Expenses Denied Chapter 2

He snatched the expense report, crumpled it into a tight ball, and slammed it into the trash can by my desk before storming out and letting the door crash shut behind him. The sound was so loud it made the pen holder on my desk tremble.

The tense air in the office finally loosened with his departure.

Someone shot me a quick “good luck with that” look before rapidly ducking their head and pretending to be busy.

Expressionless, I retrieved the wadded-up paper from the trash can, smoothed it out, and filed it away in a dedicated folder.

They all thought this was the first time I had angered Rick, that I was just a naive greenhorn who didn’t know how to play the game.

Only I knew this wasn’t the first time at all.

Rick’s expense reports were a creative work of fiction, filed with a frequency that was simply breathtaking. Dinners and karaoke nights were standard, but he’d even had the audacity to submit receipts from high-end spas and massage parlors.

Each time, he’d just toss the slips on my desk with a charming smile.

“Sarah, it’s all for team morale. Just cover it for now, and I’ll get the paperwork pushed through right away.”

His “pushing it through” meant never mentioning it again.

When I first started, I hadn’t yet figured out the lay of the land and had fronted over two thousand dollars of my own money. That sum still sits on my personal ledger like an unclaimed bad debt.

I had asked him about it twice.

The first time, he laughed it off, saying he forgot and would handle it in a couple of days.

The second time, he was holding court in the middle of the office, surrounded by his underlings, boasting about a million-dollar contract he’d just signed. I simply walked over and quietly reminded him about the reimbursement.

In front of everyone, he slammed his coffee mug down on the table. The sound wasn’t deafening, but it was enough to silence the entire sales department.

He looked at me as if I were an annoying child, his voice slow and dripping with undisguised contempt.

“A couple grand? Is that why you keep hounding me? I close million-dollar deals. You think I’m going to stiff you for that?”

A wave of suppressed snickers rippled through the department. Their stares felt like needles piercing my skin.

From that day on, I never mentioned the money again.

They all thought I’d backed down, that I was a coward who could be silenced by a single sharp word from the star salesman. Rick, in turn, became even more brazen, taking my compliance and personal expense for granted.

I never said a word in my defense. I just kept collecting the evidence, piece by piece.

I was waiting for him to roll his snowball of lies until it was so big he could no longer hide it himself.

I was waiting for the day when all his bad debts would explode at once, nailing him—and his so-called “achievements”—to the company’s ledger for good, with no chance of recovery.

I looked at the folder, at the carefully smoothed-out receipts that documented his greed, and a cold smile touched my lips.

Patience, Rick.

That day is coming very, very soon.