Young Adulting - Christina Benjamin Page 0,50

the way he’d singled me out—despite what he’d said before the premiere party about rewarding all the interns with special events, I’d never once heard of anyone else getting invited to swanky parties or networking events, which made me wonder if that had all been a lie.

But these days, when he talked to me one-on-one like this, it was the look in his eyes that made me feel like a snake was slithering around in my gut. His eyes held a glint of knowing, his smile felt smug.

Ever since that meeting when he’d basically given me the okay to seduce my way to the top—just so long as I wasn’t obvious about it—he’d been treating me like we were some sort of conspiratorial team.

As I glanced up at him now, it was safe to say this was a team I didn't want to be on.

I was glad he was so enthusiastic about my script, but I couldn’t shake the fact that his sudden interest grew a millionfold after he’d learned about Henry’s involvement.

“What are you working on?” He leaned over my chair, his shoulder brushing against mine. He didn’t wait for an answer, just looked at the spreadsheet I was updating—a tedious chore that I’d inherited from Taylor last week when she’d decided to ‘delegate’ this task to a junior intern.

Collin laughed as he straightened. “I’m sure this is something one of the others could do.”

He turned to survey the other interns but I reached out for his arm to stop him. They already hated me enough without Colin blatantly giving me preferential treatment. “No, really,” I said quickly. “It’s fine. I’m almost done.”

He eyed me oddly, but then his smirk was back. “Fine. Have it your way. But before I go, I need to grab Leo Lang’s phone number from you.”

I blinked up at him in surprise, alarm bells ringing in the back of my mind as the contents of my stomach curdled making me feel sick. “Leo?” I repeated stupidly. “Um...why?”

His smirk morphed into a more familiar smile. The one I used to find comforting. “I just got out of a meeting with development, and while it’s not official yet...not until next week’s pitch meeting,” he added with a wink, “they’re eager to get this ball rolling.”

The silence behind me could be cut with a knife. I could practically hear Taylor’s jaw grinding as I tried to process this. Did that mean… Had I already won?

The thought should have made me giddy with excitement, but that slithering snake was still making a home in my gut. I didn’t want to cut the line. I didn’t want preferential treatment.

The whole point of ending things with Henry and keeping things professional with Leo was to win this competition fair and square.

Fair and square. Listen to me. I sounded like the country bumpkin Taylor and her friends accused me of being. I swallowed down the sick feeling and tried to ignore the warning bells. This was business, right? This was how it worked. I should be happy right now.

“That’s great news,” I said stiffly.

“Isn’t it?” Colin beamed down at me with something like pride. Like we were in this together.

But if we were in this together...why wasn’t I in that development meeting?

That was the question that kept racing through my mind as Colin started in again about grabbing Leo’s number from me, although he still hadn’t said why he’d need his number.

“I don’t have it,” I said. “I’ve only been communicating with him through email.”

“Huh. Really?” He looked confused. “His number should be in the system, it’s a requirement when uploading a script.”

I blinked at him again. Oh. Well, color me stupid.

He slapped a hand against the side of my cubicle. “No worries. I’ll have my assistant look it up.”

He said this as he walked away and I studiously avoided looking around me. I didn’t need to look to know everyone was glaring at me. I could feel their daggers in my back just fine, thank you.

I sat there and stewed under their stares for another minute before jumping up out of my seat.

I needed air. I was suffocating in this place.

“I’m just gonna, um…” I pointed toward the door and tried to ignore the fact that I was facing a sea of death stares. “I’m gonna grab a coffee. Anyone want one?”

Silence.

It seemed my fellow interns had finally bonded...against me.

“Okay then,” I muttered as I headed toward the door.

The sunshine helped, as did all the “countdown to your bday!” texts