“I pick both.” I smiled.
“What? You only have two tickets to—”
“One team can have my tickets to the IPO ball and the other team can have my tickets to the one day retreat in Napa Valley this weekend.”
Everyone in the room let out a collective gasp; Jonathan’s eyes widened.
“You’re giving up a private flight and a winery day?” Mr. Barnes sounded shocked. “Seriously?”
I nodded. I’d been thrilled when the board sent all the directors an email about rewarding us for our hard work. They’d announced that they were giving us a first class flight to one of the best wineries in the country, but I knew I wouldn’t accept it as soon as they sent us the tickets.
“I am...This will make the rest of the interns work even harder, don’t you think? I may still meet you guys there though. It is only a one hour drive away and I do love wine.” I laughed and the rest of the directors laughed with me.
“Wow, that’s very generous of you.” He smiled. “Thank you interns for all your hard work and we’ll email you about which team gets what tickets later today.”
We gave them one last round of applause as they left the room. As soon as the door shut, we all stood up and stretched while Mr. Barnes prepared the projector screen for our weekly “come together” session.
“That was very nice of you...” Jonathan texted me.
“Thank you.”
“I designed that reward just for you. Why did you give it up?”
“I was trying to be nice.”
“A little too nice...”
I looked up so I could give him a dramatic eye roll, but he wasn’t in front of me anymore. He was sitting right beside me.
“Jonathan,” I whispered. “You can’t...Please don’t—”
“Please don’t what? I can’t sit next to you during the film?”
“No...”
“Why not?”
I narrowed my eyes at him and he smiled.
“Am I allowed to touch you in public yet?” He reached for the pen I was holding and pressed his fingers against my hand as he slowly drew it away.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?” He purposely dropped the pen in my lap.
I jumped up from the table and cleared my throat. “I’m going to get some coffee from downstairs before we start. Does anyone else want anything?”
“Oh! Can you get me a caramel macchiato?” “I’ll take a regular coffee with extra foam!” “I’ll have a mocha latte!”
I ripped a sheet of paper out of my notebook and held it out for people to write down their orders.
“I’ll help you get the coffee, Miss Gracen.” Jonathan stood up and smiled at me.
Shit...Why didn’t I think about that?
I watched the paper stop at every single director, wondering if someone else would volunteer to help me bring it back, but by the time the paper made it full circle, no one had offered.
“You don’t have to rush to get back.” Mr. Barnes handed me the paper. “It’s apparently going to take twenty to thirty minutes for our satellite advisor to join us on the video chat today. He’s having difficulties with his login.”
“Right.” I walked out of the room and rushed towards the elevators. “I don’t need your help, Mr. Statham. I’ll just get a coffee cart and roll it back.”
He rolled his eyes and hit the down button.
“It’s too early for us to do anything...” I looked up at him, pleading. “It’s way too risky and you know it...”
The elevator doors sprang open and he pushed me inside. I thought he was going to hit the stop button and kiss me anyway, but he pressed the button for the lobby and looked over at me.
“I’m not trying to sleep with you right now, Claire,” he said. “I just want to be around you. That’s it.”
“Okay...”
The elevator reached the lobby and we both grabbed a coffee cart as soon as we stepped off.
I tore the list in half and handed it to him. “It was nice of you to install a free Starbucks here...Everyone loves it.”
“I’d hoped so. One of my employees thought the old coffee we served tasted like shit.”
“It did.”
He laughed. “Why did you really give up your winery ticket? Wine is one of your favorite things...”
It’s my number one favorite thing... “I honestly just wanted to be nice...The interns have been working late hours too and they haven’t been getting paid extra so...” I handed my coffee list to the barista. “I didn’t know you planned that trip with me in mind.”
“Well, now that you’re not going we can do something else together.”
“Like what?”
“I’ll think of something...” He handed his list to the other barista and helped me load napkins and pastries onto the cart. His phone started to ring and he stepped away. “I’ll be right back.”
The barista set more coffees on the counter and I loaded them onto our carts.
“Claire? Is that you?” Mr. Henderson stepped in front of me. “How have you been?”