All I knew was that I didn’t tolerate disrespect in my company. I worked too hard and didn’t have enough time and energy to deal with lip from some sorority girl. I had enough issues on my plate, but if she wanted to play games with me and didn’t straighten up, I would make her internship hell on Earth.
When it came to preserving what I cared about, I didn’t play fair. I didn’t go easy. I had a reputation and a company to protect, and I wasn’t about to let them both be destroyed from the inside out because of disrespect and a lack of loyalty. People would regret crossing me. Madison better hope that she didn’t become one of those people in my eyes.
Chapter 5
Madison
It took everything in me not to slam the door shut after Tyler walked out of my office with my report in his hand. I narrowed my eyes and tightened my hands into fists, keeping myself from doing or saying anything I would regret later. I still had an internship that I needed to keep, but my patience was waning. I couldn’t even begin to process how angry I was at Tyler.
He literally came into my office just to be a jerk to me. It was like he was looking for a reason to be mean to me, and me merely studying was enough of a trigger for him to storm into my office and scold me for doing something that I was allowed to do. I printed out my report and asked Brittany if I could use the rest of my time to study literally ten minutes before Tyler barged in.
For a CEO, he sure didn’t know how to communicate well. Not that I wanted to talk to him anyway. How could someone so attractive have such an unattractive personality? If he was actually nice, I could see why Sara was so infatuated with him. He would be the full package: handsome, kind, ambitious, and successful. Even I would have my eyes on him if his attitude was different, and I didn’t like admitting that.
What made me even more upset was the fact that I cared about what he thought, even when I didn’t want to. I wanted him to recognize my hard work and determination. For some reason, his opinion held a lot of weight. Maybe it was because so many people looked up to him or because he was successful, and I wanted to be successful too. When he read my report, I wanted him to see that I was meant to have this internship, that I was smarter and better than he thought I was. He already had this image of me as a screw-up in his head, and I was desperate to change it, to prove him wrong. In so many capacities, I just wanted to be good enough.
My conflicting thoughts were hard to wade through. When it came to Tyler, I felt so much confliction, and it drove me crazy. How could I dislike him but slightly admire him at the same time? It made no sense, but this internship had been a train wreck since the very beginning. I didn’t do myself any favors by having a bit of an attitude, but I couldn’t just let him run me over either. It was down to me to wade through all of the chaos and find the silver lining. Maybe I would come out of this internship and land a great job after graduation. Maybe I would find more confidence in myself and my abilities.
Soon, I would see what he really thought of me when he looked over my report. He probably didn’t believe it, but I worked hard on that report. I used what I learned in class and approached the scenarios in the best ways that I could think of. I wanted him to see my effort, but there was no guarantee that he could look past his own personal bias toward me.
When I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, I jerked my head up, expecting to see Tyler in the doorway of my office. Maybe he was here to apologize or to tell me that my report was good work. Instead, I saw Sara with a smirk on her face. I bit back a groan, wishing that she would leave me alone right now. I already knew that she was here to boast about something. She had that look on her face.
“Sounds like you and the boss aren’t getting along too well. I don’t think you made a very good first impression on him. What a shame,” Sara sighed, giving me a fake sympathetic look as she walked closer to my desk.
One of the worst things about Sara was that she believed that everyone cared to hear her opinion about everything. I didn’t care what she thought about Tyler and me. That was between us, and she had no business eavesdropping on our conversation.