"It's you and me. Together," he says. "Us against the world."
*****
All my life, I've never trusted men. The image of them planted in my head is the figure of my abusive stepfather who has made my mother and I live in hell.
But then, an encounter w...
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Mark is behind his desk when I come up to him. Once he sees me, he stands up and leads me to sit on the sofa to discuss my reports.
I sit down and begin to open my agenda to take notes of his instructions, and to my surprise, he takes a seat beside me, not in front of me.
That makes me start to feel uncomfortable.
He watches me intently as I summarize the report for him, explaining some diagrams to him.
When I stop talking, he finally speaks. "Well done, Lais. You've done a pretty good job," he whispers, his voice so close to my ear, making me shudder.
He wraps my shoulder with his arm and squeezes my arm gently, and this makes me alert.
"Sir," I warn him, shaking my shoulder off him. When I turn to look at him, I see that his eyes are glinting with mischief.
"What's wrong?" he asks, his low voice sending chills through my body. "Go on, continue your report. I don't have any schedule after this. We have plenty of time."
I swallow, praying to God to help me escape from this torture. I'm really not comfortable by the way he touched me.
While I'm giving him the details about our next plan to have a meeting with our branch office, his hand sneaks under my skirt and caresses my thigh.
I yelp, immediately backing off, my eyes wide in shock. He's clearly assaulting me.
But he's my boss here. The big boss, actually. And I don't want any trouble for my internship. The least I can do for now is trying to get this done as quickly as possible -- I'll think about what I have to do later when my mind is clearer, because right now, it's a mess.
But then, after that session, Marks calls me to his office again, many times. And every time I meet him, he always tries to touch me inappropriately, whether it's a caress on my arms and thighs, or even when he only gazes at my body like a creep.
I've started wearing clothes that cover my body more -- no more skirts and always covering my top with another layer of coat or blazer -- but still, it doesn't stop him.
I remember the words he said the first time we reported to him.
"Tell me, Lais, how are you going to fix this?"
Did he purposely make it sound like I angered him so that he could have his way with me? So that he could punish me in his own way?
And now that I've nailed my job, he's using another method, luring me with sweet gestures and words.
I hate him. I hate people like him who use their power and authority to get anything that they want, even if it's wrong.
In a week, Mark calls me almost every day, while he only calls Jake twice or thrice. Jake scrutinizes me every time I come back from Mark's office, because I always look tensed after visiting him.
