"Have you tried turning it off and back on again?"
••
Christian Ivonov, CEO of Ivonov enterprises, had always been the best at fucking things up. Whether it be relationships, or company connections, nothing was too far out of his reach to ruin.
Alex...
I was about to barge into the room, but stopped myself short in the doorway. There was a man sitting at the chair of my desk, examining the laptop like it was a beaten up puppy.
He didn't look any older than his early twenties yet the bags underneath his eyes were insane. Large framed glasses overtook the majority of his face, but they framed his chiseled features well.
I'd never seen this guy before in my life.
"I think it's hard for rich people to see the common sense and consideration behind their entitlement." I heard the man say. I decided that was probably enough bullshit I could tolerate for the night.
I cleared my throat, and the man looked up from my desk, to me. It looked like I might have startled him.
His gaze was... different. Before I could put a handle on what felt strange, realization settled in for him.
He looked like a dear caught in a headlight. Almost as if I had found him with his hand in the cookie jar.
I watched the phone that he was holding against his ear, slip through his fingers and tumble to the ground. "You must be the I.T. guy." I noted.
"I-Y-Yes." He forced the words to push past his lips. They seemed strained and foreign, unlike what his voice sounded like a few moments ago.
"You're here to fix this laptop, correct?" I had asked him. It looks like he was just about ready to faint.
"Y-Yes." He croaked out.
"Is it fixable?" I continued. Something about him getting all flustered and uncomfortable brought out the sadist in me. It was nice having people fear you. It really was. He proceeded to inform me on how non-fixable the device was.
"Looks like it went through a wood-chipper, huh?"
His face paled at my words. There was an uncomfortable silence that hung in the air before he finally composed himself enough to reply. "It'll take time... to retrieve all the parts."
"It's a good thing you're on my companies payroll then, isn't it?"
Something flashed across his face. I recognized it instantly as annoyance. I was now annoyed because he had the audacity to be annoyed with me.
The camera screens flickered on my computer, and I changed the time stamp to just after I had left him in my office. There wasn't any audio, but judging by the faces he was making over the phone again, he looked pissed.
I spent the rest of the night watching him order parts for the computer, and attempt to start taking the rest of it apart. I convinced myself it was because I wanted to make sure he didn't mess around with anything, but really, I didn't know why I was looking at the footage.
I also didn't know why I had put up with his disrespect. I mean, I've fired employees for a lot less...
Alex
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