As Daniel entered the building, he found his workplace was abuzz with conversations. He heard snippets of their gossip, and apparently a new employee would be joining them today. He mulled that over for a bit, but shrugged it off after a while. He wasn’t sure what department they were joining, but it wouldn’t really affect him, in any case. It was just strange for them all to be talking about the same thing.

  He sat down at his computer and began working, finishing last week’s backlog first before moving on to what he had to do today. Today he was blessedly free of distracting thoughts, now that he knew his door was in place. Well, the window was open now, but he’d sealed it completely with cardboard, so he didn’t worry about it too much. Thus, he lost himself in the sea numbers and typing, for an indeterminate amount of time...

  “Daniel Thistlewitz?”

  Daniel woke up from his daze. He looked up to see someone he didn’t recognize; a brown-haired woman wearing glasses. She was wearing a pretty normal business suit, and her hair was neatly tied up in a bun.

  “Are you Daniel?” She asked again.

  “Yes, that’s me.” He said, blinking.

  “Mr. Fitzgerald wants to see you in his office.” She explained, adjusting her glasses.

  Daniel rose from his chair with some urgency. If his boss was calling, then it must be important. As he walked over, the glasses-wearing woman followed. He wondered why, but concluded that she must have been the new employee. Despite not interacting with his co-workers much, he knew who everyone was, and she was definitely a new face. She must have some business with Mr. Fitzgerald as well.

  As they arrived at the office, the brown-haired woman stepped around Daniel and opened the door for him. That was a little odd, but he nodded and said “thanks”, before entering the office.

  The office was reasonably spacious, and uncluttered. The blinds were opened to let sunlight stream inside, and there were a few tasteful plants in the corner. In the middle stood Daniel’s boss, Gregory Fitzgerald. He was a well-rounded man in many ways; mostly physically, but he also had quite a suite of talents. Mr. Fitzgerald was a man pushing 40. He once had a full head of glorious blond hair, but time wore away his youth, and his hairline, leaving little behind but a scraggly ring of hair, and a fine moustache. Nonetheless, he made the most of it – he regularly waxed the top of his head until it shone, something he confessed to doing for the fun of it. But all joking aside, he was a reliable businessman, and had grown his own small business into a thriving company over the years.

  Mr. Fitzgerald coughed to get his attention.

  “That’ll be all, thank you.” He said to the brown-haired woman.

  She nodded and walked off to the side, sitting down on a chair.

  “I... assume you haven’t had the time to get acquainted yet, so I’d like you to meet Ms. Nightingale. She has just recently joined the company as my new secretary.” He explained to Daniel.

  “Oh, I see. Nice to meet you.” Daniel said to her.

  "Nice to meet you.” She said neutrally.

  “So, Daniel” Mr. Fitzgerald said, leaning forward onto his desk. “I called you in here to discuss your recent performance.”

  Daniel’s heart dropped as he heard the sentence an employee least wanted to hear. Noticing this, Mr. Fitzgerald hurriedly reassured him.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “You haven’t been doing badly, Daniel. It’s the opposite, actually.” He said, wiping some sweat off his brow with a handkerchief. “You’ve been picking up overtime and extra shifts left and right. We’re very happy with your recent performance. It’s just, hm...”

  He paused for a while, as if thinking about what to say. Daniel himself had nothing to say, and neither did Ms. Nightingale, who was drinking out of a water bottle. The 3 stood in awkward silence for several minutes.

  “Say, Daniel, have you started seeing a girl lately?” Mr. Fitzgerald said after a while.

  Ms. Nightingale sputtered, and Daniel blinked.

  “What?” Daniel asked, confused.

  “Sorry, let me try again.” The bald man said. “...You’ve been consistently picking overtime shifts for a while, but the managers have noticed recently that you’ve been working even harder than you used to. So, I just wanted to ask if you’ve been working so much because you need the extra money for something. Or someone.”

  “Oh, I see. No, I haven’t been seeing anyone.”

  Daniel thought about how much to say. He did owe his boss, and did trust him to some extent, so he decided to be a little more honest.

  “Truth be told, I picked up a cat about a week and a half ago.” He said. “I’ve been taking care of it for a little while.”

  “Is that right? I see.” Mr. Fitzgerald said, visibly relaxing. “If that’s the case, you can go to Ozzie’s pet barn to pick up some things, it’s about a 20-minute drive down Black Hill Road.”

  “Yes, I’ve been there.”

  That was the place Samantha took him to yesterday.

  “Good, good.” Mr. Fitzgerald smiled. “As you know, I usually like keeping personal lives and business lives separate, but... I just wanted to check in on you personally, and I’m glad to see you’re doing a little better these days.”

  “All thanks to you, boss.” Daniel said, smiling back.

  That wasn’t a complete exaggeration. He owed Mr. Fitzgerald quite a bit, for letting him keep his job during the rough patches, and other things. The rotund man coughed, before letting him go.

  “Alright, that’s all for today. Keep up the good work, Daniel. If you need some help, you know who to ask.”

  Daniel nodded, and left the office in high spirits. As soon as he left, the woman known as Ms. Nightingale got up with a frosty glare.

  “Gregory.”

  Mr. Fitzgerald flinched and started sweating.

  “What. Was. That?”

  “Well, when it comes to Daniel, it’s best to be direct about things. He’s, er, not the most astute at times. So, talking circles around it... would be, uh...”

  His demeanor withered away under her icy gaze.

  “We agreed on a subtle approach, Mr. Fitzgerald.” She said, adjusting her glasses. “If that’s your definition of subtlety, then that puts the future of our partnership into question.”

  Mr. Fitzgerald’s head hung low at the verbal lashing, the man not even attempting to defend himself. Although he was the well-respected head of his company, he found it hard to talk back to this woman who looked only half his age.

  “Regardless,” she said, sighing. “I can’t tell if there’s a contestant behind him or not. There are traces all over him, but nothing too deep.”

  “Oh, that’s good, then.” Mr. Fitzgerald sighed.

  “Why?” She asked, raising her eyebrow. “While traces are all that’s there, that doesn’t mean he’s not partnered. Even if he isn’t, he is more likely involved than not.”

  “Daniel... is a young man who’s been through too much already. I'm not keen on putting another boulder on his back.”

  The young woman frowned and her brows furrowed.

  “Whether you want it or not, he’s a potential competitor. Aren’t you a businessman?” She asked. “There are no rooms for sentiments here. What you need most of all is... Ruthlessness.”

  “Ruthlessness, huh?” Mr. Fitzgerald said, leaning back in his chair as he reminisced. “Reminds me of my youth. I spent a lot of time trying to climb the corporate ladder back then, but I lost more than my time...”

  “Oh?” Ms. Nightingale said, intrigued.

  Mr. Fitzgerald suddenly sat up straight, staring her right in the eyes as the sun shone off his polished head.

  “I lost my hair.” He said somberly.

  They stared at each other for a minute before Ms. Nightingale broke eye contact, a smile tugging at her lips.

  “Is that all?” She asked, exasperated but amused.

  “Don’t say it like that, men are sensitive to their hair loss.” He replied, sighing. “It might be hard to imagine, but I used to be quite the looker when I was younger.”

  At that, Ms. Nightingale looked him up and down in deep thought.

  “Hm, you’re right, I really can’t imagine that.”

  “Hey!”

  Mr. Fitzgerald got up from his chair, causing his stomach to jiggle up and down. Ms. Nightingale giggled as she exited his office, and Mr. Fitzgerald sat back down with a sigh.

  “What a low blow...” He said forlornly.

  At least one of them had come out happy with this exchange.