what they wouldn't do | DAREDEVIL

twenty-eight

In the following days, Sarah was quickly finding that working for both Jason and Vanessa was very time consuming. She hadn't quite managed to get the hang of juggling both sets of tasks yet, and it was taking its toll on her performance. This had not gone unnoticed by Jason, who had been in an increasingly bad mood the more Vanessa became involved in Orion business, especially given that many of the decisions she made were at odds with his own.

Sarah was at her desk around lunchtime, absently tapping her fingers on her desk and staring at her computer screen as she tried to finish up a spreadsheet when Jason emerged from his office. In one hand he was twirling an ornate silver letter opener, which he presumably had just used to open the thick envelope he was holding in his other hand. He was smiling, as usual.

"Sarah. Would you like to know what this letter says?" he asked, then continued before she could answer. "It's from Councilman Granger, saying he regrets that I couldn't make it to our meeting yesterday, and to kindly let him know next time if I'll be unable to make it." His smile grew more fixed. "The thing is, this was an important meeting, and I'm sure I wouldn't have missed it had I know it was happening."

Sarah's heart sank as she realized what had happened. She remembered talking to the councilman's assistant on the phone and writing down the date and time, intending to transfer it to Jason's digital calendar, but she'd gotten distracted by a courier who needed a signature for a stack of paperwork Vanessa had sent over.

"I'm so sorry, I—I must have forgotten to put it on your calendar."

"Yes, I realized that," he said, glancing at her still tapping fingers in annoyance. "Stop fidgeting."

Sarah nodded and stilled her hand.

"I wrote it down, and—and then I just forgot to transfer it over—"

"This was an important meeting."

"I know."

"When I encouraged you to take this promotion, it wasn't with the intention that you would begin neglecting your job here. I was under the impression that you could handle doing tasks for both myself and Vanessa."

Sarah didn't notice that she had started nervously tapping her fingers again, or the way that Jason's eyes locked onto her hand.

"I can," she insisted quickly. "I'll call right now and—"

With startling speed, Jason slammed the ornate letter opener down, embedding the sharp end into the wood of her desk in the small space between her middle and ring fingers. She jumped, letting out a startled scream before clapping her other hand over her mouth.

"I said to stop fidgeting," he told her calmly, his hand still on the letter opener.

Sarah stared in shock at the sharp metal instrument that had come only a fraction of a centimeter away from stabbing her through the hand. Then she looked up at Jason, who for once looked very serious.

"S-sorry," she stammered.

He held her gaze for another moment before the wide smile returned to his face.

"Kindly reschedule the meeting, and actually inform me of when it will be taking place this time. And send a nice note to the Councilman from me, apologizing for the carelessness of my staff."

Sarah nodded wordlessly, her throat tightening and making it difficult to speak. Jason threw the letter in the trash next to her desk and returned to his office.

Her gaze returned to the letter opener that was embedded ominously in her desktop. It wasn't exactly a hammer through the throat, but the violent implications were still there, and his sudden outburst stuck with her for the rest of the day.