One of the more irritating jobs in a Congressional office is supervising interns. The vast majority of interns are the offspring of some major party donor trying to pad out their resume to get into an Ivy League college. Not only do you have to deal with privileged little snots, but you also have to find them something to do, regardless of whether it slows down the process.
I had been through two part-time interns, one a college kid from Georgetown and one a high-schooler who caught the train in from Virginia twice a week. The high-schooler had been fine. I had mail to open and errands to run. The college kid on the other hand had been a nightmare. He originally refused point blank to do basic administrative work, expecting that as a pre-law student, he would be doing legislative drafting. After one rather heated exchange, I told Russell that he was insufferable. The next day (following what I suspect was a good telling-off by his father) he apologised. His behaviour did improve somewhat, but he was still lazy and would vanish for hours at a time without explanation.
Having just finished that ordeal, I think it unsurprising that when I was told I was getting another intern, this time for six weeks full time, I was unimpressed. The Congressman's office had an agreement with the University of Texas at Austin's College of Liberal Arts to send Master of Arts in Economics students to Washington to receive an elective political science credit.
So, there I was, sitting at my desk dreading what was to come, when Maria walked in. I had read her transcripts, so I knew she was smart, but I was not expecting her to be gorgeous. She was everything there is in the stereotype of a Latino woman: thick, long black hair; dark eyes; light brown skin; and a body that was trying to bust out of her conservative, high-necked red dress. I had to stop myself from staring as a pair of round breasts stopped in front of me right at eye height. She extended her hand and said in a thick Texas drawl "Howdy there. I'm Maria." I introduced myself and we went through some paperwork, then took her off to get her security pass. As she walked out of the office I enjoyed the view of her bottom rolling under her dress, coupled with a pair of toned brown legs in black high-heels.
When all the formalities were finished I took her to the cafeteria for lunch. I found out she had just completed her first year of her Master's, she was the daughter of undocumented farm workers and had been brought up in a tiny town in south-western Texas where she was the only student from her year to go to college. She had gone to Texas A&M as an undergrad and wanted to be an agro-economist. And finally, and disappointingly, she flashed me a big diamond ring and told me her boyfriend had just proposed and she was getting married when she graduated.
To say we got along well would be an understatement. I quickly found out that not only was she smart, she was easy to talk to and willing to work. I felt a bit sheepish to have objectified her (but how could I not have?). However, my initial enjoyment of her company was quickly overtaken by genuine admiration for her abilities. Within a week I had her doing research into complex health insurance modelling. It was great having someone who actually understood numbers. I had stopped math after my sophomore year of college, so I just outsourced all the analysis to Maria and let her go. Although I was technically her boss at times it felt like she was managing me. I think the fact that we were only a couple of years apart in age made us more like colleagues than is normal for a supervisor and intern. That and she was ridiculously competent.
My interest was also maintained by the fact that, as she became comfortable in the office environment, her clothes became much less conservative. Stretchy, tight dresses, blouses that gaped when she leaned over, short skirts, I enjoyed them all. Our relationship was flirty but professional. She was quick to laugh and we soon developed a series of inside jokes. I took it upon myself to show her Washington, so during the week I took her to the good restaurants and shows at the Kennedy Center and Ford's Theatre. On the weekends, we hit the Smithsonians and the galleries. We took the ferry down the river to George Washington's estate and even braved a day trip to Baltimore to go to the aquarium. This was great for me as well. I had not done any of the touristy stuff either, so Maria provided great motivation.
We chatted about every topic under the sun. She told me about her life in Texas, how she had tried to rebel by finding a guy in Finland on her gap year, but had met her boyfriend -- now fiancée -- in her freshman year and that he turned out to be a Latino boy from two towns over. He was at home working night shifts at a gas station after a full day's work as an engineer to pay for her Master's. She was so excited to get home and get married.
Despite this, as the weeks went on the tension between us increased. She would hug me every time we met and at times our flirting became almost awkward. I thought it was just my imagination, but a couple of times I turned around from talking to someone else and I swear I caught her staring at me.
