Intertwined

Chapter Sixteen

I left for New York a week after graduation. It turned out Mackenzie and Phoebe were going there too as well so we decided to live in the same studio apartment and share a room. Saying goodbye to Charles was pretty emotional. Neither one of us wanted to let go but we eventually did. I hugged him and he hugged me tighter. I took one last sniff of the cologne he always wore. We had no idea how we were going to do this long distance relationship but we made a promise to ourselves that we would.

"Wait for me to come home," I breathed the words into his ear.

"I will."

The first month in New York was good. I worked as an intern in one of the companies for creative writing in New York called Creative101 and a part-timer in a restaurant with Mackenzie and Phoebe. I needed to work my butt off. Sometimes it would be stressful at work due to a lot of errands and writing deadlines. But all was well because my relationship with Charles was still great. The best part of the day would be receiving 'good morning' and 'good night' texts from him. He actually landed a job that caters photography services for weddings and special occasions. We would share to each other what happened during the day like we used to when we were still near to each other. I thought, we were good with this LDR thing.

But I was wrong. Normally, we got super busy with our jobs. But I never failed to text him every day, even just a simple hello. There were days when Charles would never text or call me to say hello or ask how my day went. I actually felt unimportant but I tried to understand his side. Maybe he was just too busy. But I was busy too as well due to writing assignments. My boss, Jacqueline Baine, didn't want late works. I also ran errands for her. She saw that I got good work ethics so Jacqueline made me as an assistant for her secretary, Olivia Berry. It was double the work load for me. Olivia was actually a burden because she sometimes passed on to me the errands that were supposedly hers leaving me no idea on how to do it. Anyways, I needed to make a living.

It was early morning and I got myself ready for work. I looked at my phone and Charles texted me.

"Hey Vie!"

My heart was racing fast when I read his text message. Who knew after being with him for four years he could still awaken the entire animal kingdom in my stomach.

"Hey Charles! What are you doing today?" I texted him back.

I went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. My phone was vibrating expecting to have a call from Charles. Instead it was Olivia.

"Olivia?" I called.

She talked fast on the phone, "Where are you? Jacqueline needs you to get all the new drafts to her office after you go through them all."

I cut her off, "Wait, all of them? The new drafts from fifteen writers?"

She told me, "Yes. You can read right? Anyways, you also need to provide the outline of each draft and suggestions of the top drafts that you think Jacqueline would want to consider."

My heart was pumping fast and I scurried towards my room. I said to Olivia, "Isn't this supposed to be your job? You don't want to trust me." Why the hell would she give this much responsibility to an intern?

"Listen Andrews, you're my assistant. Now go! What are you waiting for? Jacqueline needs the draft and suggestions by lunch," she ordered.

I looked at the clock and it was already eight in the morning. If I needed to get all this work done before lunch, then I needed to go like right now and read all fifteen drafts with at least seventy pages each.