Chapter 2
After the dinner, I made another trip to the hospital.
The nurse removed the bandage, checked my eye, and frowned.
"How come it's worse again?" she asked.
"Guess I knocked it by accident," I replied.
She reapplied the ointment and put on a fresh bandage.
The bruise around my right eye had already crept up to my brow bone.
My whole right cheek was swollen.
"How does a badminton game leave your eye looking like this?" the nurse muttered.
"That other player was way too rough. Was she playing badminton or trying to hurt you? Eyes are so delicate."
I didn't say anything.
"Remember, your surgery is in two days," she reminded me.
"Do you have someone to come with you? You'll need to stay in the hospital after the procedure."
I shook my head.
There was no way David would come with me for the surgery.
When I got home, the living room light was on.
David was sitting on the couch.
He looked up when he heard the door open.
His gaze fixed on my injured eye.
There was no sympathy in his expression, just a cold, almost mocking smile, as if he'd seen this coming.
"Emma, how long are you going to keep up this act?" he said.
"It's just a game. So what if you lost?
"If you want 30,000 dollars, I'll just give it to you. There's no need to make things difficult for a newbie."
My eyes were getting watery, but I remembered what the nurse said; she told me not to cry.
I tilted my head back, took a deep breath, and held back the tears.
He stood over me, looking down at my injured eye.
"Don't wear that bandage at work tomorrow," he said.
"If you show up with your eye all bandaged up, everyone's going to think she bullied you.
"She just passed probation; how's she supposed to stick around if you do that?"
My right eye was throbbing, and my whole right cheek was all numb and swollen.
"David, I need..." I started.
"Enough," he cut me off.
"Getting hurt in sports is normal. It's not your first day playing. Are you really going to make a big deal out of this in the middle of the night?"
I swallowed all my resentment, the words stuck in my throat.
"When did you start mentoring someone? Why was I the last to know?" I asked.
"A friend introduced her. She was eager to learn, so I agreed to show her the ropes," he replied.
He shrugged it off, like it was nothing.
He turned around and grabbed a project file.
It was instantly familiar; the one I'd spent countless nights working on, barely sleeping.
This was the company's flagship project.
My shot at moving up the ladder depended on it.
"I'm assigning this project to Sophie," he said.
"She just passed probation, and she needs some solid results to meet her KPIs.
"Since your eye is injured, you should take it easy for now."
It took me a while to find my voice again.
"No way," I snapped.
"This project was my idea, and I wrote every single page myself. Why should I just hand it over to her?"
David's face darkened.
Without another word, I headed into the master bedroom to grab my coat and pajamas.
When I came out, David was on the balcony, talking on the phone.
"Ms. Reed's alright, really. Don't let it bother you," he said.
"Get some sleep, and try not to dwell on it."
His tone was softer than usual.
When he saw me clutching my blanket, he paused, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.
"Emma, you're not a little girl anymore," he said.
"We're about to move on to the next chapter of our lives.
"Can you stop being so stubborn?"
Last month, for David's birthday, I cooked up a whole feast for him.
After a few drinks, he proposed to me, and I broke down in tears, unable to stop myself.
I was over the moon; after five years together, we were finally going to start a new chapter, hand in hand.
"Oh, by the way, that apartment we checked out last week got snatched up by someone else. We'll go look at some other places soon," he said.
I didn't say a word and turned to head into the guest bedroom.
David followed me to the door.
"Emma! What's with all this drama?' he called out.
The next morning, during the meeting, David announced to everyone that Sophie would be taking charge of the new project.
"If you have any questions at work, feel free to ask Ms. Reed for help," he said.
Sophie pouted, her eyes skipping right over me and locking onto David.
"Can I just come to you directly for help?" she asked.
Everyone was surprised.
No one had ever dared to speak to David in that tone during a meeting.
Even more shocking was his answer.
David said, "Of course you can."
Sophie's cheeks flushed instantly, her face going beet red.
*****
After the meeting, Sophie tagged me in the group chat.
[Ms. Reed, I didn't handle these numbers myself, so I'm not really sure about them. Could you help me pull them together and send them over?]
I replied: [No. If you don't know, then figure it out yourself or ask someone.]
Sophie bit her lip and stayed silent.
As I walked past the break room, I overheard my coworkers whispering.
"Ms. Reed is way too cold. Sophie's just a newbie, she doesn't know anything yet."
"She's just giving Sophie the cold shoulder. Honestly, anyone would be pissed if their project got snatched."
"It's not like she can do any detailed work with her eye all messed up."
"Come on, it's just a scratch. She's totally exaggerating with that giant bandage just to scare the newbie."
"Oh, whatever."
I just walked past, not letting their gossip get to me.
Just after lunch, David came back after stepping out for a bit.
Sophie immediately rushed into his office, arms full of files.
Not long after, David came over to my desk.
He slapped a pile of papers down in front of me. "Get these numbers checked by noon tomorrow."
"Mr. Grant, my eye's still..." I tried to protest.
"A little injury doesn't keep you from crunching numbers," he cut me off.
"If you can't handle it, maybe you're just not cut out for this."
He was the boss, so I had no choice but to do what he said.
So I really had no grounds to say no.
As evening fell, my coworkers started heading home one by one.
When Sophie was leaving, she made a point to swing by my desk.
"Ms. Reed, thanks for all your hard work," she said.
"Don't forget to send me the data by tomorrow morning, okay?
"Otherwise, Mr. Grant will be really unhappy."