Willa & the Extraordinary Internship

CH. 18

Maybe it was because her own life was in utter shambles or maybe it was because she made a boy with a manuscript a promise, but either way, when Willa woke up, the first thing on her mind was Nathan Wheeler. She dressed quickly, tugging her jeans over her hips and pulling her gray tee-shirt down, the fabric barely grazing the waistband of her jeans. Throwing her cardigan over her arms, she hastily made the bed and crept out of the room.

Spotting Maryam curled up on the couch fast asleep, Willa scrawled a note for her on a pink Post-it. She signed her name with a flourish and added a large heart over the "i". Thanks for last night. Call me when you're up! Hope you're not too hung over. Love, Willa.

Though she was typically a light-weight, Willa was surprisingly clear-headed as she peeled her car out of the driveway. The university was only a few minutes away and because it was so early, the roads were clear of traffic. Since most undergraduates skipped their Friday classes, the parking lot had plenty of spaces.

Willa was at her desk sorting through Paige's mail when the older woman entered, hair in a messy bun and a thermos of coffee in her hand. "Hi, Willa," she said distractedly, fiddling with the key to her office. "Anything important I need to deal with?"

"Just an interview request. One of your classmates from grad school emailed to ask whether you would be free to Skype with her fiction-writing class this week."

"Far too busy. Tell her no." Paige swung her door open. "On second thought, maybe I should do it. Free publicity for the book. Those kids will probably tweet about meeting me, right?"

Willa nodded sagely, not that it mattered - Paige had already disappeared inside her office, obviously not expecting an answer. She turned her attention back to Paige's inbox, deleting the junk mail and adding things to the author's calendar. Just a few more hours and Paige would take her lunch break, leaving her office unattended for at least an hour. If Paige had a glass of wine with lunch or met some friends, possibly longer.

True to form, Paige took off early for lunch after her morning classes. With her boss gone, it was the perfect time for Willa to sneak into the office and find the evidence Nate needed. To be on the safe side, she locked the main door so no one could barge in before she slipped into Paige's office. As usual, the place was a mess. Candy wrappers strewn over the desk, papers in disarray, and a lukewarm Red Bull teetering dangerously on the edge of the desk - it looked like a dozen frat boys lived there, Willa thought with disgust. She resisted the urge to sweep a half-eaten bearclaw from Panera into the trash - that was from Tuesday, for crying out loud.

If I was an illicit manuscript, where would I be? she wondered as she rifled through some of the papers. Nope, that looked like grading. She pulled a drawer open, but it was only a snack compartment filled with granola bars, M&Ms, and chewing gum. A search of the other desk drawers proved equally fruitless as they were all filled with lecture notes, class handouts, and grading rubrics going back two semesters.

Willa scanned the shelves of books, finally hitting upon a red binder squirreled away in between some boring, thick monstrosities from the eighties. The first page seemed innocuous enough - it looked like a copy of this semester's syllabus and course guidelines. Her eyes skimmed over the words "plagiarism will result in a failing grade" with a healthy dose of ridicule. She flipped to the next page and a slow grin spread over her face. "Finally," she muttered. The same draft that Nate had shown her was here in Paige's binder, a duplicate in all ways except one. Though the pages had been photocopied, it must have been before she'd made suggestions on Nate's work, because the notes on Paige's version were different.

Nate's first paragraph was: Simeon liked to portray that he was the same as all the other kids, but he couldn't quite dumb himself down enough to pull it off. He was the son of the legendary vampire hunter Kevan Lee, and whether it was his lightning-fast reflexes whenever someone dropped a glass or his uncanny ability to sniff out secrets, everyone at his boarding school knew that Simeon Lee was cool.

Paige had put a bracket around the entire paragraph and written: a little superficial but I think I can do better. There was even a smiley.

Willa wanted to cry. Pressure built up in her chest until she couldn't hold it in any longer and she released a bleating sort of moan, staring at the damning evidence that was right in front of her. Paige's trilogy was a lie. Paige's fame was a lie. Paige was a fraud, nothing more than a thief who had used her position of trust to gain access to her students' work and abused that trust by stealing their ideas. Nothing was verbatim, but scenes were copied left and right with the basic premise left intact.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and began taking pictures starting from page one, sending each to Nate as she went. She didn't dare risk trying to take the binder - what if Paige noticed it was missing? She was on page eighty-seven when Nate texted her back. His text only had four words. Outside. Let me in.

"What are you doing here?" Willa hissed once she'd opened the door. "How did you get here so fast, anyway?"

"I work part-time at the library," Nate said, breezing past her. "Acquisitions department. I buy books, basically."

"Okaaaaayyy," Willa said, drawing the word out. "But again, what are you doing here? You can't be here!" She tried vainly to grab his arm but he dodged her and bee-lined straight for Paige's office.

"Her car isn't in the parking lot. We're fine. Is this it?" Nate's hand started to reach out towards the binder.

"No, I'm putting this back," Willa insisted, feeling all her courage draining out of her.

Nate snatched the binder before she could move, defensively clutching it. "No way, Willa. This is proof."

"Don't you watch cop shows? This was illegally obtained! It's inadmissible in court!" Willa was ready to hyperventilate. Not only could this cost her her job, but wasn't it against the law to steal from the university?

"Yeah, well, I'm not a cop. Neither are you. We're concerned citizens," Nate drawled. "Besides, who said anything about taking this to court?" He squinted at her. "Suing her isn't my priority right now. If the publisher drops her, that's good enough for me."

"They gave her a quarter-million for the trilogy. The third book is about to come out. They're not going to drop her on your say-so, Nathan! You've got to be smart about this."

She hadn't really seen him this close before. They were standing almost chest to chest, glaring at each other, both panting slightly from their argument. The look in Nate's eyes was defiant, glittering with challenge and anger. She'd never thought much of brown eyes before, but now she could see they were flecked with gold and ringed with the thickest fringe of brown lashes she'd ever seen on a boy. This boy is catastrophic, Willa thought almost dizzily.

"I don't want to be smart," Nate said, voice throaty and low. It had dropped at least two octaves and smoldered with promise. He took a step closer and Willa was suddenly excruciatingly aware of the fact that her breasts were against his chest, tingling pleasantly from the contact. He can probably tell how fast my heart is beating, Willa thought, conscious of each rise and fall of her chest as she fought to regain the breath he'd stolen from her with his proximity.

She didn't realize she'd spoken out loud until he grinned. "Not sure how many beats per second, Miss Grainger," he whispered huskily, "but I daresay you're attracted to me."

Willa wished she had a witty repartee but before she knew what she was doing, her hands cupped his face, tracing his strong, angular jaw. "I don't do casual," she managed to say, hypnotized.

"Me neither." With that, he pressed his lips to hers.

Author's Note: Forgive me if there's any typos, I wrote this after midnight and was just so eager to post it that I decided to hold off on double-checking it until the morning because I'm dog-tired. Hope you like it! Did anyone see this coming?