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Chapter 1
Madison
“No, no, no! This can’t be happening!”
Blaring honks answered my anguished sigh as I stared ahead at standstill traffic in the city. The tall, glistening building of Ashland Consulting was right down the street, and I should’ve been walking through the front door right about… now. It was my first day as a marketing intern, and I had already messed up by arriving late.
I needed to complete this internship, or I wouldn’t graduate on time! I already fought my way through nearly four years of college. I couldn’t fall short during my last semester and take on even more student loan debt. I already had to cross my fingers and hope that my business marketing degree would lead to a job that was good enough to pay off those loans.
After what seemed like countless minutes, the light ahead turned green. Instead of the line of cars ahead of me launching forward, it crawled inch by inch. I groaned and tilted my head back, the long strands of my black hair falling behind my shoulders. I had to figure out something, or I was going to get fired on the spot for being so late. So many other students had fought for this internship like I did and they were waiting in the wings.
I glanced over to the right, spotting an open parking spot in a two-hour parking zone. I would be at my internship longer than two hours, but what choice did I have? At this pace, it would be an hour until I would be walking into the office. I would have to deal with the ticket later. Hopefully, this internship would be worth it.
I cut to the right, speeding into the spot and parking before I could change my mind. I threw open my door and stepped out, my hands moving down my figure to smooth down my black pencil skirt and white blouse. The last thing I needed to worry about was how I looked right now, but I was going to worry about that and every other little thing regardless. I was caught in a crisis.
I hurried down the sidewalk, my heels clicking against the concrete as I dodged through people walking astronomically slow for eight o’clock in the morning. When I finally made it inside of Ashland Consulting, I didn’t feel relief just yet. I had to figure out where the office of the marketing head was. Thankfully, there was a directory between the two elevators.
Brittany Hammond – Marketing – 1505
My feet moved quickly once they hit the grey, carpeted floor of the fifteenth-floor hallway. I glanced left and right as I walked down the hallway, stopping when I saw Office 505. I could already hear murmurs from inside the office, prompting me to step into the open doorway and lightly knock on the frame.
“Hi, I’m Madison Palmer. I’m so sorry I’m late. The traffic was terrible this morning,” I immediately apologized as my eyes fell on a curvy brunette woman in her thirties. I expected to only see her at her desk, but I also spotted a very familiar blonde woman seated across from her.
What was Sara Deland doing at my internship? Not to be too mean, but she was a bit of a snobby narcissist that happened to be in my same major. We only had a few classes together, but it was hard to overlook her when she made it a point to always make herself the center of attention.
“It might be helpful to set your alarm earlier to accommodate delays like that,” Sara commented as she turned in her seat to smirk at me. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, exposing the perfect lines and curves of her flawless face. In the spirit of her cocky personality, she was dressed boldly in a red pantsuit that she pulled off quite well. Sara was proving to be more of the same. We had shared maybe ten sentences with each other since we started having classes together, so she was still comfortable acting snooty with people she hardly knew. I wondered where she garnered the nerve from.
Brittany merely smiled as she stood up from behind her desk.
“It’s okay. It happens,” she told me as she stuck her hand out. “I’m Brittany, head of marketing.”
