She disappeared through the conference room doors without a backward glance.
I sat in the waiting area, carefully setting her bag down beside the chair. My phone came out of my pocket. The screen lit up with notifications I'd been ignoring for the past thirty minutes.
Through the glass walls, I could see Vivienne taking her position at that table.
The room was full of grown adults in expensive suits.
Men and women whose business cards contained multiple lines of text. Words like "Senior." "Director." "Vice President of Brand Strategy." They had leather portfolios spread open in front of them.
Presentation materials arranged just so. The kind of nervous energy that radiated off people who understood exactly whose approval they needed.
Vivienne stood at the head of the table. Seventeen years old. School uniform still on under that blazer. Half the age of everyone else in that room. Maybe a third the age of some of them.
