She looked about her, worried. It was then that she noticed Elliot striding toward her.

He stopped, his large six-foot frame towering above her, and shook Keira’s hand. “Welcome back. I’ve had you moved to the corner office. I hope that’s okay.”

The relief that Keira’s belongings were safe took center stage in her mind. Then she realized what Elliot had actually just said.

“I have an office?” she repeated, her tone one of disbelief.

“Of course,” Elliot replied. “You’re a senior now. All seniors get offices.”

He beckoned her to follow. As Keira walked across the office, she caught Nina’s eye. Her friend winked. She must have known all along.

They stopped at the open door to the small corner office. Keira’s name had been etched onto a gold plaque screwed onto it. Her favorite items were positioned on the desk in much the same way they had been before but whereas before they’d made her work space feel crowded, now they were dwarfed by the rest of the empty room.

Keira felt elated, like she was walking on air. She’d never had her own office, or a plaque on the door.

“Is it okay?” Elliot asked.

“It’s amazing!” Keira replied, walking inside and twirling. The room wasn’t quite big enough for arabesques but that hardly mattered to Keira!

“We’ve adopted a doors open policy,” Elliot said. “Unless you’re having a meeting or on a call. There was a vote while you were on leave.”

Keira looked at him with a surprised but pleased expression.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine what a voting system at Viatorum would look like! In Joshua’s day he just barked orders and everyone followed. If he called you into the office on a public holiday—be it Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, or whatever you celebrated—you had to be there or be fired. It made Keira so happy to know that the junior writing staff were getting their voices heard now.

“Have you been introduced to Lance yet?” Elliot continued.

“Lance?” Keira asked. “No, is he a new junior writer?”

Elliot laughed. “He’s your new boss,” he said.

“Oh,” Keira replied, frowning. “I thought you were going to be my new boss.”

The thought of another person being in control worried Keira. What if he turned into another Joshua? What if their creative visions didn’t fully align?

Elliot shook his head. “I can’t be here twenty-four-seven. For all his foibles, Joshua was dedicated. I needed someone on the ground for when I couldn’t be, hence appointing Lance. But don’t worry, you’ll love him. He’s the opposite of Joshua, I promise.”

She followed Elliot out of her office and into the conference room, where the aforementioned Lance was already waiting. Elliot was right, he was the opposite of Joshua, at least to look at. He was a short, stocky man in an old, ill-fitting suit with unkempt hair. When he saw Keira enter he grinned widely—something Keira suspected Joshua didn’t even have the correct facial muscles to achieve—and held out a hand to her. She shook it.