3 months later
"Ben Morrison's office, how may I help you?" Liz cheerily greeted the first caller of the day.
It was a Monday and like most Mondays she was expecting the day to get crazy. There was always some fire to put out here or there, but luckily there was a new intern starting today. She loved when interns came because she knew, from previous experience, that they were great for handling most of her work. Looking at the clock, she noticed it was almost 8 am.
"Humph. Mr. Morrison is not going to like that the new intern isn't early for their first day," she thought with an inner smile. Nothing like earning some brownie points by making someone else look bad.
However, much to her dismay, in walked the new intern laughing and chatting just a little too friendly with her husband to be.
"O Nadia, this is Liz. She is my secretary here and she will be more than happy to assist you with anything you may need," Ben casually said as if Liz were merely the coffee girl of the office.
"Nice to meet you Liz," Nadia said with a grin that showed off her perfectly straight white teeth.
"Nice to meet you too. I'm looking forward to working with you," Liz replied happily with her best fake smile while inwardly seething. How could he just dismiss her like that? And in front of the intern of all people!
Nadia and Ben proceeded to his office unaware of the darts being mentally thrown at their backs. Once inside, Nadia took a seat across from Ben's mahogany hardwood desk and reached for her leather portfolio so that she could take notes on her work plan.
"What are you doing?" Ben asked with genuine confusion.
"I am preparing for our meeting. We are going to discuss my work plan right now, aren't we?" Nadia replied.
Ben almost burst out laughing. This college student thought she had REAL work to do in his office. One thing he knew about young college girls is that they didn't have the focus to accomplish any real business building activities. No, he hired interns to look cute in his office, warm up his clients before meetings, and occasionally do some physical tasks.
"Nadia I don't think you understand the nature of your position. I can better explain with a tour. Follow me," Ben stated.
Although utterly confused, Nadia gathered her briefcase and began following her new boss/ lover.
"Notice anything different about my office?" Ben asked smugly.
She wasn't exactly sure what reply he was looking for, but she had done extensive research on BGM and was well aware of the statistics that set this company apart from its counterparts.
"Well I know that the company is always ranked highly for the best work environment, which is evident in the plush lounge area, and that it's always ranked highly for the number of female employees, which I have seen plenty of." Nadia replied matter of factly yet still unsure about where he was going with this.
"Exactly. A lot of women workers. Beautiful women workers. Not to say that they aren't also great at their jobs, but lets face it more people want to buy whatever a bunch of beautiful women are selling. Now with that being said every one of those women holds a masters degree in their field so I trust them to run things pretty efficiently. You however are a college student intern. That means that while you are a beautiful girl I trust you with nothing. Your job will be simply to chat with some of my clients, and come to work looking stunning. Understood?" Ben stated as if he had not just deeply insulted her intelligence.
Nadia stood staring at him stunned. She was absolutely speechless. Never in her mind could she have fathomed that a man could be such a complete and utter ass. She was just about to open her mouth to speak her mind when Ben interrupted.
"O but I will write a great job description for your resume and whatever references you may need, if you do well this summer," he said knowing this would make her reevaluate whatever she was about to say.
Ben knew women all too well. She would accept whatever he wanted her to do because he knew his company's prestige was worth it to her.
"Could you excuse me for a moment," Nadia stated more than asked.
She power walked down the hallway to the bathroom trying to make a decision. Damnit! He was right. She did need this for her resume, and it was too late to just go to another company for an internship. But she couldn't just be some dumb office tramp! She had worked too hard to achieve the great grades and respect she had at school to end up doing meaningless work all summer. Normally in a situation like this she would call Alyssa for help, but as she had not informed her best friend of the true nature of her relationship with Ben she figured this wouldn't be the best time to get a lecture. She and Ben had been sleeping together pretty regularly since their first encounter during the school year. That was months ago, and now here she was stuck in a predicament she had started. What to do? What to do? She raked her brain.
After debating with herself mentally for at least ten minutes, she marched out of the bathroom and into Ben's office.
She cleared her throat to give her speech, "Mr. Morrison, I accept the work you have outlined for me, but I want you to know that you will be severely underutilizing my productivity. I am smart and highly capable of any tasks this company or any other has for me. You have seen my resume so I know that you are more than aware of what I am capable of. However, if it is still your decision to keep me in the role which you stated I am prepared to do that as long as my resume and reference letter reflect more real world marketing experience," Nadia said without a pause for air.
"Great. Now here is your corporate credit card. I expect you to go buy some work clothes that are more tailored to your body's curves, and I will see you tonight at 8pm sharp at Houston's restaurant for a dinner with a potential client. O and you might also want to have something done to your nails."
Ben never even looked up from his papers as he pushed the card across his desk to her. He already knew she would accept working there. After all who wouldn't?
"Is there anything else you will be needing from me today sir?" Nadia said with plenty of attitude and an eye roll for emphasis.
"Just for you to lose the attitude. You're excused now," Ben said while making a shooing motion.
She wanted so badly to reach across that desk and break his arm, but instead she contained her rage and headed for her car. O she was excessively angry, but his corporate bank account is what she intended to take it out on. The rest of her day would be spent inside of Barney's, Neiman Marcus, and Mitchell's spa and salon, on him of course.
***************
"O my God! Girl did you rob a bank, hit the lotto, or do I need to make a call to Mr. VanZandt and tell him you went wild with his credit card?" Alyssa immediately exclaimed when her roommate continued bringing in more and more bags with expensive store names on them.
