Be My Escape

It was only my second day as an intern, and I was already going to be late.

It was my own fault really. After I took a bath so long that the water started to get cold the previous night, I had (surprisingly) completely cleared my mind enough that I was hopefully going to get a decent nights sleep. Unfortunately, with the mind-clearing went my internal reminder to turn my alarm clock on. Therefore, I woke up at eight thirty, leaving me only fifteen minutes to get ready.

I opted out of showering and instead just washed my face and threw on some deodorant, thanking God that I had bathed the night before. I quickly threw on a pair of gray work pants, a white Oxford button down, and a black sweater over that before slipping on a pair of black heels. Brushing my teeth in record timing while I simultaneously put in my contacts, I finished my morning routine at eight forty-five on the dot.

Of course, the one day I didn’t have any time to spare, Max was waiting outside my apartment when I whipped the door open, his hand poised in a knocking gesture. “Oh, morning Peyton!”

I smiled but hurried out the door, turning only to make sure it was shut and then locking it quickly. “Hi Max, I’d love to talk but I’m going to be late so maybe I’ll catch you when I get home?”

Max laughed and jogged to catch up with me as I hurried down the hall. “Slow down, speedy. I’m going the same direction as you, so I figured I’d walk with you to work.”

“Oh.” I didn’t bother hiding my surprise, because I was surprised. Max was a really good guy, and a great step brother from what I had experienced so far, but he also had shown me he was not a morning person. So it struck me as odd that he was walking me to work.

Suddenly, I was hit with a realization. I turned to face him and smirked. “You feel bad for ditching me last night, don’t you?”

Ashamed, he ducked his head, but laughed. When he looked at me again, his cheeks were red with embarrassment. “How obvious is it?”

I laughed too, only because I wasn’t mad at him. He had no reason to apologize to me. “Max, it’s okay. Josh went with me instead, which wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be, or at least for the most part it wasn’t. I just wish you would have told me, stupid.” Jokingly, I punched him lightly on the arm.

He yelped and touched the tender spot I had just hit, but smiled. “She’s got an arm on her, that’s for sure.” He reached out with his hurt arm and wrapped it around my shoulders. “But in all seriousness, I’m sorry. This lass, she’s just something else and if she asks me to do something in one of my rare free moments, I jump at the opportunity.”

I nodded as if I understood, but in all honesty I didn’t. The only boyfriend I had ever had had been in sixth grade, and it hadn’t even been my doing. Smiling, I started to tell Max this. “I’ve only had one boyfriend, Max. It was in sixth grade, and my best friend Aman—“ I choked on her name, unable to finish it. I hadn’t even realized I was telling Max a story that would bring us back to her, that is until I started to tell it. Suddenly, I couldn’t finish. I could feel the tears burn my eyes, and I knew if I went on, I would start to cry and I may not stop.

“Peyton? You alright?” Max asked, stopping us on the sidewalk and turning me to face him, both of his hands on each of my shoulders. He was genuinely concerned by the look on his face.

I shook my head, closing my eyes tightly to rid the tears. After taking a few breaths, and once I knew I wouldn’t cry, I opened my eyes and smiled. “I’m fine Max.”

“Peyton, that is not what one calls fine,” he told me sternly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I told him, my voice firm. I didn’t want to talk about it, not yet. I looked down at my watch and realized I still had to get to work, now.

“I have to go, Max. I can’t be late for work.”

He sighed, but dropped his hands back to his sides. “Fine. Look, the guys and I got invited to a party, and we want you to come. I want you to come.”

“I don’t know, Max,” I told him. I was hesitant; I wasn’t a party person. Amanda was the party person, not me. She used to drag me to all the parties, and I was just the designated driver, which in all seriousness was fine by me. I also wasn’t sure I wanted to meet all of Max’s buddies.

But when I looked Max in the eyes, something made me sigh and say yes. “Really?” he exclaimed, reaching out to hug me when I nodded. “Brilliant! The guys are stoked to meet you, and it’ll be a good time. I promise!”

I nodded and then told him I really had to get to work.

We said a quick goodbye and then I was off, hurrying down the sidewalk so I wouldn’t be late. I couldn’t help but think that I had made the wrong decision in saying yes to the party. Unfortunately, living so close to the guys meant there would be no way I could get out of it.
It was going to be an interesting night.

***

Apparently, I hadn’t gotten the memo that being an intern for a rather well known publishing house would mean doing—to put it nicely—bitch work.

So far today, I had emptied trash cans, filed a million papers that were basically just being put away to take up space, and even vacuuming. I felt strangely like a maid or a slave instead of a paid intern.

While I was sitting on the floor putting files in the bottom of my dad’s filing cabinet while he went to a meeting, there was a knock at his opened door. I looked up, curious, and saw the face of one of the other interns. “Oh, hi,” I smiled. “My dad—I mean, Mr. Helyer is in a meeting right now, so…” I trailed off, not sure what else to say. Suddenly, I had lost all of my people skills and I was the shy girl I normally was around people.

The guy in the doorway smiled, though, so I took that as a good sign. “It’s alright, I wasn’t looking for him. I was looking for you, actually. Peyton, right?” At this, he walked further into the office with a hand outstretched.

Quickly, I got off the floor and dusted the dirt off of my pants. I smiled and reached my hand out. “Yeah, Peyton. You’re Jake, right?” He nodded as we shook hands. “So what’s up?”

“Well me and the other interns were wondering if you wanted to go get lunch?” The small smile he offered me was shy and hopeful, as if he had to work up the courage to ask me to lunch. This struck me as odd, though. Jake seemed like a pretty confident guy, which made sense given the way he looked. He was extremely attractive, but not in an intimidating way, at least not to me. He was tall, at least six foot, and slim, but you could tell he worked out. He wasn’t a muscleman, but I assumed under his button up shirt and tie, he had a nice set of washboard abs. He had chiseled features and bright green eyes that really popped against his short brown hair.

“I’d love to,” I said suddenly. I may not have wanted to get real close to many people while I was in England, but there was something about Jake that drew me to him and made saying no impossible.

“Great!” he exclaimed. I set the file I had been holding on the ground and then we headed out. “We’re going to meet the others at Subway.” He gave me a sheepish smile which made me laugh. “I know it’s not amazing, but it’s cheap and we’re all broke university students.”

“No, it sounds wonderful,” I told him honestly.

“So, you’ve traveled quite a long ways just to take some shitty internship,” he smirked at me as we walked down the sidewalk.

I shrugged but nodded. “I needed to get away, too, and the internship just happened to be available.”

Jake nodded, but didn’t say anymore.

When we finally reached the Subway and got inside, I immediately noticed the three other interns sitting at a table already with their food. Jake and I went to the counter and ordered our subs quickly and then walked over to sit with the others. “Guys, this is Peyton. She’s shy, don’t bite her head off.” He turned and winked at me which made me laugh.

“Peyton, this is Sophia, Beth, and Rick.”

I said my respective hellos to each person and then they went on with a conversation they were having prior to our sitting down. “It’s ridiculous, I tell you!” Sophia, a tiny brunette with a huge personality exclaimed. She was extremely pretty in an exotic way, and if she was taller she probably could have been a runway model. I suddenly felt very plain just sitting across from her.

“You’re overreacting, love,” Beth laughed and rolled her eyes. Beth was a blonde, about my height with square black glasses and bright blue eyes. She too was pretty, but in a more plain way. She had blonde hair cut in a bob to shape her heart shaped face, and she worse rather eccentric clothes that actually worked for her really well.

“I don’t know if she is though,” Rick said with a shrug. He reminded me of Jake, the same short hair but blonde and the same chiseled features and toned body.

“You just want in her pants,” Jake said, earning a laugh from the whole group except Rick, who turned as red as a fire truck and immediately looked down at his sandwich as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.

“Its okay, Ricky boy,” Sophia cooed, leaning over Beth to pat Rick’s hand. “Everyone wants in on Sophia.”

“And just about everyone’s gotten in on Sophia, too,” Beth smirked, earning more laughs from the group.

“Shush!” Sophia exclaimed, turning red but choosing not to show her embarrassment. “Poor Peyton probably thinks I’m a such a tramp now.” Sophia pouted, but it was all in good fun.

I laughed and shook my head. “No, I don’t.” My protest came out weak though, which made me sound like I was lying.

Jake laughed and elbowed me lightly. “The truth comes out!” he exclaimed, and everyone laughed.

Now it was my turn to turn red. I decided to just take in the rest of the conversations that happened instead of trying to participate.

For the rest of the lunch, I got to learn more about the people who I was going to be working with for the next few months. They all went to the University not far from here, and were going to be in their second year. They were all in different areas of English for majors, which was intriguing to me, but I was too shy to ask more about it.

Once we finished lunch, the other three hurried off to do some last minute errands before we had to get back while Jake and I took our time walking back to the office.

“So, tell me about yourself Peyton.” He smiled as he said this, but there was something about his question that made me not want to tell him anything at all.

“What do you mean?”

“What are your likes? Dislikes? What makes you tick? Most importantly, why are you so shy?” he smirked.

“I like the color purple, apples, and music. Oh, and writing of course. I have an irrational fear of birds and heights, and I don’t know what makes me tick. I’m shy, but I can’t really tell you why. I don’t like big groups of people, I guess,” I admitted with a shrug. “I’m boring,” I added with a small laugh.

“You’re not boring,” he reassured me with a beautiful smile. “You interest me. If I’m being honest, you’ve interested me ever since I first saw you.”

“Really?” I was skeptical of this. No one was interested in me, and if they were it was because they were worried for my sanity. Over the past year, I’d given a lot of people a lot of reasons to worry for my sanity.

He laughed, but nodded. “Yes, really. Why does that surprise you?”

I merely shrugged and looked down at the sidewalk as we walked. I didn’t want to look up because I was blushing now, and I didn’t want to show Jake that.

“Well, you interest me, Peyton. And I’d like to get to know you more, maybe take you out to dinner one of these nights.” When I didn’t look up or respond, he grabbed my arm lightly, just to stop me from walking. “What do you say?” he smiled, his eyes warm and inviting.
I couldn’t help but smile back.

“I say, okay.”

I couldn’t believe I was saying yes to this guy. I was going on a date. What the hell was England doing to me?

His smile grew at my reaction. “Brilliant. How about tomorrow? I’ll pick you up around seven and we’ll go out to eat, get to know each other.”

“That sounds great,” I nodded.

We were quiet for the rest of the walk back to the office, but I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. There was something about Jake that was having a really good effect on me, and I was really starting to like it.