Eruption

33

Tavon snickered. "So Sierra was kind of right. You slept your way into this job."

"Dude," Zach said. "You shouldn't be messing with her now. If I remember correctly, you made some pretty shitty hypotheses about her fiancé before you knew who he was."

"Penny," Tavon said. "We're cool right? Obviously James Hunter isn't whipped or desperate or controlling. I didn't mean it."

I laughed. "He actually is controlling. It's fine. I'm not going to tell him you said that."

"Wait, I think I remember reading about this," Sierra said. "James Hunter took a break from corporate America after selling Blive Tech International." She snapped her fingers. "He was a professor at some school for a year or something. And he got fired for sleeping with a few of his students."

"He resigned. And it was just one student." What is wrong with people?

"You?"

"I'm going to go get some coffee. Anybody want anything?" When no one said anything, I got up and walked toward the break room. They didn't need any other specifics. Everything they wanted to know was online. I'd hide out here for a few minutes until they were done looking. I grabbed a mug, poured myself a cup, and walked over to the sugar. When I turned around, Zach was standing there with his arms folded in front of his chest.

"So the bruise?" He touched his cheek. "Was that him?"

Oh God. "No." I tried to walked past him, but he blocked my path.

"If you don't want to talk to me about it, you should talk to someone you..."

"No, I actually mean no. It wasn't him."

"Who was it then?"

"Why don't you believe me?"

"Well, for one, you're avoiding the question."

"I'm not. I'm just..."

"So tell me then. If it's not him, it shouldn't matter."

"Fine, you got me. I'm actually in a Fight Club."

Zach laughed.

"Really. And I can't talk about it. The first rule about Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club. I don't want to be kicked out."

He laughed again. "You're too scrawny."

"You wanna bet?"

"Look, if you have a nickname for what your fiancé calls slapping you around, it doesn't make it any better. You can lie to me but you shouldn't lie to yourself."

I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I didn't want to be talking about this with a stranger. "I'm not lying. And I don't see why this is any of your business."

"It's not." He stared at me for another second before grabbing a cup of coffee for himself. It didn't seem like he believed me at all. "But you admitted that he's controlling and if he's hurting you..."

"He's not. Zach can you please just drop it? You can call me Fight Club as much as you want, but I don't want to talk about this."

"Okay, Fight Club," he said and shrugged his shoulders. "I was just trying to help."

"So why are you such an expert on this anyway?" He had spiked my interest. The tattoos and the tough look seemed to just be a show. He seemed kind and intuitive and for some reason genuinely cared about my safety. Maybe some kind of dark past. Everyone should be asking him questions, not me.

"I don't see why that's any of your business." He winked at me and walked back toward our desks.

I rolled my eyes and followed him out of the break room. I knew he was just trying to be nice, but I didn't appreciate all his prying. Especially if he wasn't willing to give anything away about himself either.

"You have quite the sensational past," Sierra said as I sat back down.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"So let me get this straight," Tavon said. "You f****d your professor. Got caught. Lost your scholarship to the University of New Castle and the respect of your peers. And had to switch schools because of all the scandalous rumors?"

"I chose to transfer to NYCU. We wanted a fresh start."

"So how did you pay for it? NYCU is an expensive college. Especially without instate tuition."

God.

"I'm going to take your silence as confirmation for what I already thought. James Hunter paid for your education. And he obviously got you this job. Everything in your life has been handed to you. This is kind of bullshit. Do you know how hard I had to work to land this internship? How many interviews we all had to do before we got accepted?"

"My transcript is just as good as yours or I wouldn't be here."

"I think we all know that's not true."

"I think you're missing the silver lining here," Zach said.

Tavon sighed and put his hands behind his head. "Which is?"

"Penny has an in with the boss. So if we all play our cards right, we now have a connection that none of the other interns have. You should be happy about this, not pissed off." He gave me a small smile. Having him on my side could be a good thing.

"True," Tavon said. "Maybe the four of us could get drinks one night this week? And you could bring Hunter?"

"Umm..." I let my voice trail off. I didn't know what James would think about hanging out with a bunch of his interns. "I'll ask him. But we're really busy the next few weeks."

"With all the wedding planning?" Sierra asked. "It's probably going to be the most lavish wedding of the year."

I wasn't sure what she wanted me to say. Was she waiting for me to invite her? "I can ask James about getting drinks one night though," I said instead.

"I can't wait!" Sierra said. "I've always wondered what he was like outside of work. It's like hanging out with a celebrity. I'm so jealous of your life."

"If you don't tone it down Fight Club won't even ask him," Tavon said. "We'll be cool, I promise. I'll get Sierra under control."

I laughed. I glanced at Zach, but he was just staring at me skeptically. "Yeah, I'll ask James and let you guys know." I turned my attention to the computer screen. Maybe hanging out outside of work with them would help us bond. And Zach seeing James and me together might get him off my back.