Chapter 3

My first day in Admin, I clocked in on time, sat at my desk, and opened my laptop.

The pace here was a million times slower than the sales department.

No frantic calls, no midnight emails, no clients changing their minds at the last second.

Honestly, it felt a bit weird.

"Nancy, you used to be in Sales, right?" Lily, the girl at the next desk, peeked over.

"Yeah."

"Why did you move to Admin? Sales pays way better."

"I got tired. I wanted a break."

Lily nodded, not fully understanding, but she let it go.

I logged into the internal system and checked the sales leaderboard.

Chloe was at the top. The comment section under the post was filled with "Our Manifestation Queen!" and "Praise Chloe!"

I closed the window and started filing receipts.

At lunch, I ran into some old colleagues in the cafeteria.

"Nancy, how's Admin?"

"It’s good. Peaceful."

"Hey, did you hear? Chloe 'dreamed' about a massive client again. She’s heading out to pitch them this afternoon."

The colleague leaned in, her eyes wide with excitement. "Do you think she actually has psychic powers? It's insane!"

I poked at my salad. "Insane indeed."

Seeing my lack of interest, she awkwardly changed the subject and left.

In the afternoon, while I was organizing expenses, my phone buzzed.

It was a Snapchat message from Chloe: "Nancy, are you okay? Everyone misses you."

I didn't reply.

Another snap: "Nancy, are you mad at me? I didn't mean those things the other day. Please don't take it to heart."

I still didn't reply.

Five minutes later, she snapped again: "Nancy, I just landed a meeting with a massive client. The boss said he’s going to make me a permanent employee early. I feel like your good luck rubbed off on me. Thank you!"

I looked at the message and smiled.

In my past life, she did this constantly—stepping on me while playing the saint.

Every time she stole my clients, she would "thank" me, calling it "divine alignment."

I typed back two words: "Congrats then."

Then I locked my phone and went back to my spreadsheets.

When 5:00 PM hit, I walked out of the building.

The evening sun hit my face, warm and golden.

In my past life, I hadn't seen a sunset in years. I was always working overtime or stuck in traffic on my way to a client dinner.

My phone buzzed again.

It was the boss.

"Nancy, come up to my office."

"Mr. Harrison, I’ve already clocked out."

"I know, but this is urgent. Get up here."

When I walked into his office, three people were waiting—Mr. Harrison, Marcus, and Chloe.

Chloe’s eyes were red, and she looked like she had been crying for an hour.

Mr. Harrison didn’t beat around the bush. "Nancy, the deal Chloe pitched this afternoon? We lost it."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"The client told us our quote was eight percent higher than our competitor's," Mr. Harrison said, his face dark. "Chloe 'sensed' that the competitor’s bid would be five percent higher than ours. We priced based on her intuition, and we were completely wrong."

Chloe sobbed. "Nancy, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. My intuition has never failed me before. Today was just... weird..."

I looked at her, seeing right through the act.

Before, her "intuition" was based on my strategies and my competitor analysis.

She stole my brain. Of course it worked.

But now that I wasn't doing the work, what was she supposed to sense?

"So?" I asked.

Mr. Harrison rubbed his hands together. "Nancy, you’ve been in Sales for years. You have the experience. Can you come back and help Chloe salvage this account? It’s a huge deal. We can't lose it."

I smiled. "Mr. Harrison, I’m in Admin now."

"We can transfer you back today. I'll sign the papers."

"No, thank you." I stood up. "I like Admin."

Chloe panicked and grabbed my hand. "Nancy, please don't go! It’s my fault. I shouldn't have taken the spotlight. But this client is so important. Please help me!"

I looked down at her hand, then up at her face. "Chloe, you said you could manifest the competitor’s bids. Do you even know why you lost this time?"

Chloe froze.

"Because the competitor changed their entire market strategy," I said, shaking her hand off. "Your luck ran out."

With that, I turned and walked out.

Behind me, Chloe burst into fresh tears, and Mr. Harrison let out a heavy sigh.

My steps were light.

This was only the beginning.