It was June 1st, which meant the arrival of the interns. To welcome them, Andy had set up a selection of cold drinks, pots of tea with jugs of milk and jars of sugar, bitesize cubes of various cakes from the local bakery, and had placed a tote bag that had a welcome booklet, a pencil case filled with stationary, and a memory stick so that they could store all their work in it and could easily take it after the internship was over, on each chair.

He'd already organised taxis from the airport, since eight of the students were flying in, and the others were getting themselves to the office. 

It was almost midday, and he was putting the last of the iced jugs of water on the table in the conference room when the door opened and Brit, the employee he'd appointed for meeting the students at the gates and welcoming them in, said, "They're all here, Andrew. Would you like me to show them up?" 

"Yes, thank you, Brit. You've checked all of them against the list I gave you?" 

"Yeah. Had them sign like you suggested they do." 

"Alright, great." 

The people that came into the conference room were all equally as nervous, some wearing dark clothes, some in bright colours, some in pure black, one in pure white, like a tin of paint had been tipped over her and hadn't yet dried. 

Andy gave them time to sit down, he himself taking a seat in the middle of the right side, the students either side of him looking as though they could pass out with amazement and excitement and nervousness. As usual, he was wearing one of his red suits, though that morning, Remington had made a passing comment about adding some black to it, and he had spent the first hour in his office hand-sewing strips of black lace down the lapels, and once he had finished, he had taken a photo and sent it to Remington with the words, 'You're a literal genius, baby!' 

Now, his arms resting on the table before him, he spoke to them for the first time. "It's great you meet you all," he said. "I know this is a lot and I imagine you're all pretty anxious about this new step in your life. If you need a few minutes away from everyone at any point, please do feel free to step out. I'll make sure you're caught up with anything you might miss. But I'll be keeping today more of a casual thing, just to help you all settle in and get used to things around here." 

They weren't all looking at him, but he didn't expect them to; he was a famous, very successful fashion designer who had, for many of them, been their main source of inspiration and in some cases their happiness. He had anticipated their collective nervousness. 

"I figured I'd use this time today to introduce myself, tell you a little about me and about my company. You'll have opportunities to introduce yourselves, but only if you want to. I don't want anyone to feel pressured into speaking. And please, help yourselves to anything on the table." He gestured at the array of foods and drinks. "You should have found a bag on your seat. There's a few things in there to help you get settled and such, but if you need anything else, just let me know. I'd also like to say now that if you've disclosed information about a disability and feel at any point throughout your time here that you aren't receiving the support you require, you should come to me and we'll make sure it's dealt with. I'm sure you understand that it's a very large corporation and it occasionally happens that information is lost in emails or accidentally put with the paper recycling."

Andy picked up the nearest pot of tea and poured himself a cup as a way of showing that they, too, could help themselves. 

"Anyone have any questions before I continue?" He asked. "Or any dietary requirements I may have missed? There should be almond milk in the red jug. And vegan foods are labelled, I believe, if I've done this as well as I hope I have." 

Surprisingly, someone did raise their hand with a question, and Andy nodded in their direction. "Hotel is provided?" The young man asked in a strong Spanish accent. 

"Ah, yes. Good question. You all should have been emailed a questionnaire shortly after being accepted with options on accommodation and travel to fill out. As long as you specified that you need accommodation, it'll be provided free of charge. If I'm remembering correctly, we have eight overseas students and four British students booked into a hotel just a few minutes walk from here. If you could just stay behind for a few minutes after lunch and I'll check against my list that it's all sorted, that would be great." 

Another raised their hand and said, "I like your suit." 

Andy smiled. "Oh, thank you. It was my husband's idea, the black lace. He's got quite the eye." He took a sip of his tea, was glad to see some of them taking pieces of cake from the plates. "So, you all obviously know about my company, since you're here, but I'm gonna tell you some fun little facts that you probably don't know. I hope you don't, because if you do, that means I have a stalker." He earned a few shy laughs, as was his intention. "So, in the early months of this company, before I really knew what I was doing or where I wanted it to go, I had an interview which was never published with a fashion magazine who asked me, rather rudely, why I thought this was a viable career path, and me, being young and me, grabbed whatever it was they were recording with. I think it was just an audio thing, since it was for a magazine rather than, like, Youtube. So I took this thing, and I didn't answer the question, because what sort of bullshit question is that? And I threw this thing on the floor and full on stamped it to smitherines. Then I think I said something like, 'your interview skills reflect your fashion sense. Non-existent.' Then I walked out thinking I was an absolute bad boy. I also never ever got asked to be interviewed by that magazine ever again. Their loss." 

Again, most of them laughed, and he couldn't wait to return home in the evening and tell Remington all about it.