Each morning I arrived at work and made Evie a cup of coffee. I never spat in it for fear of her somehow finding out. I'd already seen how vindictive she could be and I had no desire to incur her wrath any more than I already had.
My new work situation wasn't so bad. Evie gave me loads of bitch work to do, like getting her photocopies, taking her mail to the mail room, and generally running errands, but she didn't humiliate me again like she had that first day.
I was sitting at my desk in the bullpen replying to my emails when I saw her office door open. Evie stepped out, looking prim and proper in a pencil skirt and tight-fitting blouse. Her hair was up in a bun, giving her a stern yet still attractive image. It was her eyes that caught my attention and not because of the smoky eyeliner she had on. She looked furious. And she was looking right at me.
"Jack," she said loudly enough to be heard right the way across the office. Everybody looked up from what they were doing.
"Yes?" I said, standing up to go to her office. She raised her hand and stopped me before I could step away from my desk. I had hoped to move whatever was about to happen to a more private setting. At least if she was doing whatever this was out here it couldn't be too bad. She could hardly force my face between her ass cheeks in front of the whole office.
"How long have you worked here?" she asked. She was grasping several sheets of paper in her angry little fist.
"13 years," I said.
She strode forward a step and raised the papers up to eye level. "Then why can you not fill out a simple B496 form correctly?" She threw the papers down and they dropped to the floor silently, a small metal clip the only thing stopping them from scattering across the office.
I stared at the incorrectly filled-out forms, unsure of what she wanted me to do now.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I'd made a mistake," I said. I'd been filling out those forms for years. There was no way I'd messed up something so simple.
"Your performance is not good enough," she told me, pointing aggressively across the office. I heard a couple of my colleagues snickering at the dressing down I was receiving from a girl who was almost half my age. One day it would be their turn and then I'd laugh at them and see how they liked it.
I felt my anger rising up my neck, bringing a burning redness to my cheeks. I gritted my teeth and replied. "I'm sorry that you find my performance unsatisfactory. I will try to do better in future."
Evie snorted. "Yeah, I bet you say that to women a lot." The entire office erupted into laughter at her words and I felt my soul shrivel up in embarrassment.
I could feel my blood boiling as I stood there, humiliated in front of everyone. Evie had already made it clear that she didn't like me, but this was a new low. This was pretty much bullying.
But instead of lashing out at her, I took a deep breath and held it together. I couldn't afford to lose my job, no matter how badly I wanted to tell her what I really thought of her.
"Do the forms again," she said, nudging the fallen forms with her foot.
I sighed, understanding what she wanted of me. Keeping my eyes low, I walked toward her and bent down to pick the forms up off the floor.
"Kneel," she whispered so only I could hear her.
I almost refused, but that would only make her escalate things. I sunk down to my knees and picked the forms up off the floor.
"Bring them to my office when you've done them right," she said. She turned and strutted back into her office, leaving me on my knees whilst my colleagues grinned and laughed at my humiliation. My how I had fallen.
I could feel the weight of my anger and frustration rise within me as I rose back up on my feet and walked towards my desk. My mind was spinning with a million thoughts, and all of them were focused on Evie and how I could bring her down. I knew there was nothing I could do. I just had to put up with her taunts until I landed a new job and I would be spending every minute of my personal time applying for positions elsewhere.
Annoyingly, she was right and I had filled in the forms incorrectly. I cursed as I realized my own sloppiness had caused that humiliation. I filled the forms out again and checked them 3 times before I carried them over to Evie's office.
I felt several eyes on me as I made my way across the bullpen. Before I'd been seen as a senior member of staff, now I was a laughing stock. I was the man who'd been passed over for a girl half his age and even less experience.
