The Intern (wattys2014)

Chapter 1: Who's the boss?

When I started my new job at Exquisite Events, I had two goals. The first goal was to become a top event planner so I could one day own my own wedding planning business. And the second was to impress my boss. Lucinda Del Vaughn is one of the biggest names in LA. If you got a recommendation from Lucinda, you could literally work anywhere. Of course, this was easier said than done. Her first words to me, and I quote, were "What, are we recruiting interns in homeless shelters now?" I looked her in the eye and smiled brightly, determined to ignore what I hope was a joke.

"I'm Ann Blake," I said. "I am your new intern, and I am incredibly excited for the opportunity."

"I bet you are Ann. I mean, just look at you. You frizzy, shapeless, and you probably bought your shoes at Kmart. Most girls bend over backwards to get a position here, and I don't know how you got through our screening process."

"I did an interview with a man named Robert," I had said.

"Ah yes," Lucinda replied. "Well, my son always has liked a lost cause. He's a fantastic director for the company, but I never did cure his bleeding heart. My bet, you'll quit by the end of the week."

But I didn't quit, because I didn’t quit things. Relentless and petite are two very apt ways to describe me.

I kept working and trying to impress Lucinda. I bought new clothes, which she still mocked, and did everything she asked. Even when she asked me to clean up vomit from hotel room floors after Charlie Sheen's birthday party, I did it. Even when I was asked to bail a pro-basketball player from jail an hour before his wedding, I did it. And when that same basketball tried to feel me up in the car, I slapped his hands and got him to walk down that aisle. Because I wasn't just an intern, I was an intern for Exquisite Events. We planned parties for Hollywood's best and brightest, even when they behaved like overgrown children. I came close to quitting once. But something stopped me, and it wasn't my hopes and dreams. It was the sexier than sin event director who gave the job to begin with, Robert Del Vaughnn.

I had been working a wedding, for a former model and her fiancé, who was an accountant. Everything had gone perfectly, and the bride had even paid an additional two percent bonus for making her day perfect. I marched into the office the following Monday, feeling like a badass. I put on some brand new pink pumps and strutted into Lucinda's office.

"Hey Lucinda," I said. "I just wanted you to know the wedding was perfect. The bride gave us an additional bonus and said she'd give us a great review. I handed out business cards at the wedding to three other potential brides! And there were no hiccups."

"Ok," Lucinda said.

"Ok," I said. "Aren't you excited? I brought in potential business and did fantastic on my first solo project. Don't you have something to say?"

I shouldn't have said anything, but I had worked hard. That bonus went directly to the company, and all I wanted to hear was a thank you. I'd been literally cleaning vomit for this woman, and she gave me nothing.

"If I'm supposed to be impressed that you didn't screw up," Lucinda said. "I'm not, because you did screw up."

"Excuse me," I asked. "My event was flawless."

"You are supposed to use the caterers we partner with," Lucinda said. "They give us a ten percent discount if we go through them, and therefore we get a bigger bonus by saving money. You went with an unknown caterer and it could easily have gone the other way. What if your caterer had screwed up or cancelled? We don’t take those kind of chances, ever."

"Your caterer refused to go with an alternative menu," I said. "The bride is a vegan, and the groom’s family needed traditional kosher meals. The chef from your caterer refused to accommodate them, and I sent you three emails before I booked my own caterer."