Tense conversation

"You what? John, what's gotten into you?" The CEO was shocked.

With Karl gone, Kate stepped away from her corner to scrape together a lunch from everyone else's uneaten items.

John shrugged. "I don't know. It just seems right, doesn't it? Look at Kate over there. She's very attractive and she is good at what she does, but she's still just a woman. She should learn her place; Karl's not wrong."

Kate fumed. "Fuck you, asshole."

John stood threateningly and she shrank back. "Go back to your corner if you know what's good for you."

But the CEO intervened. "John, you must be under a lot of stress. We know you; you're not usually like this. You have two weeks of vacation starting next week, right? Let's drop this. You did good work on this project. Take the rest of today off. Start your vacation early. Go enjoy your time off. Relax, unwind, spend your bonus; I don't care. But when you come back you need to have your head on straight. We can't have this kind of blatant sexism in the workplace."

John scoffed. "You mean you're just going to throw out Karl's recommendation? This place is so backwards. You're an idiot. We need to fix things. Get all the women in here. Let's start correcting their attitude problems. Right now." He turned to stare at Kate, a dangerous glint in his eye. "Starting with her."

Kate was hiding behind another executive who had stood to protect her.

"You need to leave, John, or we'll call security. I mean it. If you're not over this when you come back, we'll have a problem. Frankly, if not for your amazing work, you'd already be out on your ass."

John threw up his hands. "You're all crazy. How can you not see it? She's just a woman. Whatever. I'm out of here."

He grabbed his stuff and stormed out of the office, grumbling about idiots.