Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Bigger Dreams
---------—Some Years Prior
“I still cannot believe Gerald is letting you come to the meeting,” groaned Barbara, one of Samantha’s fellow interns, as she swirled around in her chair. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you—but damn, did I want to meet that delicious Richard Washington.”
The design firm at which they were interns had just gotten a shot at a huge interior design and branding job. Apparently, someone by the name of Richard Washington had been making quite a big stir in the financial sector recently and was in need of a larger building to accommodate for his successes.
That thought gave Samantha some confidence in a way. From the stories she had heard from her peers, the new CEO taking over the market was nearly as young as them. It filled her with a sort of wonder to know someone her age could accomplish so much.
And it allowed her to dream bigger than she had originally intended.
Samantha laughed at her friend’s vain statement and raised her eyebrow at her in question. “And you wonder why Gerald gave me the position, and not you.”
The internship was challenging in its own right. Besides being a demanding job that forced new ideas from her almost weekly, she also had to listen to all the complaints of her peers. Their manager, Gerald Howard, was a somewhat sleazy man.
Gerald constantly stole the ideas of the interns and marketed them off as his own. As one might imagine, this was something even a normal person would find greatly insulting and rude, let alone an artist.
But Samantha understood, to some degree, that the internship would only last for a few more weeks.
She had resigned herself to gaining experience from this situation and leaving with a good recommendation to her name. She would worry about the impact of her ideas and who they truly belong to later on.
Samantha laughed as she dodged the tissue box that came flying her way. “In any case, please do not forget to give me your project you want me to show them.”
“Wait you were serious about that?” Barbara asked.
“Of course,” Samantha replied. “I mean, I can’t guarantee I will promote it as much as my own work, but I will definitely add it to the catalog if you want.”
Barbara squealed with joy as she leaped up from her office chair and hugged her, “Oh, thank you! You are truly a dream. Maybe they will like it enough to invite me over to that fancy new building of theirs, huh?”
“Anyway,” Samantha said as she rolled her eyes playfully, “What do you know about this Richard guy?”
“Only the rumors that have been spoken about him.” Barbara shrugged. “He is the son of Rachel Washington, a vicious woman. It seems to run in the genes though—Richard is as ruthless as his mother, if not more so. And not only in the business aspect, mind you.”
Barbara continued, “He is known for doing a lot of MMA fighting at some top-notch celebrity gym. He mentioned it in one of his interviews with some fancy magazine for up-and-coming business tycoons.”
“Well, from what I have seen, he has impressed a lot of people with his business acumen,” Samantha said wryly.
“Oh, definitely; the decisions he has been making since his mother put him in charge of some of the higher business operations are insane. Here, look at this—” A laptop was thrust into her line of vision as Samantha took note of the Washington Industries website. She glanced at the reviews 5from the general public as well as all the other businesses they had acquired shares in.
“Woah,” Samantha breathed out, “That is…”
“A lot,” Barbara finished for her. “Not only that, but the number of people trying to buy shares in the company has tripled in the past week alone. Whatever he is doing over there, it is definitely working.”
“And Gerald wants us to design his new headquarters?” Samantha breathed out in shock as she suddenly began to feel overwhelmed by the reality of the situation.
“Not us girl,” Barbara reminded her. “You.”
---------—Main Building of Washington Industries, Later That Da
It was much later in the day when Samantha finally reached her destination and burst through the doors of the office building.
She checked in and hurried toward the elevators. She saw one with the doors slowly closing; her legs gave a sudden burst of energy as she ran toward it.
“Hey, hold it!” She yelled at the occupant already inside. Just as a large hand came out to stop the doors from closing, her own nailed hand reached between them.
She heard a grunt of pain before she saw the dent her blue nails had left on the man’s skin. Once she successfully got into the elevator, she finally took note of what she had done. A gasp of horror left her mouth and she apologized profusely.
“I did not mean to do that! Oh my god,” she said. She scavenged in her shoulder bag for a band-aid and some small alcohol wipes she knew she had in there. “Hold on let me just—what are you doing, give me your hand—hold on just…”
The man stayed still as she focused on the urgent matter, pulling the man’s hand toward her when he tried to shield it from her and wiping the little blood that had accumulated before applying the band-aid. When she smiled down at her handiwork, it was not without a faint blush.
“You do not have to…“
It was the first time she heard the man’s voice—and, God, if she didn’t swoon at the sound of it. It was rough and hard, yet somehow laced with a confusion that she could not place. Whether it was from her own actions or something else bothering him, she wasn’t sure.
When she looked up at him, she noticed a pair of steely silver eyes bearing down at her. She would be lying if she said she did not feel the slightest bit intimidated under the man’s gaze. She lowered her head before he could notice the blush rising on her cheeks and focused on her small task.
“No, no,” She said, “I should take responsibility.”
And he did not object to anything she did after that. But she could feel the man’s gaze on her as she worked with the band-aid and fumbled with the small piece of wrapping that had come off of it.
“Do you want me to hold it?” he asked her, and she nodded her head as she handed it to him so that her hands were free to correctly place the band-aid over his hand. When she looked up again, it seemed as if he had not taken his eyes off of her.
But before she could dwell on the matter or feel any more embarrassed, the ding of the elevator alerted her that the doors were opening, and she rushed out onto her designated floor.
“I am so sorry again; please get better!” she added with a wave of her hand as she rushed out and into the main office area where Gerald was already waiting for her.
“You are late,” came his greeting; but, when she made to give her reply, he only held his hand up. “I do not want any excuses.”
Then, before she could speak, he motioned to a strongly-built man already sitting at a desk table. “This is Ryan. He is here as a representative of our client, as Mr. Washington had previous engagements to attend to. Show him the designs I had created.”
“Hello, my name is Samantha Williams,” she greeted Ryan as Gerald began to present the various styles and designs in their proposal’s pages.
Something started to bother Samantha as Gerald began to explain, rather horribly, the inspiration for the designs which she herself had put together. Whereas she had originally planned for the atmosphere to be warm and inviting, he was adamant that the look be professional and classy.
It wasn’t ten minutes later that the large doors to the small room opened up. To Samantha’s utter horror, the man she had scratched hard enough to draw blood in the elevator stood in the doorway.
He was gorgeous. That was the first thing she realized. Although she had already gotten a direct look at his face, the dimly lit elevator gave Samantha only an inkling of the man’s attractiveness.
But to see him now, fully lit as the window behind her shed light onto him, was something completely different. Barbara was right: the man looked delicious.
They continued to stare at each other for a brief moment. Samantha knew she must have looked like a fish out of water with the way she gaped at the man, and he shot her an equally amusing look back—a slight smirk with a raised eyebrow.
He held the brief moment of eye contact with Samantha before taking Gerald’s hand in his own to shake it.
The same hand, she noted, that bore the Hello Kitty band-aid she had placed on it.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone