2: 2
In my last life, the moment Alice Barber handed me that proposal, the blood shot up to my head and I lost it right there.
"What the hell is this garbage you've turned in? Even the most basic font and formatting is wrong."
"I hammered on the requirements for two whole months. Did you not read a single word of it?"
"Alice, this is a workplace, not a playhouse. If you can't do the job, get out now."
In the three years since the company was founded, it was the first time I'd blown up like that.
But Alice didn't look the least bit sorry. She just sneered at me.
"I was right about you all along. You're a manager in name only."
"How else could you fail to recognize a proposal that's actually worth something?"
I froze, and she went on, practically showing off.
"I'll be honest with you. The second I finished this proposal, I sent it straight to a public AI chatbot to check it, and it said the thing was worth millions and second to none."
The veins in my forehead were throbbing by the time she finished.
I couldn't hold back the cold question:
"Are you telling me you uploaded our confidential project to a public AI on the open internet?"
"Alice, did a donkey kick you in the head?"
"I'm not going to waste any more breath on you. If this bid fails, every last bit of the loss is on you. You'd better sort yourself out."
I said it fully intending to take the legal route and sue her outright.
But my boyfriend of five years planted himself in front of her and shielded her completely.
"Tsk. Amelia James, what kind of attitude is that?"
"Alice has pulled all-nighters a week straight. Even if there's no credit in it, she's put in the effort. How can you shoot her down in front of everyone?"
"Besides, this AI chatbot is the hottest thing out there right now. You think what it says can be wrong? If you ask me, you're just too full of yourself."
The barrage of scolding left me completely stunned.
Zachery might have been a slacker most of the time, but on anything that mattered for a project, he was never any less careful than I was.
Choking back my anger, I threw that disaster of a proposal in both their faces.
"Open your damn eyes and look for yourself. The formatting is all wrong, even the bid amount is wrong. You think we can turn this in?"
"I don't care what the two of you think, but everyone in this company poured their heart into this, and it shouldn't go to waste like this."
"So all I can do is try to rewrite the proposal from scratch. I'll take part of the loss the delay causes. The rest is all on her."
Then I gave Alice a cold, sweeping look.
Her eyes reddened instantly, and she huddled into Zachery's arms without a care, shaking her head, crying under her breath.
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have tried to lighten the load for the company."
"I'll apologize right now. Is that enough?"
And she moved to drop to her knees and grovel out an apology.
Zachery's whole expression changed. He pulled her in against him, frantic.
"Alice, what are you doing?"
"You did nothing wrong. She's the one who's too blind to know something good when she sees it."
Then Zachery turned and rounded on me.
"I think you just can't stand that Alice and I get along, so you're abusing your authority to hold her down."
"A shrew like you doesn't deserve to be in this company."
Somewhere in the middle of that fight, my asthma flared and I suffocated to death.
Watching it happen, Zachery only held Alice and comforted her:
"You can only blame her rotten luck. It's got nothing to do with you."
Remembering that pain from my last life, I clenched my teeth with hatred.
"I don't have time right now. Find someone else."
At those words, Zachery's face turned on the spot.
"Amelia James, you are honestly impossible."
"Alice comes to you nicely for advice, and this is the attitude you give her? What's one look going to cost you? Are your eyes made of gold?"
"I'm warning you, my patience has a limit. If you keep deliberately going after Alice, we're done, and you get out of this company."
In the past, I might have backed down first, on my own.
But after living through that horror once, all I felt was how disgusting the two of them were.
"Fine. Let's break up. I find you filthy anyway."
