” Jen waves her hand flippantly toward the office door. “Don’t bother asking her any questions. If you interrupt her train of thought, she’s like a mouse on Red Bull trying to multitask. She runs around all day like she’s on crack but barely manages to complete anything. She’s our direct supervisor, but there are others on this floor. So she’ll never notice if you go to someone else. We’ll show you who to go to and who to avoid.”

“Oh, okay.” I force a smile, swallowing my first taste of the real world. “So, what are you guys working on?”

“Just searching the globe for our breakout story,” Alex muses. “No, but seriously. We just search the internet for something that might sound like a story. Then we pitch it to someone, and they take it or leave it. Most of the time, they will hand us some pop culture bullshit to write a small article on. That’s what pays the bills for now. Like legit writers give a crap about the hottest lipstick trend.”

Alex drops his feet to the floor and turns toward me. “This building houses several publishing houses and magazines, as well as a news station. As an intern, you can submit your work to your supervisor, and they will turn it in to wherever it fits best. If they select your article, your supervisor gets a small fee, like an agent, and you get the rest. As a salaried employee, you get a base pay and weekly articles run, but you can still submit other work that you’ve done. It’s like a giant network of freelance writers all housed in the same building. There’s a lot of competition, though. Several floors just like this with writers and journalists submitting work daily.”

I blow out a breath through puffed cheeks. “Wow, okay.”

Alex rights himself in his chair and opens his laptop. “Snitchy bitch at six o’clock.”

Everyone makes themselves look busy as Julie approaches.

“Here are the papers you need to fill out. If you get them back to me before lunch, I’ll make sure they get to HR,” she says, eyeing the others, her red lips thinning.

Grabbing the packet of papers, I peek out the corner of my eye at Ashley, typing away. “Great, thank you.”

With no acknowledgment I spoke, she narrows her eyes at the group, waiting for them to do something discipline-worthy. They hold steady and seriously look like they are hard at work. She gives me a side-eye full of unspoken warning and saunters back up to the front.

I set the papers down and grin. “You guys are really good at that.”

Jen slaps her laptop shut with a laugh. “I was booking my nail appointment for this weekend.”

Feeling more comfortable and hoping I’m not getting pranked, I giggle.

“Kinda impressed with the military lingo, Alex,” Ashley says as she peers around her laptop. “Didn’t take you for a soldier boy movie kind of guy.”

Alex scoffs, “Pssht, whatever. Hot, sweaty, dirty guys in camo? Totally my thing.”

---