Brooklyn:
"So, how's my baby feeling? Excited for your first day? Or nervous?" My mother asks me as she flops another two hotcakes in my plate.
"Mama, I'm a man. A 24 year old man. And no, I'm not nervous actually. I'm as calm as the breeze. This is going to be good. I can feel it in my bones." I say to her.
My little brother, Alfie, is sitting across me and imitating my suit and the seriousness of my attire.
"Eat up, squirt. I'm not dropping you off at school because you missed the bus again." I say as I prop one of my hotcakes in his plate.
"Yeah, yeah. The bus is more fun than your car anyway." He says sticking his tongue out at me.
"Mama, I'm almost 18. You got Brooklyn a car when he was 18, would you like my wishlist or do you want to wait until the big day?" My middle brother, Carter says pulling out a print out of the calender with his birthday circled out in red.
I burst out in laughter.
"Boy, don't play me. You know I'm a struggling single Mama tryna raise 3 boys on my own. Stop playin'." My mother starts clearing the table, making no eye contact with either one of us.
Carter, defeated, slides his calender back in his pocket and sighs.
"I tell you what, I will give you a ride. And when I'm done with this car, it's yours." I say to him as I get up from my seat and give him a hand.
"That's gonna take forever. Mom says you can't find direction." He says, refusing my hand and slouching back in his seat.
"That just earned you a seat on the bus. I'll see you all later. Have a good day." I say as I get up and grab my keys and bag.
I kiss my mother and fistbump my brothers.
As I pull up to the biggest building on the street, it's probably taking up an entire block, I read the name on the building.
"Mildegardt and Co. This is it." I tell myself as I pull up to the security standing by the boom gate with a clipboard.
"Morning. Brooklyn Denver. I'm...." He stops me as he checks his clipboard.
"Yes yes, Mr Denver. Another intern. Welcome. They are awaiting you in the boardroom. Good luck." He says as he opens the boom gate and gestures me to proceed.
"Thank you. See you around." I wave at him as I proceed into the parking lot.
There's three parkings at the back open and I can't seem to read the sign to see if it's someone's designated parking spot.
Screw it. If it was someone's it would have been more visible.
I park my car and straighten myself out as I get out and proceed into the building.
I follow the markers to the boardroom and as I open the door, I understand why the security referred to me as "another intern". There were atleast 15 seated, waiting.
I scan the room and take a seat to the back of the room, next to three guys.
"Brooklyn." I extend my hand to them.
"Lamar. This is Chad and Eddie." The small built African American says.
Chad, whose dressed like an avid sports fan or sportsman extends his hand and shakes mine with a smile and nods.
Eddie acknowledges me with a nod but returns to scanning the room.
"6 months. Enough time for me to break a few hearts here." He says as he scans each girl in the room.
All of a sudden Lamar bursts out laughing. The entire room turns around to look at him, eyes bewildered.
He notices the eyes that have fallen on him, especially Eddie's that doesn't look impressed at all, and he pulls himself together.
He gestures us to come closer.
"This place. This place will break your heart. You won't get the chance to break any hearts here. You will leave here a humble man." He says in a low tone, eyeing each one of us. Making sure we understood.
"Were you here before?" Chad asks him.
"Yes." Lamar replies to him bluntly.
" I don't know, these babes look harmless and very unexperienced. Putty in my hands." Eddie says once again scanning the room for his possible victims.
"These are not the babes that will pull on your heartstrings and destroy it. These girls are beautiful, but the ones outside of this boardroom are on a league of their own." He says tugging on his heart.
I look around the room and Lamar is right. These girls are beautiful, each in their own way. But they look young, naive, and something about them, just doesn't do it for me.
I'd like to believe my psychology degree has given me the ability to read people well, but also you like what you like and there's not much more to it.
Eddie is sitting and winking at a few and flirting hopelessly. They giggle and wave back, landing their eyes on me and giggle once again.
I greet them, politely and avert my attention back to Lamar because I'm not going to get into anything with anyone here.
"So how long have you been here?" I ask him.
"Everytime they roll out new contracts. Two years now. Whenever they have big contracts, the start a six month internship programme. They must have a few major contracts because this is the biggest intern group I've seen thus far." He says, scanning the room.
"So why not apply in a more permanent capacity?" I ask him.
"Still completing my studies. And the monies good here. When I'm done I'll probably apply if they have any openings." He takes of his glasses and cleans them off.
"Let me guess, I.T?" I ask him. Everything about him screams computer wizard. Again, maybe it's my psychology training to read people.
"How'd you know?" He asks me.
"Lucky guess." I shrug not wanting to tell my first friend I met at this place that he screams computer nerd.
"What about you?" Chad joins in our conversation and asks me.
"Just trying to find my direction." I say as I'm looking around.
"Yeah me too. And the money's good. Better then being at home." Chad says stretching his feet onto the table.
All of a sudden the room falls silent,and in walks three people. The room pulls themselves straight and Chad jumps up next to me, placing his feet back on the ground.
The woman in the middle, probably in her late 40s, clears her throat, demanding attention. She's what my mother would call, mutton dressed as lamb. She's clearly power hungry, image hungry, considering all the visible work she had done on herself.
She's wearing a skimpy dress that has Chad and Eddie drooling next to me. Lamar seems as unphased as I am. She introduces herself as the managing director. The "actual boss". Power Hungry.
She introduces the gentleman on her left, as the other managing director. His probably in his early 50's. Dressed to the T in a Gucci suit. There seems to be some sort of tension or chemistry between them that looks messy as hell. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
The lady on her right, small black woman, fragile looking, seems to be overpowered by her leader Ms. Sterling. She is introduced to us as our manager. Ms. Kent looks uncomfortable in her position.
As Ms. Sterling goes on and on talking about herself and her accomplishments, the boardroom door barges open and in stumbles
