Chapter 164

Walking to the office that Joy was in only took about fifteen steps, and you shouldn’t have been worried. It was all bullshit at the end of the day. The problem was, there was this little ‘But’ in the back of your mind. Those little nuggets of doubt that wanted you to consider that things might be going sideways. That she might be a step or two ahead of you and the others.

You squashed the ‘But’ and went to the open door of the office, knocking lightly.

Joy looked up and smiled. Sweetly.

She was attractive when she wasn’t acting like a raging bitch, and you could tell that between her family connections and her Pretty Privilege she probably got her way about 98% of the time in her life. You still weren’t sure what might have happened if she had started at the same time as the rest of you for the internship and had set her sights on you - if she’d aggressively pursued you sexually that early, you likely would have appreciated the attention and fallen in with her.

What a shit decision that would have been considering what you had now.

You moved into the office, mostly just a box of a room with a standard desk and chairs inside and an empty filing cabinet. The window was looking out at the neighbouring building so it wasn’t much of a view, but it did let in more natural light than the conference room had.

“John, hi,” Joy said, still maintaining that ‘sweet girl’ persona. “Please sit. As you know, this is your performance review.”

“If you say so,” you said, taking a seat and doing your best not to fidget or give off any sign of being nervous.

“Could you do me a favour and take out your phone and turn it off?” Joy asked. “This is an important meeting and I would rather make sure we aren’t going to be interrupted.”

“No, sorry,” you said. “I can’t do that.”

“And why is that?” Joy asked.

“Because that isn’t a necessary step for this sort of meeting,” you said. Which was true, but you were also currently kicking yourself because you hadn’t just forgotten to turn on your recording app before stepping into the room, but your phone was currently sitting next to your laptop in the conference room. You’d sent Gemma that little heart emoji, set it down, and hadn’t put it back in your pocket.

You didn’t have any protection. You couldn’t gather any evidence.

Fuck.

Joy’s smile broke into a small frown. “I really must insist,” she said.

“I promise it won’t be a distraction,” you said.

Joy pursed her lips slightly and narrowed her eyes, looking you up and down. She reached over to the side of the desk and picked up two small stacks of paper, setting them side by side in front of her. “You know,” she said, speaking slowly and carefully picking her words. “Employee reviews are very important tools for employers and HR departments to track progress and decide whether an employee is worth keeping around. Or if an Intern is worth making an offer of employment in the future.”

“I’m aware of this, yeah,” you said.

“Well, some reviews,” she said, patting one of the stacks of paper. “They go fairly well. Nothing to note, maybe even a decent word or two about the employee. Things are taken in a kinder light, you could say. But sometimes reviews go poorly.” She patted the other stack of papers lightly. “Other reviews, well, sometimes things can’t just go overlooked. Sometimes they go poorly, and an entire group can see repercussions coming down because of it. They are the only way to know if correction is needed or not, after all.”