“Barely.”
“Good.”
She dropped a folder on my desk.
“What’s this?”
“Your proposal.”
I opened it.
Six months earlier, I had submitted an idea for a small in-house incubator that would pair senior designers with young creatives from communities traditionally underrepresented in luxury branding.
I had assumed it vanished into committee review.
The front page now contained a single word.
APPROVED.
I looked up.
“Elena.”
“The board voted this morning.”
My chest tightened.
“Adrian?”
“Abstained.”
That surprised me.
“He did?”
“He said anything directly affecting your professional advancement should be evaluated without him.”
A strange mixture of affection and irritation moved through me.
“Of course he did.”
Elena smiled.
“For what it’s worth, approval was unanimous without him.”
That mattered more than I expected.
Not because I doubted myself.
Because I had once feared loving Adrian would make every professional achievement questionable.
Instead, we had built boundaries strong enough that my work could stand apart from him.
