Chapter 3

Cindy barked, "Enough! I'm not going to waste my breath. Get back to the office right now!"

Hearing that, I instinctively checked the time. "Cindy, it's already nine at night. Is there some emergency that can't wait until tomorrow?"

"Of course there is! I wouldn't be calling you if it wasn't urgent! Get over here right now!"

Cindy's tone got me worried, too. I thought there might be a problem with the project data. Without taking time to ask for details, I grabbed the bag I had just set down and rushed out the door.

When I got to the office, it was completely dark. I stared at the empty office in confusion and called her back."Cindy, I'm at the office. Why isn't anyone here?"

"Oh, just go in and check my computer."

I followed her instructions and walked over to her cubicle. "Your computer is off. Do you need me to update some data?"

"As long as it's off, that's fine. I was just worried I forgot to shut down my computer, so I had you come back to check."

I instantly see red. I had to take several deep breaths to swallow the curse words on the tip of my tongue.

"Cindy, if you're not sure about something like this, you can come back and check yourself."

"Young man, don't you know I'm pregnant? Isn't it your job to help me with these little things? Besides, I'm teaching you a lesson: you can't leave your computer on when you clock out. You need to conserve company electricity, understand?"

"Thanks for the reminder, Cindy."

I did not want to talk to her anymore and just wanted to hang up as quickly as possible, but I did not expect that response would set Cindy off again.

"A senior employee teaches you something, and instead of being grateful, you give me attitude? Who do you think you're talking to?! And today too, eating your chicken drumstick was me doing you a favor. I let you provide nutrition for my precious baby, think of it as good karma! And you? You don't know how to be grateful at all, and you even wanted me to pay you back!"

So, she deliberately made me come all the way back to the office for nothing tonight because of the lunchtime drumstick. It was so absurd that I did not want to put up with it anymore, but I still managed to control myself and reason with her politely.

"Cindy, the child isn't mine, so logically speaking, I have no obligation to provide nutrition for him. Asking you to pay me back was perfectly reasonable, but if you don't want to, that's fine. It's only two bucks, so I'll just treat it as my treat. Still, I hope things like tonight won't happen again, or I'll report you to the company for abusing your authority for personal revenge."

I did not give her a chance to respond and hung up straight away. Before putting down my phone, I checked to see if she had sent me any more messages.

Cindy had not sent anything else. I thought she had taken my words to heart and that the matter was over.

However, when I got to the office the next day, she threw a binder at me in front of all our coworkers.

"What kind of work attitude is this?! How dare you make me wait for you? I guess you don't want to get hired as a permanent worker, do you?!"

Luckily, I reacted quickly and blocked it with my hand, or the sharp corner of the binder would have hit me right in the face. Even so, the sharp plastic edge still scraped a bloody mark across the back of my hand.

I winced in pain and glanced at the wall clock.

"It's five minutes before nine. I'm not late, am I? And I didn't receive any notice from any supervisor requiring me to come in early."

"You need a notice for something like that? As an intern, you should arrive thirty minutes early to clean everyone's workspace! I can see that with no one managing you these past two months, you've really gotten full of yourself!"

Cindy held her lower back and snorted. "Starting tonight, you can't leave until you've checked all the power outlets after work, and in the morning, you must finish all the cleaning before we arrive! What's wrong with a young guy doing some work?"

"May I ask which supervisor assigned me this task?"

"Mr. Jenkins put me in charge of you, which means he gave me the authority to assign you tasks! If you're not happy with my arrangements, feel free to complain to him about me. You're pretty good at reporting people, aren't you? Go ahead and report me!"

After hearing her words, I nodded and went straight upstairs to knock on Lionel's office door. "Mr. Jenkins, I'd like to ask if the company has a policy requiring interns to handle cleaning and check power outlets?"