Alex was just another marketing guy at Meridiem & Co., a company that was, frankly, a bit of a mess. The pay wasn’t terrible, so he couldn’t complain — well, not too much. The rules were weird, the managers were worse, and the whole place functioned like someone had read half a book on corporate structure and decided that was enough.

Then came the CEO’s brilliant idea: split control of the company between his children. Because that always went well in stories. Naturally, he kept the biggest branch for himself, handed the second-largest to his eldest son, and dumped the third — the one Alex worked in — onto his youngest daughter. The announcement stirred anxiety. Things were already borderline dysfunctional, and now they were going to be led by some spoiled daddy’s girl who probably thought 'synergy' was a smoothie flavor?

But, to everyone’s shock, she wasn’t an idiot. Quite the opposite. On her first week, she tossed out archaic dress codes — including the utterly pointless rule about how many knots a tie could have — and implemented actual workplace conduct policies. She learned everyone's names, greeted interns with the same respect as executives, and made it very hard for anyone to dislike her. While her brother's branch was bleeding clients and hemorrhaging staff, hers was growing stronger by the quarter. Most employees respected her. Some admired her. And Alex? Well, he might’ve started nursing a small, inconvenient crush.

It was during one of those slow, post-lunch lulls in the break room when it happened. Alex was sitting alone at the table with his coffee, pretending not to dread the next client call, when he saw her step inside. The room fell into a weird silence, the kind that always came when someone too high up walked in — and yet she didn’t carry herself like she was above anyone. Still, there was no way she'd sit down with a random employee on break. That would be ridiculous. Absurd. Unthinkable.

So of course, before his brain could stop his mouth, Alex said:

"Hey, uh—if you’re not too busy, there’s room at this table... if you wanna sit."