Natalie secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, she didn’t want to put too much pressure on herself.
Because of the upcoming evaluation, countless designers worked overtime, doing their best for the project.
Natalie was busy taking care of Hannah recently, so she had spent less time and energy on work.
So now, she did her best to keep up the pace and finish her work.She hadn’t been with the company for that long, but her outstanding performance had shone a spotlight on her.
In the words of Gerda, the third position was between her and Kaya.
The night before the deadline of handing their designs, a lot of the designers were still working overtime.
Natalie looked around and found that all her colleagues were bent over their desks, working hard.She massaged her aching neck and found herself parched.
Just as she stood up to go to the tea room, she found that Kaya was standing behind her.
“Do you want to take a break? Here, I just made some coffee. Want some?”
As she spoke, Kaya subtly glanced at the laptop on Natalie’s desk.
However, Natalie didn’t notice and gratefully accepted Kaya’s offer.
“Sure, thank you.”
Natalie did feel like coffee would be a great pick-me-up.
“No problem.IIs this your cup? Let me pour some for you.”
Smiling sweetly, Kaya picked up Natalie’s cup.
Suddenly, she lost her grip on the kettle and it fell with a clatter, spilling coffee all over Natalie’s laptop.
Natalie’s laptop screen instantly went black.
A slight sizzling sound came from inside it, and it coughed out a puff of smoke.
The air smelled of coffee and burnt metal.
Natalie hurriedly tried to wipe the coffee off her laptop with some tissue, but it was too late.
When she picked it up, the whole laptop was dripping with coffee and couldn’t be turned on, “Oh, my God! I’m so sorry! The coffee was so hot, and you cup was made of plass, so I dropped it accidentally”
Kaya’s hands flew to her mouth and she kept apologizing “Let me see if the data in the hard disk can still be restored,”
Angry but helpless, Natalie didn’t know what else to say. She quickly took the laptop to the Technology Department downstairs.
The technical staff carefully pried out the hard disk from the laptop and inspected it.
A brief moment later, they shook their heads and told Natalie that it was completely soaked and was irreversibly damaged.
Standing beside Natalie, Kaya apologized again.
“I take full responsibility for this.I’ll buy you a new laptop, I promise”
“This is a company laptop.it’s only right that you pay for it.But all my drawings were in this computer.Now the data is damaged beyond restoration. What are you going to do about that?”
Natalie’s tone was calm, but her eyes flashed dangerously. Kaya lowered her eyes, unable to utter another word.It turned out that the woman in front of her wouldn’t be as easy to bully as she thought.
“Why are you so angry? I already said sorry and that I’d take responsibility.Is it really necessary to be so aggressive?”
Kaya pulled a long face, as though she was the one who was wronged.
Just then, Tiffany happened to pass by and overheard their conversation.She knocked on the glass door from outside.
“What’s going on? Go outside if you two want to fight.Don’t disturb your officemates,”
Tiffany shot the two women an icy cold look Biting her lower lip, Kaya tried to defend herself.
“Ms.Fisher, here’s what happened, I’ve been working overtime every day this week and I’m exhausted.On my break, I made
myself some coffee and offered Miss Quinn here some, but it was too hot that I accidentally dropped her cup.I spilled the coffee on Quinn‘s computer, but it was just an accident.I’ll take responsibility for it and buy her a new laptop.”
She especially stressed the fact that she had been working overtime for a week.Her voice dripped with sarcasm, which made Natalie feel that something was wrong.
It sounded like Kaya was implying that Natalie hadn’t worked overtime for the past few days, unlike her, Natalie didn’t want to see Kaya in a bad light, but now it just didn’t seem like a mere coincidence.
“So what about my design drawings, which were stored in my laptop? How will you compensate me for that?”
Natalie looked at Kaya sharply.
“You need to redraw them yourself of course. How can I do that for you? Plus, I’ve already apologized to you.”
Kaya raised her chin slightly, but there was no mistaking the indifference in her tone.She reasoned that Natalie could do nothing to her In this stage of the competition, Kaya was most likely to be selected for the promotion.
But she had heard from other designers that there was a promising newcomer in the company.It was said that this newcomer was a dark horse and would make for a strong competitor.
Kaya had to get rid of Natalie as soon as possible, so she came up with this ploy.
Kaya’s indifferent attitude annoyed Natalie.
“I don’t have enough time to redo everything. How can I start over and finish on time when the deadline is tomorrow?” “I can only take responsibility for the laptop.As for the rest, that’s your problem.”
After saying that, Kaya turned after the broken Laptop around abruptly and was about to leave.
“Stop right there!” Natalie grabbed Kaya’s wrist and forced her to turn around, her eyes seething with anger.
“You did it on purpose, didn’t you? You came to my desk and offered me coffee so that you could deliberately damage my laptop to get rid of my designs!”
“How dare you accuse me of such a crime? Can you prove that I did it on purpose? Plus, I’ve already said sorry a hundred times. What more do you want from me?”
Kaya whined as though it was Natalie who was making things difficult for her.
“Well, that’s it.It’s late now.Dixon, you go back to your desk.Quinn, come with me to my office.”
After shooting the two women one last icy glance, Tiffany turned around and entered her office.
“I’m really sorry for what happened.Let me treat you to dinner sometime so that I can make things up to you, okay?” Before going back to her desk, Kaya looked at Natalie pitifully.But this only made Natalie feel sick.
Kaya was such a hypocrite! If Tiffany weren’t there, she would have slapped Kaya across the face.
In Tiffany’s office.
“I know you’re angry, Quinn.And I also think that she did it on purpose.It doesn’t look like an accident to me.But since we can’t prove it, we can’t do anything to her,” Tiffany sat in her chair and coaxed Natalie calmly.
As an experienced woman in design industry, she could see through this smokescreen at a glance.
“I just feel so wronged, you know? How could she do this to me? We don’t even know each other before this!” Natalie pursed her lips unhappily, her body trembling slightly from anger.
Tiffany sighed heavily.
“I’ve heard about what kind of person Dixon was before.Anyway, you can take your laptop to the repair shop to see if it can still be repaired.Maybe you might be able to download the data on it, then you can still participate in the evaluation.”
Tiffany also felt bad, because in her eyes, Natalie was the most promising candidate for this promotion.