Finding Herself(Surrender, Part 1)(10)

The next Monday, Emily arrived at her cubicle just before nine, and stopped by Brandon’s cubicle to say “hi”.

“Oh my God, Emily,” Brandon gushed when he saw her. “You’ll never guess who I ran into on the elevator today!”

Emily put on a politely curious expression.

“Nate Steel!” Brandon’s eyes were glittering with excitement. “I got here a bit too early, but when I got to the elevator, Nate was there. He asked me how I liked the work, and I asked him what he thought of the Mets. It was great!”

Emily forced herself to smile and said, “That’s exciting, I’m sure he liked talking to you too.”

She headed back to her cubicle, groaning inside. She had to get over her stupid attraction to Nate. If Brandon and Nate became too buddy-buddy, maybe Brandon would be hired for the full-time position, and she’d be out looking for a job from scratch. It was time to be more aggressive, and get face time with the boss.

But then she remembered the way Nate’s eyes glinted when he looked at her, and the shivers she felt running up her arms. If she was stuck in the elevator with Nate one more time, she’d wind up saying or doing something very stupid, and that would definitely cost her the job. It was better to avoid Nate as much as possible, and focus on doing her work.





Chapter Four



The weeks went by, and Emily stayed busy with work. She hardly ever saw Nate, except from the distance, when he came to attend meetings on their floor. On the weekends, she met up with Serena and Shirley, and she made sure she called her parents regularly.

Then, one Tuesday afternoon, John called Emily into his office. When she got there, John had a puzzled look on his face.

“Is anything wrong?” she asked him, suddenly worried that she was going to get fired from the internship.

“I don’t think so,” John said slowly. “Nate wants to see you up in his office. In five minutes.”

Emily couldn’t hide her dismay. She felt sure that something was wrong. “Did he say why?” she asked John, but he merely shook his head.

“You’ll know when you know,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, and Emily left the room feeling confused.

She made a pit-stop at the bathroom to make sure there wasn’t anything stuck on her teeth, ran her fingers through her hair, and headed upstairs.

As Emily walked through the tiny lobby in front of Nate’s office, Tiffany, his blonde secretary, turned her head at stare at her. But this time Emily knew better than to say anything to the woman. Instead, she walked straight up to the door and knocked loudly.

“Come in,” Nate called, and she walked in with a confidence that she didn’t really feel.

“You wanted to see me?” she asked, smiling slightly. It was good to see Nate again. He’d taken off his suit jacket and was sitting at his desk in rolled-up shirtsleeves. There were papers spread out on the desk before him, and he seemed pleased to see her.

“Sit down,” he said, “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Emily wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. “Well, I guess my cubicle’s a bit out of the way,” she said.

Nate smiled in response, but didn’t say anything. He was staring at her, his eyes locked on hers, and Emily could feel tiny goosebumps travelling up her arms. She sat down and crossed her legs demurely.

“You’re wondering why I called you here,” he said finally.

Emily nodded.

“There’s a company I’m wondering about, and you’re in its demographic. It’s a family-owned chain of 24-hour ‘cafes’ which serve coffee and cake. What do you think?”

“Where is it located?”

“They have one store in Chicago and one in Orange County. I’m not sure how scalable it is.”

“It won’t work in New York,” Emily said slowly, “There are too many 24/7 places here already. They might do well in small college towns, and most other big cities. I haven’t seen the financials, but it sounds like a good concept.”

Nate nodded and came around to the other side of the desk. He was standing dangerously close, Emily thought, and she wondered how it would feel to reach out and stroke his arm. How would he respond, would he reach out and pull her close to him –

“What do you think?”

Emily found herself being jolted out of her daydream. “I’m sorry sir, I missed that.”

Nate’s eyes narrowed and Emily felt herself growing pale.

“I asked you not to call me sir,” he said darkly, and Emily stared at the tips of her shoes.

“I’m sorry, I – it won’t happen again.”

“Are you sure?” Nate’s body was radiating anger. “Because I feel like you’re just pushing me. You know what you’re doing, and you want me to punish you.”