CHAPTER FIVE: INTERN

That we may not fall short of desire, but let us give way to the unspoken passion hidden in the closet of our discretion.
-Erik Pevernagie

One of the upsides of being rich, as Jasper is showing me, is that when you decide that you want to go or stop going to college, even if you might want to go back at some point, it's not a big deal money-wise.

See, he wants to leave college and focus more on the business passed down on his mom's side.

The Astoria's.

I've seen a part of their business, like the nightclub that one of his cousin's manages, but I've never seen Jasper fully at work.

I know what he works as- -he's the CEO for the part of the business that does human resources and manages all their smaller sub-businesses- -and know he's the only one of his siblings who's interested in this aspect of being an Astoria, let alone actually do any kind of intern or pre-work drills before taking over the mantle.

It was a good month before he actually willingly went into the office to be an active boss.

Which is actually fitting, because yes, he's the boss's boss and main heir, but he's also the guy who makes sure everyone else isn't being a douche-bag. Even if he does giggle during intense death scenes during movies.

His business peers, employees and what-nots, all know him as Ozias and see him as this big, intimidating guy who can ruin your life for even attempting to ruin someone else's.

They're scared of him.

And I think that's hilarious.

If only they knew the dorky way that he folds his socks or inability to drink coffee, let alone anything remotely bitter.

After I settle into my new routine of getting my single three hour culinary class out of the way, going to my daily- -except for Sunday- -practice for the league, I've also gotten into the habit of running some hot chocolate down to my boyfriend, who's spending a lot of time in-business.

He has his own floor, it's kind of intimidating to my small-town brain.

My daily routine is easy. I get up at five, go on a run until six, wake up Jasper and sometimes shower together depending on the day but I always shower for at least five minutes anyway. Then I go to class at eight, get out at eleven and go to practice at twelve.

Until games start, we're only practicing until four-thirty, and I bring hot chocolate to Jasper at five.

And though my afternoon is 'random', I normally stick to one of four things so my brain doesn't explode -those being practice more with Flynn, be on call with Jasper while drawing since I'm getting back in habit, make dinner or bake while face-timing with my dad and either Triton or Eris as we bake together.

Today was abnormal, as the bakery is closed so Papa wasn't on call to do our bake-off, I didn't have class, and it's Sunday so that means there's no practice.

Fly's busy with his girl, so that means I'm completely free given Circe doesn't want to do anything.

So I did make hot chocolate like normal- -homemade is the best, except for marshmallows, I hate making them- -but this time I made lunch as well.

It's Jasper's favorite, well, his favorite recently, once I made it. It's chicken and asparagus lemon stir fry, and he only likes it that much because he discovered that if he eats oranges before or after it won't taste weird.

He always eats oranges, they basically take up half our kitchen fruit counter at home.

Today, when I walk into the building like normally there's clearly a difference.

Probably the most notable thing is that I look put together and not near as tired, the second is that I'm about four hours early so the employees are surprised to see me, the last is that instead of carrying a single hot chocolate, I'm carrying a big ass food box, two drinks and clearly think I belong here.

Which apparently makes them think that I don't, despite me having a keycard and the actual key to the building and Jasper's office.

One of the women who I definitely know the name of but can't care to remember, who's saved a hot chocolate from my Tourette's before, looks at me with sympathy and amusement mixed together.

She looks constipated.

"Did he change his dailies?" Though I can immediately put together the 'he' is Jasper, it doesn't make her question or attention less confusing.

Now more people are looking at me as if my answer could be life changing.

Gross, human interaction.

"Um..." Dailies, like a routine? I'll just go with that. "No, but mine did?"

She makes a face like this is the weirdest thing I could have said at the moment, and it crosses my mind that I might be dreaming. "Yours changed... so you changed his?"

What the fuck, I'm so confused. Why the hell is this a big deal?

"It's um-" I growl, and curse myself -they don't know I have Tourette's and nor do I feel like explaining it when both of us already are as confused and frustrated with this conversation as we already are. "-just lunch, and hot chocolate. Why? He's literally fine, paperwork can wait, or he can just do it at home."

One of the guys looking at me gives out a noise of surprise.

"I wouldn't let Ozias hear you talk like that if I were you." He says, another co-worker of his nodding in agreement.

A second woman asks, "Does he at least know you're coming?"

My nose wrinkles. "I doubt it. Is he in a-" I squeak. "-meeting or something?"

"No, he's not," The original woman, who's one of his three secretaries, shakes her head. "But still, good luck when you drop that off. You know he doesn't like interns in his office without asking, they mess with things all the time so don't touch anything you're not supposed to. I've seen the last one read a personal document before, didn't get fired, Ozias' too nice for that, but he did get scolded."

Interns? Oh.

Oh.

Blinking at her, going to correct her, I'm completely interrupted by the giant puppy himself coming into the room with papers in hand.

"Hey Ruby, I need this done by four. Have Corbin print... three... copies?" Jasper's once confident tone completely fades and he goes wide-eyed, moving over my figure with a dopey smile. "Star!"

"Grab the drinks." I tell him, really not wanting to get this far and drop them, even if they're in a carry-box. He does just as I ask, and gently grabs onto my middle with his free hand. "They think I'm your fucking intern, Jitterbug. How young do I look? God, I'm older than you -mother ducklings!"

Laughing, Jasper pulls me closer to him and presses a small kiss to my forehead. "Maybe it's because you're tiny, Castor, and you look..."

I look... what? He should be better at using his words, at this rate.

"Do I-" I squeak. "-look professional, or something?"

"Kind of, but also just way too good for me right now." Jasper says, shaking his head at me as he glances up to meet my eyes once again. "Is there a special occasion I forgot?"

Raising an eyebrow, I glance down at myself before looking back up to him, "No? I just put on your dress shirt that you left out because you accidentally grabbed two from the closet when you were getting dressed this morning, dork."

Not to mention these are just normal, regular jeans that absolutely nobody should be the tiniest bit impressed with.

Oh, it's probably my hair. I haven't messed it up as much as normal, probably because I haven't had much to do today and that means I'm ticing less, and no practice means no tangles.

"This is gross." Wrinkling my nose, I pat down my hair.

Looking presentable is one thing, I do that, occasionally but looking good enough to be professional is just straight up weird.

Taking my hand, Jasper presses his lips against the scars on my knuckles, smiling lightly. "Aw star, you don't want to look professional? We could match and be the cringey gay couple Viv teases us about being."

"Jasper, the last thing I want to do is meet any expectation that a D'Silvetta has." I deadpan.

Chuckling at my supposed devastation at his best friend's expectations of us, Jasper leans in to peck me on the nose like the dork he is.

"Here," My boyfriend says, flashing me his adorable dimples and making me able to briefly sees the place holders for his snake bites -I may or may not pay too much attention to his mouth. "Let me help you then, to not meet their expectations."

How disgustingly nice, or at least he would be if the musician didn't immediately ruffle my for once normal hair messily.

"Oh, so much better." Jasper says mockingly, moving his hand down to the back of my neck.

Ruby, with a squawk, seems to be absolutely beside herself, either realizing that her boss is apparently human with human emotions and a gay partner, or realizing that she insinuated and warned said gay partner about his own boyfriend after treating him like a misbehaving intern.

And she did, I'm sure, think I was an intern.

I'm not sure which one is Corbin, but there's three guys directly around us and each one is staring between us with open mouths and scared eyes in Jasper's direction like they've done something wrong, so I'm assuming it doesn't matter.

One of his other secretaries is looking completely flustered and jumps when Jitterbug's green eyes slide to him, causing him to drop papers.

But the third, at least, is completely unbothered, glancing up to catch what's going on but going right back to her phone call as she confidently ignores everything that's happening.

What a goddamn mood.

Jasper takes a breath and seems to straighten up -probably getting whiplash between his professional persona and his real, flustered self with me.

"Ruby, please have Corbin make three copies of the Morgan-Afler files I emailed to you. Have Afeed check over it for any marginal or cost errors and get it done by four. Resend it to my main secretary when you have it done so she can give it the go-ahead. Mark, you have paperwork that you need to get done before six and Leonard, I appreciate that you are up here to socialize but you have your own section to run. Return to work, please."

So bossy.

"W-wait but," Almost flustered, Ruby raises her hand to ask a question before putting it back down, realizing that her boss isn't her teacher. "Who's he?"

She points to me and I'm tempted to flip her off for no reason other than it seems like a good idea for a single moment.

"Well?" Turning to look back up at Jasper, I tilt my head at him expectedly. "Who am I, Ozais? Because I'm not- -I'm, I'm, I'm- -answering that."

"Do not call me Ozias, Star," My boyfriend grumbles at me, frowning down and I can see the grumpiness that he has at me for calling him something that he said has always been 'professionally impersonal' for it being his middle name. "This is Castor, he's the love of my life. We're going to go have lunch now, get to work."

"It was for a point, you big puppy." I chastise him, handing him the food box as well, making him drop his hold on my waist with a pout -at the loss of contact or the name, I can't really tell. "Now c'mon."

Pulling on his tie, causing it to come loose from his shirt, I lead him in the direction of his office, dropping my hold on it once those stupid employee's are out of sight.

Humans are quite annoying, really.

Jasper is the one to shut the door behind us and put the food and drinks carefully on the floor where I plop down, ignoring the perfectly good chairs and desk.

Deciding, apparently, that I've already messed his tie up enough, he loosens it the rest of the way and unbuttons his suit, rolling his sleeves up and unbuttoning a bit of his collared shirt as well.

Which, let me tell you, is quite the sight.

"You're- -bit hot innit- -red," I note, smiling smugly as I pop open the food box. "And you look hot. Also, food. Eat."

"Thank you for lunch, my Star." He says while just flushing more, sitting across from me where I decided to plop down on his hardwood floor in front of the couch. "No practice."

Shaking my head, I give him another look before turning back to open the food. "An intern, really? I don't look like someone who could-" I squeak. "-sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life. That's basically a prison sentence."

"It's 'cause you brought me coco like how interns do for them all the time." He explains, then immediately starts grinning when his minty eyes glance into the food box. "Oranges!"

Nodding, I smile as I pull out a paper plate for him. "Yup."

"You know me!"

"I do," Laughing this out, I roll my eyes at him. "I do."

He points at me with a bit of orange peel. "And you love me!"

"Yes, again. Wow, you're getting things right a lot today, huh."

Jasper just smiles happily, cheekily, and asks, "Say it?"

Scoffing, I look up and make direct eye contact with him, waiting for his flustered glancing away to quickly end before bothering to say anything.

"I love you."

He gives me a giddy half-chuckle, half-giggle and grins at me. "I love you too!"

"Happy?" Asking this, I dig my fork into a piece of asparagus and hope above all I don't fling it at him.

My boyfriend nods. "M'happy."

Not responding but taking a bite, I nod and contently sit and listen to him tell me about his most recent problem- -the Morgan-Afler case- -and how one stronzo that one of his Astoria cousins dated is messing everything up.

Apparently he's the Morgan in the case, and the Astoria gave him the rights to an Afler business deal that fell apart when they broke up. And now, Jasper has to be the one to fix it.

Even if he's complaining, I still find it enjoyable.

I could get used to this.