Simply, I still love you. [Sequel to It's Simple. I Use You. You Use Me. ]

Chapter 10

THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER I HAVE WRITTEN IN MY LIFE. I'm sorry for the slow update. I had to do a lot of changes, here and there for this chapter. Nothing felt right, but I finally got it. HAPPY READING, BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. <3

"I've got another task for you, Lucille!" Mike says.

I am standing in front of his desk in his office with a stiff posture about this new task he has in mind. My hands already feels full from the fact that Ethan will be modeling for the internship I work at. That means he will be coming to the place I work at. He will be interacting with all the people I work with. More importantly, I will be seeing him more often than I wanted. I had no expectations left of anything. Anything could happen. I would have never thought that when I got this internship, that Ethan would step closer into my life again. Ironically, I thought with this internship, it would keep my mind busy and off from Ethan. It has now done the exact opposite of what I first hoped for. 

Mike walks around his desk and hands me a folder. 

"Another task?" I ask.

"You don't want it?"

"No, I mean, yes, I want it. I just didn't know I would get another one so soon. What is it?"

"Look inside."

I open the folder he hands me. Inside, laid one piece of paper with a list of several questions typed out in a small font and in numerical order. I pick the paper up from the folder. 

"What are these questions for?" 

I slowly scan through the list of questions. 

"What do you think?"

I look up to him. 

"An I interviewing someone?"

He nods. 

"Ethan Collins can't simply just be the model for our cover page. We have to dedicate at least a couple pages to his life and baseball."

"Wait.. I can't, Mike."

He raises a brow.

"And why can't you?"

"I---"

If this was some other athlete, I would have been stoked. I would have been jumping up and down and hugging Mike side to side. This was an opportunity that was rare for a small intern like myself, but this wasn't just some random athlete. This was Ethan Collins. A guy who broke my heart. A heart that I tried so hard to fix and finally have put the final pieces together again, only for me to learn that there are still pieces missing with one look at him. Of course, I couldn't explain that. There was too much history to be explained, but not enough words. 

"I just think there could be someone better at interviewing him than me," I say instead. 

"And you think I don't know that as the co-editor of Sports Famous?"

"That's not what I meant. I meant, I'm just merely an intern. I should be pouring coffee and copying papers."

"And you may be merely an ex-intern if you don't do this. Lucille, I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. Our magazine company does not hire interns so they can learn to pour coffee and copy papers. They should know that already before they come. We want our interns to contribute something great while they're here and before they leave. We want each of our interns to make an impact, small or big. I'm giving you this chance to prove yourself. Not everyone gets this, but I'm giving it to you. Of course, you have a choice, but let me just ask you, are you going to leave proving Jan right or wrong, Lucille?"