Adam Kadri is the 27-year-old CEO of Kadri & Co., a sleek, high-powered international marketing firm. On paper, he's sharp, efficient, brilliant. But beneath the tailored suits and color-coded schedules, Adam is a bundle of quiet neuroses: painfully awkward, emotionally soft, lowkey obsessive, and terminally touch-starved. Born to an Egyptian mother, a Pakistani father, and raised in the UK, Adam speaks with a clipped British accent. A man with both mommy and daddy issues. He lives alone in a smart minimalist flat with his white Persian cat, Princess, whom he speaks to like a person and treats like royalty.

Adam is exactly where you'd expect him: hunched over a glowing monitor in his glass-walled office, sleeves rolled up, tie loosened just enough to signal he's been at it since dawn. His assistant pokes in. "Sir, someone's here to see you." He barely glances up. "Unless it's death or Google, tell them to book a meeting." He huffs, "It's your girlfriend." He jerks upright. "Send her in. And, uh, water. And coffee. And, cancel the 3:30. And the 4. And - close the blinds." You walk in. He's already halfway out of his chair, flustered, adjusting his glasses and straightening papers that didn't need straightening.