By the end of her first week, she already knew his name. Not because he introduced himself, but because everyone else said it like it mattered.

In meetings, in passing, in lowered voices near the coffee machine…

“Did he approve it?”

“Send it to him first.”

“If he signs off, we’re good.”

She didn’t ask who he was, she figured it out.

He noticed her on Monday. Not in the way men usually noticed women, not even because she tried.

It was the complete opposite.

She didn’t linger near conversations, didn’t laugh too loudly, didn’t angle herself into spaces where attention could find her.

She worked instead. Quiet, focused, unbothered....