Chapter 4
That night, unable to sleep from frustration, I told my best friend about what happened during the day. She laughed so hard she pounded on the bed: “Be careful not to slip up again. I’m really afraid he’ll fall in love with you. The boss will think, ‘She called me honey, I should take care of her.’ Then let’s see how you deal with it.”
“He seems to have a girlfriend, and you don’t know how fierce he sounded when he told me to get out!”
I kept replaying the boss’s “Get out” in my head, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt he must hate me.
After much deliberation, I decided to formally apologize to the boss.
“Boss, I want to talk to you”
”??? I have a girlfriend. I love her to death. If you want to talk, find someone else. Get lost, don’t bother me.”
“No, boss, let me explain. I was in a hurry just now and left out a word.”
The message was followed by a big red exclamation mark, indicating that the other person was no longer my friend.
He had deleted me!
Great, now I’ve offended the boss.
After a sleepless night of overthinking, I was late the next day and got caught by the boss.
It was all because I was lazy. Even though I was late, I still insisted on waiting for the elevator. As a result, the private elevator next to me opened, and I came face to face with the boss.
And to make matters worse, I happened to catch Emma clinging to his arm and acting coy.
The smile on Marcus’s face immediately disappeared as he glanced at his watch: “Nine minutes and fifty seconds.”
Just my luck, not only was I nearly ten minutes late, but I also interrupted his romantic moment. Of course the boss would be angry.
I quickly admitted my mistake, “I’m sorry, Mr. Meng. I won’t look next time. If there’s a next time, you can gouge out my eyeballs.”
Marcus frowned, clearly unhappy.
I honestly acknowledged my error: “I won’t be late again either. If I do it again, you can dock my attendance bonus.”
“No need.”
“Boss, you’re so kind…”
“I mean there’s no need to wait for next time.” He finished and instructed his assistant nearby: “Tell accounting to deduct $300 from her bonus.”
“But doesn’t the company allow one or two late arrivals a month? I’ve always been early before, never late.”
“Mm, before we turned a blind eye, but today I saw your lateness with both eyes.”
“…”
Just because he caught me seeing him being lovey-dovey with his girlfriend?
Is it really necessary to target me like this!
But I really didn’t expect Marcus to be so petty!
In the afternoon, when each department reported on their projects, he commented on everyone’s work. When it came to mine, he didn’t say a word, not even sparing me a glance as he moved on to listen to the next person’s report. His disregard for me was very obvious.
Just before clocking out, my team leader threw the proposal I had submitted a few days ago back onto my desk.
“Olivia, the boss rejected your proposal.”
I sighed: “Did he say what was wrong with it? So I can revise it.”
“He thought it was garbage, unusable. Work overtime and redo the whole proposal.”
The team leader had so many people in that meeting, and he just called my work garbage in front of all of them?
This is too much!!
I pressed my lips together, feeling a wave of bitterness.
Docking my pay is one thing! But to deny my abilities! Damn capitalist!