Intern Alice

The work week dragged, partly because I had finally gotten my intern (more on that) and partly because I was looking forward to the weekend so much that the days went at snail speed.

My intern is a communication design student at FIT by the name of Alice. I think she was hoping to be in the graphics department, but they were full for the semester so she got stuck with me. She worked two days a week- Tuesdays and Thursdays - and had to share a desk with one of the editorial interns named Jack. They had been involved in some heavy flirting though so I'm fairly certain that being stuck in digital was starting to grow on her. She was only 20 and her face turned bright red whenever anyone spoke to her, but she had killer fashion sense and I was hoping we'd eventually get close enough that she would take me shopping..

But for now, I had her doing a lot of easy tasks like cleaning up files and archiving things so that she could get familiar with our systems. I was holding out hope that her writing was good so that in a few weeks she could start to contribute to the blog. 

"Alice?" I asked on Thursday as the afternoon was winding down. She scurried over wordlessly, iPhone in hand. Another thing - kids these days apparently take notes in their phone instead of the trusty old pen and paper. She eyed me suspiciously when I pulled out my "Shakespeare never tweeted a sonnet" notebook in that morning's content meeting. I bet she never even learned cursive! 

"Do you have a minute?" I asked, gesturing to the chair that sat mostly unused next to my desk. 

"Sure," she said in almost a whisper. She sat down, folding her black pleated skirt under her and looked at me expectantly. 

"I just wanted to touch base since you finished your first week here to see how you're liking it," I asked, turning the tables on her. 

"It's great!" she said, seemingly nervous to be put on the spot. 

"Okay," I said, dejected at her lack of sharing. "Well I'd like to keep you on some of the tasks that need done for now, like the archiving and just monitoring twitter and stuff," I said. "But I'd like it if you spent some time between now and next Tuesday checking out the blog that our department runs to get a feel for our voice and the content we share." 

"Okay," she nodded, typing away on her phone. How am I to know if she's taking notes or texting?

"Then on Tuesday why don't you bring in a few ideas on topics that you'd like to write about?"

"Topics?" she asked. 

Ugh.

"Yeah, our department is responsible for the blog and all of social media, and most of what we share on social media is content from the blog. So eventually, we will want you to be a contributor," I said. "You have the advantage of being in college still, so maybe focus some topics on that. No one else who writes for us has that angle."

She brightened up a little at my suggestion, clearly happy to have a direction to go in.

"Okay, great!" she said. "Anything else?"

"Nope," I said, shaking my head and peeking at an incoming text from Dylan on my phone. "Do you have any questions for me?"

"Just one," she said, looking uncomfortable again. 

"Shoot," I said, resisting the urge to check my phone.

"What is the rule on dating coworkers?" 

I stared at her for a minute, stunned. She'd been here for two days and this was the first and only question I had ever received from her, aside from "where is the bathroom?".

"Um.." I stammered, not even sure of the answer. I guess when Elena and Jeff dated no one had blinked an eye. I also recalled a girl Katie in the Accounting Department who had gotten engaged to one of our on-staff photographers. 

"To be honest, I don't know the exact rules. That would be something you'd have to inquire about with HR. But I can tell you that I personally don't think it's a great idea."

She nodded slowly, and gave me a weak smile. "Thanks, I'll ask around."

With that, she got up and retreated back to her shared space. I assumed her question meant she was interested in the other intern, Jack, who had already left for the day. I quickly opened gchat and pulled up Elena's name.

Me: OMG. My intern just asked me about the rules on inter-office romances.
Elena: STOP IT. She's got balls. What did you say?
Me: I told her I didn't think it was a great idea but I wasnt sure the "rules". 
Elena: I don't think there are rules, does she mean the other intern? 
Me: I think
Elena: He reports to me and like four other people, I'll totally try to get info from him.
Me: Hahaha our interns are sluts.
Elena: That they are. Anyway, I can't wait for tomorrow! Need me to pick anything up for the evening?
Me: Nope, just come over around 8! 

I clicked back through to the social media accounts to take one last look for the day. It was only 6:15 and I was ready to leave work, which had to be some sort of record. 

"I'm going to head out," I said to Alice about thirty minutes later. She was, as usual, immersed in her phone. "You can feel free to leave whenever you're ready," I added.

She shot me a grin and then went back to texting. Can I trade my intern in?

Once I was outside, I remembered the unopened text from Dylan. 

Hey babe, call me if you're out of work before 7. That's when my plane takes off. Otherwise I'll call when I land.

I quickly dialed his number, hoping he hadn't boarded the plane yet. He was flying to Chicago for a business trip and I wanted to talk to him before he was in the air for three hours.

"Hey gorgeous," he said after just two rings.

"Hey! Glad I caught you," I said, stopping outside the subway station that would take me downtown. "You all set for your trip?"

"Yep, and we got bumped up to first class since the plane is pretty empty," he said. 

"Be careful I just read a news story about an American Airlines flight that almost split in two a few days ago," I said. 

I heard his deep laugh on the other end. "I read that, one of my coworkers is actually freaking out about it. But I promise you I can see this plane out the window and it looks very sturdy."

"It better be," I replied, smiling even though he couldn't see me.

"How was your day?" he asked, and I heard him mumble something to a guy in the background.

"Good, my intern is a fool though. She's so lazy, and today even asked me about dating in the office." 

"Isn't today like her third day?" Dylan asked.

"Second," I replied. 

"Geez," he said. 

"Okay well I just wanted to say hi before you took off, have a safe flight," I said, getting ready to descend into the dank halls of the subway.

"Wait," Dylan said. "I wanted to tell you, I took off next Friday so I'm going to come up Thursday night." 

"Next Thursday?" I asked. He had plans to come up for the weekend to visit, and an extra night would be incredible.

"Yeah.. is that okay?"  

"Of course!" I said. "I can't wait."

We said our goodbyes and I started down into the subway, mentally debating if I should schedule a wax in honor of Dylan's three-day visit. I had only made it about two stairs down before my phone went off again. I pulled it to my ear without looking, assuming Dylan had just forgotten to tell me something.

"Yes babe?" I answered, turning to head back up the stairs and fielding glares from angry pedestrians who were heading down.

"..Danielle?" I heard a familiar man's voice, but it wasn't Dylan's.

"Oh.. N-Nick, sorry. I thought you were someone else." 

"Haha did you delete my number or something?" he asked, clearly confused.

"No, of course not!" I defended. "I'm just walking and I didn't check the screen. Whats up?" Nick and I hadn't spoken since before I was in Philly. He had texted me twice and I had ignored both, recognizing that it wasn't fair to Dylan. 

"Well my premiere is next Tuesday.." he said, and I immediately knew where this was going. "There's a whole party thing that the network throws, and I was wondering.. since you were such great arm candy at my last work thing.. if you'd want to come?" 

"As your date?" I asked, knowing I would say no. 

"Well I'm trying to get a whole group, so you can bring Ash too. It's not really a date, date."

I chewed on the side of my lip. On one hand, it would be really cool and Ashley would freak. On the other hand.. Dylan would also freak, in a less positive way.

"Um.." I started, trying to decide how to best let him down.

"Look I know that you have a boyfriend and I respect that, I just figured it would be a fun night. Just do me a favor and think about it?" 

"Okay," I said reluctantly. "I'll think about it. When do you need to know by?" 

"Sunday, to make sure I can get the names on the list," he said. 

"Okay, I'll let you know by Sunday," I replied, scared to realize how badly I wanted to go.