The intern

Word count: 1875

*

Zainab Muhammed had never been put in such a spot in all her twenty four years on earth. Yes, she'd heard of journalists getting close to people just to obtain secrets about them and therefore get their breakthrough in the industry but her conscience couldn't allow her to do something like that. She wasn't such a person!

The person she was directly under had told her she would be interviewing a prominent businessman and then if things went on from there, she could set up future appointments with him or find a way to occasionally 'run into him' at events, just to get closer to him and get some information that could be published.

Her neatly trimmed manicured nails reached up to drum on her lips, an act she usually resorted to whenever she was nervous.

"But Lara, can't this be done by someone else?" She asked Lara in her tiny voice, observing the older lady who was staring at the new intern with a small smile.

Of course it could be done by someone else. But Lara specifically wanted Zainab to handle this particular job.

After much research had been conducted, Lara had realized that Zainab had similar features to most of the ladies that Tomiwa Olukoya had previously been captured with at events.

She was convinced that he couldn't do anything with these ladies, so it wasn't like Zainab would get eaten up by the big bad wolf. After all, there had been rumors going around that even though the mysterious businessman usually took women on dates, he always left the event without these women...but occasionally with men. Also, he had been secretly photographed in a compromising position, hugging a man chest to chest for a great deal of time before pulling away.

And if Lara knew anything, it was that a man hugging another man for more than five seconds, no matter the relationship, was against the bro code. Except that man was only interested in men.

"You're the perfect person for the job. You're new and vibrant, and this is an opportunity for you to interview such a big shot even though you just started interning in our company. This interview will pave way for your career to have a bright future and it would also strengthen your position in the company." She analyzed, eyes gleaming. Lara could see the battle in Zainab's eyes and that made her even more convinced that the oblivious looking intern was the best person for this job.

"You're right. However, I feel like someone with more experience than me would be more suitable. What if I make a mistake? I'll be indirectly dragging the company's name in the mud..." Zainab voiced out her concerns, her light brown eyes expressing her concerns.

However, her superior's smile even widened at this, as if she already had a solution to this problem. Lara eyed the oblivious intern who had no choice but to do as she was told. She realized this intern was actually quite beautiful, with her slant eyes, cute nose and thin, pouty lips. Zainab was average height for a normal female, with five ft six height and a curvy shape. She had some baby fat in her stomach but that was explainable because she was quite thick, with a good amount of thigh flesh and thick, long legs. Even though she already graduated, she still had rosy cheeks to compliment her love shaped face. Her melanin skin was glowing and slightly fair, giving her the complexion of someone that never really did anything stressful.

A slight discomfort arose in Lara's heart as she eyed the intern and she blinked her eyes to ward off the unpleasant feeling. It was envy. Lara suddenly convinced herself that Zainab needed to go through some stressful tasks to prepare her for the cooperate world, at least she herself had gone through them as well.

"You won't be able to make mistakes, don't worry. If you manage to drag the company's name in the mud, you'll be going against a rule from your application conditions. Don't forget that being an intern in this company, you're on temporary contract, which can and will be revisited if you fail to comply with the company's rules. You're on a probation period. Try to make the company happy." Lara explained viciously and then patted Zainab's shoulder before excusing herself.

Zainab watched Lara catwalk out of the coffee room, her large round butt wiggling in the rainbow designed short dress she was putting on. Lara was a short lady in her late twenties, but vibrant and attractive to the eyes. She had large bust and also thick thighs to complement what she lacked in height. She was always on afro, which usually made her warm attractiveness stand out, with a collection of large earrings to complete her numerous short dresses which she always wore to work.

She willing to go to any length to get what she wanted, especially when her superior, Collins had recently been putting so much pressure on her to come up with something spectacular. Lara had always found other ways to please Collins and make him focus on the other managers under his supervision.

But this time, there was an exception.

Collins needed a story, he needed something that would cause a bang. Something that would stand out. And since Lara was too busy to deal with it, she quickly transferred the responsibility to her intern, Zainab.

*

Zainab shut her door and instantly felt a bit relieved, even though she was still being tormented with a pounding headache.

Her eyes hurt and she realized she must be coming down with something. Taking some paracetamol, she quickly went to take a shower and wash off all the stickiness and tiredness from her body.

After the shower, she went through her kitchen for something to eat.

Her parents were on a trip to Japan. For some reason she couldn't understand, those people preferred traveling around the world with their life savings and 'creating memories' than staying at home with their daughters.

Her sister, Halima was still in her second year in the University of Lagos, studying medicine and also, she was staying in the school dormitory.

Therefore, she was alone at home.

Setting up her laptop, jotter and pen, Zainab powered her laptop and started her research on her newest project.

She typed up: 'Tomiwa Olukoya' and several responses popped up in the form of a wikipedia page, several business articles, collaborations of other companies with Starlight and Co. which he owned and so many other responses.

She clicked on the Wikipedia page and read about his family history. Tomiwa was a Nigerian, which she already guessed from his Yoruba name (a tribe in Nigeria), he was thirty years old, he had an immediate younger brother and two younger sisters, though only one of his sisters were mentioned with a link to click on if people wanted to get details about her. His parents once divorced but then married each other once again.

He became a multi-millionaire at the age of twenty eight after inheriting the company from his dad at the age of twenty one. His younger brother wasn't interested in the company at all and had his own small company which he started three years ago.

Tomiwa had been captured several times at events with his male friends. He studied business but was also into jewelry making and also had some investments in brewery.

A woman once came out to claim she was pregnant with his child few years ago but one of his closest friends among his famous circle he moves with, stepped out to prove that the so called pregnant lady was telling lies and slandering Tomiwa's name. A court case even followed the claims. Ever since then, nothing was ever heard of the woman and no one knew what happened to her. She couldn't even be found on social media at the moment.

His favorite color: white.

Best desert: loves chocolates.

Eye color: amber.

Favorite snack: M & M

Favorite fragrance: Blackwood

Favorite sport: Car racing

Pets: a cat with black and white stripes.

Zainab stared at the screen for long, then she shook her head, taking off her glasses.

She didn't know why she was reading these things. What did it matter to her if a man loved chocolates or loved car racing? How was it related to her interview with him?

However, she couldn't help but think that the act of a man eating chocolates was really cute. It was rare to find a man who 'loved' chocolates, because it was more common for men to like manlier things. It was even rarer to find a businessman who owned cats.

Also, if at all the men she'd met had to eat chocolates, they would only eat little because they usually complained that it had some 'manly' side effects on their private parts and that too much sugar would prevent them from being active in bed.

Heaving a sigh, she dug her hands into her hair and shut her eyes for a few seconds. Then she opened them and wrote down some other basic facts since she didn't get anything different from what she'd read earlier at work.

Clearing the table, she went into the kitchen to prepare some porridge and then watched the news. Lara had already booked an appointment with him since five months and two weeks ago, before Zainab even started working at the company.

After a while, Zainab retired to her room and checked her notifications, replying her WhatsApp and Facebook messages. Then she came across a post with several pictures of one of her Facebook friends, who had recently gotten married.

The bride was a friend of one of her close friends from highschool. Zainab recollected that this girl never liked her and she was among those that body shamed her for being thick back then. She wanted to ignore the post but then decided against it, after all, it had been so many years already and she should let bygones be bygones.

"Happy married life🥂" Zainab posted on the page and kept scrolling through Facebook. Barely five minutes later, a notification from the same user she'd just congratulated had replied her. Checking it, her fingers froze as they hovered over her screen.

The response read: Olaiya Peju: "thanks dear. When are you getting married? You've been dating Hakeem for six years already. Even I who just started dating a year and half ago already got married. Hurry up. I want to carry your children. Also, I don't want your children to call mine elder sis or bro. Remember how close we used to be back then😉."

Zainab's left eye twitched as trepidation filled her. Her eyes flashed with fear and she quickly blinked back the glossiness clouding over her eyes, heaving a shaky breath.

Then she shakily deleted her congratulatory message, and proceeded to block the lady and everyone related to said lady on Facebook.

That night, she didn't sleep until well late into the night.

And as expected, her dream was filled with haunted images that succeeded in stealing the sleep from her eyes.