STEP BY STEP (12 page)

“I was really starting to like you,” she
said as she turned her face from mine. “And then you changed. Just like that.
You weren’t who I thought you were.”

The familiarity of her words stung. In an
odd sort of way, I’d done to her what Sapphire had done to me.
False advertising.

“I don’t think you’re over Sapphire,” Mirabelle
said. “And I can’t compete with your memories of her.”

“I don’t want Sapphire,” I hissed. “Sapphire
means nothing to me anymore. The person I thought she was…it was all an act.
You’re real,
Miri
.
Everything about
you.
There’s no act with you. No gimmicks. That’s what I want.”

Her eyes met mine once again, and I could
tell she was thinking about it.

“I don’t know, Preston,” she said as she
bit her lip.

“Come back with me,” I said. “I’m not
asking.”

Standing that close to her, the scent of
her gardenia perfume filled my lungs and took me back to the first and only
time I’d fucked her on the back of the desk. The animalist urge that coursed
through my veins that day was starting to bubble up to the surface. I wanted
her so badly.

“I’ll come back,” she said with a slight
hesitation in her voice. “But you and I have to be professional. I’m not
sleeping with you again. I’m your intern. You’re my boss. Nothing more, nothing
less.”

“Fine,” I said. I couldn’t force her to
want to be with me. I could only hope with time, I could prove that I wasn’t
such a giant asshole and maybe, just maybe she’d change her mind about me.

MIRABELLE

“Here’s your coffee, Preston,” I said as
I sat the warm mug on his desk. I’d been back at work for a full two months,
growing in leaps and bounds thanks to Preston taking me under his wing. True to
his word and much to my surprise, he kept our relationship professional.

Gone were the late nights working side by
side and the tender moments with stolen kisses behind closed doors.

It didn’t stop me from wanting to jump
his bones every time I looked at him. I was still crazy attracted to him, and
the fact that he’d pulled in the reins and quit pursuing me only made me want
him even more. But I’d never tell him that…

“Thanks,” he said as he smiled kindly
towards me. “Did you have a good walk in today?”

“I did,” I said. It was March, and spring
had officially arrived. My brisk, early morning walks to work were the second
best part of my day
;
second only to seeing Preston’s
face first thing in the morning. But again, I’d never tell him that…

“You’ve got another four weeks left,” he
said.

“Pardon?”

“Four more weeks here,” he said. “Then
your internship is over.”

“Oh, right,” I said, neglecting to tell
him that I’d been counting down the days. Each passing day meant I was that
much closer to finally graduating, but it also meant I was that much closer to
leaving Preston and the city.

“Have you been applying anywhere?” he
asked.

“No,” I replied. “I’ve been too busy
slaving away for you to even think about looking for jobs.”

“Would you consider working for me?” he
asked as he took a sip from his mug.

“There aren’t any open positions,” I
replied. I’d been checking the website at least once a week. My eyes glanced
down to a handwritten list on top of his desk filled with names of various
employees, most of them older. At the top of the list was Monica’s name.

“What’s that?” I asked as I reached for
the paper.

He snatched it back. “Just doing a little
trimming. Making room for fresh talent. It’s time.”

“You’re firing all those people?” I asked
as I jumped back from his desk.

“Mirabelle,” he said as his eyes tried to
reason with me. “This is normal. This is part of the business world. We trim.
We add. We grow. We change.”

“Monica’s been here for over a decade,” I
said. “She’s practically married to her job.”

“Yeah,” he said. “And her ideas are dull.
She has no concept of how social media works. And I’ll be damned if I send her
out to woo a potential million dollar client in her three-piece K-Mart suits.”

Pieces of the old Preston were beginning
to shine through, and I suddenly felt ill. Monica loved her job, and she was my
only friend there. She didn’t deserve to be laid off because she wasn’t shiny
and new and fresh out of college.

“You can’t work with her?” I asked. “I’d
be happy to teach her about social media.”

“She’s an old dog,” he said. “Can’t teach
an old dog new tricks. It’s time for her to go.”

“How many other people are on that list?”
I asked, my hands on my hips. I suddenly remembered Mr.
Halston’s
impending retirement in June. It was all aligning just perfectly for Preston’s
master plan. Get rid of all the old, dead weight. Bring in new, fresh ideas. No
wonder the HR lady had mentioned once they had a record number of interns that
year. He was scouting for people to replace
Halston’s
loyal minions.

“Not that many,” he lied. I’d seen at
least ten or fifteen names scribbled on that paper.

“I really thought you’d changed,” I said,
shaking my head in disappointment.

“Mirabelle, don’t be ridiculous,” he
said. “I can assure you, this is normal. This is the real world. I’m not the
monster you’re making me out to be. If this were your company, what would you
do?”

He had a point, I knew, but it still
didn’t change the harshness of the reality.

“Please keep Monica,” I said. “Move her
to a different position. Put her under your wing like you did mine.
Something, anything.
Don’t get rid of her. This job is all
she has.”

He leaned back in his seat, slightly
defeated, and sighed. “Fine.”

I smiled a small, victorious smile. I
couldn’t save them all, but if I could save Monica, I’d at least sleep a little
better that night.

PRESTON

Two months, ten days, four hours and thirty-seven
minutes. It had been far too long since I’d last kissed Mirabelle. Seeing her
strutting around the office in her tight pant suits and her illuminating smile,
spewing intelligence far beyond her years and putting together marketing plans
that were far beyond her level, was pure torture. I wanted nothing more than to
take her on the back of the desk like I had once before.

She had to have seen how much I stared at
her. A few times, when we were alone in my office together and the air was
charged with a sort of thick tension, I’d thought about kissing her pillow soft
lips and slipping my fingers through her smooth, light blonde hair once again.
But I always stopped myself.

As her internship was nearing to an end,
the idea that I might never see her again was becoming a reality. We had
twenty-six days left, which meant there were twenty-six days left for me to
convince her to stay
;
to convince her not to leave…me.

“I’m going on a business trip to Seattle
next weekend,” I said to her as I barged into her office one rainy April
morning.

“Oh?” she replied. I studied her face
trying to determine whether or not she was even remotely disappointed in the
fact that I’d be gone for a period of time. Before Mirabelle came along, I’d
traveled every chance I got. The moment I fell for her, I couldn’t stand to
spend a day away from her. Seattle was non-negotiable though. I was about to
pitch to one of our biggest potential clients in the history of the company. It
was a secret, side-project I’d been working on, and not even Mirabelle knew
about it.

“I need you to join me,” I said. “It’ll
be two days. Monday and Tuesday next week. I’ll have Ruthie arrange your
tickets and hotel accommodations. A car will pick you up at seven Monday
morning.”

Before she had time to say no, I left her
office.

***

I waited in the town car in front of her
apartment building the following Monday while the driver buzzed her apartment.
Within minutes, she came strutting out of the building, pulling a little black
suitcase behind her and wearing a tight, black suit with creamy blouse and a
string of pearls hanging from her neck.

“Good morning,” she said as the driver
opened the door and she climbed inside.

“Ready for Seattle?” he asked.

“You still haven’t told me what we’re pitching
or who we’re pitching to,” she said with an arched brow. “When are you going to
tell me these things?”

“You’re not pitching anything,” he said.
“I’ve got everything under control. I’ll give you the notes once we get on the
plane.”

“So what do you need me for?” she asked,
puzzled.

“The company we’re pitching to is a very
young, very diverse Internet start up,” he said. “I want to reflect that we’re
also young and diverse when we pitch.”

“Oh, so I’m the token young
Millenial
from your advertising team. I see,” she said,
annoyed.

I laughed. “It sounds bad when you put it
that way. You’re oversimplifying it.”

I placed my hand on hers, forgetting for
a second, that we were just employee and employer. She jerked her hand away
from mine and turned to look out the window.

“You’re quiet,” I said to her after ten
minutes of silence. We were approaching JFK and the rumble of planes overhead
filled the space around us.

She shook her head. “Just thinking.”

MIRABELLE

Watching Preston in his element, pitching
advertising and marketing plans, was damn near one of the sexiest things I’d
ever seen. When he really went for it, his face lit up, and his lips seemed to
spill all the right words, and I forgot what a perfectionistic,
arrogant
control freak he could be. Every pair of eyes
around that conference table were glued to him as he passed out handouts and
flipped to different slides on his presentation.

His presentation went beyond
textbook-perfect, and there was going to be no way that company would turn him
down.

Towards end of his spiel, he had me stand
and say a few things. I’d gone over his notes during the flight and suggested a
few changes, which he amazingly agreed with.

The moment the pitch was over, they shook
our hands and said they’d let us know soon.

“You did great,” I said to Preston as we
left the building and headed back towards the hotel.

“You think so?” he asked. In a rare
moment of vulnerability, Preston
Woodfield
didn’t
appear to be 100% full of
himself
.

“Absolutely,” I said. “I enjoyed watching
you in your element.”

Preston hailed a cab amongst the hustle
and bustle of downtown Seattle, and we headed back to the hotel. We had one
night to kick back and relax before our flight left the next morning.

“So what do you want to do tonight?” he
asked. “We can do anything you want.”

In a perfect world, the trip would’ve
been a sweet little romantic get away. Instead it was all business and no
pleasure, but I couldn’t complain. It was exactly the way I’d told him I wanted
things to be between us. He was simply respecting my wishes. Ironically, the
less he came onto me, the more I wanted him, and the feeling was only intensifying
with every day that passed as my last day with the firm inched nearer.