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“Does the big boss come around often?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.
“Often enough,” Theo said with a wry twist of his mouth.
He set me up with a series of mundane tasks that seemed neverending, and he assured me there’d be more to come when I was done, and I spent most of my shift scanning in documents. Afterward, Theo asked if I’d ever used an online calendar. I goggled at him, and he shrugged.
“You’d be surprised.”
When I proved I could indeed find my way around a calendar app, he grinned the first genuine smile I’d seen on his dour face.
“Fantastic. This will help me a lot. Just go through the emails in this folder and add any dates of appointments or meetings onto the calendar.”
He seemed thrilled to offload what was clearly the bane of his existence onto me, and hovered around behind my shoulder for a bit until he was sure I grasped the concept. After about an hour of that, I missed scanning. My enthusiasm was wearing off, and I began to wonder how people did this eight hours a day, every day, for their entire lives. Since I was a student, I was only doing half days and even then, the time seemed to tick by backward.
It was all the more reason to knuckle down and stay in school to achieve my dreams.
Just when my eyes were closing of their own accord, Theo reappeared with a rolling cart full of papers. “Come on, more scanning.”
“Great,” I said, actually meaning it. I jumped up and followed him, taking a pile of folders off the cart as they started to slide to the floor.
We were about to leave the open work area and move down the hall toward the equipment room when Theo stopped dead. I looked up to see why, and my jaw started dropping.
It was my guy. The mysterious man from the coffee shop. He looked even larger than life in that setting, striding down the hall in a dark gray suit that fit him like a glove. His shoulders seemed broader, he appeared even taller than I remembered, and I’d daydreamed about him so long that I was sure I was building him up to godlike proportions in my imagination.
As he passed, his eyes swept the work area. Even from a distance, I could see how blue they were, full of fire and determination today, instead of the hint of mischief I picked up yesterday. His gaze settled on me for a second, but before I could smile, it was already gone. He continued past as if he hadn’t seen me. Or recognized me. I craned my neck to watch him go into Vera’s office, and yes, I checked out his ass. It was amazing. What in the heck was wrong with me?
“Put your tongue back in your mouth,” Theo said bitterly.
My cheeks flamed, that he noticed my obvious interest. “Who is that?” I asked, trying to be cool.
“That’s the big boss, Mr. Volkov.”
“Are you serious?” I was astounded at this turn of events. “I actually met him in a coffee shop yesterday, and he’s really nice.”
Theo snorted. “No, he’s really not. He’s hard as nails and extremely exacting. If you want to complete this internship, you better not screw anything up.”
He might have been alluding to my unprofessional display of ogling our boss, and I sniffed primly before slumping along behind him to finish out the day scanning.
I couldn’t afford to screw up. Couldn’t lose the credit, or my scholarship was out the door and never coming back. Just that morning, when I was all amped up on finally getting a job, I’d decided to start paying for my classes going forward. Aleks and Katie had been sneakily generous, prepaying up until my graduation date, and until I learned where that money came from, it had seemed like a dream come true.
Now, I was going to refuse it all, going so far as to sign up for all my new classes under a different name if that’s what it took. That would surely break Katie’s heart. She took so much pride in being a provider, and as much as it bothered me over the years to watch her work herself to exhaustion so I could get where I was today, I would have kept accepting that.
Because it was honest. It made her happy, and I fully intended to return the favor once I graduated and was settled. Fokin money was a different story. I just wished Katie and Aunt Marjorie would understand why I was so unyielding.
If I ever wanted to achieve my dreams, I had to stay squeaky clean and above reproach. All it would take was one reporter finding out my college tuition had been paid for by mafia money, and any chance at being elected for anything was annihilated.
I’d get six jobs before I let that happen. Brooke somehow managed it all on her own, and so would I.
I was halfway through the cartload of papers when it was time for me to leave. Remembering Vera’s words earlier, I wondered if I was expected to finish. It was at least two more hours of work, and I had a class down in Berkeley to get to. I was torn on what to do when Theo stuck his head in the door and begrudgingly told me I did a good job and he’d see me tomorrow.
“Thanks a lot, Theo,” I said. “Have a great evening.”
After all that drudge work I could kind of see why there was no spark in his eyes, and I was determined not to ever get that way. Most of all, I was grateful to have the internship, as dull as it was turning out to be.
As I left, I once again caught sight of Mr. Volkov, striding toward the exit like a glorious wild stallion. We seemed to be leaving at the same time, which made images of another coffee shop interlude dance in my head. If only I didn’t have to race back down to Berkeley for my class.
Once again, he turned to peruse the work area, and this time, his eyes met mine, seeming to capture me. Since Theo had such a bad attitude, I assumed he was wrong about my new boss, and I smiled, even lifted my hand to wave.
It was like I wasn’t even there as he hurried past, dropping his blue gaze. He either didn’t see me or was ignoring me, or worst of all, really didn’t remember me. Maybe Theo was right, and he was a hardass, but could I have misinterpreted his flirty friendliness from yesterday so badly?
