Changing into a very comfortable printed cotton navy blue maxi dress, Miranda walked around in the orchard alone, carrying a basket to pick fruits. She was wearing a shawl around her shoulders and hat to cover her head. She sat down on a small bench for some time and looked up at the sky. The clouds in the blue sky. She always had a thing for clouds. She closed her eyes and sat there for a while enjoying how the breeze stroked her hair. She was carried away.
"Miranda please you should, there is no one else we trust we could let go for the internship. We didn't expect Clara to back out at the last moment. Just the four months. It's useful for you, then why can't you consider?" Professor Jim was asking her to go for the internship at the T fashion magazine after the career guidance class they had the previous week taken by both the partners from the company. She had no interest to think of any sort of work except pursuing her post-graduation after her final exams.
"Because," she said. "Because something tells me not to, I have no interest,"
"Then try for one month. You can come back then. We will talk to them about it," Professor suggested. And then finally she agreed to volunteer.
It was the joining day right after her exams, but her project viva was pending. The sky was unbelievably blue that day. She took a deep breath, smiled, and entered the company. She was escorted to her room by the lady in the reception. She was asked to report to her boss immediately.
"What's his name?" Miranda asked the receptionist.
"Darren,"
And they reached the cabin and Miranda walked in. she recalled seeing him for the orientation. He had the chocolate brown eyes, melting, dark hair, and very fit body, wearing a white shirt with arms folded, matching his grey formal pants.
"Darren, she is here."
He shook his hands and welcomed her.
"I am sure you will like it here. We are assigning everyone so please wait a few minutes, you will be taken to your department," he told her. He had a very warm and crisp voice. She didn't notice a moment of his speech back in college and now listening to him directly, she instantly fell in love with his voice.
The receptionist informed them of all of their designations. Miranda was appointed as a junior content writer. She was satisfied. She was taken to her department and she introduced herself to all her seniors. She had no other interns with her in this department.
"We reviewed a few of your self-written works. We were satisfied, so we demanded you to be put here. You have a good future child," the manager said.
But she understood it was nothing but to encourage her to work better.
"Thank you, sir," she thanked him and took her seat.
Miranda had no works for around two weeks except making sure her fellow workers got coffee on time. She ran into Darren a couple of times and ended up serving coffee for him too. While nobody was looking she continued her writing habits.
"And then one fine day, Out of the blue, You fall in love.
With someone's voice, And keep listening to them like a
Fool smiling for no reason. The most random yet a happy
thing in life."
she wrote a quote, smiling.
"Yes that is one nice quote," she heard the familiar warm voice behind her. Darren was leaning above her head and reading what she had written. She closed her notebook sprung up from the chair.
"Sorry sir, I was just," she stopped she had no excuses to come up with.
"Whose voice did you fall for?" he asked laughing. She smiled embarrassedly.
"Come with me, we have work," he ordered her and walked away.
'Damn it,' she cursed herself and prepared to leave.
"Be careful, he is known for his reputation," a co-worker Tanya, the assistant content writer warned her. Miranda was surprised and she let herself follow him.
She knocked on his door and he permitted to enter. Her heart was pounding for no reason.
"Sit there," he asked her to sit opposite in his desk. "I want you to sort these letters and transfer it to your department. They are suggestions," she noticed a basket full of letters kept on top of the table.
"Okay," she obeyed and began her work. An hour passed and half the work was still left to do. He attended calls in the meanwhile and read through few letters as she arranged them in order of preferences he asked to do so. Wearing a sky blue shirt he looked really handsome. She gave a glance and got back to work feeling how to stupid she looks coming to the office. 'I should dress well as usual for work. Standards are important,' she decided in her head.
"You want coffee?" he asked while he was getting some for him.
"No thank you," she rejected straight.
"Okay,"
"What are your hobbies?" he asked her since it was going to take a long time for Miranda to finish work.
She looked at him for a second.
"My hobbies, hmm," she said. He was waiting as he read through the letter. "Writing, reading, gardening, and," then she stopped. "What about you?" she asked back casually.
"Traveling," he said. She looked at his face.
"Have you gone to many places?"
"Yes, pretty much, few places in Asia and few in Europe as I have got time. Have you?"
"Not much," she said.
"Do you wish to?"
"Of course yes! Not everywhere, but just my few favorite places,"
"Where all are they?" instead of saying she showed him her note.
"Italy for art
France for love
Turkey for food
Japan for cherry blossoms
England for everything",
"That's beautiful. I am sure you will be able to go there," he said reading.
"One day," she said and continued her work.
"You write well," he said. "Enough to impress a guy," she looked up at him, realizing the fact he still had her scribbling note.
She reached across the table and took the notebook from his hands. She didn't say anything.
He was smiling and she felt stupid to have shown him the note.
"I have got a meeting now I will take off. You complete the work and take it with you, take your time," he said and walked out taking his jacket. She finished it off soon and went back to her space. She gave the letters to Tanya.
"Dear girl you didn't have to arrange it at all. You could have saved all this time. Why did you do it?" she said.
'Ah I thought so,' Miranda thought, smiling. 'I knew it,' she went to grab lunch soon with other interns. She also wished to check the nearby apartments during her break time.
Travelling was the most tiring thing that took the most time off from college to the company. Miranda decided to look for a studio, near the office. Work was slowly beginning to get hectic. The manager was giving tons of articles to be rewritten, edited, and to be shortened. And in between running errands for Darren, which she had no idea why. She began to slowly immerse herself at work.