3: 3
For half a minute the huge office was so quiet the air itself seemed to stop.
Zachery stared, eyes wide with disbelief.
"What did you just say?"
"I said we're breaking up. You disgust me."
I met his eyes without a trace of feeling.
But Zachery suddenly raised his voice, grinding out the words through his teeth.
"You're sure you really want to break up with me?"
I blinked, not following.
"What else? Keep you around to turn my stomach every day?"
Zachery went silent. He stared at me cold-faced for a long moment, then let out a contemptuous little laugh.
"Playing hard to get again?"
"Amelia James, how many times have you pulled this? Is it fun?"
"Getting to use the proposal Alice wrote for you is more luck than you deserve in eight lifetimes, and you're still up here putting on airs. Who do you think you are?"
Faced with his sneering, I just rolled my eyes, calm as anything.
"Uh-huh."
Getting no reaction, Zachery hopped on the spot, furious. "You—"
And right then Alice sidled up again, shameless as ever.
"Amelia, I don't know why you're so hostile toward me, but I just want to say one thing. Zachery and I have always been aboveboard."
"And this proposal, I wrote it carefully for the company. We bid in under ten hours, and now you won't even look at it before shooting me down. Isn't that a little too selfish?"
"You've got money and skills now, so you don't care about this, but the rest of the staff aren't like you. They're all waiting on that bonus!"
I had to admit, Alice knew how to stir up trouble, just like last life.
The moment shared money was on the table, the people who'd been watching on the sidelines were going to pile in too.
Sure enough, the words were barely out before everyone outside the glass-walled office turned icy looks my way.
A few hotheads charged straight in, furious.
"Amelia, you're not trying to dodge paying the bonus and making a scene on purpose, are you? Otherwise I can't figure out why you'd drag us down for no reason."
"Exactly. Amelia James, how can you be so vicious? You're not the only one who worked on this bid. It's almost over the line, and you've ruined it. You're too selfish."
One of them, mid-sentence, suddenly shoved me.
Someone else grabbed a cup of water off the desk and threw it over me.
In a heartbeat the place was chaos.
Someone slammed a foot into my stomach.
The pain made me suck in a sharp breath.
The cursing in my ears got louder.
"You're strict with us all the time, picking bones out of eggs, fine, but now you're nitpicking too? If that's not deliberately making trouble, what is it?"
Under cover of the chaos, I hit the emergency alarm.
The shrieking sound froze everyone where they stood.
I pushed myself up then, snapped my head up, my eyes frightening in their coldness.
"What are you all raving about? Her proposal is fine, just use it. Why does it have to be me who reviews it?"
"I'm warning you. Anyone who dares make trouble again bears the consequences."
The whole crowd was stunned by the look on me, and for a moment you could have heard a pin drop.
Someone came around late to the realization that this whole farce really didn't add up.
"What she said actually makes sense."
"Alice, don't bother with someone that ungrateful. We trust your proposal will do."
"Right. When the time comes we'll go bid ourselves without her, and we won't split the bonus with her either after we win."
The corners of Alice's mouth twitched into an awkward smile.
Given that, she thought better of saying anything more.
But watching me walk away, plain disgust flickered in her eyes.
Right up until the end of the day, Alice still wasn't ready to give up. She brought Zachery along to talk me around.
"Amelia, you've worked at this company all these years. You poured a lot into this bid project too. I just want you to take part."
"Why don't you look at the proposal after all? I don't even mind if you put your own name on it."
Zachery looked all wounded on her behalf. "Alice, you're just too kind."
I couldn't be bothered to watch the two of them act. I shot back coldly, "Not interested."
That set Zachery off cursing at me, and I walked out without looking back.
