Devil in a Suit

I blinked in shock, not expecting him to hit me so low. I couldn’t believe he compared me to a sixth grader! I was intelligent and creative. My high college GPA proved that, whether he wanted to believe that or not. He was biased. It was obvious!

“I worked hard on that report. I did all of the research and even included alternative approaches to the scenarios when I didn’t even have to,” I told him pointedly. What sixth grader put that much effort into an assignment? I wasn’t some immature, careless child. I cared about the work that I did.

“Maybe you should’ve focused on the basics of the assignment instead of trying to show off. If complicated business practices are too hard for you to grasp, I’m sure there’s a McDonald’s hiring somewhere,” Tyler said, his expression not wavering. He looked as cruel as he sounded.

I could only stare at him in silence for a few seconds, wondering how he could be so awful to me. Was he still upset about me spilling coffee on him or something? It made no sense for him to be acting this way toward me.

“You could’ve at least explained some of your comments better or offered an alternative. I don’t even know how to bring my report up to your standards,” I said as I shook my head at him. I didn’t know where his standards were at, but they were way above my head apparently.

“I didn’t realize that I needed to hold your hand,” Tyler told me. He almost looked amused, but it wasn’t a joke. It was another harsh dig at me. For some reason, it was so easy for him to keep jabbing at me, finding my weak spots and exposing them.

I didn’t like failing. I wanted to succeed, to make something of myself. It stung when people ripped apart my intelligence or work ethic. Those were the things that I had the most confidence in. If someone took those away from me, I was afraid that there would be nothing left of me. I would be reduced to nothing.

Tyler’s jabs hit me extra hard because he wasn’t holding back at all. It was like he had no mercy. He was cruel, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to be right, to be on top, while he wanted me to remain at the bottom at his feet.

“Do you get off on being a jerk to me or something?” I blurted out, unable to reel back my angry words. Honestly, he deserved way worse than that. I had plenty of things to say to him, and they were probably worse than anything that he could think to say to me.

Tyler slowly stood up from his seat and placed his hands on his desk, leaning close to me. His eyes looked darker as they met mine. “I would suggest you watch your mouth. You’re only here because I allow you to be here. Don’t make me change my mind,” he said, his voice sounding low and dark.

I swallowed hard, feeling myself freeze as I stared back at him. I could tell that he was serious. If I made one more wrong move, I was done for. Out of the blue, a shiver raced through me, making my breath hitch. I didn’t know what was going on with my body, but I didn’t want to stand around and figure it out while he looked at me like that. He was already so close to me.

Without another word, I forced my eyes away from his and hurried out of his office. I could still face consequences after that whole ordeal, but I didn’t want to think about it right now. I went back to my office and packed my things up, feeling grateful that the day was almost over.

I had classes in the morning tomorrow, which would be a nice break from this internship for me, but I still had to come in after noon. I couldn’t escape this place, and I couldn’t run or hide from Tyler. I wasn’t sure how I was going to face him again after today.

Tyler managed to dig his way so far under my skin, striking me at my core where no one else had ever reached before. It drove me crazy, letting someone affect me like this, especially someone like him. He had everything he could want and more. Shouldn’t that make someone incredibly happy and generous?

It turned him into an egotistical jerk instead. I didn’t think I was wrong when I told him that I thought he got off on being awful to me. It was probably a way for him to stroke his own ego, but I wasn’t going to bend to his will that easily. It just wasn’t fair that he could threaten me so easily, holding my internship over my head.