Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 81252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
However, this internship would last for a few months. I didn’t want to spend the entire time feeling like I was treading water. I wanted to succeed and exceed people’s expectations, especially Tyler’s. Maybe I wanted him to feel a little dumb for treating me like a child. Tomorrow was a new day, and I was going to use it as a fresh start.
I finished off the rest of my wine cooler before smacking my lips playfully. “Anyone want another one?” I asked as I hopped to my feet. Today wasn’t the best day, but at least I ended it on a good note with my friends. I was grateful that I made it back home in one piece.
Hannah and Nick both lifted their hands.
With a laugh, I headed to the kitchen a few feet away, feeling a warm buzz start to fill my head. I was intent on making sure the rest of the night made me forget all about everything that happened earlier. That was the past. I had a shot at making everything better tomorrow, and I wasn’t going to miss that chance.
Chapter 4
Tyler
Stacks of paper nearly spilled out of the trash can next to my desk, and I kept adding onto the pile. The number of bad ideas that I kept reading from my executive board was about to make me have a nervous breakdown. Why on Earth were these incompetent people at the head of my company?
I gave them a simple assignment: come up with ideas on how to improve the direction that this company was going. Currently, it was diving into a pit of despair that we were about to find ourselves at the bottom of. Instead of anything useful or even creative, they gave me a bunch of lousy ideas that weren’t fleshed out at all. They were all tactics we had already used or were currently using, which were obviously not working.
I expected more from them, and my disappointment in them made it hard for me to trust them. It was already hard enough trusting them with so much power in my company to begin with. Now, it felt like they were rubbing salt in all of my wounds. Watching my company start to worsen was hard, and it didn’t help that I felt I had to fix it all on my own.
Meanwhile, Brandon was reaping all of these rewards, taking from me once again. He didn’t care what bodies he left in his wake. He wanted the top spot, and he was coming for my neck. Somehow, I was going to knock him back down into the dirt where he belonged. I should’ve seen him for the vermin that he was.
Unfortunately, most people saw him as this savvy businessman with the offer of a lifetime. They didn’t know how truly awful the man was, but they would one day. People’s true colors always broke through eventually, and they usually weren’t very pretty. I had been showered in enough darkness to know.
Tugging at the collar of my white button-down, I figured that I should take a break. My head was starting to ache from reading all of these pathetic reports. I was sure that I could spend my time doing something better. I stood from my desk and ventured out into the hallway, glancing up and down to see that the area was empty. Everyone was busy at work.
I headed to the right, soon approaching two wide-open doors. They had to belong to the new interns. Ever since I started my company, I stressed the importance of bringing on interns. I was an intern once myself. It gave me the drive and the knowledge to start Ashland Consulting. If we wanted a strong business world, we had to train eager minds like the one I had in college. We took in whoever was willing to learn.
Of course, my days of babysitting interns were over. I had too many other things on my plate, and I wasn’t exactly the teaching type. That required patience that I didn’t have. Someone like Brittany was the perfect type to teach. She was patient, kind, and flexible. I trusted Brittany more than anyone else in the company because she had yet to let me down. I hoped that never changed.
When I approached the first open door, I slowed down and peered inside, seeing a tall blonde staring at her computer screen. I tried to walk on, but her blue eyes darted above her screen and widened at the sight of me. I mentally cursed myself, wishing that I hadn’t lingered to be nosy.
“Mr. Ashland! I’m Sara Deland,” she said as she stood from her desk, smoothing her hands over her grey A-line dress. She strode over to me, flashing me a smile that I was sure dazzled in some boys’ eyes.