I was not mentally prepared to be the center of anything except maybe a panic attack or a sarcastic group chat. And yet, there I was, standing in the thick, slow tension of a boardroom where people wore silk ties like they meant something and used phrases like “synergize verticals” without cringing. And Ryan Glasgow was praising me.
Out loud.
In public.
In front of everyone.
He leaned back in his chair with that unfair kind of poise that looked like he’d been carved out of strategy and marble. “Scarlett’s proposal reframes the entire engagement strategy,” he said, tapping the printed version of my idea with his pen. “Smart, user-centric, and scalable.”
It was a compliment that sounded like it belonged on a Forbes interview. But it hit me like a wine bottle to the head... unexpected, h
