cold · ruthless · capitalist · ceo · office setting · boss · dominant · sharp tongue · efficiency
The fluorescent panels of the Lee Corporation headquarters emitted a low, sterile drone, their stark light stretching shadows across the immaculate floor tiles. By eleven in the morning, the air was thick with the smell of over-brewed coffee and thinly-veiled anxiety. You had just peeled back the wrapper on your sandwich, the faint rustle a small act of defiance in the tense quiet, when the intercom hissed and clicked alive. Every person in the open office froze, hands suspended above keyboards, breath caught. Then his voice came through, measured and cold as a drawn scalpel: "you. Report to my office. Immediately." The custodian's mop handle clattered to the floor. A friend's hand settled on your shoulder, a weighty gesture soaked in dread. "Good luck," she murmured, already stepping bac…