I Choose You: A Secret Billionaire Romance

“Jacob will be coming to visit in a few hours,” I said. I couldn't have stopped the excited smile if I wanted to.

“Oh really?” she asked. “I'll make sure to clear out of the house for a few hours then.”

“Thanks. I’m super excited,” I said. “But that’s not the only thing that’s going on. I also get to find out who won the competition at my internship today.”

“That is not only exciting, but also terrifying,” Lauren said as she took her plate of food and sat at our small dining room table. I followed her over and we took a seat across from each other. “Good luck.”

“Tell me about it,” I said. “I’ve spent the last six weeks here working my butt off and I don't have a lot of other job prospects at the moment.”

“That’s a lot of pressure,” she said. “What time do you think you’ll find out today?”

“I’m going to check my email as soon finish my coffee,” I said. “I’m hoping that the results will be in there. Then I’ll know what direction my life is heading. It all hinges on one email. Kind of crazy, huh?”

Lauren nodded. “Welcome to Silicon Valley.”

I couldn’t help but to laugh. “Yeah, I’m learning that this place will chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful.”

“Here’s to you winning, then,” Lauren said, holding up her coffee mug. “I don’t do we

ll when people cry. It makes me feel awkward. I never know if I should hug them or just walk away.”

“Well, I hope I don’t cry then,” I said. “And if I do, just hug me and hand me a glass of wine. Then you can walk away.”

“Nah,” she replied shaking her head. “I'll help you at least drink the wine.”

I laughed and tried to sip my coffee, but just smelling it made my stomach queasy again.

“Did you do anything different to the coffee this morning?” I asked, examining my cup. I'd barely been able to take more than a mouthful of it. “It tastes weird.”

“No,” Lauren said, shaking her head. “It's the same stuff as last week. Maybe it's going stale or something? Mine tastes normal.”

“I don't know, but I'll just put it in the sink for now. It's time for the moment of truth,” I announced as I poured out my cup. “I’m going to go check my email.”

“Good luck, Alicia,” she said. She held up her hands and crossed all the fingers she could. “You’ve got this. I know you do.”

I hope she’s right, I thought, as I walked out of the kitchen and back to my bedroom.

My laptop had finished starting up and I went online and straight to my email. A lump rose in my throat. In my inbox was one unread email and it was from Steven Lynchell. The title of the email said, “Intern’s App Development Results”.

I held the pointer over the email, hesitating for a moment. My future depended on what was inside and I was terrified to see. No matter what it read, though, there’d be a lot of things changing in my life. With a nervous sigh, I clicked the email and read it.

Dear Alicia Chambers,

I want to tell you personally that I appreciate your participation in the internship challenge. My team and I have been up all evening, reviewing all of the submissions, trying to decide which one we thought was the best. And it was tough. Every single one of the programs that you intern had created for us was excellent and it became clear that everyone had given it their all.

Unfortunately, we only have one full time position currently available at ZephTech; otherwise we’d hire every single one of you. But the good news for you, Alicia, is that you’re the one we decided on. My colleagues and myself all agreed that your dating app had the elements we wanted to see. It was beautifully crafted, operated flawlessly and served a purpose. These were the three elements we were judging on and your app passed with flying colors.

Congratulations, Alicia. Welcome to the team. I’ll see you Monday to fill out some paperwork. Attached are the conditions of the position. I hope you have an amazing weekend. Looking forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Steve Lynchell

CEO

ZephTech, Inc.

“No way,” I whispered, as I brought my eyes back to the top of the email to re-read it. I figured I must have read it wrong or interpreted it incorrectly.