Willa & the Extraordinary Internship

CH. 7

Before she could process what had happened, he'd strode toward the door and with one powerful motion, yanked it open, and shut it behind him just as forcefully. "What did I say?" she muttered, slumping into her desk chair in utter bewilderment. Using her credentials to log in to the computer, she set about replying to the litany of fan mail Paige had accumulated since Willa had parsed through the first round in the morning. She didn't have long to ponder the weirdness of boys when the door flung open and in came Paige, hair in disarray and mustard staining a buttonhole of her white shirt.

"Not late, am I?" Paige cast a worried look at Willa, panting slightly.

"No." Willa wasn't sure whether to mention Nate. After all, she couldn't be positive Nate had been snooping, could she? She didn't want to get him in trouble.

Paige's troubled expression cleared. "Send them in if anyone deigns to drop by," she called over her shoulder as she hustled to her office.

"Sure thing," Willa replied, turning her attention back to the monitor. She waited until she heard the click of the door as it shut before she fired up the browser and went to Facebook. There he was. She sucked in a breath, scowling when she saw Luke's arrogant face on the screen. The smile that had once made her want to curl her toes now made her want to drive her fist through the screen and watch his face pixelate into smithereens. For what seemed like the hundredth time, they'd squabbled last night about why he didn't want to change his Facebook status to "in a relationship". Willa chewed her lip, fighting the urge to call him and fight it out again. He didn't want to rush into anything, or so he claimed, and because he lived over an hour away, they didn't always see each other as often as she'd like.

They'd been dating for three months. It had taken three dates for him to ask her to see him exclusively and it had taken three weeks for her to sleep with him. Rushing hadn't seemed to bother him then, she thought wryly, minimizing the screen when she heard a flurry of activity from inside Paige's office.

"Were you in here?" Paige stuck her head out the door. Her eyebrows had drawn together in consternation.

"No." Willa tried not to think of Nate Wheeler and his tousled chestnut hair and broad shoulders. Tried not to think about what he was doing in Paige's office and whether she should mention anything about the incident. Dread growing, she asked cautiously, "why?"

Paige scrutinized her, like she was weighing whether or not to say anything. Deciding with "not", she smiled tightly. "Don't worry about it. I must have made a mess earlier." She shut the door abruptly.

"Want help tidying up?" Willa called out. No answer.

She curled her legs under her, shifting to get comfortable on the swivel office chair. When she'd gotten the job, it had been the stupid swivel chair that excited her the most. It reminded her of the times she'd gone to her dad's office as a child and spun round and round, stubby child-legs sticking straight out. Now it was just another thing in her life that didn't fit quite right.

Her phone buzzed. She's going to be mad read Maryam's text.

Willa scrunched her nose. Her novel wasn't even about Cyn. Not really. Just a few scenarios in which the gamut of Cyn's personality had played a crucial, starring role. And then exaggerated a bit for effect with a few name changes here and there. It wasn't even Cyn, exactly. It was the version of Cyn that Willa wanted to be, minus the recreational drug use and casual disregard for other people. The book's main character, Hanna, was bright, spunky, and unapologetically herself in a world that was trying to make her exactly like everybody else.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was five past one-o'clock and no one had dropped by for Paige's office hours. Willa stood, manuscript heavy in her hands. Belatedly, she realized her thumb had a papercut, which had smeared over the title of her book, No More Mrs. Nice Guise. Willa wasn't superstitious, but between Maryam's warning and the ominousness of blood on the writing, she felt a twinge of something in her chest. Summoning all her courage to knock, she only had to wait a second before the door was ripped open, Paige Grimsby scowling at her.

"I don't know why the university makes me keep office hours when no one even comes in, yes, what is it, Willa?"

Willa smiled tentatively, extending the stack of paper like a live grenade. "I know you're incredibly busy but I was hoping that if you were inclined, you could take a look at my manuscript?"

Paige's eyes flickered with interest. "You wrote something?"

"You don't even have to read the whole thing," Willa rushed to say. "Just let me know if it's any good?"

"Willa, you've been working for me for two years," Paige said. "Of course I'll read the whole thing." She accepted the manuscript and thumbed through the first dozen pages. "I can practically see your personality bleeding through the pages." She smiled wryly. "As well as the blood. Get a Band-Aid for that. Second drawer on the right." She disappeared inside her office again, shutting the door without so much as a goodbye.

"Thank you!" Willa said as she came face to face with the little gold placard on the door that had Paige's name emblazoned proudly on it.

As she returned to her seat, she typed back too late. just gave it to paige. and inserted a thumbs-up emoji. Did that sound too passive aggressive? She deleted the emoji and then hit send. A second later, her message was captioned with Read at 1:09 PM, a handy little feature of the iPhone that Maryam had forgotten to disable.

She gave it a minute, willing a reply to arrive. One minute stretched into two. Okay, maybe Maryam was busy. Maybe she was trying to figure out how to reply.

Or maybe I'm just a bitch, Willa thought to herself miserably.

Author's Note: Votes and comments make my day :)