Business Casual [San]

3

I closed the door behind me on the way out of his office and sucked in sharply.

Why the fuck did I just talk to him like that? I was sure to be fired now... and even if I took that client with me, the rate I'd negotiated wasn't enough to act as a full salary.

I set the gift they'd sent me on my desk and my butt had barely hit the chair when my computer pinged.

Mr. Choi had messaged...of course.

I took a deep breath, expecting him to tell me to clean off my desk.

My office. 5 minutes.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, he'd want the thrill of firing me in person.

I stood and walked over to his door, tapping lightly. I wondered if I should just apologize or grovel at his feet to save my job. I heard an exasperated sigh from his end and he stood and walked over to let me in.

"It's only been two minutes. Can you not follow a simple instruction?" he spat. He held his cell phone up to his ear. As usual, his tone was demeaning and pissed me off. I'd been prepared to beg him to stay, but now...

"I'm sorry. Should I go back to my desk so you have three more minutes to make a personal call instead of doing your job?" I whispered sarcastically.

"I have to go," Mr. Choi told the person on the other end of the line. He clenched his jaw and stepped aside to let me in.

I took my seat and waited to be fired. He fidgeted with some papers on his desk that I assumed to be my exit interview and narrowed his eyes at me.

"I do not like having you here," he began.

"Off to a great a start..." I mumbled and sat up tall. I wouldn't let his attitude diminish the success I'd had. If he fired me. it was personal, not business.

"But..." he paused as his phone buzzed and exhaled in annoyance. I cocked my eyebrow half expecting him to answer it, but he didn't. Once it stopped he continued,"...the team at Vibrate has saved your ass."

I sucked back a laugh. He looked so childish right now in his frustrations.

"They personally called the CEO to let her know how well you'd done on their campaign. She was even more shocked they were thrilled to spend the amount you had negotiated with them."

I sat back in my chair nonchalantly. This was a huge deal to me, but I didn't want Mr. Choi to know. "Clients will always pay for quality. Sounds like you should've done better work for them."

He glared at me but bit his tongue. He'd obviously been instructed to find a way to keep me.

"Here is your new offer letter. The CEO sent me the contract terms herself. I wrote the offer letter for you just now. Believe me, you should be very pleased with what she's giving you."

I took the pages from him and looked everything over. It stated that I had unlimited PTO, 150k salary + commission (should a client choose to offer any commission on sales of products we help market). I handed the pages back to him just as his phone dinged again.

"No."

He scoffed. "Excuse me? I've never seen anyone be granted such generous terms. Especially at your level..."

"My 'level' is irrelevant. At my 'level', I negotiated better terms than you've been able to as a manager. What does that say about your level?"

He gripped the arm of his chair tightly, trying to hold back his anger. "So what are you going to do? Take one client? Try to become a competitor of ours?"

I shook my head. "I want to go to the expo with you. I want to hand-pick clients based on who comes to our booth and which products inspire me."

He considered it and reluctantly nodded, "Okay."

I was surprised he'd agreed so quickly and was about to pick up my pen to sign the offer letter when I saw the job title.

"I don't want to be a Content Strategist."

"What would you prefer to be called?" he asked.

I thought for a moment and smirked when I noticed his nameplate on his desk.

Manager

He was just a manager. I thought about what title would make me seem more senior than him at the expo.

"Creative Director."

"Really?" he laughed. "You think you deserve that title?"

"Yes, I do," I stood my ground. "And if you can't make it happen well..." I shrugged and sat back in my chair.

He shook his head in annoyance, ignoring his phone going off for a third time, "And you're so shallow that you won't sign an offer that doesn't include a vanity title. It matters that much?"

I sneered at him, "Sure does."

Mr. Choi sighed and typed something out on his computer. The printer behind him roared to life within seconds, and he removed the old papers from his desk before presenting me with new ones.

"There," he set them down in front of me and placed a blue pen on top. "Sign."

I looked over the document thoroughly, checking for any odd clauses, while Mr. Choi impatiently crossed his arms and waited for me.

"Well?" he complained.

I was going to let them slide, but in my annoyance at him, I reached for a highlighter and ran it over every grammatical error or missed punctuation mark I could find.

He looked on in surprise, and I handed it back to him.

"Fix these first. Is this the level of detail you put into your client adverts, Mr. Choi?" I asked. If so, I'd understand why he hadn't been able to receive as much as me. Every page was littered with errors.

He huffed and flipped the pages aggressively as he fixed all of the issues he'd made and reprinted it again for me.

He threw the old one out and slapped a new one down on the desk. "Here." He smacked a blue one down on top again. "Sign them."

I reached into his cup holder and grabbed a black pen instead.

"For fucks sake," he groaned.

I ignored him and scribbled my initials and signature where needed.

"Here," I handed them back to him and held out my hand.

He shook it begrudgingly just as his phone began buzzing on his desk again.

"Pleasure doing business with you," I told him before turning and heading back to my desk.

"I was in a meeting Hana," San whispered in an annoyed tone as he closed the door behind me.