She considered it for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m not sure, but it’s easily at least five.”
I checked my watch, the word “intern” tugging at a memory I couldn’t quite place. Had I heard it somewhere recently?
I still had half an hour before my next meeting. Did I really want to waste that time putting some lowly intern in their place?
Turned out, I did.
“Bring me all the interns in five minutes. Have them wait outside until one of them owns up to the message. Tell HR I’ll need them to process a termination today.”
Derek’s eyes widened while Kacie nodded, not giving anything away even if she was taken aback by my request.
“Will do,” she said, disappearing through the door.
“That’s a bit...” Derek struggled for the right words.
“Ruthless?” I asked. “I don’t tolerate disrespect in my workplace. Besides, I’m giving this person a chance to say what they think of this company to my face. If they have the courage to do that, I won’t fire them.”
Derek raised an eyebrow, as though he doubted that.
“How’s Kacie going to round up the interns in just a few minutes?”
I scoffed. “When I need things done, they get done.”
I sat back in my chair, crossing my hands behind my head as I looked up at the high ceiling.
Then, I remembered the beautiful woman from last weekend. I couldn’t get her out of my mind—the way her smile had tuggedat something inside me, the way she’d spoken, asking me to be hers for the night, the way she’d looked at me before leaving.
I wanted badly to go back to the same bar next Friday to see her again. Her thick red-gold hair had been swept up in an elegant updo, and her white dress had dipped just low enough to drive me crazy.
I remembered putting my lips on her skin, and at the memory, my body responded as though it remembered her too.
I would go back to that bar every weekend until I found her again. That much was certain.
An internship.
Shit.
The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. I sat up in my chair as I remembered exactly where I’d heard that word recently.
My world tilted, and for half a second, I thought the air conditioning had cut out as heat rushed over me.
My breath caught, lodged somewhere between disbelief and dread, just as a knock on the door brought me out of my shock.
I saw Derek shift uncomfortably as Kacie walked in, someone trailing behind her.
“I was wrong, Mr. Walkers. There was just one intern across all the eliminated departments, a Ms. Haley,” Kacie announced, but I’d already stopped listening.
Because following Kacie into my office, with red-gold hair pulled back into a neat ponytail, was the very woman I’d just been fantasizing about.
Lexi. From the bar.
7
JONAH
My jaw slackened as I stared at Lexi.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at anyone else. The mystery woman from that night stood before me, her presence consuming every corner of my mind.
