I stay still, completely dumbfounded, looking like an absolute dumbass, while he stands to hang something over my presentation posters.
“Zoe and I worked together on this project. I’m the one who directed her with the logo, but once I got your email on Saturday night, I knew we were not on the right path, so I took the liberty of coming up with a different concept to show you today.”
I turn to see what he put up, and nothing but rage races through my entire body as I see one of my first concepts that he took from me that first day, only the colors are bolder, more sophisticated with black and gold instead of the pastels I was thinking. To make things worse, it has obviously been done in Photoshop taking away the aspect of my hand-drawn work.
I don’t know if I should scream or punch him in the face, but the amount of anger burning through me gets to be too much. Before I do anything stupid, I turn and leave the area, walking straight out of the office door, needing to be alone for the moment.
I step outside and do what any sane person would do—I scream at the top of my lungs. After I let it all out, the anger still races through me, so I head down the street, needing to call Macy to vent. Then I realize I left my phone sitting on the table, causing me to let out another grunt of frustration as I pace down the street, trying to breathe myself to calmness since I can’t phone a friend.
I have no idea how long I was gone, but let’s just say, I’ve turned down every street and every alley around my work, and all I know is that I need to get back to work to go apologize profusely to Christina and try my hardest not to wring David’s neck.
As I open the door to the office, Jana races toward me, pushing me back out into the hallway, probably wanting to know exactly what is going on.
“What the hell happened?” she asks once we’re around the corner from anyone who could open the door and hear us talking.
“Not only did David completely throw me under the bus, but he also stole my idea and presented it as his own,” I say a little too loudly, and she tries to quiet me down.
She opens her eyes wide, like she’s still trying to understand why I left the way I did. “So, you just walked out?”
“Yep. It was either that or tackle him to the ground. I should be applauded for not making a scene.”
She takes a large inhale, gathering her thoughts, but we’re interrupted by David heading toward us before she can reply.
I point in his direction. “No. Don’t you dare come over here.”
“I can explain,” he pleads.
“No. You don’t get to talk. You stole my idea and made me look like a complete idiot today,” I yell, then step to the side to walk around him. “I don’t need a ticket to your shit show. Not today, not ever.”
“Oh great. So, you’re just going to steal song lyrics to throw in my face as you accuse me of stealing your idea? Real nice.”
“One, that’s exactly what you did. And, two, seriously? Song lyrics?” I think about what I just said, then remember exactly where I heard it.
“Yes. That’s a song lyric. I think I know country music. Don’t act like you didn’t know that. And, two, I tried to talk to you before we started, remember?”
I stand on my tiptoes to get in his face. I may be tiny, but he needs to know exactly how much rage he caused today. “What were you going to say?Oh, sorry. I’m taking over the entire project, and, yeah, I’m using your original idea that I said I didn’t like, but, hmm, turns out, I do, and I’m going to present it as my own?”
He doesn’t back down one bit. “No. I was going to tell you I got an email on Saturday that made me really think we were on the wrong track. I was taking responsibility for leading us the wrong way. Oh, and I took your design to make a new presentation all day yesterday as ouroh shit, just in case. I used your design because I did like it, and I wanted to make sure you still got some kind of credit even though I was doing all of the work.”
I open my eyes wide and officially lose my shit. “You did not do all of the work! I worked my ass off on this presentation.”
I turn on my heel to leave, done with anything he has to say.
“That’s not what I meant.”
I hold up my hand and flip him off as I walk away with Jana quickly by my side.
Thankfully, he doesn’t follow me, so I walk to my desk, trying to calm my breathing as I pull out my chair. Someone put all of my stuff on my desk, so I pick up my phone to see if I missed anything while I was gone.
Before I can click on my text messages, my Mystery Match app dings with a message from David.
Turns out, I was right, so I’m glad I worked up something different yesterday. My coworker officially hates me though. I tried to talk to her beforehand, but we didn’t have time, so now I feel like shit. Hope your day is going better.
I stare at his message in shock as our conversation outside hits me. He knew the song lyric. I remember him texting me yesterday morning about getting an email from the client. He’s telling me what just happened outside of our office, yet he has no clue that I was there too.
Oh. My. God. He’s my Online David.
I stare at my phone, not sure what to say when a notification pops up.