I saw Duke a handful of times, running in and out of the office, chatting with Ryan or Mike, taking phone calls or meeting with a designer and a client in the conference room. Not that I was trailing him, specifically, but the office wasn’t that big. I had nothing to do yet. My eyes just naturally wandered…where they wandered.
The designer over me was a vivacious woman with ultra-curly black hair and creamy black skin. She wore a neon-green dress and a headband on her head, and I couldn’t help but be jealous of her fashion sense. She was striking, owning the room when she walked in. I looked down at the tame-by-comparison outfit I had been so excited to wear, but she had me laughing before my insecurities could run too far. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was my manager or if she was this genuinely nice, but I was grateful for her sitting by me in the break room at lunch. I figured I would eat at my desk, as I’d seen others do, but when I went to grab my food out of the fridge, Tenisha motioned for me to sit beside her at one of the four round tables placed around the break room.
“So, how many clients are you working with currently?” I asked, taking a bite of my peanut butter sandwich, wishing I would have brought a more grown-up lunch for my first day. It had been a long time since I’d had a real first day of work. And I’d never had a job where lunch wasn’t already included in my pay.
Tenisha looked at me like I had asked her to take me to the moon. “Honey, I’m on lunch break. I do not talk about work on my lunch break.”
I blinked. “Oh, sorry.”
“I’m teasing. Goodness, you interns are going to be fun.” And then she laughed, the sound echoing all throughout the room.
Anita and Shawn joined us soon after at the table with their lunches and their managers nowhere in sight.
“So when do we meet with the owners?” Anita asked Tenisha.
Duke’s face blared in my mind. He had never told me outright, but if my suspicion level had a number, it had shot past ten and was inching toward fifteen.
Breaking her own rule, Tenisha supplied, “They’ve been in and out of meetings all morning. They’ll be here for the staff meeting at two. You’ll meet them all then.”
“I heard they’re all young.” Anita raised her eyebrows, not even attempting to seem discreet. “Office eye candy.”
Tenisha had been about ready to take a bite when she paused mid-air. “Who did you hear that from?”
Anita laughed off the question. “Oh, I don’t remember.”
“Well, two are married with families, and one is in a long-term relationship,” Tenisha said, peering over at her frankly.
“Duke, right? Is he the tall, dark, and handsome guy I’ve seen in and out?”
Hearing his name fall out of her lips triggered a spiteful reaction inside of me. I channeled the emotion into attacking my sandwich.
“First of all, they’re all handsome, but nobody’s that dark,” Tenisha said, making me and Shawn laugh. “And second, I’d suggest not talking like that ever again in this office.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” she clipped, laughing obnoxiously. “I was just teasing.”
And that was lunch.
After an hour spent attempting to look busy going over more office policy, we were pulled into a staff meeting. I counted about fifteen employees, including the three interns, all sitting around the big conference table. I sat next to Tenisha at the table, taking my notepad out and placing it in front of me, feeling antsy over my less-than-productive first day. At the café, there were always things to be doing. If I wasn’t taking orders, I was delivering food, or clearing plates, or rolling silverware into napkins. This first day had been nothing like I had thought. Of course, I was an intern, and I had no idea what to do yet, but my fingers itched to be set free on an assignment.
An RDM sign hanging above the doorway in the boardroom caught my notice. R.D.M. Ryan, Duke, Mike, perhaps? I felt so stupid that I hadn’t seen the signs. Of course it was his company. Their company. A surge of unreasonable jealousy shot through me at the thought of his dreams working out exactly as he’d planned. The stars just aligned for some people. He was only a few years older than me, yet here he was, part owner of a company with their own floor in an office building—all in under three years. In talking about his company that night, he’d told me it probably wouldn’t work out. Deep down, I’d agreed with him. That thought came much more naturally to my thinking than something actually working out.
And that was sad. Right?
I felt him the moment he entered the room. He suspiciously kept his eyes averted from mine as he greeted the entire staff. Like a boss.
Outwardly, I sat rigid in my chair as he made his way closer to me, shaking hands and checking in on his staff.
“Nora, right?” Duke smiled, holding out his hand for me to shake.
I looked up and met his gaze. “Yeah.”
“So glad you’re here.”
I made sure my eyes spoke volumes to this man, even as I shook his hand.
“Thank you,sir. Glad to be here.”
He grinned. “Oh, just call me Duke. Nobody goes too wild with titles here.”
