The College Intern
"Mr. Frost?" a soft voice called from the doorway into the office.
I looked up from my keyboard, fighting to tamp down my irradiation at being disturbed. Stephan, my web master, knows that the first Friday of the month is budget review day, a task I hated, thus, tried to complete as fast as possible to get it out of the way. It is rare he lets anyone past him on Budget Day.
My irritation faded to one of curiosity, as I found the owner of the voice to be a strikingly beautiful co-ed. She looked nervous, the fingers of her left hand twisting the blonde strands of hair that cascaded down her cheek. Her lips turned up in a slight smile that was painted a light shade of rose. Her eyes were a deep blue, that held a spark of curiosity of their own, as she held my gaze steadily, waiting for a response.
She stood casually in the doorway, decked out in typical co-ed garb for a warm, fall day, khaki shorts that hugged her hips enticingly. Her blouse was a light, silky white number, with the top two buttons undone, to show just the hint of generous curves of her breasts. My mind quickly cataloged all this as my gaze took her in. This was a woman who knew she was beautiful but didn't flaunt it. I was intrigued to say the least.
"Yes. How may I help you?"
I stood to greet her, my father's stern voice echoing in my head to always stand when a lady enters the room. Looking past her shoulder, I could see Stephan had deserted his desk. I chuckled to myself, wondering if she had caused my poor shy assistant to flee in fear of having to speak to her. The poor boy got tongue tied at the mere thought of having to speak to a girl; this woman would have struck him speechless.
She stepped forward, hand extended.
"Hi! I am Kari Welborn. Dr. Kellogg referred me to you. I am looking for an internship for next semester, and she said you might have an opening."
Her voice was a thrilling alto, vibrating on the long vowels just slightly. Her hand gripped mine firmly when I took it. It was soft and I held it just a heartbeat longer than protocol demanded.
As she slowly pulled it back, I noticed her nails neatly manicured without color, another item my brain cataloged. She must have stood five-foot-eight in her sandals. Her body was a lean, athletic one, toned and tanned. Kari had to tilt her head up just slightly to maintain eye contact with me. Her hair was gathered at the nape of her neck, the color like shocks of wheat at harvest. Her nose had a slight bend at the tip, adding a hint of whimsy to a face that should have graced a magazine cover.
But it was her eyes that held me. A deep blue almost black, that hid depths and intrigue within them. I had felt those eyes sweep over me taking in my six-foot-four-inch frame, as I stood before her. My dark, wavy black hair was yet to be graced with silver, but that was only a matter of time. My green eyes were still as sharp as ever. At thirty-five, I was in fairly good shape, mainly due to my love of playing competitive sports rather than any regimented workout, but my trainer told me that to keep the dad-bod at bay, I had to add gym time. Bless him for making me do that.
"Dr. Kellogg sent you, did she?" I smiled warmly at Kari.
Of all the Computer Science faculty at South Georgia University, I liked Dr. Kellogg the best. She was tough, fair, and a brilliant teacher. Her advanced data management course was a prerequisite for any CompSci major wanting to get into graduate school. She often referred her brightest students to me for internship, knowing that as head of the Business and Finance IT department, I had the only internship that provided practical application of Computer Science theory on campus. Over my five-year tenure, I had taken in several of her top students, writing letters of recommendations for them at the end of their semester. Those letters were prized on campus, as many had helped students land high-paying private-sector jobs or coveted slots in top grad schools like MIT.
Turning back to my desk, I opened one of the file drawers and pulled out a folder. I handed her a blank application form.
"I apologize for this, but the university requires paper for the application. You will need Dr. Kellogg to sign it, and I will need you to have the registrar print off your current transcript for me."
She took the form, read through it quickly then smiled at me.
"Kari, I will need these back today. I have to make my selection by Monday noon. I have three other well-qualified candidates, but since Dr. Kellogg referred you, I will give you 'til four-thirty PM to get the documents back to me."
My tone conveyed that if she really wanted this position, the application needed to be her top priority. This would be a good test of her commitment, I thought to myself.
Kari looked up from the form, ran her fingertips over my hand holding the now-empty folder, as her eyes captured mine again. A shock ran from her fingertips straight to my groin, as her look turned from anxious to provocative. This woman was damn sexy and turned me on just with her touch. No woman since my ex-wife had ever been able to excite me with just a look. This one could be trouble.
"I don't have much time then," Kari cooed to me.
She turned back toward the door to my outer office, and I was afforded my first view of her from behind. I was not disappointed. Her hips swayed just a bit, as she made her way to the outer door. It opened before her, as Stephan returned, his mouth dropping open as the beauty before him whisked past. As she passed Stephan, Kari glanced back at me over her shoulder, and I could have sworn she winked.
"Who was that?!" Stephan stammered, once coherent speech returned to him.
"That, my young apprentice, is trouble," I replied, with just a bit of a tremor in my voice.
Stephan hung around 'til 4:30pm, well past his normal quitting time on Friday. One thing I really liked about working at SGU was that the campus administration shuts down on Fridays at noon. This was partly a budgetary play and partly a perk, as many of the faculty and staff used the afternoon for golf or pool time.
With a deep sigh, which I heard from my office, Stephan rose and poked his head into my office.
"I'm taking off, boss. I guess we won't have to worry about trouble with the new intern," he intoned, glancing at the clock on the office wall.
I, too, looked that the clock and wondered if that was a good thing, or not.
My social life has been nonexistent since taking this position. After my divorce, I took the advice of a colleague, who had heard through his many connections, that SGU was looking for a new head of the IT department for Finance. I called the VP of the Business and Finance department directly and after a forty-five-minute conversation, booked a flight for an in-person interview the following week. I signed the contract and an apartment lease that very same trip.
The move brought me closure on a long, drawn-out, unpleasant chapter of my life. But since arriving in Georgia, I hadn't begun to write the next one. Don't get me wrong, working on a college campus offers a lot of eye candy and fodder for late-night fantasies in the long, dark nights of solitude in my bedroom. Since the move, I could count on one hand, the number of dates I had been on, none leading to a second one. Face it, I was gun-shy. Horny and gun-shy makes for a sad state of affairs.
I knew Stephan, and Deidre, the administrative assistant I shared with my boss, kept after me to test the waters again, but no one had captured my interest enough to break me out of my self-imposed isolation.
Until now.
What was it about Kari that had my thoughts turning to places it hadn't in ages?