Hopelessly Addicted

Book 1: Only One Selected?

Raven couldn’t figure out why they’d only selected her when they were supposed to induct three interns. However, she didn’t have the courage to ask Anthony Baker anything else and quietly looked out of the window to where they were headed. In thirty minutes, they reached the huge fifteen-storied building spanning three wings on Wigmore Street. Raven’s eyes widened at the magnificent office building where she would work for the next five years. Mr. Baker drove straight into the basement parking area and led her towards the elevators.

“The Production Department and the Corporate Production Head Office are on the fourteenth floor of this wing. The other one hosts the teams across PR, marketing, and HR departments. There’s another wing that has the Finance, IT among other departments,” informed Anthony Baker.

“Oh, would I be working here at the Production Department?” asked an eager Raven, hoping that she could be as far away from Ralph Van Halen as possible.

“I’m not sure, Ms. Porterfield. That’s for sir to decide,” he told her. They reached the fourteenth floor, and the elevator stopped. Mr. Baker strode out and Raven followed him, looking around at the tastefully done-up office. He made her wait at the vast reception area where a serious-looking young man efficiently manned the place. Seeing him, Raven had the feeling that Ralph Van Halen might be a very strict taskmaster. No wonder the man didn’t have any time to breathe! Anthony Baker came out of a room at the far end of the corridor and strode to where she was seated, waiting patiently to be summoned.

“Ms. Porterfield, go in. Sir’s waiting for you,” he informed her, going towards the elevators. Raven nervously got up and walked towards the room he showed with her heart thumping loudly in her rib cage. She had expected Anthony Baker to be present with her at the meeting, but with him gone, she didn’t know how to face Ralph Van Halen all on her own. She stood before the door, saying a silent prayer, and then looked at the elevator. Could she run away and not join the job at all?

“Ms. Porterfield, please come in,” ordered a husky voice through the speakers near her head. She jumped up in fright and looked around. Where did his voice come from? Was he watching her pray for her own safety? God! This was so embarrassing! Did he notice her dilemma? He might be already repenting his decision to induct an inexperienced employee like her!

She took a deep breath and opened the door, and peered inside. Thankfully, he was sitting far away at his enormous mahogany desk. His office had a dark, expensive, contemporary, and neutral look that matched his personality. She went inside and closed the door after her. Her heart thundered inside her chest with apprehension as she knew what was about to happen. Maybe he would talk about the kiss she accidentally gave him. Would he punish her? Hesitating a little, she took baby steps towards his desk. He was engrossed in some work, thankfully, and didn’t look up at her. She stood in front of him, holding onto the desk for support.

“Sit down,” he ordered, still not looking up, and Raven wondered how he knew of her presence. She quietly sat down, wringing her hands together on her lap out of nervousness. She could see from the close confines of the office that he was extremely good-looking. In fact, he was too gorgeous for his own good. He looked like he was in his late twenties, maybe twenty-eight or so. That would make him eight years older than her! Damn! Why was she measuring his age against hers?

‘You have a boyfriend, for God’s sake, Raven,’ she mentally reminded herself.

“If you’re done with staring, we can get some work done?” he said gruffly, still looking at the papers in his hand. Raven’s jaws dropped with surprise. Did the man have eyes on his forehead?

“I wasn’t staring. I was thinking about the job,” she corrected him with flushed red cheeks.

“Really? Here’s the agreement that you need to sign before you start working with us,” he said, pushing the papers he was working on towards her. Raven picked up the documents and looked at them. They looked like legal papers of contract.

“Read it very well before signing,” said Ralph Van Halen, at last looking straight into her eyes. She nodded and immediately lowered her eyes so that he didn’t get any wrong signal. Quietly reading the documents, she was acutely aware of his intense gaze upon her, but didn’t look up even once. The documents stated everything that was discussed at the time of the interview. She couldn’t leave the company before the expiry of five years. She picked up a pen nearest to her and signed and looked up when she felt a presence beside her chair.

To her surprise, Ralph Van Halen was standing next to her, looking down at the document that she had signed. When did he get up from his seat? She paled at his nearness and stood up, handing him the documents that she had signed. He took them slowly from her trembling hands and kept them on his desk, his eyes not leaving hers. Raven tried to compose her nerves and looked at her feet with nervousness.

“Why did you kiss me?” he demanded angrily, looking at her flushed face, her quivering lips, and her wide, innocent eyes as she stood shocked by the suddenness of his question.

“I-I’m sorry,” she mumbled in almost an inaudible whisper, looking down here and there to avoid his gaze. He removed the chair that was in front of her in a swift motion and came forward, resting his arms on the desk on either side of her. Trapped between the desk and his hard body, Raven gulped for air.

“Why did you kiss me, Raven?” he asked, almost in desperation. Raven looked up at him, amazed at the way her name felt so exotic in his accented tone.

“I-I actually lost a bet. So my friends forced me to kiss...” before she could finish the sentence, he intervened.

“Are you in the habit of kissing random strangers because of your friends?” he asked furiously.

“No, I kissed no one before...” she started, but he wasn’t in the habit of listening.

“Cut the crap, Ms. Porterfield. You kissed me to get this internship. I know the likes of you,” he told her harshly. Raven gaped at him with her jaws dropped to the floor, feeling extremely insulted by his words. She didn’t need to stoop so low to achieve her dreams when she had topped her batch with the maximum GPA scores.

“I don’t need to stoop so low to achieve my dreams, sir. I didn’t know you when I agreed to commit the biggest mistake of my life. You can take back your internship, sir. I can get myself a good internship based on my hard work and my intelligence,” she said, trying to push him away to leave. Tears pricked her eyes at his hurtful words. She didn’t want to work at his company. However, he didn’t budge an inch but stood observing her minutely.

“Am I your biggest mistake, Raven?” he asked her as she uselessly tried to escape him.

“Yes. I’m already in a relationship and I’m sorry about everything that has happened. I have no wish to take up this internship anymore,” she said, but he didn’t move even an inch as he kept staring at her with a brooding look on his face.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Yes sir. I will be married to him next year,” she announced. “I only agreed to the bet because only students frequent that café and no one ever wears a suit there. If you wouldn’t have arrived wearing a suit, I wouldn’t have had to kiss you. It’s our misfortune, really. I’m very sorry,” she said again. “Please, let me go.”

“You can’t,” he told her quietly.

She looked up at him with confusion. “I can’t?”

He composed himself and released his grip on the desk, straightening up. “You cannot leave the company before five years, Ms. Porterfield. You’ve signed a contract with us.” Raven stood like a statue. The contract! She had forgotten about it altogether.

He went back to his seat and spoke on the intercom impatiently. After a few minutes, a short, bespectacled man came into the room. “Yes, sir, did you need me?”

“Yes, Kendrick. This is Raven Porterfield, our new intern for the Production Department. She’s your responsibility now. Show her to her workstation and inform her what needs to be done.”

“Please come with me, Ms. Porterfield. I’m Kendrick Rogers, Assistant Manager Production.” Raven looked at Ralph Van Halen, but he had already dismissed her. Seeing him busy with his work, she quietly followed Mr. Rogers out of the lion’s den. She was grateful to escape. The smile returned to her lips, realizing that she would work on a different floor altogether with a nice and kind boss.

She reached the tenth floor where she would work for the next five years. Mr. Rogers led her to her cubicle. “Settle down, Ms. Porterfield. I’ll send someone to explain everything to you. Okay?” he said and Raven nodded. She felt much more relaxed in the open, positive environment around her. The large, sparsely furnished minimalist office, sprinkled with greens all around, made her forget Ralph’s confusing attitude.