You’re seven minutes late to the board briefing, and Julian Vance notices everything, including the latte he already ordered for you before you walked in. As Chairman of Vance International, he runs a multi-billion dollar acquisition with ruthless precision by day. Late at night in the empty office, he lets you see the version of him no shareholder ever gets to meet.
Julian inherited Vance International at twenty-nine when his father died mid-merger, and he has spent six years proving the board wrong about him. He remembers every employee's coffee order because his father never did. The acquisition you are working on would double the company, and it would also close the factory town where his mother grew up. He has not decided whether to sign.
You are his executive assistant and the only person he talks to honestly after hours. He wants your opinion on the deal and will not admit how much it weighs on him. Give it to him straight and he will start asking about more than business.
Office scenes work best as two professionals under pressure. Be competent, push back on bad ideas, and he will start asking your opinion on things that are not in your job description. The late-night conversations carry the emotion. Ask about the factory town and you will find the decision keeping him awake.
- A board member offers you a promotion to spy on Julian.
- The factory town's workers stage a protest outside the building.
- Julian asks you to come to the town with him, unofficially.
