y heels, and that was on a Monday morning, walking throu

Click

: as if the very building itself was

he pressed skirt; the neat twist of my hair piled back at the nape of my ne

e time again

8 a

od

going to

to

ev

chance at regaining some dignity f

ffice, the door happened

d at the t

in the storm of emails or documents or whatever-it-was that demanded the full attention of

here for a moment

his strict appearance allowed for exactly one rebellion. His hair was perfectly disheveled in a way th

he said withou

rly than risk being late," I answered,

a few more words on his laptop, and

en he loo

sessing me like I was a complex equation he ha

ompetence," he said f

once. "Un

inating meetings and handling communications-internal and external. I don

od. "Unde

s eyes-surprise maybe-but so swiftly tha

ndicating the chair

straight back and hands resting l

and efficient. "Pay attention; memorize my preferences. If y

od," I sa

a long moment, tight

imagine, flinched at t

not

any person in this glass

ag

gh all of it, icy efficiency in every nearly terrifying movement. The final day came to an end for an extremely busy person with just

o wasted

no time

ything he did, was calcu

managers, assistants-ru

feare

m, but mostl

him powerful. It was the effortless way he com

y head was

der-black-no sugar-no cream, possibility of Ethiopian roast; a

numbers to

s to e

alty ab

, "Lunch", and disappeared into

e, momentari

r? A suggestion?

runette appeared at my side, her heels

," she said, giving me a once-

trying my best to be

of PR. Word of advice: Keep your head down. Cross burns thro

she turned on her heel and

locking my por

this job way too much. I had a rushed salad from the downstairs café, and I returned to Dam

e in. "Come," he said, grabbing h

actually worse

s. More demands

as fried and my stomach was knotted up into a

r on

report, and I

under twenty minutes from scratch, using the notes

dule change, I adapte

ry task he t

t every c

nths-maybe years-I felt something stirring ins

id

rroga

olish

just maybe, I wasn't as broken as Za

ted back slightly in his chair a

or a long moment,

day," he said, a

than that," I said before

tched, an ech

corn nor

ery close t

er-of-factly. "Meeting prep. We leave for

lin

av

ead

said, swallo

oo

d assembled

nerves buzzing

now quieter since most of the employees had left for the da

crack on thei

at him, s

but in his eye there was

ost, almost,

t people," I

gle, I believed it but a little bit skeptical and having so m