I Chased My Brother’s Friend for a Month, Then Walked Into Work and Found Out He Owns the Company Chapter 07

I Chased My Brother’s Friend for a Month, Then Walked Into Work and Found Out He Owns the Company Chapter 07

The next day, I went back to work anyway.

I had to. The internship agreement was for three months, and the school needed the seal.

Mr. Foster didn’t ask any questions, just said. “I organized the documents from yesterday afternoon. Don’t

leave early again.”

“Thanks, Mr. Foster.”

I sat at my desk and didn’t move all morning.

At lunch, a girl from the neighboring department brought her lunch over.

“You’re the new intern, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Mr. Sterling talked to you at the meeting yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

“You two know each other?”

“Not really.”

Her eyes lit up. “Mr. Sterling never talks to interns. You’re the first.”

I didn’t respond, just kept eating.

She wouldn’t let it go. “I heard you’re Nolan’s sister from Finance?”

“Yeah.”

“Nolan just got promoted to supervisor. That’s awesome.”

I stopped chewing.

“When did that happen?”

“Last month. It was posted on the bulletin board.”

Last month.

The month I was chasing Declan.

I got up and went to the lobby.

The bulletin board was next to the front desk, with a row of notices.

At the top was one that read. Following company review, Mr. Nolan Harper of the Finance Department is

hereby appointed Finance Supervisor, effective immediately.

The date at the bottom was the fifteenth of last month.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my chat history.

The fifteenth of last month was the day I took Declan out for our second dinner.

That night, after we ate, I walked him to his car and he said. “I had a good time today.”

That same day, my brother got promoted.

I stood in front of the bulletin board, staring at that date for a long time.

Maybe it was a coincidence.

Maybe it wasn’t.

That afternoon, I went to the break room for water and overheard two colleagues chatting inside.

They didn’t notice me when I pushed the door open.

“Did you hear? Mr. Sterling’s been seeing someone.”

“No way. Who?”

“No idea, but someone sent flowers to the front desk last month with his name on them.”

“Bold move. Who’d dare go after him?”

“Who knows. But have you noticed? Mr. Sterling’s been a lot easier to deal with lately. Last week, Marketing’s

report was a disaster and he didn’t even blow up.”

“If he really is dating, we should thank that girl. She’s taking all the bullets for us.”

They both laughed.

I stood by the water cooler, my cup overflowing without me noticing.

That “girl” they were talking about was me.

An intern the whole company was laughing about behind her back.

Well, no. They didn’t know it was me yet.

If they did, that would’ve been the real joke.

I carried my water back to my desk, and my phone buzzed.

A message from Declan. Free tonight?

I stared at the screen for ten seconds.

I typed three words. Not free.

He replied. K.

Just one word.

Just like the first message he’d sent me a month ago.

Back then it was three words. Got it.

Now it was one. K.

Even shorter.

I didn’t know if that meant we were closer, or if he just didn’t care anymore.

At the end of the day, Mr. Foster called me over. “Tomorrow morning, you’re coming with me to the twentieth floor. There’s a meeting, and you’ll take notes.”

“What department is on twenty?”

“Not a department. That’s Mr. Sterling’s private office area.”

“I thought he was on eighteen?”

Mr. Foster adjusted his glasses. “Eighteen is his meeting floor. Twenty is where he actually works. The whole

floor is his.”

The whole floor.

A whole floor.

Suddenly, what my brother said came back to me.

He founded the company.

Two hundred and thirty-seven people.

The guy I’d eaten street food with on a random corner owned an entire floor of this building.

That night at home, I barely spoke.

After dinner, I went to my room. My phone buzzed again.

Not Declan.

One of my college friends, Brianna Morrow.

Brianna. Erin, I heard you’re interning at your brother’s company?

Me. Yeah.

Brianna. That’s sick. Your boyfriend works there too, right? You two get to see each other every day. Lucky.

I didn’t reply.

Brianna again. Oh, by the way, when you showed us your boyfriend’s photo last time, my roommate said

she’d seen him online somewhere. Like, some executive or something?

My heart skipped.

Me. Where’d she see that?

Brianna. She wasn’t sure. Some business forum, maybe? The photo looked a lot like him. I asked her for the

link but she couldn’t find it.

I put down my phone and opened my laptop.

I typed “Declan Sterling” into the search bar.

Not many results came up.

A local business article from three years ago. Declan Sterling, 90s Entrepreneur: From Zero to Nine Figures

in Annual Revenue.

The photo was a side profile of him speaking at a forum.

Nine figures in annual revenue.

I shut my laptop and lay back in bed.

There was a crack on the ceiling I’d never noticed before.

Now it looked like it was laughing at me.