"No, I don't think you are. " He started the following Monday. He didn't meet Victoria Hayes until his third week, and he almost didn't recognize her. He'd seen her photograph. Of course, the company website had a professional headsh shot, polished and precise, all sharp angles and quiet authority. He'd read about her in a business journal article.
Someone had left in the breakroom. Hayes Innovation CEO closes 400m deal in under two hours. The photograph showed a woman in a flawless gray suit, arms crossed, expression calibrated to project exactly enough warmth to seem approachable and exactly enough steel to remind you that she would win. The woman he nearly walked into outside the third floor copy room on a Wednesday afternoon looked nothing like that photograph. She was wearing the same gray suit, but it was wrinkled at the shoulder.
Her hair, which in every photograph was perfectly arranged, had one strand coming loose at the temple. She was holding a coffee mug in one hand and a phone against her ear with the other. And she was speaking in the kind of lowcontrolled voice that told you the conversation was not going well. And she was working very hard not to let the other person know that. I understand your position, she said.
What I need you to understand is that your position is wrong. She rounded the corner without looking up. Darius stepped aside just in time. The coffee mug tilted. A small splash hit his sleeve.
Victoria pulled the phone away from her ear. I'll call you back. She looked at his sleeve, then at his face, and her expression did something complicated. Moving through irritation, professionalism, and something that might have been genuine embarrassment in about 2 seconds flat. I'm sorry.
That was my fault. It's fine, Darius said. It's just coffee. It's your sleeve. I've had worse mornings than a coffee stain.
He extended his hand. Darius Coleman. Financial operations. I started 3 weeks ago. She looked at his hand for a moment, not rudely, but like she was recalibrating something.
Then she shook it. Victoria Hayes, I know who you are. Most new employees are more nervous about that. I'm not most employees, he said. And then because something about the loosened strand of hair and the tired eyes made him feel like the polished version of this woman was not the whole story.
Are you okay? She blinked. Just once. A small involuntary reaction that told him the question had caught her completely offguard. I'm fine, she said.
Okay, he said easily. Have a good morning, Miss Hayes. He walked away. He didn't look back, but he was fairly certain from the brief silence behind him that she stood in that hallway for just a moment longer than she needed to. The months that followed were unremarkable in most ways.