I lifted my chin and committed to concentrating on what was being said in the meeting, which I discovered, when the entire room grew silent, staring at me, was a question Ryan must have asked…me.
I sat up taller in my seat. “I’m sorry. What was that?”
Anita huffed out a laugh. “I can go first if you’d like. I think our little Nora is tired today.”
Our little Nora. If there were ever words that made me want to punch another person in the face, those might be three of them.
Ryan shrugged and motioned to Mike, who looked less than thrilled at who he’d be working with. He passed a sheet of paper to her. “There are three companies I’ve looked into that could use some help with a marketing package. Pick the one that sounds most interesting to you, and we’ll go from there.”
Anita glanced over the paper, her nose wrinkling slightly.
“Here are your businesses to pick from, Shawn.” Ryan leaned forward and handed Shawn his own paper to look at.
Duke opened his folder on the desk and pulled out a sheet of paper, sliding it toward me.
A throat cleared. “Actually, um…Duke. Nora and I were wondering if we could trade owners for our projects.”
All eyes at the table zoomed in on Anita. I froze.
“What do you mean?” Duke asked, his low voice a mumble.
She laughed, a high-pitched twinkly sound that made my skin crawl. “I was hoping I could pick my own assignment. I have a friend starting up a makeup company, and I wondered if you’d be able to help me, since you’re the expert.” When she was getting no reaction, she kept going, though with more blinking and twitchy movements with her hands. “Since you worked so well with that skincare company last year. I figured you might be the best person to help me.”
An awkward silence fell across the room, shifting eyes taking in both me and Anita as though we’d been in some sort of cahoots.
Some people just weren’t meant to be friends.
Ryan shook his head. “The businesses on everyone’s papers have all been vetted specifically for this program. We intend to work closely with the owners to take into account how they’ve been treated and make sure there’s been steady and professional communication throughout the process. We’re not taking on the company of friends. You’re more than welcome to do that on your own, but not for this internship program.”
Anita’s face fell, and she shot a glance at Duke.
Duke turned toward me, his brown eyes holding mine steady. “Would you prefer working with Mike?”
I shifted. A pin drop at the table would have sounded like an explosion. The attention of the entire room was on me. He was giving me a choice. I couldn’t detect any hurt or anger in his tone, so either he was good at hiding it, or he honestly didn’t care if he worked with me or not. Maybe I’d blown everything up in my head. But as I stared longer, I added one more option, the one that felt the most true to Duke. He genuinely wanted me to feel comfortable, and he’d sacrifice his own wants to make that happen.
Too bad I was a glutton for punishment, because I was quickly discovering that I wanted all the sweet discomfort that came from being too close to Duke Webber.
“No. It was her idea. I’m fine to work with Duke.”
“Rude,” Mike shouted good naturedly. “I’m a delight to work with.” The whole room chuckled and when I mouthed a ‘Sorry’ to him, Mike gave me a wink.
I didn’t look at Anita, but I could feel volts of her anger threatening to burn me to the ground. Duke’s gaze was also burning me but for a different reason.
“Oh, you're fine to work with Duke? I’m so relieved.” His soft voice in my ear was brimming with amusement.
I shook my head slightly, clamping my mouth shut. With trembling fingers, I slid his paper in front of me to concentrate on the letters that I assumed made up words of some kind.
“Are you nervous?” Again, his whispers were not helping my very noble cause of settling my heart the heck down. I ignored him, studying the paper for ten whole seconds before my twitterpated brain computed what it said.
“Why is your foot shaking?”
Ignore him, brain.
“You still owe me the lift.”
I turned to him and gave him my best stare, communicating my intense need for him to shut up. He grinned and sat back in his chair, his hands folded on the table, finally giving me space to concentrate.
After a long moment, my mind began to compute. On the paper were three business names and a tiny blurb about each one. I scanned through the first two. One was a makeup company, which the petty part of me secretly wanted to pick just to watch Anita’s reaction. The second was a bagel shop looking to ship and sell homemade bagels across the country. It was the third business idea that caught my eye.
