Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
I know a mom’s disappointment is a real thing, but really? This is just extreme to the point of extreme. Extreme squared.
“What if I told you no one else applied for the position, so there was no competition?”
“Ahhhh!” My frustration boils up and bubbles out of me before I can stop it. At least I prevent myself from exploding out of my chair. Is he for real? I thought there had to be other people, even though I didn’t hear anyone say they were going to apply. People don’t always announce that shit. “You knew that this whole time!”
“Not until I took over the company.”
“I. Am. Not. Helping. You. You’re awful. You’re the actual worst. Seriously. Just disappoint your parents and live with it. The rest of us do. The world will still turn, and you’ll still own a pudding company and be all rich and have your money to keep you warm and content at night. But our lives?” I do the waving hand gesture again, and fuck, why does that make his eyes sparkle even more? “They’re never going to intermingle in any way.”
“So what? Instead of helping me and taking a job you clearly want, as well as negotiating something I’m more than willing to give if it’s in my power, you’d rather just quit and not have a job at all?”
“I would rather quit than work with a nasty man at the helm of the company anyway. You’re going to drive it into the ground. You’re going to destroy something I love. You’re going to take something we all love and make it something wretched! Something horribly wretched. Something horribly poopy wretched.”
“Maybe the next flavor of pudding you come up with should be poop since you like it so much. It could even come in a special packing, shaped just like a cartoon bottom.”
So much for not rising to any of this. Because I want to rise. I want to rise so badly. “Everyone already thinks chocolate pudding is poop anyway, so that’s very unoriginal of you. People like good pudding flavors. Not nastiness. You’re already ruining something that was amazing.”
His grin just gets wider, and my heart sinks to the bottom of my stomach. Did I really just throw away everything I’ve worked my ass off for? Yes. Yes, I did. But so what? I can find another job. I’ll work my way back up from the bottom if I have to. At least the money will be honest. I’ll be honest, and I won’t be working for a totally epic jerkhole.
Even if I have to take a pay cut.
Even if I have bills to pay.
Even if this company is kind of like another home, and the people here are like another family to me.
“You can take your fake girlfriend and—” Don’t say shove her. That would just be immaturity on top of immaturity. “And find her somewhere else. I’ll have my notice submitted to HR in an hour, effective immediately.”
There’s not even a flicker of fear on his face that I might make good on what I said about filing a harassment claim. Have I been harassed? Maybe. Did he attempt to blackmail me? Sort of. Will I go straight to his mom and make things a hundred times worse? No. No, I won’t. It wouldn’t be right.
This whole thing might not be right, but I’m not going to make it worse. I’m going to be the bigger person because that’s who I always am. I have a good heart. I care about the world. I love my friends and family, and I do what I can to help out wherever I can and whenever I can. I know I could cause a lot of trouble for this man, but honestly? I’d rather just suck it up, find another job, and get on with my life. Is it fair? No. Was what he did petty and mean? Yes. Do I have to resort to the same level? No.
No, and I’m not going to.
I’m putting this in the past. All of it.
Tomorrow, I’ll start fresh, and one day, this will be the tipping point that pushed me into the job I was always meant to work at, and I’ll be in a position in my life that I was always meant to be at. Then, I’ll find someone, and they’ll be absolutely perfect, and it will all be because I took the higher road, just darn well carried on, and made a great life for myself.
“Don’t worry,” I say with as much fake cheer and bravado as I can muster at the moment, which isn’t a heck of a lot because my eyes are burning, and my chest feels compressed. This is hard. This hurts, and it absolutely sucks. “No one will put two and two together. When new ownership happens in a company, or when hostile takeovers become a thing, there’s generally a lot of shakeups, and some people inevitably quit.”