Spectrum

24

He does't hate you. He doesn't hate you. Everything will be fine.

As these words of encouragement play over and over again in my head, I still can't help but feel uneasy. As I walk into his office, my inner self is screaming at me to run.

Far, far, away.

I knock on the door, feeling my heart pound in my chest. When I hear Shane's faint voice on the other end, I slowly open the door and reveal him typing away on his computer.

He glances up briefly and pulls away from his computer, turning his attention to me.

"Natalia. I was just about to come to get you. Please, sit." He says, friendly smile plastered on his face. It's almost as if he wasn't yelling at me and Grayson only ten minutes ago.

"Hello, sir." I try and say as confidently as possible.

"Please, don't call me sir." He groans, rubbing his face over his hands. "The last thing I want is for you to start acting different around me now."

I sit in silence, not even sure if I should reply or not. I mean, what the hell is the right answer in this case scenario?

"Listen, I'm sorry. I completely overreacted and the last thing I wanted was for you to start crying. I was never going to fire you and I shouldn't have ever thrown that at you. It wasn't fair of me. I'm sorry, Natalia. I've already talked to Grayson and we've come to the conclusion on what has to happen." He says, folding his hands together.

"I want to go back to my old team." I blurt out.

"You want to go back to your old team?" Shane asks, making sure that he heard me correctly.

"Yes. Listen, it's clear that my being apart of this has caused nothing but problems. I don't want to cause any more for either one of you." I say.

"Okay, but we don't exactly want you to leave." He says.

"I need to." I reply.

"But, you don't. Listen, this thing with you and Grayson is very-"

"There's nothing going on between the two of us." I say, cutting him off.

"Okay, but there clearly is. It's not my place to tell you who you can and can not date. There is however, a policy for when things like this begin. Especially between a subordinate and his or her superior. This is a very rare case that usually isn't seen as often as others, at least to this extent. There is nothing wrong with this, though! I am not here to tell you who you can or can not date in the workplace. I blame myself because I have given you and Grayson both some...mixed signals. I'm sorry for that. We both still want very much for you to stay with us. There does have to be some corrective action taken, though." He says.

"Corrective action?" I ask softly, waiting for him to go ahead and show me the write up slip now. Hell, do write ups still apply in the corporate world? Or do we go straight to termination?

"Yes. You see, with the policy that GRIP has over workplace relationships, there has to be some distance between the two of you. This isn't going to be a bad thing, though. Grayson and I were talking, and I think we came to the conclusion that you can no longer work under him. However, we were thinking that it could be a very easy swap that leaves no room for rumors or anything to start over what has happened. Instead of being Gray's intern, you will be mine." He says with a positive smile.

He's kidding right? I mean, he has to be kidding. There is no way that Shane can be my new boss. Well, he has always been one of my bosses, but there is no way that me being his intern would help. Does he even know anything about computer engineering?