The Intern (BWWM)

Chapter 3

"Mr. Vanderbilt." Leilani stated, in monotone, immediately regretting following Glenda back into the office. 

Mr. Vanderbilt nodded in the receptionists direction, signaling her to leave. Mr. Vanderbilt was standing, his hands gripping the back of his office chair.

"Have a seat, Miss Jones. Please." He said to Leilani, this time in a more suggestive tone and not his usual "do this now" voice like Leilani had quickly gotten use to.

"I want to apologize." Mr. Vanderbilt began speaking. 

The last word in his sentence causing Leilani's eyes to pop open, completely astonished. 

"Not only for my outburst in at the cubicles, but for underestimating you." He told her. 

Leilani kept quiet. This was good to her. To finally know her new boss wasn't such a complete jerk.

"I've had a lot of assistants and interns in and out, some don't even last an hour but you did. And your revisions were very good." Mr. Vanderbilt informed her. Leilani couldn't help but beam. 

She hoped she hadn't just screwed up her internship with the "asshole" thing.

"I'd like to keep you on my team." He says. Leilani took a deep breath. 

Those were words she needed to hear. Words to encourage her. Words to keep her head in the game.

Mr. Vanderbilt cleared his throat. "Well, are you going to respond?" 

Leilani stopped breakdancing in her head and nodded quickly. "Oh, yes. I'm sorry for calling you an asshole. That was unprofessional." Leilani apologized.

"It's fine. I guess it was something I needed to hear." Mr. Vanderbilt confessed, his mind drifting off into another world. 

A few seconds later he cleared his throat and focused his attention back to Leilani. "I'll have the company car send you home for a few. Take a nap, I can tell you're tired. Come back at 4. I need your help with a few things." Mr. Vanderbilt instructed. 

He was back to his "do it now" voice, Leilani noticed.

She stood up happily, sashaying down the hallway. Glenda handed Leilani her name tag and key card back to her. She slid inside the company car, a wave of relief wiping her out. She hadn't screwed things up like she thought she did.

After a well-needed and very refreshing nap, Leilani had taken a beautiful shower, and was able to dress better than she had done earlier after resting up. She put on a navy blue bell bottom dress pants and a white sleeveless blouse. Her hair was back up in a bun.

When she had arrived back to the office, all the other employees had left. Glenda has even left for the day. Leilani knocked lightly on Mr. Vanderbilts office door, waiting for him to call out "come in" before she entered.

"I'm having you do the same thing as yesterday. Not as many. You should be able to finish them by 8pm. I would've done them myself but I have some conference calls. If you need anything, just shoot me a message from your computer." Mr. Vanderbilt tells her. 

Leilani nodded and picked up the short stack of papers that had a sticky note with her name attached to them.

Leilani had noted his tone of voice. It was a tad bit softer. She wondered if it was because of their altercation earlier or because of the absence of the other employees.

The next few hours flew by and Leilani had finished her work. Before she got up to take them to Mr. Vanderbilt, she copied her revisions like before and separated them from the originals. On her way back to her cubicle Mr. Vanderbilt met her by the copy room.

"I'm headed out for the evening. You can leave the copies on my desk and send the originals..." 

Leilani already knew what he was about to say so she finished his sentence right along with him. 

"Back to the authors." They said in unison. Leilani looked up at Mr. Vanderbilt, who had cracked a slight smile.

"Yes. Well, good night. Get home safe." He told her, back to a straight face as he focused his eyes on the floor before departing to the elevator. "

You too." Leilani called after him.

In his office, Leilani had only planned on dropping the papers and locking the door behind her, but she found herself snooping around.

She took a glance over this pictures on his desk. She saw him in a photo with two kids. A girl and a boy who she guessed were around her age from the university shirts they wore. Another photo was with him and a woman. They were both wearing wedding rings.

Mr. Vanderbilt was married. She picked up the photo, analyzing it carefully. The woman was beautiful. Long, luscious blonde hair. She had an athletic body.

Before she could continue snooping, she heard the office door open, and in walked Mr. Vanderbilt. 

"What are you- were you going through my things?" He questioned her, his eyebrows raised. 

"I was just dropping off the revisions. I'm sorry, I should go now." Leilani told the semi truth.

"It's okay if you were. You don't know much about me..." Mr. Vanderbilt trailed off. "The picture you're holding is my w-wife. Well ex-wife." He told her, quickly. Stuttering a little on the word "wife". 

Leilani wanted to know what happened but she knew it wasn't her place.

"Oh." Was all she said. 

"It's getting late. Would you like a ride?" Mr. Vanderbilt asked her. Leilani nodded. 

"That would be great." She confirmed. Leilani grabbed her purse and followed behind Mr. Vanderbilt.