Tales of a Single Girl....

Chapter twenty seven: The Summoning

I gingerly entered Archibald's office, trying desperately not to burst out laughing. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Archibald?" I tried carefully to arrange my face into a picture of pure innocence, wanting to maintain a visage as angelic as possible.

"Please sit down Eva," he said, a lot calmer than I expected him to be.

I sat down carefully. "Is there anything else?" I asked. "Because if there isn't, then I really must get going, I have tons of things to do...."

"I need you to sign the paperwork," Archibald intoned. "Before you go. I noticed that you haven't submitted the papers and I really need to...."

"Well," I interrupted, my voice cold and my eyes wide with what I hoped was a steely resolve. "You see, Mr. Archibald, it's like this. I've thought about it and I've decided that I'm not going to sign those documents."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why ever not?"

"I really don't see the point, that's all," I replied and then shrugged. "You see, according to that documentation, I was spying on people, using personal information of theirs against them and there is absolutely no way that I am going to sign paperwork that effectively says that I did that. I didn't do that. You know it's not true." I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him. "It's bad enough that I lost my job but I'll be damned that I'm going to say that I'm a dishonest person. How am I supposed to find another job with that hanging over my head?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I see."

"I don't think you do," I snapped. "These last couple of weeks have been hell thanks to you. There's a lot of dirt and grime lurking under the surface here at 'Adult Knowledge' and I just hope that senior managers work it out and do something about it before the rot sets in permanently." I stood up, picked my handbag up and then quickly grabbed my coat. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to leave."

Archibald sneered at me then. "You always were a nasty little bitch," he snapped and I turned to stare at him in shock.

"What did you say?" I turned and looked at him, trying to gauge his expression. Why such contempt for me? That was exactly how I felt when I looked at him. Worse, I felt as if I had never seen anyone with such rage in their eyes. I barely spoke to him on a regular basis, yet I couldn't help feeling as if something very personal was happening here.

"Constantly flirting with me, batting your eyelids, bending over in those short little skirts of yours and those low cut tops. You think I didn't know what game you were playing?" He leaned towards me and the pent up rage continued to flash from his eyes. "Disgusting little bitches and whores, the whole lot of you. You women really all are the same. Constantly acting like they want to fuck you and then when you get close to them and think to yourself, yes maybe I can get close to this person, maybe they can get to know me and show me some compassion, some humanity, some tenderness, they suddenly turn into these bitchy little ice queens and run away, their legs closed tight and start laughing at you behind your back with their little girlfriends, sniggering and smirking...."

"Shut up," I snapped in disgust. "That's enough filth from you, you misogynistic pig. I don't work for you and now I'm leaving and I won't put up with this crap anymore."

I went to move towards the door, trying to get away from this crazy man and his even crazier notions of male and female relationships. Who'd have thought he would turn into such a twisted creep?

The rate that Archibald moved at that point was astonishing. I had never seen him move fast before so to actually see it happening – to actually see that he was really capable of moving so fast - was an astonishing feat in itself.