FIRST DAY
Marissa woke up early Monday morning. She looked over beside her and found Ryan fast asleep. She smiled at the man next to her, I could get used to this, she thought. It was 7 AM so she decided to get up early to make breakfast.
Half an hour passed and Ryan tiredly made his way to the kitchen. There, his eyes met with Marissa and her back to him. She had a high messy pony tail, wearing his boxers and his shirt, and was busy making breakfast.
"Smells great." He spoke.
Marissa jumped a little, not expecting him to be up. But as she turned around, she greeted him with a smile, "Bacon and eggs. Thought it'd be appropriate for your first day. I have coffee ready."
Ryan went over to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup. He walked over and slid his hand around Marissa's waist and kissed her forehead. "Thank you... and good morning."
Marissa turned her head to give him a quick peck, "Good morning to you too. Here," She finished cooking the bacon and put the plates out on the table, "Food's ready."
The two sat down and starting munching away at their breakfast.
"What's the agenda for today?" She asked him.
"First day at the firm. Just an orientation thingy... then 2 classes."
"How're you feeling with this whole internship thing?"
"Alright..." He lied. But Marissa caught on, seeing his leg was shaking from under the table.
"Ryan... You're going to do great." She reached over and held his hand.
Ryan sighed. She was right, so why was he nervous?
They shared a few seconds of silence just gazing at each other. But Ryan's cell just had to go off, "It's Lily. Hold on." He stood up and answered it, "Hello?"
Marissa watched Ryan as he frantically paced back in forth. He was so nervous but she couldn't help but smile. He hung up his phone and made his way over to her.
"Lily wants me to go over there. I better go get ready and leave..." he walked back to the bedroom. But before he did, he stopped in his tracks and ran back to Marissa. "Oh, thank you for breakfast." He kissed her sweetly then hurried to get ready.
/
Ryan hurried and made his way to the architecture firm. He stopped in his tracks and there it was. He slowly approached it and the doors automatically opened for him. He scanned around: the ceiling was high and the lobby had a very modern look to it. He fixed his tie and checked his outfit one more time before walking up nervously to the front desk. There he found a dark haired girl sitting behind it. "Hi, my name's Ryan Atwood..."
The lady, probably in her mid-30s, eyed Ryan up and down. He couldn't tell whether she looked satisfied or completely unimpressed.
"I'm an intern here... is Lily around?"
"Ahh yes, Ms. Turner said to be expecting you. I'll let her know you're here..." She reached over to her phone and started dialling a number. Ryan looked around the lobby once more, waiting awkwardly. "Okay, you can go ahead. She's on the last floor."
Ryan nodded and went over to the elevator. Once he was in, he waited patiently to reach the top floor. He was starting to sweat. Never in his life was he this nervous. But he knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and for his future's sake – or more like, his and Marissa's future – he can't screw this up.
DING! The elevator doors opened and Ryan stepped out. He saw in front of him, a long corridor and a door at the end. Ms. Lily Turner, he read on it. He gave it a knock and heard footsteps approach it.
Lily opened the door, "Ryan!"
"Good morning, Lil – I mean, Ms. Turner." Ryan cleared his throat.
"Ryan, c'mon, you're making me sound old. Lily." She laughed.
Ryan was relieved. He was always scared of the typical mean, strict, pain in the ass boss. But Lily was nothing like that. She stood at a little over 5 feet with short grey hair and giant glasses that dominated her face. Her smile was welcoming and would never disappear.
"Thank you again, for giving me a shot, I won't let you down." Ryan said.
"I know you won't. I read through your resume and some of your work history... I'm very impressed." Ryan looked down. He didn't want her to see he was blushing.
"Anyways, I'm guessing you're probably wondering why I called you down here early and the other interns aren't here yet...?"
"Yeah, a little bit," He laughed nervously.
"Well, I saw that you took part a little bit with the Newport Group." She pulled out some files and read through them, "It says you worked alongside with your guardian Kirsten Cohen – great women by the way, I'm amazed with her work – anyways, that you guys did a model home together?"
"Um, yeah... There was an accident when I first came to Newport, so the project kind of failed. But then they finally decided to reconstruct it, and Kirsten asked me to help her ."
"And how was that?"
"It turned out really great! One of many developments Kirsten's done that was a success."
"Well I'm glad to hear it, because I would love your assistance with one of my developments."
Ryan's eyes widened in shock and confusion, "Umm, sorry?"
"What, did you expect to just make coffee runs and photocopies for me?"
"Kind of, yeah."
Lily laughed, "Sorry, but I planned you do some actually work during your internship here..."
"No, I'm not, I'm not complaining or... like I don't mean," Ryan stuttered as he couldn't find the words.
Lily laughed at how nervous and shocked Ryan was. "Come here," she walked over to the corner of her office where she had a tiny model of a house, "This is one of the houses I'm designing. Like Kirsten and your's, it's a model home. But I do hope someday that it will be the first of many houses."
"But I thought you did mainly office buildings and banks and schools?"
"I do. But I'm trying to expand a bit. Berkely is in need of more houses. So I decided to add more of my work around the neighborhoods. And I'm very lucky to have an experienced intern to help me make it possible."
"I don't know what to say..."
"You don't have to say anything. Just accept and help me out here."
"Thank you."
Lily smiled at him, "Trust me, in the end I will be the one thanking you."
The phone started to ring and Lily went over to answer it, "Excuse me. Continue to look, I want your feedback..." She answered it as Ryan scanned the tiny model. Though it was nothing like what him and Kirsten designed, he knew this wasn't Newport; instead, it was perfect for living in Berkely. The house showed simplicity. Not rich and style.
"So..?" Lily said, now off the phone and standing beside Ryan.
"I think it'll be really great."
She smiled in excitement. "Oh yeah, so anyways, that was the front desk, the rest of the interns have arrived. I sent them up. We can continue with this later, but right now we have an orientation to do! You'll get to work with some of the interns, but you're mostly with me and the other architects. I mean, these interns coming are inexperienced so they won't be doing any of the things you're doing... So yeah, it's okay to feel special." Lily joked.
And Ryan did feel special. Happy. How could he have been so lucky? He got a paid internship with a great architecture company in Berkely, where he wouldn't be really an intern but actually working with other architects and designing homes. Not only that, he and Marissa were doing great. They lived happily together in their new apartment building. Everything is going so well. But a feeling took over his mind and his smile slowly faded. He remembered what Seth said and was scared it might be coming true. Too much good has happened, something terrible is totally coming ahead, he thought. As he continued to worry, a knock on the door snapped him out of his misery. He turned around and followed Lily to the door.
She opened it to reveal a group of people, in their 20s that looked just as nervous as he was. "Good morning, everyone, glad you could make it to the orientation. Come in..."
The group of people made their way in. "So you all know me, Lily Turner. Please just call me Lily, don't remind me how old and single I am..." she joked that got a laugh out of a few people. Their faces immediately flushed from nervousness and looked somewhat relieved. "This is Ryan, he'll be helping me also... Now I only read your application forms and stuff so please introduce yourselves..."
"Hi, I'm Greg," A tall, deep-voiced man said. He had a clean look with his hair gelled up. He looked a lot like a rich, water polo playing, Newport jerk. But he had on a friendly, innocent smile that said otherwise.
"Kristine," a high petite voice said. She offered out her hand to both Lily and Ryan.
And everyone else continued with their introductions. There was a girl named Shannon who looked well organized and focused. Mike was chubby and playful and definitely had too much caffeine. Davie looked distracted, he was too busy scanning the room and analyzing everything around him. Paul had thick eyebrows and it was hard to read his face.
And the last one to introduce herself was a girl. She was in her early-mid 20s. Blonde, skinny, her outfit showed a lot of skin, and Ryan could already sense she was trouble. She held out her hand to Lily and Lily, first hesitant, ended up shaking it just like she did to the others. "Victoria." She put it out to Ryan for him to shake. He felt a tight squeeze and saw her eyes checking him out, up and down his body. He felt uncomfortable so he immediately dropped her hand and stuffed his in his pockets. She gave him a sneaky smile that he didn't know how to respond to.
"I'm glad all of you are here. Let's begin with a tour, shall we?" Lily lead them out of her office and to the elevator; they gathered inside. Even though there was enough room for everyone, it seemed Victoria was squished and she was right up against Ryan. He ignored eye contact with her and looked towards Mike who was laughing at his look of misery. The minute the elevator doors opened, Ryan released a breath of relief and hurried out the elevator doors.
"So here are all the cubicles where you guys will be most of the time..." Lily began with her tour.
"Do you go to Berkely?" Victoria whispered to Ryan.
"Umm... Yeah... how about you?" he whispered back, trying to be polite to her.
"Just transferred." She walked beside him and continued to 'accidentally' brush her arm against Ryan as they walked beside each other. Ryan didn't know what to do. He didn't want to seem rude but he knew she was going somewhere with him that he didn't want to go to. He walked slowly away from her so at least they would stop touching.
"That's nice," He replied, though not looking at her but instead, at Lily to show he's following.
"Guess we're going to be classmates then."
"You're taking architecture at Berkely too?" Ryan asked.
"I'm here as an intern... what do you think," She laughed at him. Ryan turned red and realized how stupid he was. Wow that was stupid of me, He mentally slapped himself. "You're cute when you're embarrassed," she flirted.
"Um thanks but we should really be focusing on the tour," he tried redirecting their conversation.
"Oh you're a goody-goody..." she complained. He looked at her, confused and offended. But she just shrugged her shoulders and looked at him straight in the eye, "Whatever, I can change that."
Ryan gulped. He continued to follow the group around. After a few minutes passed, Ryan was relieved to find Greg now beside him while Victoria had moved up to the front.
"So she's forward," he whispered.
Ryan looked at him. "I have a girlfriend though..."
"Yeah, but something tells me Victoria doesn't really seem to give a damn about those things," he chuckled.
Ryan was now worried. "I didn't even do anything."
"Meh, she's probably just like that. Super flirtatious and all."
"So where are you from?" Ryan asked him.
"New York."
"Must be a big change for you then, moving all the way here?"
"It's not so bad. I've always wanted to live by the beach here in California. Plus studying architecture here too? Life's been pretty good."
"Well then, that's good."
"Yeah, it is. You?"
"I'm from around here. Grew up in Chino, moved to Newport, now here."
"Chino then Newport then Berkely? Impressive. And I mean, living in Cali all your life; kind of wishing I were you right now. "
"Thanks." Ryan smiled at Greg. He somehow knew he was going to get along with this guy. "And let's say you are, maybe you could get Victoria out of my hands..." he joked.
"Nah," Greg laughed, "she's not really my type... so good luck with her!"
/
Later that day, Ryan arrived home late. He closed the door behind him as he collapsed onto the couch. Marissa came out of the bedroom in her robe, just out of the shower.
"Hey, you're late." She made her way over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, sitting down next to him.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I stayed in class to finish some stuff so I don't have to worry about it tomorrow. I feel like this internship will take up a lot of my time so I want to get some school stuff out of the way..."
"It's okay. Dinner's in the microwave ready to be heated if you want."
"Thanks, I'll eat later..."
"How was your first day?" she asked him.
"Really good. Lily wants me to work with her on a project: a model home."
"Model home?"
"I know, I can't believe it myself... and it's weird how it's a model home and not a hospital or a mall... a model home."
"Maybe it's just fate or something. The whole model home idea coming back to you. Maybe in the future, that's all you'll be making... like maybe this is your way to pay back for burning one years ago..." Marissa teased and smiled at Ryan which made him weak to the bone. No way he couldn't smile back at her beautiful face. He leaned in and kissed her.
"Wait, you haven't finished telling me about your day."
"It was very long and miserable without you," Ryan climbed on top of her and continued to kiss her.
Marissa didn't bother with any more questions, "Good enough answer."As she kissed him back.