SS NYM Ch 4

When it comes to Athena, it’s not lost on Meri that her glasses can be a bit rose-tinted.

As she steps out of her Uber and takes in the vast, towering, shiny skyscraper that is the home of Warmer Media, Meri feels a sense of awe that may not have anything to do with what’s going on in her heart.

She was the leader of CCL. That was a big responsibility. It wasn’t easy, but it had come with some perks. This is on another level. Warmer Media is the big time.

Meri takes a deep breath, nervously smoothing out her outfit. Then she goes inside. A receptionist sends her up to the fortieth floor, where another receptionist asks her to wait. Even the waiting rooms are perfect and beautiful. There’s not a single smudge on any of the glass or a speck of dust. This place is even cleaner than CCL House was during Meri’s reign.

She sits nervously, back straight, for several minutes for a harried-looking Athena appears. Already, Athena has a few hairs out of place. It’s clear that she has been rushing around since the moment she stepped into this building, less than an hour ago. The day has just begun, and already she looks worn out.

But she smiles warmly at Meri.

“Good timing,” she says, beckoning. Meri leaps to her feet and follows Athena… right back into the elevator.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“Coffee,” Athena replies, looking distractedly at her phone. She glances over. “You look nice.”

“So do you,” Meri replies, her heart fluttering exactly the same way it did when she first saw Athena at a CCL recruiting event, elegantly helping some starry-eyed pledge fill out a form. She’d been wearing mom jeans and a crew-neck sweatshirt with a dog on it at the time. Meri had almost died from looking at her, she’d been so beautiful with her dark, glossy, straight hair and wise, matronly eyes.

Athena had seemed like a benevolent queen.

Now she is an intern, fetching coffee for the real royalty of the Warmer Media Group. This trip isn’t a social call. Meri is here with the blessing of Athena’s internship program to follow her for a day. Athena has already put in a good word for Meri, so she has a competitive shot at an internship for herself. The idea is for Meri to get see things firsthand before applying.

What nobody realizes, except perhaps Colby, is that Meri will take advantage of any excuse to see Athena, and she would apply for this internship even if the job description was licking Satan’s hooves in a salt mine in hell. So this day of following Athena around is really just a formality. Athena has a career at the Warmer Media Group firmly in her sights, so Meri does as well.