My Office Rival’s Sabotage

MY OFFICE RIVAL SMELLED LIKE CHEAP PERFUME AND SAID, ‘YOU’RE DONE’

My hands were shaking so bad I almost spilled the lukewarm coffee all over the floor. He stood there, leaning against the cubicle wall, that sickeningly sweet, cloying smell of his cheap cologne filling the narrow space around my desk. My stomach twisted into a knot, tighter than it already was from the awful lukewarm office coffee I’d just poured. My hands couldn’t stop trembling, making the paper in front of me blur.

“Heard about the big project meeting this afternoon,” he smirked, adjusting his tie slowly, deliberately. “Planning on presenting that proposal you’ve been staying late for?” The low, insistent hum of the overhead fluorescent lights seemed to vibrate inside my skull, adding to the pressure building behind my eyes.

I just stared at him, mouth dry, heart hammering against my ribs. “It’s finished. It’s ready,” I finally managed to get out, my voice barely a whisper. He just laughed then, a harsh, grating sound that seemed to echo in the sudden silence of the hallway. My mind raced, trying to grasp what he was implying.

“Oh, I know it is,” he said, stepping closer, his eyes cold and gleaming. “But I made sure it won’t matter. You think management cares about your *hard work* now? Not after what I did.” Just as the full weight of his words crashed down, the phone on my desk suddenly rang, a shrill, jarring sound that made me jump violently.

I picked it up, and the voice on the other end was not who I expected at all.

👇 Full story continued in the comments……It was Mr. Henderson, the Senior Vice President. My breath hitched. He never called anyone below department head level directly.

“Ah, [Your Name],” he said, his voice surprisingly warm, cutting through the sterile air. “Just wanted to give you a quick heads-up. I received your proposal this morning. Took a look over lunch.”

My rival stiffened beside me, the smirk wiped clean off his face. He leaned in slightly, trying to catch the low murmur from the phone.

“Frankly, I’m very impressed,” Mr. Henderson continued. “The scope you outlined, the data analysis… it’s exactly what we needed. Saved us a lot of time trying to piece it all together ourselves. Consider it approved in principle. We’ll run through the details at the meeting, but the core direction is solid. Great work.”

He finished with a brief instruction about preparing a summary slide, then wished me luck and hung up. The click of the receiver settling back into its cradle felt deafening in the sudden, thick silence.

My rival stared at me, his face pale under the fluorescent lights. The smell of his cologne suddenly seemed less menacing, more pathetic. His eyes, moments ago cold and gleaming, were now wide with disbelief and something that looked very much like fear.

“Approved…?” he stammered, the bravado completely gone.

I looked down at my hands. They were still trembling, but not from fear anymore. Maybe from residual shock, maybe something else entirely. I carefully placed the phone down, a slow, deliberate movement. I then picked up the printed copy of my proposal from the desk.

“Yes,” I said, my voice no longer a whisper, but low and steady. I met his gaze, holding the heavy binder. “Approved. It seems… whatever you did… it didn’t matter.”

He flinched as if I’d struck him. He opened his mouth, perhaps to bluster, perhaps to deny, but no sound came out. The harsh line of his jaw was slack. He pushed himself away from the cubicle wall, the movement jerky and uncertain, and practically stumbled away down the aisle, the cloying scent of cheap cologne fading with him.

I sat back in my chair, taking a deep, shaky breath. The tension that had coiled in my stomach for weeks, tightening into a painful knot today, slowly began to unravel. My hard work, the late nights fueled by terrible coffee, had paid off. My proposal had gotten to the right person, and it had spoken for itself. The meeting this afternoon wasn’t a battle for survival anymore; it was a confirmation. And my rival, for all his scheming and cheap perfume, was indeed done.