After He Bought His Intern a $100K Bracelet Chapter 02

After He Bought His Intern a $100K Bracelet Chapter 02 The Golden Intern
I’d barely hung up with Ethan when Grayson walked through the door.
The couch faced the door, and after a whole afternoon of crying, my eyes were red and swollen.
But Grayson acted like he hadn’t noticed a thing, never once looking my way as he turned and headed straight into the bedroom.
Watching his back, I knew Grayson was about to freeze me out again.
Over our four years together, every fight followed the same script.
He’d give me the silent treatment.
He’d stop talking to me, skip dinner at home, and share the same room without ever acknowledging I existed.
At the office, though, he’d invent mistakes in my work just to tear into me and dress me down.
It only ended when I came home at night in tears and admitted I was wrong.
I’d apologize through the crying.
Only then would he forgive me and let it go.
Before, knowing Grayson the way I did, I’d have done anything to head off another blowup.
The moment he went cold, I’d rush to smooth things over, apologize, own the blame, and patch it up.
But this time I did nothing.
There was no single reason for it.
I was just tired.
It had started six months back, when he brought his buddy’s little sister into the company and dumped her on my team.
After that, the two of us kept getting into blowout fights.
Chloe was young, and unbelievably dense.
I’d asked her for a simple spreadsheet and told her, plainly, to have it on my desk before end of day.
But Chloe spent the whole afternoon making coffee runs, hiding in the bathroom, or glued to her phone texting.
When the day ended, I asked her for the file, calm as could be.
And she burst into these dainty little tears.
“Ivy, are you hitting menopause or something? Why are you so mean to me?
“I can’t do that spreadsheet at all. I’ve been waiting this whole time for you to come teach me, and you never once came over.”
I didn’t even get the chance to argue back.
She bolted into Grayson’s office and turned on the waterworks.
Moments later, Grayson stormed out, fury written all over his face.
He laid into me right there in front of the whole department.
“Ivy, could you please drop the corporate power-trip act in my department? Chloe couldn’t figure it out. Would it kill you to actually teach her?”
His shouting stung tears into my eyes.
Under the strange looks from my coworkers, I swallowed the humiliation and redid the work myself.
Grayson saw how red and raw my eyes were and didn’t offer a single word of comfort.
Instead, after work he took Chloe out for burgers and beers, sat through a movie with her, and bought her iced coffee.
And once he got home, he’d be the one to start freezing me out.
Then this afternoon, Chloe was dense enough to cost me a client I’d spent three years chasing.
I had a contract to finish, so I asked Chloe to take the client to a restaurant ahead of me.
But before I’d even wrapped up the contract, Chloe came strolling back with a takeout bag.
My eyes went hot and red on the spot.
I demanded to know where the client was.
She told me she’d dropped him at KFC, grabbed a to-go order, and headed back.
A shudder of pure rage ran through me.
How could anyone be this stupid?
There were half a dozen proper restaurants right downstairs built for client dinners, and out of all of them she picked KFC.
Then, instead of staying to keep him company, she just grabbed food to go and left.
Did she have any clue I’d worked this client for three years just to get him to tour the company, that I was this close to signing?
And Chloe had scared him off.
With shaking fingers, I called the client.
I didn’t even get to apologize.
He cut me off. “Sorry, Ms. Calloway, something urgent came up and I have to travel for work. Let’s circle back on the contract in a few days.”
Then the line went dead.
The dial tone droned in my ear.
That was the final straw for me.
I whirled on Chloe and screamed, “Are you a complete idiot? Why on earth would you take a client to KFC?
“If you’re gonna dump him at KFC, at least stay with him. What were you doing running back here?”
The words had barely left my mouth.
Chloe hurled the takeout bag straight into my face.
Warm broth and sauce ran down my cheeks in an instant.
Even my blouse was soaked through with grease stains.
I stared at her, unable to believe it.
But Chloe screamed right back through her sobbing, “Who do you think you are, yelling at me like that? My own parents never yelled at me like this.
“You’re just some bitter old woman with a grudge, bullying me on purpose. Well, newsflash, I’m not a pushover, and you can’t walk all over me.”
The scald on my chest throbbed.
Something in me snapped, and I lunged forward and slapped Chloe across the face.
“Who are you calling old? Who do you think you just threw food at?”
Chloe clutched the cheek I’d struck and cried even harder.
Then she wailed at me, all pitiful, “Ivy, I’m going to get Grayson to put you in your place.”
With that, she spun around and bolted into Grayson’s office.
Seconds later, Grayson came charging out.
He roared at me, “Ivy, I’m ordering you to apologize to Chloe right now, this instant.”
Grease streaked my clothes and matted my hair.
Yet my boyfriend never once asked what had actually happened before demanding I apologize to an intern.
The pain in my chest was so sharp I could barely breathe.
I ripped off my badge, slammed it on the desk, and shouted at Grayson, “You want me to apologize to her? In your dreams.”
With that, I turned and walked out of the building.
What I didn’t expect was that the second I left, HR hit me with a disciplinary notice.
They docked half a month’s pay for leaving without notice that afternoon.
And because I’d lost the client, my entire year-end bonus was gone.
I read the email from HR and spent the rest of the day crying at home.
After three years of giving that company everything I had, Grayson had no right to treat me this way as my boss.
And on a personal level, the person I loved had even less excuse.
But the whole afternoon passed without a single call from Grayson to check on me.
When he finally came home from work, Grayson not only skipped any comfort, he was the first to start the silent treatment.
So why should I be the one to make it right?