CLOSER THAN BEFORE
I followed him out of the office.
A few employees greeted him as we passed. He acknowledged each of them with the brief, economical nod that I had learned was not coldness but the specific efficiency of a man who had calibrated his social energy very precisely and spent it accordingly.
I walked half a step behind him. The habit of two months — the professional geometry of an assistant and an executive moving through a shared space.
We reached the elevator.
He pressed the button.
The doors opened almost immediately.
We stepped inside.
I stood with the meeting folder pressed against my chest, and I read through the agenda one more time, even though I already knew every page of it — the habit of someone who prepares thoroughly and then prepares again, who finds com
