~Julian~
She walked in at 9:01.
I know because I’d been watching the door since five to nine, which was information about myself I was choosing not to examine too closely.
The boardroom was already full, six of my executives down one side, Katia’s lead architect and two IG engineers down the other, laptops open, coffee cooling in paper cups that my assistant had arranged with the kind of symmetry that made her feel useful. The agenda was on the screen. The agenda was not why we were here.
Katia walked in, and the room didn’t go quiet exactly, but it adjusted. The way rooms always did when she entered, a slight recalibration, a collective straightening of spines that nobody would admit to. She was wearing charcoal grey today. Structured jacket, hair up, not a single thing out of place.
