“He doesn’t have time to worry about the intern that spilled coffee on him,” I replied with a casual shrug, trying not to seem fazed by her words. On the inside, I was trying to keep myself from panicking.
Sara eyed me for a second before humming beneath her breath.
“I mean, he’s even smiling at you and stuff,” she said.
Could she sound more like a jealous teenager? It took everything in me to not roll my eyes at her. Maybe I needed to tell Tyler to smile at her every once in a while so that she would get off my back. She thought that I was getting special attention from him, which I was, but she couldn’t actually know that.
“He was smiling at both of us,” I corrected her, avoiding her gaze. Tyler and I had to be more careful around each other. We even had to watch how we looked at each other because people caught on. It felt so natural to smile at Tyler, but as an intern, I couldn’t look at him that way in front of other people.
It was annoying being formal around him when I just wanted to talk to him or hold his hand. Things weren’t official between us. We hadn’t talked about that. Honestly, I was worried because I didn’t want to scare him away. Maybe he didn’t want that, but I did. I wouldn’t mind being his girlfriend. In fact, I would really like it. However, we still faced the issue of people finding out about us. We would have to wait until my internship was over for a little while before being seen together in public. It felt like torture having to wait that long, but I didn’t want us to deal with any drama or negativity. I just wanted to be with him in peace.
“Whatever you say,” Sara shrugged. She didn’t seem all that convinced.
It bothered me that she was so obsessed with what Tyler was doing and how he was acting. I didn’t want her to be watching him so closely. What if she saw him slip up? I would never hear the end of it. I turned my back to Sara, surveying the area before grimacing at the sight of Brandon. Tyler told me that he would probably be here.
“What’s that face?” Sara asked me, being nosy as usual.
“Brandon Krouse. He’s our top competitor,” I replied, finding no issue with telling her that. Anyone could look a few things up and determine that. I hoped that Tyler didn’t run into Brandon. I could see a fight breaking out between them one day. Hopefully, that day wasn’t today. I didn’t need Brandon to see me either because I didn’t want him to comment on me being Tyler’s date in front of anyone. I headed the opposite way.
To my dismay, Sara followed me.
“Damn. He’s pretty handsome,” she commented.
I thought that at first too until I found out who he was. He wasn’t cute to me anymore. He was a jerk. “He’s our rival,” I reminded her. She needed to be loyal to our company, and I didn’t want her to give Brandon any attention.
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” Sara smirked before walking toward Brandon.
I rolled my eyes and kept moving in the opposite way, not wanting to be close to either of them. I wanted to see where Tyler was now that Sara was distracted. I ventured past more booths until I saw Tyler lingering around a group of other business executives. I walked behind him, subtly brushing my arm against his back with a smile on my face.
I glanced at him over my shoulder, lifting an eyebrow before walking over to a stand full of business magazines. I waited for a few seconds until I saw him approach the other side of the stand, pretending to look at the magazines.
“Hey there,” I said, trying to hide my smile.
Tyler smirked to himself as he picked up a magazine, flipping through it. “You ditched Sara?” he asked me.
“She ditched me for Brandon,” I replied, lifting my eyes to his at the same time as him.
“That kind of makes sense,” Tyler muttered.
An amused look filled my face as I nodded. He did have a point. Brandon and Sara would probably get along. They each thought that they were the most special person in the entire room. Maybe they could entertain each other for the rest of the business conference so that I wouldn’t have to deal with either of them.
“I would much rather be in your California king,” I commented as I picked up a few magazines, acting like I was interested in reading them. Business advice was the last thing on my mind, though. I wanted to be far away from here with a lot more privacy. I couldn’t even talk to him that long here.