Part 2My Colleague Offered Me $50 For My Designer Bag

The next morning, I had barely clocked in when my department director called me into his office.

Director Lee was a man in his forties, usually all smiles. Today, however, his expression was grim.

“Lily, did you have some kind of conflict with Mandy Wang from sales?”

I nodded. “She wanted to borrow my bag. I said no.”

Director Lee sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Mandy is an incredible salesperson, but her personality is… a bit aggressive.”

“She called me first thing this morning. Said you were a new hire with an attitude problem, that you don’t know how to respect your seniors.”

I stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

“Look, the client she’s meeting next week is critical to the entire company. She just wants to represent us well, make a good impression. That’s why she wanted the bag.”

“So why don’t you just…”

I cut him off. “Director Lee, that is my personal property. It has nothing to do with the company. And that bag has immense sentimental value. It cannot be lent out.”

My polite but firm refusal clearly irritated him. His face soured.

“Fine. Handle it yourself. Just don’t let a petty issue like this affect your work.”

I walked out of the director’s office and headed straight for the sales department.

Mandy’s office was at the end of the hall. It had a glass wall, and I could see her inside, leisurely painting her nails a shade of bright red.

I knocked.

She glanced up, looking at me as if granting an audience. “You’re here.”

She blew on her freshly painted nails, not bothering to lift her head.

“You wanted to see me, Mandy?” I asked, getting straight to the point.

Mandy pulled a beautifully wrapped box from her drawer and pushed it across the desk toward me. “Here. For you.”

I didn’t move.

She finally deigned to look at me, a smirk playing on her lips. “Go on, open it. It’s the latest perfume. I had someone bring it back from Europe for me. You can’t even buy it here.”

“You’re a young girl, don’t be so stingy. The way you spoke in the chat yesterday made things so awkward for everyone.” She glossed over the incident, as if she wasn’t the one who had been throwing a tantrum.

I still didn’t move. I just watched her perform.

Seeing my lack of response, her patience began to wear thin. She steered the conversation back on track.

“Let’s talk business. The bag. Have you reconsidered?”

“Let me be clear. The client I’m meeting is the founder of the L&M Group. If I land this account, the company’s revenue for the year is secured. This is huge for everyone here. As an employee, you should be willing to contribute to the collective good, right?”

She was trying to wrap her selfish desires in the flag of corporate interest.

I finally spoke, my voice cold. “It’s my personal property. It has nothing to do with the company.”

Mandy’s face fell instantly, the facade of friendliness vanishing. She shoved the perfume bottle toward me again, her voice rising.

“Lily, don’t push your luck! The profit I generate in a single month could buy ten of your stupid bags! Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I’m telling you now, you’re lending me that bag. You don’t have a choice!” She stood up, looming over me, her voice laced with threat.

“If I want to make someone’s life in the design department a living hell, believe me, I have my ways. You think a fresh-out-of-college brat like you can fight me?”

I looked at her face, twisted with rage, and I suddenly smiled.

I reached out and picked up the exquisitely packaged perfume.

A triumphant grin spread across Mandy’s face. She thought I’d finally caved.

“There, you see? If you’d just…”

Before she could finish, I let my hand go slack.

The bottle of cheap perfume she claimed was “impossible to find” arced through the air and landed with a distinct clink in the trash can beside her desk.

The smile froze on Mandy’s face.

I looked her dead in the eye and said, enunciating every word, “My things, even my trash, are not for you to touch.”

Then I turned and walked out without a backward glance.

Behind me, I heard her enraged shriek and the sound of things being violently swept off her desk. As I reached the door, I heard her snarling into her phone.

“Hello, Director Lee? That new girl, Lily Lin, has a serious attitude problem! Yes, her! Zero respect for her seniors!”