I
The loud sound of heels hitting the floor as she ran down the stairs of her apartment filled Carmen's ears. She couldn't believe that she had slept through her alarm on the first day of her internship—How could she have been so stupid?
She pushed open the door when she was close enough and ran outside, making her way towards the bus stop. As she got close to the bus stop, she saw people lined up waiting, almost everyone looking down at their phones. She heaved a heavy sigh as she joined the line, hoping that it wouldn't be much longer before the bus arrived.
Luckily enough, it took less than five minutes before the bus arrived and everyone filed in.
As she stood on the bus, holding onto a seat and swaying along with the movement of the bus, she sincerely hoped that her day would be alright on her first day of work.
- - -
When the bus arrived at her stop, she pushed past everyone and began to run to the building where she would be working as an intern for six months. When she entered the building, she went straight to the elevator and pressed the button to go up. She jogged in one spot as she whispered under her breath,
"Please, please come now," urging the elevator doors to open.
A few moments later, she was standing in front of the man who she would be working under.
"You're Carmen I assume?" he said, looking her up and down, causing her to nod her head as she began to feel self-conscious.
"Yes I am. Sorry for being l—"
"Not only do you have the audacity to come late on your first day but you also come looking like that?" he said, before beginning to walk away.
Unsure of what to do, Carmen began to follow him until someone reached out a hand to stop her. She looked at the person who had stopped her, slightly confused.
"You might want to take a trip to the washroom to fix yourself first," the person said, "and by the way, I'm Ashley."
"Carmen," she introduced herself, to which Ashley smiled.
"Nice to meet you. Now go before he catches on that you're not behind him."
"Thanks," she said to her.
"No worries, I've been there before. Just hang in there and you'll make it through," Ashley told her with a smile. Carmen smiled at her words as she nodded in appreciation.
- - -
Carmen allowed herself to fall into the bench in front of the building after her day had ended. She could never have imagined how stressful it would be to be an intern at that office. But as a prestigious firm, how could she expect anything less?
She loosened her heels as she leaned into the bench, stretching her arms into the air until she heard something fall onto the ground. She turned her head towards the sound to find a square black object on the ground as a man walked away from it, clearly too busy with his phone call to notice.
Carmen ran up to it and picked it up. As soon as she noticed that it was a wallet, she ran after him and tapped on his shoulder. And when the man turned around, she felt every inch of her body freeze.
James.
Her lips spoke his name before she could mentally register anything. He looked at her for a few seconds, his phone still pressed to his ear until he recognized her.
"Carmen?"
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