Page 28 of Lesson on Depravity

“She’s nothing—I mean, who the hell does that girl think she is? Coming in here and acting all mighty in that office.”

The man agrees with her as he spits out my name, and I bite my lips to stop the amusement from being noisy.

“I have never seen someone with skin thicker than hers, Karen.” The man’s sigh is obnoxiously loud.

“That office is supposed to be mine. I had done everything to ensure I have the next promotion; I even went to dinner with that disgusting man, but he gave it to her? That isn’t fair. I contributed so much!”

If contributing means using dirty tricks and sacrificing her pride, then she shouldn’t say that out loud. I bring my coffee up to my lips, sipping on the blistering drink with a dash of hazelnut cream and three small cubes of sugar.

I would love to have a cup of tea for this.

“I think you should have gotten that position, it’s rightfully yours!” the man says, bolstering his voice with defiance.

“You are the most hardworking worker here! No one works later and comes earlier than you, and you treat everyone with more kindness than her stuck-up ass does!”

The man is clearly kissing her ass just in case she does something that makes her position rise. Or he could just be someone who wants to ingratiate oneself for future references.

I recognize everyone’s voices and faces as a part of my assignment for the first week, but these two aren’t matching up with any vocals and faces in my head. They must be people from the other department, but the woman wants to take the leadership position that she isn’t familiar with.

People are just greedy, and she is one of the worse if she thinks that just by flaunting her beauty and having dinner with a higher-up will make her the leader of this department, then she’s delusional.

The higher the position, the more work it needs to maintain order. I don’t want to judge, but if she isn’t willing to work harder like other people fighting for my position, then she isn’t worth another glance for the promotion.

I don’t have the right to say that because I wasn’t an employee that had been promoted through hard work, I was just a random stranger with an aunt who has connections to this company. I have no experience in this field, but I had learned whatever I can through the internet and books to see how I could function and do my best with the skills I have learned.

On the one hand, the man is pleasing Karen by insulting me and praising her through so much bullshit that it’s hilarious.

They are right. I have thicker skin than normal people, but normal people didn’t live on the streets filled with crime and have a Daddy ripping apart things that have physically and emotionally hurt me.

Who knows how he’ll react if he hears people bad-mouthing me? I’ll keep this entertainment to myself and see where this conversation is going to land.

All the insults coming from them are for the purpose of blowing off steam. I’m trying to figure out why they are on this floor when they have their own breakroom on their designated department floor.

They probably have friends up here.

This is none of my concern, and I square my shoulders, stepping away from the comer, and their eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets. They scramble to find their footing and hold their lunch with a death grip.

They’re so shocked at my appearance that they are speechless. I reel back the quivering laugh that threatens to break my neutral expression. I learned this from Daddy when he deals with people; it scares them since they don’t know what the scariest man will do to them if they breathed wrong.

“Don’t mind me. I’m only here for coffee.” I lift the cup in emphasis, and they are still frozen with wide eyes.

Is that cold sweat I’m seeing leaving their hairline? It can’t be. They are professionals, they can control their emotions, and I’m not intimidating at all.

I have flats on with a pencil skirt and a dark blue blouse on, and I don’t pride myself on my height. I’m not gifted at that department, nor have I been blessed with growth hormones on my bones.

“Good day,” I say with a nod before exiting the breakroom.

From behind me, I hear the man calling Karen’s name, and I turn my head over my shoulder to witness her sliding down on the ground with weak knees.

“What the heck happened in there?” Cindy, the coworker that is closest to me, gasps with her lips twisted in mystification.

She and I have a lot of things in common, and we had hit it off on my first day here when I was working overtime to catch up on the materials. She was also working overtime, and she finished first, but she refused to let me stay in the company by myself, so we both ended up leaving at one in the morning when Daddy came to drag me home.

To be fair, I did tell him that I would be home late, but he interprets late as nine at night. I’m shocked that he let me stay that long out at night without barging in sooner.

Cindy is the only person who didn’t apply for my position because she didn’t want to take care of more paperwork and kissing ass than she already has to do with one boss. Being in my position, she would have to report to more bosses and deal with even more political and money-motivated decisions.

She likes money, but she isn’t suicidal. If she wants to fight snakes in this company, she would have hosted an event of going to the wilderness. They have more venomous snakes, but nothing beats the snakes in human skin.

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