Chapter 1 INTERN

• 1
• INTERN
• T H E A
• I walk my way to Mrs. Victoria's office with my heart thumping hard against my chest. To be honest, I don't like walking inside her office all alone. It's like walking inside a lion's den.
• Everyone knows that she's very strict and very moody. Bipolar, at some point actually. When she wants you inside her office, it's either she's going to scold you for doing something wrong at work or either she fires you. Either way, it's always negative when she calls an employee inside her den.
• I'm not saying that she's always moody or angry, but there would be times that she's nice but that's very very seldom to happen. Then there are most times when she's maddening and bossy as hell which happens almost always in everyday of the week.
• Sometimes I questioned myself why did I ever wanted to be an intern here. Maybe because she deceived me. She was nice when she interviewed me, I guess it was all for show just so she can lure employees in to work for her. Hence the magazine name, Lure Magazine.
• People said that she have already scolded every single employee around in this building. Even the janitors. There are days where she smiles and there are also dark days where she's frowning and yelling and bossy. Very annoyingly bossy.
• I knock on the door nervously and heard her saying that I can already come in. I swing the door open and saw her sitting on her chair, waiting for me.
• She smiles.
• I'm shocked that she smiled.
• "Come in Thea." She instructs.
• I scooted my way inside her office and carefully closed the door behind me. I slowly, shyly and nervously walked closer to her desk with my hands holding onto each other as if my life's on it.
• "Have a seat." She instructs again.
• I sit down and I take a deep breath in then exhaled before taking a look at her.
• "Do you know why I asked you to be here?" She asks.
• I shake my head sideways. "I actually don't have any idea why."
• "Well, since you've been here for a week, I've read your writings lately which seemed pretty good." She commented.
• I smile at her. "Thank you."
• "You're welcome. But good isn't enough, Miss Thibault." She snaps at me.
• I frowned.
• "You shouldn't be happy about being just good. Good is never ever enough for me. Good is something a little more higher than bad. I want the best. The most excellent. The prime of them all. NOT. JUST. GOOD." She says so slangy while she fixes her glasses with her heavy sounding voice.
• My smile fades and I quickly bent my head down low. Embarrassed. I was already very happy that she read my works and she complimented about it.
• "That's why I want you to have a personal one on one interview with the worst of them all, none other than..." She pushes a Time Magazine before me.
• It was a photo of a very very goodlooking man who was the full cover of the magazine. He had a perfectly structured face, beautiful plump lips and eyes greener than a leafy forest. His smile is all devilry. He looks like he likes to cause trouble and most of all he looked like he loves getting away with it. But there's something more about it. Something very closed off and somehow very icy in his eyes. Those green eyes of him are made up of green ice, yes.
• "Benedict Saintclare." She finishes.
• I admit that I'm starting to get really nervous about this. I don't know much about him but he's a ruthless manwhore as what I've read and heard lately.
• "I know you're too young and inexperienced to take on such a risqué project but I want to challenge you." She says with her chin up.
• "I like challenges." I speak with no confidence. I don't know if I can do it.
• "Very well then. Because Mr. Benedict Saintclare doesn't really want to have a one on one interview." She smirks.
• Shit.
• "He doesn't allow himself to access to any press. We have been asking for his permission for years now but he's always declining every single one." She continued.
• I slightly gaped. "Then I guess it'll be impossible for me to do it too."
• She laughs. "You're already giving up? You haven't even started anything yet."
• I pause.
• "Miss Thibault, your works fascinated me and you're only an intern. That happens very seldom around here, that's why I want to challenge you. I can see your potential. You're really great." She smiles again and that's the second time.
• I smile. "Thank you Mrs. Victoria."
• "Maybe you could charm your way with Mr. Saintclare. We all know that he loves women, hence being a manwhore. You might get lucky." She encourages me.
• I shake my head sideways. "I think he won't. I mean look at him. He looks like he wouldn't notice a girl like me."
• "You wouldn't know if you wouldn't try. I will be giving you three weeks."
• "Three?" I sounded pitifully sad.
• She nods firmly. She already made up she mind. "And if I don't have anything to give you after three weeks?" I worried.
• "I guess you have to find another publishing company to work as an intern. I don't need slacky and useless people."
• I froze.
• After that conversation I had with Mrs. Victoria, right when I got home after my shift, I hurriedly began my research about my new "project". I sent myself tons of links of articles about him so I could do my research about him tonight.
• I've decided that I'm staying up late so I could get a heads up about what this man is and who this man really is. I called to his office a while ago asking for an interview and I talked to a representative which assured me that they'll let me know about when it. They said I'm already written down on a list.
• Mr. Benedict Edward Saintclare. He is England's darling. He's filthy rich and runs a very huge conglomerate that could buy tons of companies from other countries. He owns lots of luxury cars, houses all over the world and tons of gold watches. He's famously known as a collector, you could say right away that he is. Apparently obvious, he collects companies, toys and women.
• I searched for his Instagram account and my jaws dropped when I noticed that he has almost 25 million followers and he's only following 168 people. I barely have 200 people that follows me. So I decided to follow him anyways so I can update myself on his whereabouts.
• How can one man even have such followers when he only has a hundred and such photos on his account?
• I get on Twitter and searched for his verified account; @BenSaintclare. I wasn't shocked anymore to see his 30 million followers on it. That's already the total sum of populations of so many countries. I expected a huge amount of people following him anyways, and this dude sure is famous as hell. So I was one of the 30 million that follows him.
• My doorbell chimes so I rushed to it only to find Kylie Moore and Jonah Jane, my two best friends slash board mates. We live in one apartment building where we were just doors away next to each other. Kylie lives next to me while Jonah was just across us.
• The three of us are like Neapolitan ice cream. Kylie and I took up English Literature, Jonah took Modern Art. Kylie and Jonah came from well-off family, I didn't. Kylie and I are tall in height. Jonah is the elf. Kylie and I use logic in all aspects of life most especially when it comes to relationships and falling in love while Jonah is Team Feelings all the way. Jonah is the mediator, I'm the career-focused girl and Kylie is the sexpot. She uses men as her personal dildos even if she denies it.
• Jonah is the romanticist, she strongly believes in love. She loves love. As for Kylie, she's the opposite. She doesn't really care about love so she uses men only for sex. While I am focused on my career and my goal in life, and that is to have money to support myself in the long haul. I'm not ready for love yet.
• "Today was suppose to be your turn to do groceries." Kylie whines as I take two bags from her.
• "And you're lucky we brought you some Chinese foods too." Jonah adds.
• They entered my place and placed everything they bought on top of the counter. "Ahhhh you two love me too much. I'm tearing up." I joked.
• "Love you too. That's why you owe me fifty-seven dollars and twenty-five cents for your groceries." Kylie smiles.
• "And thirty-five dollars for this orange chicken." Jonah raised her hand.
• "I will pay you later. And I'm sorry, okay? You know I'm very busy with my internship at Lure." I say.
• "It's maddening there all the time." I add.
• "You're lucky we love you." Jonah says.
• "That's why thank you for not abandoning me." I playfully kiss them.
• "So what are you workin' on?" Kylie asks as she walks to my bed and noticed my laptop on it.
• "Mrs. Vicky assigned me a very difficult project." I answered while I crashed on my bed.
• They joined me as Jonah placed our Chinese foods on top of my mattress, we always have Chinese food picnic on top of my bed or on the floor. She begins to hand us chopsticks and we began to munch while they stared at the screen of my laptop.
• "Why are you researching all about Benedict Saintclare?" Jonah asks.
• "because he's my new project." I snapped.
• Their jaws dropped.
• "The Benedict Saintclare that's always utterly handsome on his pictures?" Jonah asks.
• I nod as I put a piece into my mouth.
• "That man is hot!" Jonah chimes.
• I know. I said under my breath.
• "You do know he's a man who loves women right?" Kylie asks.
• I nod. "Yeah."
• "You're not thinking what I'm thinking, right?" Kylie asks again.
• I gaped. "Ky, the hell NOT!"
• "Well, you can't stop me from thinking that way. He's a manwhore if you're unaware about that." Kylie answers.
• "I am fully aware." I answered right away.
• "Good. because I don't want you to end up like his other thousands of women who's vying for his attention to have sex with him and after using them, he'll throw it away like a trash." Kylie speaks.
• "You're like Benedict's female version. Version 2.0" I joked.
• Jonah laughs and I joined her. "What I was about to say." Jonah spurted.
• "Ha-ha." Kylie laughed dryly. "I just don't want my best friend to feel like a trash. At least I dispose my men and I'm not the one being disposed." She answers.
• "Point taken." I agreed.
• "So this project about Benedict Saintclare that you're saying. What's it about? Is it going to be undercover?" Jonah asks.
• "What? Like an expose?" Kylie added.
• I shake my head. "No."
• I chew on my food. "I get to meet him."
• "What?!" They chimed together.
• "Did you know that it's hard to get to him because of his tight security? I heard you can't even get to have a personal interview with him because he doesn't want to be interviewed all the time." Kylie add.
• "Well I'm trying to get an interview and I'm in all hopes he would notice me. I called his office a while ago and they said they'll call me." I answer.
• "They'll call you like never." Kylie snaps.
• I sigh. "Don't be so negative."
• "I'm warning you about him, Thea. He's a very influential man. He's very attractive as what I've read news about him. And even his pictures makes me want to masturbate on it." Kylie moans.
• I laugh.
• "I heard he's hard to resist. I mean, duh? The obvious is slapped on your face with his pictures online." Kylie grins.
• I smack her arm. "You're a bitch. Stop."
• She laughs. "Seriously, all I'm saying is be careful if ever you meet him."
• "And we hope you have the best for it. I'm so sure that you'll get to interview him." Jonah smiles.
• "But... What if you don't?" Kylie asks.
• I sigh. "Mrs. Victoria said I'll be needing to look for another publishing company to have my internship on."
• "That fucking bitch! She's literally not a good boss! I wonder how she keeps her rank like that." Kylie rants.