Arrival
574 Words
The lobby of Garnet Tower was all marble and glass, clean lines, soft light, and the kind of quiet that made every footstep sound deliberate. I gave my name to the receptionist, clipped on the temporary badge she handed me, and took the elevator up to the forty-seventh floor.
The ride was silent except for the low hum of the cables. My reflection in the metal doors looked calmer than I felt. I counted the floors, pressed my portfolio tighter to my side, and tried not to think about how much depended on a single first impression.
When the doors opened, sound rushed in, keyboards clicking, printers whirring, phones murmuring in half-heard conversations. The air smelled faintly of ink and coffee.
Cole & Ember.
The firm’s logo curved across the glass wall in brushed steel, and behind it the space unfolded in light and color: sketches pinned to boards, prototypes laid out on tables, small clusters of people leaning over glowing screens. It was exactly what I’d imagined, alive, creative, a little intimidating.
A woman with cropped hair and a tablet noticed me right away.
“Elena Maris?” she asked, walking over with an easy smile.
“Yes,” I managed.
“I’m Lila—project manager. Welcome aboard. Come on, I’ll show you around before the day steals us.”
She talked as she walked, quick and efficient, pointing out departments, workrooms, the coffee machine that “everyone worships more than the printers.” I followed her through the open layout, trying to absorb everything at once: the color palettes taped to glass partitions, the smell of fresh paper, the quiet energy that made the air hum.
We stopped beside a workstation near the windows, where the city stretched wide below.
“This will be you,” Lila said. “Adrian will brief you this afternoon. You’re joining the Helios campaign, big client, tight deadlines.” She smiled, a little sympathetic. “He likes precision. Don’t let that scare you.”
I nodded, though my pulse spiked at the name.
Adrian Cole. The one everyone quoted, the one whose designs had filled my notebooks for years.
Lila left me to settle in. I placed my bag under the desk, logged into the computer, and let my eyes roam. The office was beautiful in an understated way, with white walls, dark wood, and art pieces that looked both deliberate and effortless. Everything spoke of someone’s careful vision.
Half an hour passed before I noticed the subtle shift in the room’s rhythm, the way people straightened a little, the way conversation dropped to a lower hum. I looked up.
Across the glass floor, a man had just stepped out of a meeting room.
Tall. Dark suit, no tie, shirt sleeves rolled to his forearms. There was nothing hurried about him; he moved with the quiet confidence of someone who knew exactly where he was going. A few people greeted him as he passed. He nodded once, distracted but polite, his attention already somewhere else.
Then, just for a second, his eyes met mine.
The moment was brief, maybe two heartbeats, but it landed hard enough to leave me breathless. His gaze wasn’t cold, exactly, but it carried a weight that made the world around it slow down.
And then it was gone. He turned toward his office, speaking quietly to someone who fell into step beside him.
I exhaled.
So that was Adrian Cole.
- Writer
