My words, had their intended effect.

  I had maybe a moment as his smile froze. His entire body stiffened as he tried to process what I had just said. My eyes flitted over his body, mentally cataloguing the points of control. His suit was untidy, he was still wearing his sunglasses, and his tie was poorly done.

  Even with my lacking talent… this I could do.

  He opened his mouth to speak, and I moved.

  Before he even knew what had happened, I had my hands around his tie, with a jerk and tug, I both tightened it like a noose around his neck, wrapping it around my knuckles, and sending him to the ground, all done in a single fluid motion. His glass hit the ground, bouncing off the carpet and upended its contents on the carpet. The decanter on the desk jumped when he kicked out, causing the whole desk to shake, sending the decanter straight to the ground where most of its contents of liquid gold spilled out.

  My heart ached, but I had a belly full of fire. The ice kept at bay by the burning alcohol meant, that I was fully suffused in burning heat. With Leo on the ground and on his stomach, I pressed down with my knee, pinning him in place.

  With my whole weight on his back, I highly doubted Leo could buck me off. The idea that he’d ever lifted a weight in his life, was laughable. Even if he did, I was highly skeptical if it was even functional muscle. Even in my current form, I was confident I could keep him down. After all, even if our mass was different, and with him being a few inches taller at best, I still had the advantage.

  An advantage I intended to use to its fullest.

  My knee slammed into his back, and pulled back on the tie wrapped around my hand. Almost like I was trying to rein in a horse. He gurgled as his airway was cut off, his hands shot to his neck to loosen the tie, or attempted to and failed. Sensing that wouldn’t work, he started to buck like a bull. His hands scrabbled out, seeking purchase. A few gripped at my suit, ripping at buttons undoing the jacket, and slightly opening my blouse. I kept pace, working him down.

  All the while, the noose tightened around his neck.

  He started to lose strength, the fight leaving his body. That was when I loosened my hold, only just.

  “You ready to talk, boy?” I ask, giving him just enough room to breathe.

  “You bitch!” He cried out, his voice harsh, strangled, for obvious reasons.

  My response? I tightened my grip. Pressed in. I could hear him coughing, hacking. I kept pulling and pulling. Listening to his strangled cries, felt as his body began to loosen.

  It would be so easy. Just to keep going, to feel as the life leaves his body.

  I still remembered… His smug smile, that moment when I rushed him, the feeling of the pen puncturing flesh, of warm blood splashing on my body. It made my breathing hitch. I could still hear him laughing, looking at me, his words ringing in my ears…

  Then I heard it, a choked gasp. I blinked. My entire body grew rigid.

  I was killing him, that fact struck me like a thunderbolt out of a blue sky. Followed by a sudden , horrified realization, that… I might actually kill him!?

  I loosened, perhaps a bit too quick, he lurched forward, gasping, drool coming out of his mouth as he panted. Just barely managing to rip the tie out of my grasp. A thousand words ran through my mind, but…

  “Are you ready to listen?” I said instead, pulling on years of experience. Making it seem me losing control was simply part of my plan…

  Leo, glanced at me, and he flinched. Almost like a wounded animal. I could see in his eyes a spark of something. Defiance, anger perhaps, but… there was uncertainty.

  My own confidence defied my own uncertainty. How I held myself, how unconcerned I seemed with my current state of dress. In truth, I wasn’t sure I could continue. Not without creating a commotion. I’d lost my grip, my control and the best I could do was bluff.

  Eventually, he submitted.

  “I do…” He said, his voice hoarse… My conscience pricked, but I was already invested. I already made my vow.

  “Good boy.” I said, and even to me, it sounded almost condescending. “Now, starting today, you and me, we’re going to be cleaning up your mess, understood?”

  A strangled laugh left his lips. “Do you really think you can?” Defiance danced in his eyes, a laugh playing on his lips.

  “Easily.” I said, lying through my teeth. “Just you wait and see, now… give me you access number and credentials, I have a mess to start sorting out…

  The current state of the room, was as such.

  Leo was panting on the ground, his suit was in a mess, buttons went flying as he had struggled. Partially revealing his bare, somewhat defined chest slick with sweat. I was no better, the buttons of my blouse had been pulled, my own tie loosened and slack, hints of my bra could be seen, along with flashes of skin.

  Both of us were sweating, panting, red from the recent tussle. Exposed skin glimmering with sweat from the light that poured in through the office window. Leo’s sunglasses were kicked off somewhere, missing, and the room smelled of booze and sweat.

  It wasn’t a great picture. If someone walked in, they’d get an eyeful.

  Of course, that’s when it happened… someone knocked at the door, and before either of us could say something, it swung open.

  “Manager, Terada wanted to… know…” It was one of the other men. His eyes flicked between us. He took in the compromising scene.

  Before we could even try to defend ourselves, he spoke. “Right, sorry about that, I’ll let him know your busy…” And fled with a red face.

  Leo let out an aborted laugh, his injured throat doing little to help. “I think… he may have gotten the wrong idea.” He said, very clearly taking immense amusement out of the potential misunderstanding.

  “I wonder why…” I said, mustering all the sarcasm I could.

  “You going to chase after him?” He asked, rubbing his throat.

  “No, and what would I even say? That I was choking out my own boss?”

  He laughed again and started to cough. Clearly taking joy in my misery. Even if it hurt him.

  I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, credentials, Sooner I start, the sooner I can figure out what the hell is going on.”

  He looked at me, and I could tell. He was considering whether or not to do so. His hands were on his throat, his tie was well and fully off. For a moment, his eyes flicked to the door, and he looked ready to flee.

  Just when I thought he would, he slumped his shoulders.

  “Fine…” And gave me his access number.

  While he cleaned up the mess, and collected his sunglasses, I logged in and got to work. On startup, I asked a few questions.

  “Why would you go this far?”

  He gave me a look, still rubbing his neck.

  “Why wouldn’t I?” He croaked with a wince. “My father, he thought my dream was stupid. Said he’d disown me if I even tried. And it’s not like I’m paid enough here to even think of starting my own business.”

  “Then why not just embezzle?” I asked, out of curiosity.

  “I’d get caught fast. The method I came up with bypassed most of the checks and balances, mainly because the company itself doesn’t tend to care if employees aren’t up to date.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I hummed and considered his words. It sounded right and yet… I felt like he was being a bit too na?ve with how he went about his plan. Surely, someone must have noticed, though, if they did, why haven’t they stepped in?

  It was a question that bothered me, but quickly enough, I was lost in documents.

  Once I started, it was all too easy to ignore him. I did not plan this, not at all, but I knew enough about how these things were typically structured that I was able to find what I needed.

  First issue that needed to be resolved was the budget. Why were we over budget? What was the cause for it?

  The answer was surprisingly stupid.

  We were under-charging. Leo, being the lead, was heavily involved in making sure we had steady work. Really, he was good at finding work, based on how full our schedule was. The real issue was, he didn’t know the actual worth of the services he was selling. That, or he simply didn’t care. I was betting on the latter.

  No skimming, no backdoor dealings, nothing fancy. Just, bad business sense. I wasn’t sure if I should be disappointed or not… At least it saved me the money I’d have to spend to hire a private investigator to hunt down where that money went…

  Problem was, it made my job so much harder. Without any money to get back, that meant we were in hole precisely due to his bad business decisions. I was working with a severe deficit and somehow, I needed to turn shit to gold…

  I really had my work cut out for me…

  Then there was the other issue, we’d been seen in a rather compromising position. Surely, it wouldn’t get out, but… For some reason, the men here were even worse at gossip than the women, if that was even possible.

  By the end of the day, I bet half the company would learn of it. Of course, after being grossly exaggerated. I doubt it will cause me too much trouble though… I’d just need to wait out the rumor cycle, and that shouldn’t be hard.

  With a sigh, I continued my dive into our finances.

  Next, I needed to see just how bad our balance was…

  Ugh… Everyone was owed a massive amount of back pay. Years of unpaid overtime really added up. I had my reservations, but with how much was owed in back pay, Leo’s plan wasn’t looking as silly as it had. He might actually be able to bring the company down with this… And really, what a terrifying thought that was. That this division was just a time bomb ready to explode at any moment. All because of one man-child throwing a tantrum.

  Out of curiosity, I checked the line of credit our division held for food and such… oh, wow… nil, nothing. The line of credit was non-existent. Or rather, it looks like Terada had been spending his own money to keep us afloat. Even using his own cash to pay for our dinners.

  The company owed him even more money, but… how was he paying for that?

  A quick search revealed… Terada had exclusive rights over all the products he had produced over his lifetime, with the company having the right to publish. He received a hefty monthly check based on the overall sales of his products.

  And this… was considered separate to his paycheck, which was already fairly substantial…

  The man was, well, not rich with what he was spending on us, but he was definitely well off…

  Not just that... He had exclusive rights, if he ever left the company… ah… that is funny, if he ever left, he could take his works with him. I wasn’t even sure if Leo was aware of this, but that alone could be a serious hit to the company’s coffers.

  Which made me wonder, why the hell was Terada here? Shouldn’t the executive be pampering the man, not… whatever the hell this was? It was like they banished him to the gulag, unaware of just how valuable he was.

  Or, he could be here precisely because he was valuable?

  I couldn’t tell which option was more terrifying…

  Now… the main issue. We’re overbudget, but that can be fixed as we resolve work and re-negotiate what we can. Even if I were to re-negotiate our current contracts, it wouldn’t actually cost us anything. Mainly because, we were already locked in. I could make adjustments on the fly, and they’d have to just deal with it…

  I’d need to make sure to look over the legalese, just to be sure. But it should be fine. Especially with some, creative interpretations of the law.

  Unfortunately, I can’t just call people and demand more money, but I could convince them to pay us more for better work. In the short run, it would help cover our deficit, at the cost of hurting our reputation. Not exactly ideal, but it needs to be done. Our division was like a cancerous limb about to go malignant. I either had to deal with it now or accept the fate of being cut off.

  There was no other choice.

  Now, if some of my changes were to go through, we’d be stacked for this month, and starting next month, the start of the next quarter, the schedule would begin to balance out.

  Only, I didn’t really have the patience for that. Could I speed up my projections, even a little?

  I scrolled through the options. Looked through the data…

  Currently, we were barely, just barely on track. That was with constant overtime. Could I… Mm… that might work? It might cause issues with the quality but… we could afford that. Especially with it being this late in the game.

  “Leo, get Terada in here.”

  He grumbled, still massaging his throat, but did as I said. Soon enough, he brought the big man in himself. He looked confused at first, then I could see the disapproval that followed. He could clearly see the marks on his neck, the smell of alcohol in the air.

  There was no way he misread what had happened here.

  “Terada, if we offload some of our work to the fourth division, do you think we would have an easier time meeting the quota?”

  The fourth division was the largest division, and according to what I’ve heard, it was also the worst division. It was more or less where the excess new hires were kept and held. It was pretty much a bull pen, a place where replacements were kept until needed. The projects the fourth division were given were always minimal, and from what I understand that translated to them getting the worst benefits and pay.

  Terada paused and thought on my words. He looked at Leo, whom merely shrugged as a response. Terada then sighed and answered. “It could work… The quality would take a steep dive, and we’d have to put some effort into fixing the end product.”

  “It could work though?”

  “It could…”

  “Good, we’ll be doing that then. I’ll need you to prep the information for transfer, I can do it from my computer later.”

  Again, Terada looked at Leo, whom just again, shrugged. Clearly not wanting to talk with his sore throat.

  “Fine. I can do that… By the way, are you aware of the time?”

  The time? I glanced at my watch… Oh… Going over the documents really made time fly. I’m more surprised nobody noticed me missing.

  “Time really flies, I assume everyone is getting ready to head to the bar?”

  I really didn’t want too, but… “Well, I won’t be joining. Sorry, Mr. Terada. I really need to figure this out.”

  He looked briefly conflicted but then nodded. “I understand. We’ll be leaving then.”

  “Mhmm…” I mumbled as he left and continued to work. It didn’t take much longer to send the proposal over, and then I was back at my desk. I worked through the documents that had built up, but Liche and Joan had done a good job minimizing the overflow, but there was still way too much.

  Not just that, when they came back, I had to start sending files to the fourth division. I worked through the night and up until it was time to quit the next day.

  The moment I arrived home, I crashed and slept.

  The following week followed such a schedule. Although what I had said sounded simple, the actual work was anything but. The initial period of our jolly cooperation required a lot, and I mean A LOT of communication and coordination.

  A lot of emails and data were sent back and forth, countless documents were looked over and signed. Leo acted as my secretary during this period, he arrived surprisingly sober and clocked out by the time I had to migrate back to my desk to finish my own work.

  Keeping him working was a chore, because if I let him idle about, he’d keep pestering me with questions or such. And trying to get anything done with a child nattering after every little detail of my work process made it all so much more difficult.

  Throughout the week, there was a buzz in the air. Hushed conversations and a general sense of unease permeated the division. Without a doubt, people had heard about our new cooperation, even if they didn’t know I was behind it, the glances I received told me that they knew I was at least involved.

  Terada looked distinctly uncomfortable with my mutiny, having taken control of this here ship, but he didn’t question or deride Leo. Which really meant, through Leo, I was able to take the reins and control Terada as well.

  All was going swell, and really, at this point, just a day before my day off, I was expecting it all to fall apart. So, when Terada showed me what the fourth division had for us at the end of the week, of what would be the start of our glorious team up. Well, to say I was expecting something bad would have been a gross underestimation of what I imagined would grace my desk.

  To be sure, when I saw the documents though…

  “Huh… they’re surprisingly good.” I muttered in shock. Generic, but good. “Is this really from the fourth division?” I’ve grown so used to hearing people diss the fourth division that I was beginning to question if I was wrong to expect the worst.

  “Strange, isn’t it?” Terada asked back. “I was expecting much worse. This though, we could work with this.” He admitted, even if I could tell it really grinds his gears even using other people’s work.

  “I’d like to say I expected this result, but I wasn’t… At least we have some good news.” I said, happily surprised.

  With this, we might even get back to regular hours starting next week, or the week after.

  “I’ll get to work on that, but…” I checked the time on my watch. “Are you heading to the bar today?” I asked.

  “Yes, we are.”

  “Well, I should be free if you’ll have me.”

  He paused. Not a good sign. But when he spoke, I felt that broken part of me, like cracks in a glass widen ever so slightly more. “Of course, I understand, but… if possible, I’d like you to stay behind and get to work on processing these papers.”

  It took me a moment before I could collect myself. “Ah, but of course. I can do that, no problem.” I said, just barely managing to keep my own dejection out of my voice.

  “Good, I knew I could count on you and… sorry.” He then walked away. The rest of my co-workers filed out.

  Tom looked at me, but I waved him on. Bothe Liche and Joan looked concerned, but…

  “I can handle this. You two, head to the bar, maybe get me something on the way back, yeah?”

  They looked conflicted but agreed with my suggestion. Soon enough, I was all alone in the division office. Clacking away at my computer.

  It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Nor was it a new experience. Terada was mad at me, I knew that, but I didn’t think he’d be so petty… No, this wasn’t about him or being petty. This was about everyone else. People had noticed. People were whispering, shooting me glances.

  I was being excluded. Isolated. Much like Tom had when he sent me his work on my first day. Funny how that shoe was on my foot now. I should have expected it, but I expected more from Terada… Perhaps I shouldn’t have.

  No, perhaps I should be looking at the bright side. With this, with me working here and now, continuing to put my all into this endeavor. With all this… I should be able to ensure that when I get back, that we have normal business hours for once.

  I could dream, can’t I?