Chapter Four: The Man Behind the Suit
370 Words
Over the next few weeks, Emily and Ethan encountered each other occasionally at work.
Sometimes they exchanged greetings in the hallway. Sometimes they discussed a design or a production problem. Once, they spent fifteen minutes arguing about whether a particular shade of green was elegant or depressing.
Emily insisted it was elegant.
Ethan called it the color of an abandoned swimming pool.
She refused to speak to him for the remainder of lunch.
He sent her an apology in the form of a photograph of a particularly ugly green tie.
She laughed so loudly that her colleagues looked up.
Their friendship developed without either of them naming it.
Ethan began to understand that Emily's confidence was strongest when she spoke about design and weakest when she spoke about herself.
Emily discovered that Ethan wasn't nearly as polished as he appeared. He forgot people's names, drank too much coffee, and became uncharacteristically nervous before important investor meetings.
One afternoon, she found him standing alone in a conference room, staring at a financial report.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
He looked up.
“Is it that obvious?”
“You've been reading the same page for ten minutes.”
He sighed.
“My father founded the investment company. People assume I know exactly what I'm doing because I have his surname.”
Emily considered this.
“Do you?”
“Not always.”
“Good.”
He looked surprised.
“Good?”
“People who think they know everything are usually difficult to work with.”
Ethan laughed.
She sat down and helped him understand a section of the report that had confused him.
When they finished, he thanked her.
“You didn't have to help me.”
“I know.”
“Why did you?”
Emily shrugged.
“Because you asked.”
It was a simple answer, but he remembered it.
He had spent much of his life surrounded by people who wanted something from him. Emily had helped him without trying to turn the moment into an opportunity.
He found himself looking forward to their conversations.
He did not yet call that feeling affection.
He simply knew that the working day seemed less tiresome when she was around.
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