Chapter Six
Emily found herself staring at the view of the brick wall through her window. The morning sun was streaming into her room. She felt bleary-eyed and told herself she needed to buy some blinds for the window. She was due at the magazine again this morning, but after her kiss with Alec last night, she seemed to feel immobile in bed.
Emily hadn’t been able to sleep. She had walked home in a daze, and went straight to her room and laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. What had the kiss meant? Had he been wanting to kiss her or was it merely something that had felt right because it was in the moment? There was no way to deny the connection that sprang up between them in the rare moments when they were alone or weren’t being watched.
But it was all sorts of wrong. That was her boss. Her billionaire boss. It was wrong on so many levels.
She couldn’t quit her internship. Not now, after she had worked so hard to get to the city and now worked at a magazine. To leave would be to work in the coffee shop forever, barely scraping by to pay rent in this tiny apartment. No, Emily wanted this more than anything.
She also wanted Alec. But no – that was wrong. Wrong.
The thinking had gone on and on in circles until suddenly it was morning, and Emily was dragging herself out of bed, hopping in the shower and making her way back to the magazine.
It was just as busy this morning as yesterday morning. Jacob was already there, typing away on his laptop. He gave Emily a small wave.
“Brought you a coffee.”
“Oh, thank you.” She lunged for the coffee as if it was her own personal savior.
“Late night?”
“Yeah, couldn’t sleep.”
“Alec finally gave us an office since I’ll be working on the cover stories. We’re going to move into it today. Ready?”
“Sounds great.” Emily meant it – she wanted to be kept as busy as possible.
And busy it was. Emily barely gave Alec any thought as she worked on setting up Jacob’s office. It was one of the largest since almost all of the cover stories would be going to him. Emily had never heard of a magazine where the cover stories were written by a single person, and when she’d brought it up, Jacob had chuckled.
“I’m pretty much told what to write from Alec and his board of directors. As much as I would want the cover stories to be hard-hitting and focus on the world today, it’ll end up being pieces about workouts and which razor blades work the best. Just how it goes. There wouldn’t be any point in hiring multiple people to work on cover stories with this magazine, at least not until we know if we’re going to take off.”
“Oh.”
“Why, kid, you thought this was going to be some hard-hitting journalism with this magazine? Not in this day and age. Alec wants an e-issue to go along with the print issue at the same time. You know anything about computers and social media?”
“Yeah, I use most of the popular ones.”
“At least you’ll know so I won’t be in the dark.”
Emily smiled. She liked Jacob, she realized. He seemed down to Earth and hadn’t spoken down to her because of her age and inexperience. She could learn a lot from him.
Emily was going to reply when Jacob waved at someone behind her. She turned around, looking out the glass door of the office to see Alec. But he wasn’t alone. There was a pretty Hispanic woman holding his hand. Her hair was sleek and straight, with one braid going down the side of her heart shaped face. She was wearing a summer dress even though it was fall, with boots that went up to her knees. The look worked effortlessly. She was gazing up at Alec. Emily’s heart skipped a beat.
“Who is that?”
“Huh? Selena? Oh, his girlfriend. They’ve been together around six months.”
No way, she thought to herself. There was no way he could have a girlfriend. But why wouldn’t he? Her brain countered back. Alec had never said he was single. Emily had just assumed. It would explain why he had pushed her away last night when they had kissed. He had this gorgeous woman on his arm.
“I didn’t know he had a girlfriend.”
“You didn’t hear this from me,” Jacob started. Emily turned back to look at Jacob as he spoke, “But she isn’t very popular among his staff. She thinks she’s hot stuff for dating Alec. Personally, I try to avoid her. I’m too old for drama.”
Emily feigned looking at the clock she had put up behind his desk, “Lunch time already? I’ll go out and get us something, yeah?”
“Oh, sure, okay.”
Emily scribbled down what Jacob wanted from the deli across the street and headed off. As she made her way to the hallway, she could see Alec talking to Selena. Emily felt another pain shoot up her body. It felt as if she had been shot. Had she really believed his kiss so easily? She was just some small town girl from Missouri, and Alec was a billionaire with his own company and now a magazine. How could she have foolishly thought that he would have actually liked her or have been single? His gaze fell on her and he touched Selena’s arm before catching up with Emily. She ignored him, walking towards the elevator.
“We need to talk.”
“Do we?” She pressed hard on the elevator key and waited for it to open, wanting to be anywhere else at this moment.
“Yes, about last night.”
“Nothing happened last night, right?” The elevator doors opened and Emily stepped inside, locking eyes with Alec, “I get it.”
Alec stared at her and his mouth opened, but the elevator doors closed before she ever heard what he might have said.
To her surprise, Emily felt tears spring to her eyes. She didn’t think she had fallen so hard for him, but how could she ignore her warped reflection in the elevator doors? How could she have been so stupid?
Emily felt the elevator go down to the lobby. The sinking feeling in her stomach grew as the elevator went down farther.
She had fallen for Alec and had been a fool to do so.
Other Books by This Author
Please check your favorite eBook retailer for other books by Kathryn Kennedy
Other Books in The Billionaire’s Intern Trilogy
The Billionaire’s Intern, Book Two: Emily’s Chance
The Billionaire’s Intern, Book Three: Making It Work
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