His Intern Called Him “Bro”— Too Bad I Wrote the Pick-Me Girl Manual! Chapter 03

His Intern Called Him “Bro”— Too Bad I Wrote the Pick-Me Girl Manual! Chapter 03

That afternoon, I was buried in client files when the studio door swung open.

Ruby stood in the doorway, coffee in hand, looking like a puppy that had just been kicked.

“Sienna… I’m sorry. I came to apologize.”

She was in a plain white dress, bare-faced, her eyes rimmed red like she’d been crying. The classic pick-me girl uniform.

I leaned back and watched her. Honestly, I wanted to see the show.

Here we go. Ruby set the coffee on my desk, her voice already wobbling.

“Sienna, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have posted that photo last night. I didn’t mean to cause trouble between you and Luca.”

“I swear, Luca’s like a brother to me. That’s all it is. I’ve never thought of him any other way.”

As she spoke, the tears arrived right on cue.

“It’s all my fault, so please don’t take it out on Luca, okay? If you need to blame someone, blame me instead.”

My assistant, Maya Brooks, was eating it up. She was staring at me like I was the villain in all this.

“Are you quite finished?” Ruby froze, tears still caught in her lashes.

“If you’re finished, go back to the office. The Moretti enterprise pays you to work, not to wander off in the middle of the day and stage a soap opera in my studio.”

Ruby’s face went scarlet. She clearly hadn’t expected me to call her bluff.

“Sienna, I… I came because I genuinely felt bad. How can you talk to me like that?”

“You bought me a coffee I never asked for with my husband’s money, walked out of the office on the family’s dime, showed up at my studio, and told me you had no interest in him.”

“And along the way, you made sure my own assistant cast me as the cruel one.”

I picked up the coffee and dropped it in the trash. “I don’t need your apology. And I definitely don’t need your coffee.”

“Now, get out of my studio.”

Ruby clapped a hand over her mouth like I’d shattered her, then turned and ran. Maya couldn’t keep quiet.

“Sienna, she didn’t seem like a bad person, honestly. What if it’s just a misunderstanding? Don’t you think that was a little… harsh?”

I looked up at her. “When she walked in, her eyes were red and swollen — but bone dry.”

“Cotton swab. Saline solution. Oldest fake-crying trick in the book. When she said she was sorry, her arms were crossed tight over her chest.”

“Textbook defensive body language. Every time she said Luca’s name, her feet pointed at the door, but her body angled toward me.”

“She was watching to see if I’d crack. Every single tell of the victim-playing pick-me girl.”

“If you don’t believe me, read my playbook.” Maya didn’t say another word.

…

It wasn’t long before Luca called. “Sienna, I’m so disappointed in you.”

“Ruby came back to the floor in tears, and the entire crew saw. She went there to apologize — out of the goodness of her heart — and you treated her like that?”

“How could you be so heartless? She has no connections in this city, and you humiliated her in front of everyone. How’s she supposed to show her face at the front office now?”

“I’m telling you right now, this isn’t over. You’re going to apologize to Ruby.”

The man who once swore his loyalty to me? Now he was demanding I grovel to a girl running a con.

I sat in front of my computer, face blank, and opened the [Syndicate Wives: Damage Control] group chat. I dropped Ruby’s Instagram post into the chat.

“Does anyone know anything about Ruby?”

“The new intern at the Moretti enterprise who’s always a little too touchy with the made men…”