Chapter 70 - The Past (2)

"Umm what issues?" Rachel questioned.

"I did not want to get an internship using personal connections and wanted to get one on my own so I declined his offer but Will insisted me to join as they really require an intern in the architecture department. So, I wanted to recommend your mother but she too hates using connections to have her way, so I didn't. Then finally your grandpa asked me to send the resume of my batch-mates interested in applying for their company. I announced it to my batch and all the interested people, including your mother sent their resumes and applied for that one intern position."

"Oh my god and at that time there was no internet, how did you guys manage?" Rachel asked, surprised.

"We discussed everything on the phone then I posted all the hard copies of the resume. Five resumes were selected out of which one was your mother's, then official interviews were conducted on phone and finally your mother was selected. It was a paid internship and the pay was really good, I still remember how excited your mom was when she got this internship, she jumped in joy and danced around excited. She was not very expressive so this behavior of hers just stuck in my mind. 

I was really happy for your mother and I didn't tell her the son of the Richardson Group is actually my childhood best friend as I didn't want your mother to misunderstand as this to be the reason for her getting an internship because she really got it on her own capability by going through the formal process but if she would know me and Will are friends, she would definitely misunderstand and I didn't want that."

"Why would she misunderstand?"

"Your mother always had a complex of her belonging to an orphanage and she really hated the fact if anyone pitied her or tried to help her because of pity. She once had a fight with a guy who proposed to your mother because she thought he was pitying him, I'll tell you this story later."

"Okay, noted, one interesting story is pending"

"Then your mother came to London and joined your grandfather's company. There she met your father as a fellow intern, he didn't tell her this office belonged to him as your father too didn't like showing off, but he had to take over this business therefore he decided to intern here, your father actually got multiple opportunities from big conglomerates for internships, he was that talented."

"I am so proud of him"

"Yes we all were, so on her first day your mom came early to work and seeing the big corporation she was a bit confused about where to go exactly and at that time there were no detailed sign boards to guide people, so your mom went to a man her age who was standing nearby reading a file."

...

Flashback

A beautiful woman aged 19 years, dressed in a white full sleeved long top and black pants, carrying a drawing storage tube in one hand and a bag with all the basic essentials over her shoulder entered a huge corporate building, it was her first day of the internship and she was very nervous. When she entered the building she first saw the reception area which was exactly opposite to the entrance, anyone who enters the building, their gaze will land first on the reception area but the area was empty and the receptionist was missing.

'Oh god, did I come early or the people in this office are not punctual' Liz got annoyed then she checked around the place and saw a young man who seemed around her age reading seriously from a file standing near the reception but was on the other side.

She approached him to ask where the architecture department was.

"Excuse me" Liz hesitatingly approached William.

William didn't hear her as he was too immersed in the file.

'Oh god people in London are so rude' Liz got annoyed.

"Umm, hello?" she again called him, a bit louder than before.

William then lifted up his head and saw the beautiful woman in front of him, he was not that affected by her beauty as he has seen a lot of beautiful woman, he rather got annoyed with her assuming she too is here to approach him as there have been many instances where women used to approach him to make small talks.

"What is it?" he asked rudely.

'So rude' Liz too got annoyed seeing his behavior but she had to reach the architecture department on time so she decided to keep her ego aside for now.

"Can you please tell me where the architect department is?" Liz tried to be as polite as possible and didn't let her real feelings overtake her.

William realized she was the new intern and seeing the long tube in her hand, it was confirmed.

"It is on the second floor, the staircase leading to it is on the right" he pointed his finger to the right and showed her the way.

"Thank you" Liz headed straight towards the second floor.

William realized he was unnecessarily rude to her but he was not planning to apologize to her later or ever as he didn't think he did anything wrong and being rude was normal for him.

Except towards his close friends he is cold, indifferent and rude to everyone else, James was always worried about his son as he is the one who would take their business forward and his attitude can be a big problem for him moving forward.

Liz reached the second floor and met with the people working there and one of the ladies there took her on an office tour to show her around. She then introduced her to three other people who will be interning in the same office but in different departments, one of them was William.

'So, he too is an intern and still had so much attitude, he behaved as if he is the owner of this office' Liz thought.

These four were then toured around the entire corporate office and were briefly explained the working of every department. Then they were taken to the office canteen for breakfast, they were told lunch and breakfast is free for interns and employees.

These four people, two men and two women met for the first time so they were feeling a bit awkward around each other. William then started the conversation and asked them which universities they were from, except for Liz all three were from London and she alone was from Dublin. If it were not for Catherine, the Richardsons would have offered internship to students studying in London, it was for Catherine they opened the application for Dublin and she herself didn't apply for it, William was a bit upset as he thought he would get to spend more time with his friend but she instead made her batch-mates apply for this role and some random girl got that offer, although he was not very happy about it, he was still fine as he knew Liz was deserving of this opportunity. 

Liz spoke the least during this small talk and avoided talking to the other three co-interns as much as she could as she was not here to make friends or to improve her social life, she was here to learn and work, her priorities were set.

The other girl was kind of blushing while talking to William and it was kind of obvious that she was into him. William found her annoying and ignored her questions. Liz did not bother herself with all of this and left for her department after breakfast.

Liz was appointed to work under one of the senior most architects, Ms. Clark and she was very happy as Ms. Clark was really a good mentor and Liz got to learn a lot from her during her internship, after a month Ms. Clark even let her design a project which only went through very few rounds of changes before getting approved. 

In this one month Liz and William rarely came across each other, they used to cross paths during breakfast or lunch break hours. Liz never realized his presence around her and she only minded her own business, ate her food and left for work. 

The more Liz didn't bother herself with William the more William started noticing her, initially he thought she was just pretending to be ignoring or avoiding him but later he realized she is really not that bothered by his presence, she was really here to do her internship diligently. The other co-intern of his was complete opposite to Liz, she used to approach him and used to visit him in his department, she asked him out on dates which he initially politely rejected but later he rudely rejected, she still didn't give up, on one of the days she brought muffins for him which she personally made and he ignored her. William was used to women trying to get close to him, asking him on dates and hitting on him, the only woman he ever came across who never bothered with him was Elizabeth, so he found her more interesting and more mysterious and unknown to her, she unintentionally attracted his attention.