The Intern: Tyler, The Creator

16. The Invite

Friday

I made my way over to the lunch room. Usually I ate my lunch outside—I hated small talk with anyone in the office.

Tyler and I seemed to be the only ones to leave for lunch. Ha. The only two black people in the office.

This time, I didn't have a choice, I forgot my wallet.

They had catered some Chinese food, which I gladly part-took in.

I grabbed some chow mein, turning around. I stopped in my tracks as a familiar face I hadn't seen made his way into the lunch room.

"Daniels?" I asked, eyeing him.

"You missed me?" He joked, walking over.

"I haven't seen you in a minute—since that one time..."

"Tyler had me working in New York at our second location," he put his hands into his suit pocket. "Asked me to come back since the guy who supposedly replaced me quit last week," he chuckled.

I smiled lightly.

"I uh, I wanted to apologize if I made you uncomfortable—,"

"No. You didn't; I was just caught off guard. I don't think anyone's ever been that forward to me before," I chuckled.

"That's a surprise."

I furrowed my brows confused.

"Don't act like no guy has ever shown interest in you." He lifted a brow.

"So you're making me fun of me now?" I moved past him to grab a water, joking.

He let out a sly laugh, leaning his weight on the door frame as I shut the fridge.

"No one really...notices me." I spoke, turning to face him. "I think that's probably why I was weirded out by you for a minute," I chuckled.

"Well I don't wanna weird you out. Uh, I'll see you around?" He took out his hand.

I shook it, nodding.

I smiled to myself as I watched him turn to leave towards his office.

He was definitely attractive; I could already hear Aaliyah in my ear telling me to use him as a distraction—sex wise. She's always telling me how I need to branch out.

I sat at my desk.

"Hey."

I looked up, Tyler surprising me. He seemed to move so swiftly and quietly, he startled me most of the time.

"Wanted to let you know that Daniels is back."

"I know. We just spoke—," I replied.

"You good? I forgot to let you know last week."

"We're good."

He nodded, continuing.

"I know you on lunch right now, I'm about to head out early," he looked at his wrist watch. "I just wanna say, you did really fucking good this week. I'm impressed," he had a slight smirk.

"You're impressed? So you didn't think I'd be able to handle it?" I joked—then realized I'd never joked with him before.

He let out a laugh which relieved the tenseness in me.

"Nah, I knew you was capable. I just wanted to reassure you. Even if you already knew."

I smiled.

He lightly placed his hand on the desk. My eyes went straight to the variety of rings across his fingers.

"Aight, I gotta go to this conference..."

"Have a good weekend?" I replied.

"You gotta stop replying with questions," he chuckled.

"Sorry, it's a habit."

"And stop saying sorry. You don't gotta apologize for anything."

I nodded.

He left.

...

My dad was home earlier than usual; 5pm, so Brent and I weren't able to hang out.

For the first time in a while, we ate dinner together. Not much of a dinner actually, just leftover pizza.

We talked a bit about our day. There wasn't much to talk about. We had literally zero in common.

"Oh!," he took a sip of his water before continuing. "Tyler invited me to his anniversary dinner with his girlfriend tomorrow."

"He invited you?"

"Yeah, he said it'll be a bunch of people from the office, some lawyers, close friends." He turned on the TV.

The fact that Tyler didn't even mention it to me kind of bothered me.

"He told me I could bring someone. You coming?" He got up from the table, taking his plate to the dishwasher.

"You don't think it'll be weird? his lawyer bringing his daughter, who he happens to be the boss of..."

"Nah," he replied nonchalantly.

I was clearly over thinking it.

I agreed, thinking about what it could be like.