Gemotions

He’d always considered himself a patient man, but the discovery ignited a fire in Thomas. They’d given the new girl, Chloe, a higher starting salary? He could feel the familiar knot of stress tightening his stomach. It was like a constant pressure now, a dull ache beneath his ribs.

He made sure to “casually” mention Chloe's mistakes to their superiors. A poorly formatted report, a missed deadline – these were opportunities to subtly undermine her. He found himself subtly 'forgetting' to include her in the Friday afternoon team lunches, the ones that always seemed to shape the office gossip.

The next day he was late to work. He knew that the only way to get ahead was to be indispensable. He started to take longer lunches.