The Intern Who Broke the Billionaire

Chapter Eight

Alex’s POV

Rubbing my thick, calloused fingers over my eyebrows I wait for everyone to disperse leaving me with Evie and Jamie. I don’t know what’s just gone down but I’m not exactly happy about it, plus me not introducing Evie to the board members was something I should have done first. That’s on me. However, the laziness within my junior department is piss poor and I won’t have any of it and Evie talking like that directly to him in a meeting without prior discussion can’t happen either. Fair play to her though, she has balls. I keep quiet as I stand to pace to make them squirm a little. I think they both know they’re in the wrong but why not make them sweat when they’ve just cause me an earache later on today from the senior board member Darren. This just won’t do.

“Miss Snow, go wait for me in my office. I think I should deal with both of you privately.” The look on her face drops, she looks terrified. I don’t know why though? Am I really that intimidating? Or is she scared when people raise their voice? I’ll hopefully get to the bottom of this sooner or later. Now the task at hand. Evie gets up and walks out of the room leaving me with the slacker.

“Jamie, care to offer me an explanation for the poor performance of this task. If this had slipped and gone through this could’ve affected the company’s reputation. Do you see how serious this is?”

“Yyyyes sir. I promise I do. I just had a lot to get through but I swear I still read it properly. This is opinion based and I offered my opinion sir.” He trembles as he speak to which he should. An attitude like that won’t work for me, “why do I not believe you. You cannot have read it missing all the obvious mistakes within it. How stupid do you think I am? Also telling the truth would be appreciated and maybe an attitude change since yes you offered an opinion but you also missed half the work within it. So if you’re going to give me an opinion make sure you can back it up. Understood?” I glare at him. I’m pissed. Does he really think he can get away lying to me? Trying to deceive me like I’ve lived under a rock.

“Ok I’ll be honest. I skim read it sir. It seemed like a basic peace and I had lots of reoccurring authors manuscripts on my desk, so I didn’t think anything of it. Just a one time occurrence. And sorry I didn’t mean to come across any type of way sir,” now he’s up my ass? Honestly these young ones need balls like miss Snow. Rolling my eyes I further tell him to go to HR and they’ll receive a report from me to do their discipline as they see fit. I’ll know what happens as I have to sign it off. Once Jamie has sauntered out of the room his head hanging slightly lower than before, I finally make my way to my office knowing the talk I need to have with Evie. I’m kinda dreading it for some reason. She meant no harm, just doing her job. In addition, I can’t have the board and other editors viewing this behaviour, speaking without being asked to in a collective meeting can end up with major disagreements and I can’t have that. No drama in my building.

I finally push my office door open, Evie is sat at the desk looking visibly nervous. I can feel her energy from here. “Hey Evie. Are you ok?” I try my gentler approach. God I’m not used to having to be gentle with my staff but a different approach sometimes helps.

“Hi. I’m fine. What’s next or do you still want a chat with me?” Her voice is barely above a whisper, never even looking me in the eyes to speak.

“I do need a quick chat but you’re not in trouble. You overstepped in there. You should’ve waited to be called upon to speak. It stops people talking over each other and disagreements becoming unmanageable. I should’ve explained that to you. However though Miss Snow, I’m impressed. You’re vigilant, confident to speak up and I think you’ve caught Darren’s eye which is not normality here. He doesn’t really take to people just comes, does his job and then leaves. So to summarise Evie you have impressed the board, impressed me and pissed off a junior editor. I call that a win and I don’t say that lightly. Just please don’t do that again… anytime soon.” I add a slight smirk to the ending trying to lighten the mood. She looks horrified but she’ll get over it I’m sure. Her eyes lit back up a little when I said she wasn’t in trouble. I then explain the rest of the day to her whilst I email Lauren about available senior editors to mentor her. Not long after she emails back saying none are available according to the workload. I suck in a sharp burst of air and sigh absent minded. Do I mentor her? Why not? It’s been a long time since I’ve had to mentor anyone. May sharpen me back up a little I suppose and she could be worse to work with.

Whilst I email Lauren back regarding me mentoring Evie, she heads out to the staff room to pick me a coffee up and herself a drink. I can’t believe she got my order right, observant woman. After a while she doesn’t come back and it’s been nearly 20 minutes. Venturing out I head to staff room. My strides long and decisive, if she’s just messing around I won’t be happy after our conversation earlier.

I approach the staff room and what I see was shocking. Jamie had been put on probation after seeing HR. Three months of being tasked like the new starter again. He clearly wasn’t happy with and targeted the person he blamed. Evie. He had her cornered and was spitting hurtful verbal insults at her. She was visibly shaking, her head hung low and her shoulders drooped. Tears looked as if they threatened to fall from her eyes. After visually assessing the situation I spoke low and clear, “move away from her now.” Jamie looked as if he jumped a mile. Wide eyed and instantly backing off whereas Evie stayed exactly in the same position. Cowering in the corner. I instantly bark at Jamie sending him home with an immediate suspension pending review of evidence and disciplinary action. He storms out of the staff room, I alert security immediately via my phone to ensure he leaves the premises and blocks his access code. After sorting the immediate out I turn my attention the woman who is slumped before me. She looks like she is about to breakdown but I won’t let her not here. I quickly pick up the drinks and guide her back to the office. I must admit I’m not sure what to do now. I’m good at reigning my staff in and delegating and running business and all the other things I seem to do. Consoling a terrified woman who’s on the verge of tears. Not my strong suit.

Once in the office I close the door quietly and lock it. She sits on the sofa rather than the chair and I join her. Time to have a conversation then I will write a statement with her about the incident. “Evie may I ask what’s going through your head right now?” I try to not sound pushy. She is a reserved woman and I can see if I push my luck I’m not going to get anything at all. She looks up at me, her eyes full of moisture. “Nothing he said I haven’t heard before. He trapped me I couldn’t move and he wouldn’t let me go. I didn’t know what to do I didn’t want to cause anymore trouble. I’m sorry if I’m causing you a headache.” Why is she apologising to me? This isn’t her fault. I can already tell she is full of guilt from the whole situation. I heard some of the things he said. None were true yet she says she’s heard it all before, sounds like she actually believes it to. I don’t know what this poor woman has been through but she sure as hell wasn’t going to feel this way in my building. I pride my staff on respect and equality, not my fault a boy was outdone by a woman 3 years younger than him. Shouldn’t be a lazy prick then should he. With that I turn back to Evie. “Evie you don’t need to apologise for anything. You made a slight mistake earlier and you listened to me about that. He’s angry that’s all. You’re intelligent and have this quiet confidence about you. Don’t let a boy who can’t take criticism and discipline make you feel this way.” I try to encourage her as best as I can. Soon after I get her statement and we have lunch. She picks at her food rather than eating it. I’m not surprised the salad looks so bland. After lunch I’m in two minds. Shall I tell her she’ll be working with me? Or shall I surprise her?