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I despised how things were turning out too and wished there was a way to shove my heels down the throat of Ian Maxwell, but just as I had wished, I haven’t seen him since I started work here. Frankly, I had no business seeing him and I should he happy about it, but I wanted to find him and demand why he derived so much joy in punishing me this way.
Even I couldn’t deny the fact that this was a childish but classic way of extracting revenge. Power abuse at its finest.
Simone beckoned me to come in when I knocked on her door. She glanced up from her desktop, her slightly wrinkled eyes smiling at me. I knew she liked me and somehow treated me as though I was her own daughter, and I respected her dearly because of her demeanor and achievements. She was one of the first employees to ever work at IM Corps. She had been a young woman who had trusted her whole career into the hands of a boywho was ten years her junior. Well, look where that got her, one of the highest paid CCO in the US, and I wanted to be like her.
“I believe that’s another revised proposal, Ashley,” Simone said as I stepped foot into her large office. She stared up from her desktop.
“Yes…” I nodded, my hands circling the rim of the file before I dropped it on her desk.
Simone picked it up and flipped through it. “It’s a fresh and beautiful idea and I can’t for the life of me understand why the first one was rejected because that looked like the best one to me.”
“Beats me too,” I muttered underneath my breath before I looked up and smiled. “Thank you, Simone.”
She passed the file back to me. “I think you should take this to the CEO yourself.”
“What!” I yelled, my ears perking up before I recollected my tone and said in a sweet voice, “But why, Simone?”
“Maybe he’d provide a reason to you on why it’s being rejected, in case he does reject it,” she explained before she resumed what she had been doing before I came in. “That’s it, off you go.”
I knew she expected me to be on my way, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to face that man. I needed to figure out how not tosplit his head into two when I see him because I needed to keep that paycheck. I nonetheless made my way to the CEO’s office. All through the elevator ride, I tried my best to keep calm and prayed that he would accept this proposal.
The main office area of the IM Corps headquarters was just as I had expected it to be, endless halls filled with secretaries stationed at almost every entrance. When I finally made it to the CEO’S office, I met with two secretaries seated at the large reception. One of them was quick to question my intention.
“I’m Ashley Lane from the strategic planning department, here on behalf of Simone,” I spelled out to the blonde lady who had questioned me. I read her name tag as Leslie Bryant.
Leslie picked up a phone. “Ashley Lane from the strategic planning department is here. Okay, sir.” She dropped the telephone and stood up from her seat. “Come with me, Ashley.”
I followed her, knowing that this was it., There was no going back. I was going to face that tyrannical, rude jerk again and somehow, I had to keep my tongue in check. Leslie stopped at the huge black double doors and knocked on the door before pushing it open slowly and ushering me in.
I held my breath for a moment as I stepped into the dark abode of Ian Maxwell. The office was dark and brooding just like the man itself. Everything inside it was black, from the furniture to the window blinds, even up to the little flower vase on the equally dark center table in between the couches. The flowers that were supposed to have lightened the atmosphere were blackin color. The only splash of color in the room were the silver irons on some of the furniture and the glass that made up the wall behind the dark oak desk.
The whole place felt intimidating, but definitely not as intimidating as the man seated behind that huge desk. He was dressed in a dark shirt, an equally black tie on his neck. His dark hair was slicked back as usual, leaving his well structure well-structured face for my eyes to feast on.
He raised his head up and pinned me with a dazzling gaze, successfully flushing every memory of the job I had come here to do. Does he really have to be so handsome? And do I really have to be attracted to such a man?
“How may I help you, Miss Lane?” he asked, facing his computer once again.
“I am here to submit the revised proposal.” I managed to find my voice and also managed to beat down any form of anger in it.
“Ohh, about that,” he said, his eyes still on the computer he had been working on. He didn’t even spare me a glance anymore or try to take the proposal from my hand. “I was going to send word to Simone and ask you to start work on the first proposal you submitted. Turns out it was the best of the bunch.”
My head sparked up with immediate anger but somehow, I managed to keep my tone even as I spoke to him. “Do you mean the first proposal I submitted almost two months ago?”
“Yes, any problem with that?” Ian raised an icy glare at me, daring and taunting me to find fault in what he was doing. I could see that sick joy in his storm clouded eyes as he stared at me.
“None, sir,” I lied, my hand tightening into a fist as I fought back the urge to call him out.
“Okay, then, you are dismissed.”
I don’t know what made me angrier, his dismissive tone or the fact that he had put me through two months of hell only to choose the first idea I had submitted. I had even started to doubt my own abilities even though I used to have unwavering trust in them.
“If I may ask, sir, why did you reject the proposal in the first place if you’d end up choosing it?” Although, I could tell he had no valid reason for what he had done, I wanted to know what he’d say.
“I’m not sure why I rejected it then. You’re dismissed.” he said as he turned towards his computer once again.
“Stupid, egoistic, obnoxious, savage.”I ranted in my head. If only I wasn’t crippled by the fact that this was a well-paying job, I would have cracked his skull into two by now.
A knock from his door brought me out of my boiling wrath. I turned towards the door to see Leslie step into the office again.“You have a lunch meeting with Mr. Beckham, a representative from London, Mr. Maxwell.”
