Work in Progress

Chapter One

It was unusually quiet for a Monday morning.

Leah would often have a lot of tasks to do, especially at the beginning of the week. She contemplated asking her manager Elliott whether he had stuff for her to do but when she took a peek at him sitting at his desk, he was staring at his computer with a disgusted expression on his face.

Yeah, I better not bother him right now. She thought to herself.

It was her first internship, so she wasn't sure how they worked. She felt as if she had to be on her best behavior at all times, especially considering how the company she worked for was globally renowned. She landed the internship of her dreams at the company of her dreams and the last thing she wanted to do was mess things up.

"Nothing to do, huh?" a voice erupted behind her, snapping her back to reality. It was the other intern, Max. He was smirking as he stood over Leah. Who did he think he was? Some hot Greek god?

"How could you tell?" Leah replied, rolling her eyes to emphasize her boredom.

"Well, first of all, your computer screen is focused on your Google Chrome clock extension. You keeping track of the time or something? Having it displayed there wouldn't make it go any faster."

"I suppose you have nothing to do either since you're here pestering me?"

Max let out a small chuckle. "Actually I do have some journalists to contact but I just wanted to come here to ask if you had any plans for lunch."

Did Max just ask me out to lunch?

"I was planning to just order in from Food Panda." Leah replied. Secretly, her heart was beating rapidly and her palms were sweating. Nobody has ever asked her to do anything with them. This was way out of her comfort zone. She didn't even like Max in that way but the thought of him showing interest in her made her feel nervous. Couldn't he just have texted her this on Messenger? Why bother coming all the way to her desk?

"Oh, okay, good you're staying in the office pala₁. Lydia asked me to ask you if you could help her in one of our accounts' press gifting after lunch. She thinks you're much better at it than me."

＿

₁ Tagalog for "after all"

Leah's cheeks flushed. Of course Max didn't come over here to ask her out but to ask for a favor.

"Um, yeah. Just run it by Elliott first. He told me if other managers wanted me to help them with their tasks to let him know first."

Max let out what he probably thinks is a million-dollar smirk again. "Sweet, I'll text you what he says."

Leah gave him a thumbs up as he turned towards Elliot's desk but seconds later he abruptly turned back to Leah.

"By the way, if you have nothing to do but want to look busy, try not to keep your desktop fixed on your clock extension."