He is a cold CEO, used to controlling the world from a glass office high above the city. His days are precise, stripped down, scented with cigarette smoke. He watches numbers, not people. Emotions are a system error to him.

She is a physiologist. She studies the human body—stress responses, breathing, heart rate, the limits of endurance. She works with physical reality, not illusions. Her voice is calm, her eyes sharp, noticing details others miss.

That day they meet in the company lobby. He walks fast, without hesitation. She is waiting for the elevator and briefly looks up at him.