On the fifth and top floor of the Ellie B building, there was an area where the desks were significantly larger and more widely spaced apart than the ones on the lower floors, along with other differences that distinguished it from the other areas. Three desks formed a neat arc around a large corner office, almost like defensive bunkers around a military command post. The desks were made of oak instead of cheaper composite materials. There was a perpetual scent of lemongrass diffused throughout the entire fifth floor to calm its inhabitants. Finally, harp and piano music played softly through small but expensive high-fidelity speakers strategically positioned throughout the floor.

This was the stronghold of Ellie B’s upper management, where all the big executive decisions were made. Standing in the middle of it all was JJ Johnson, Executive Creative Director of the Ellie B empire. He was watching movers carry boxes of stuff out of the large corner office, and he couldn’t wait for them to empty the room and obliterate every last vestige of its previous occupant.

Now that the CEO had retired and was finally out of the way, JJ believed it would be his turn to reign soon; he was Madam B’s current favorite, after all. And why shouldn’t he be? JJ was brilliant, cultured, and rather handsome for his age. He had every trait Madam B looked for in a leader.

JJ brushed his mustache with his index knuckle and suddenly recalled how a rival once described him. What did that Marketing bitch call him? “A skinny Burt Reynolds with Einstein’s second-hand wardrobe.” Well, here he was now, the chief adviser to Madam B. And where was she? Gone… vanquished by JJ’s superior political machinations.

Last he had heard, that vile woman had started her own consultancy business - a euphemism for being unemployed, no doubt.

Standing at the doorway of his current office (the slightly smaller one beside the ex-CEO’s), JJ had a good view of the three desks outside. Maggie, his Executive Assistant, occupied the desk on the right. The desk in the middle was empty as the ex-CEO’s Assistant had chosen to leave with him, and Rivers used the desk on the left. Foolish old Rivers, the longest-serving employee in Ellie B.

In an alternate universe, Rivers would’ve risen to be CEO, but here he was, more like a mascot that Madam B liked to keep around. Yes, mascot is the correct term. With that white beard and his bulky body, Rivers looked like a cross between Santa Claus and that shaggy man who wrote those Game of Thrones books. How could you become a CEO with such an awful appearance?

“Where is Brock?” JJ asked as he approached Rivers.

The portly man did not look up from his computer when he replied, “Don’t know. Not his PA.”

JJ hated how Rivers spoke, with all his sentences broken down into concise and fragmented clauses. He sounded like a computer, and this was yet another reason Rivers would never succeed in life.

“He still hasn’t shown me his concept for the Old Bat’s new restaurant!” JJ said. “Does he remember that this week is the deadline?”

“Again, not his PA.”

JJ seethed and walked away. It was wiser to leave the mascot to his nonsensical spreadsheets and project trackers.

“Hey JJ! You look like you’re feeling good today, dawg!”

And there was the misfit, swaggering with his usual undeserved sense of accomplishment. JJ crossed his arms and turned his nose up at Brock. He kept his eyes closed because he did not have the patience to look at Brock’s smug grin this morning.

“Have you seen that new girl from the photography team? Weak chin, but she makes up for it with some big personali-titties.”

JJ refused to rise to the bait. “Are you done with the restaurant proposal, Brock?”

“It’ll be done soon, bro!”

“It’s taking a lot of time, and it’s starting to feel like you’re just burning money.”

“You know what they say, JJ. You have to spend money to burn money.”

As a person who prided himself on being a champion of the literary arts, JJ cringed whenever Brock said something idiotic, like last week when he described JJ’s Peugeot as “that car named after the flying Pokémon.” But as much as he would prefer to eject Brock from the company, he knew they needed the imbecile on their side. Thus, he kept his cool and regulated his breathing.

“Yes, yes I guess that’s true. Look, this is a special request from Madam B herself, and you volunteered. So you’d better deliver. After all, you haven’t been doing too well on the sales front lately.”

“But…”

“But what, Brock? But what? Do you have something to say by way of a defense? Am I looking at the charts upside down? Your tactics lack creativity, your reports are always late, and it seems like I have to yell at you before anything gets done. So I ask… why is that? Are you an easily distracted child who needs daily reminders of his responsibilities? Put in the effort every day. Every single day!”

Brock stared open-mouthed at JJ, unable to come up with a reply. There was an obvious size difference between the two men and if they were ancient gladiators in the Colosseum, Brock would have easily brutalized JJ. But times had changed, and here they were in an office environment where the smaller JJ held all the power by keeping the larger man in a state of perpetual panic.

Fear kept the employees in their places. As long as they feared JJ, he could control the whole company.

“Maggie tells me that I have a meeting with the Marketing team later at four. Something about a CRM campaign proposal,” JJ said to Brock. “I have other matters that I should attend to. Will it be a big mistake to pass that meeting to you? Rivers will go with you in case they use some polysyllabic words you don’t understand.”

“You can count on me, JJ. I’m sure I’ve been in more three-ways than Rivers, so I know all about the poly-salami stuff.”

JJ had no idea what Brock was talking about, so he waved him away.

“Whatever, just go.”

Brock bowed and shrank back a few steps.

“Oh, Brock?”

The big jock froze in place after hearing his name.

“You’ll remember to go to this meeting, right? Or should I inform your assistant so that she could hold your hand and lead you to the conference room?”

Brock bit down on his bottom lip and took a deep breath. “I’ll remember,” he said before he hurried off to the elevator.

Rivers stopped his typing and looked in Brock’s general direction. “Harsh,” he said.

JJ crossed his arms and shook his head. “He’s a grown man, and it’s not like I made him cry.”

“Brock is a moron. Don’t understand why he’s here.”

“Be that as it may, Rivers, he’s also a charming moron.”

“Not relevant.”

“We are all here because we have something to offer Madam B,” JJ said with a flourish. He started walking and waving his arms around as if he was presenting a TED Talk. “I have the brains and taste to guide her business to her vision. You’re hardworking and versatile.”

“And Brock?”

“Madam B finds him charming and listens to him, and that’s why we need him to protect our agenda.”

Rivers did not agree. “This is a workplace. Not a school playground. Popularity not as important as productivity.”

JJ shook his head, unwilling to debate with Rivers. He knew who was right. After all, one sat at a desk after working here for decades, and the other had one of the most prominent offices after a handful of years. And before long, he thought as he eyed the empty CEO’s office, he’ll be in the big one.

“No more than two pairs of shoes are to be kept under your desk,” read the umpteenth directive in the onboarding documents.

Amy glanced under her desk and imagined having two extra pairs of shoes there. Perhaps she could keep some fuzzy bedroom slippers. The square-toe heels she was currently wearing were not the most comfortable pair of shoes in her collection, and she would appreciate having something soft to slip into when nobody important was around.

She looked at her watch. Since the team had gotten back from lunch, Amy had been sitting at her desk pretending to read that endless tome of rules and regulations Amrita had passed her. As boring as it was, she had nothing else to do and she couldn’t exactly start scrolling her phone; that wouldn’t set a good impression on her first day.

Everybody around her was busy with their tasks. Alex was rehearsing a pitch that she was about to make to the senior stakeholders, with Goh as her test audience. Even though she had only been here for a morning, Amy could tell that these two were a power couple in the office.

“Hey guys, may I listen in?” she asked as she wheeled her chair over. Her new coworkers smiled and made some space for her at Alex’s desk.

As Alex studied and tweaked her presentation slides (or “deck,” as they liked to call it), Goh explained the basic concept of the idea to Amy. Apparently, there was a lot of dead stock in the warehouses, items from the previous season that didn’t sell very well. Instead of letting them collect dust in storerooms and warehouses, Alex wanted to sell them at a discounted price but exclusively to members of their loyalty program. With this one campaign, they should effectively offset last season’s losses while simultaneously promoting their loyalty program.

It was simple enough that even a newcomer like Amy could understand it.

“A good pitch is minimal, and you have to cut out everything that is not necessary,” Goh said. “Stakeholders and customers have really short attention spans.”

“Are you going to blame that on social media?” Amy joked.

“Hey, your generation might have grown up with the Internet, but Alex and I were there when it all started. And despite what the boomers say, people have always had short attention spans. Although when we were growing up, the older folks blamed it on MTV.”

“What’s MTV?”

There was a collective gasp, and both Goh and Alex shot Amy with horrified looks. The young new hire grinned like Jim Carrey eating ice cream.

“I’m just kidding, guys!” Amy said. “I know what MTV is… and how popular it was with the youth of the late nineteen hundreds.”

Alex smiled for a split second before her face went stoic again. “The new girl’s got claws. I like her.”

“Wow, we’re the youth of the late nineteen hundreds,” Goh said. “Hashtag #sadlife.”

Amy laughed with Goh and then turned to Alex. “Well, I think your idea is super. Are you feeling confident about the pitch?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Most of the time, these things aren’t decided by how good the idea is. It really depends on who the decision maker is and how they’re feeling at the time.”

Sean wheeled his chair over to join the group. “Shite on a stick, guys... I was just texting Hom, and she told me Brock will be the lead at your pitch later. Not only that, but he’s in a bad mood.”

There were audible groans from Goh and Alex.

“What’s wrong with that?” Amy asked innocently.

“Brock is just about the most unreasonable dick in the building,” Alex replied. “And if he’s in a bad mood, then my proposal is dead on arrival.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sean said with a grin. “Goh will figure something out.”

Everyone turned to look at Goh, who looked away while drumming his fingers on the desk. “Brock will try to convince the other department heads that we make a lot of mistakes,” he said. “That will be his most likely direction of attack, so we need some defense on that front. The other department heads that are there are more logical… they’re numbers people and less emotional than Brock. If we can discredit his claims immediately with some quick facts, we can win the audience back before the decision is made.”

As soon as Goh finished speaking, Alex stood forward and took over the briefing. The transition was so smooth and seamless that Amy would’ve guessed that it was rehearsed.

“You all heard Goh,” Alex said with the authority of a drill sergeant. “We need some numbers to protect ourselves with. Sean, see if Hom is free to help you identify the campaigns that Brock likes to complain about. We need to be able to defend against those.”

“What if she’s busy?”

“Look for his emails that mention Marketing. He’s never ever said anything nice about our team, so any mention of us is probably a complaint. I’ll search our own files to find case studies and reports where we had some big wins. Goh, see if you can use any of these as supporting data against the likely complaints that Sean and Hom point out.”

Amy was impressed by the decisiveness that her teammates exhibited. “What about me? Is there anything I can do?”

“Sure. You can help Goh write the slides. He’s better with numbers than words.”

And just like that, Amy was no longer bored.

Things were not going well, Goh thought to himself. They were in the large conference room on the fourth floor, the one with the big long table and the expensive video conferencing equipment (which never worked). The one where all the big meetings took place and dreams were either realized or crushed. Right now, the situation was leaning toward the latter.

Alex was pitching her idea to Brock, the Director of Sales, and Rivers, the Vice President of Operations. Also on their side of the table were representatives from other departments like Graphic Design, Operations, and Ecommerce. While there were about six of them altogether, it was really just Brock and Rivers that they had to convince. They already knew that Brock was the designated decision-maker today, and Rivers emphasized that in the way he rarely averted his attention from his laptop. That was bad news for them because Rivers was the more reasonable one between the two.

Gathered on the Marketing side of the table were Alex, Goh, their boss Jon, and Kaleena, the other member of the Marketing team. While Alex continued her presentation and Jon listened, Goh kept his eyes on Brock, trying to read his reactions. Brock kept fidgeting and glancing at his phone, showing obvious disinterest in anything Alex had to say.

Alex ended her presentation and asked Brock for his thoughts.

“Assuming we decide to run this play, can you actually do this thing with the customer system, dawg?” Brock asked. “Rivers, is she for real?”

Rivers continued typing on his laptop as he replied, “If she says it can, it can.”

Brock lightly backhanded Rivers’ shoulder, irritating the old man. “Yeah, I heard what she said, but I want to know what you think. You know this nerd shit better than anyone else.”

This happened all the time, and Goh hated it. Alex’s capabilities were constantly downplayed because people only saw her as three things: a woman, a person of color, and a brawny gym junkie. In their ignorant opinions, all three elements were not consistent with intelligence. Alex had to fight this throughout her career with tactics like dressing in a more conservative manner to downplay her gender and muscles. She even worked with a speech coach to neutralize her natural accent. But none of this made any difference, so Alex had trained herself to accept the way things were.

Goh was about to protest when Rivers spoke again.

“Current system built by Alex,” Rivers replied curtly. “She is the expert. Trust what she says.”

“She’s CRM, dawg. I’m sure she’s good at supporting the campaigns we come up with, but she doesn’t have the experience to initiate one of her own. Her playbook is all about customer retention.”

Goh was surprised to hear Brock use the term customer retention, and he even used it appropriately.

“Inaccurate assessment of CRM capabilities,” Rivers replied with his head shaking slowly. “Retained customers purchase more, resulting in higher lifetime value. Alex has initiated many campaigns… often with excellent ROI. Wise to listen to her.”

At least somebody with rank decided to stand up for Alex, Goh thought to himself, although he was disappointed that it wasn’t their direct boss. As usual, Jon had chosen to avoid conflict.

Goh and Jon haven’t had the best relationship since Jon joined the Marketing team eight months ago. He was so different from Kiki, the previous Marketing Director. Kiki was, in Goh’s opinion, a fantastic mentor and leader. He learned a lot from her, both about marketing and running a team. But then Kiki left, and Madam B promoted Jon from the Design department to run the Marketing team.

Goh could not fathom why Madam B chose Jon to be Kiki’s successor, as he had a poor understanding of modern digital marketing and did not possess strong leadership skills. Jon took his ideals of peaceful inter-departmental partnership to such extremes that it resulted in his team being exploited. If things went wrong, Marketing was the patsy everyone blamed. Kiki would have never allowed that; she’d find a way to deflect the criticisms and vindicate her team.

Granted, Jon was a nice person. He had a country-boy charm, treated his team with respect, and possessed infinite patience. When people threw abuse at him, whether it was one of Brock’s temper tantrums or Goh’s passive-aggressive remarks, Jon absorbed all of it with a gentle smile. It was an admirable trait for which Goh didn’t give him enough credit. He just wished Jon had more of a killer instinct like Kiki. He wanted a leader who could strategically position Marketing as an elite team that warranted respect from the other departments. Jon was too soft for this role.

“Well… it’s an interesting idea, dawg,” Brock said to Alex. “And I like that you took the initiative to help the company, but your plan seems too loose and messy. Get Japanese Jesus there to help you improve it. Tighten it up, like what you’ve done with your abs and your glutes.”

“Maybe Brock is right,” Kaleena said. “Perhaps we can try to improve it a little.”

It came as no surprise that Kaleena sided with Brock. Although she was technically a member of the Marketing team, she had little loyalty for her coworkers and would often ally herself with upper management. She was in Public Relations, after all, which Goh thought was all about kissing ass and making people like her.

Alex didn’t blink as she calmly replied, “The plan is pretty tight as it is. It’ll work.”

“Geez, Jon,” Brock said. “Are you going to let your team mess things up again? How many times are you going to let big dreams and sloppy execution result in dropped balls?”

Those were baseless claims, but the nods and frowns on the other side of the table told Goh that Brock’s lies were working.

“Well, we’ve learned a lot of new things and improved our processes lately,” Jon replied. “If we work together and help each other, Alex’s campaign should go pretty smoothly.”

“You don’t want to fix it up? Whatever, bro. Let’s go back to the playbook and find another idea. I’m not ready to let your team crap things up again like that time with the Autumn line.”

Goh nudged Jon’s foot under the table to urge him into action. Alex looked at him and clicked her tongue. They both wanted him to defend the team and confront the lies. Jon shook his head as a silent way to say, “Stand down.” Alex’s shoulders sagged as she leaned back into her chair and took a deep, resigned breath.

Something stirred within Goh, and he suddenly felt a rush of anger coursing through his body. He jumped to his feet and started railing at Brock. Without missing a beat, he took over the projector screen and loaded up all the slides and charts that they had prepared. Using these irrefutable numbers to discredit all of Brock’s statements, Goh reminded the people in the room of Marketing’s many success stories.

Before long, the energy in the conference room swung rapidly in their favor. The other teams murmured in approval of Goh’s rebuttal and started asking constructive questions. They even had Alex bring up her slides again to clarify some elements of her proposal.

Goh watched as Alex expertly incorporated feedback and bounced back with improved ideas on the spot. The two of them had won the confidence of the room. At the end of the meeting, Jon sat up and asked Brock, “I think that cleared up all your concerns. When shall we proceed with Alex’s proposal?”

Brock grunted and crossed his arms. “Give me some time to think about it. I’ll get back to you.”

“Don’t take too long,” Goh said. “All that dead stock in the warehouses isn’t going to sell itself before the next season arrives.”

Goh and Alex allowed themselves a tiny victory smile.

“That was a remarkable attempt at rescuing the pitch, Goh. Congratulations!”

Goh didn’t need to look over his shoulder to see who it was, as that Eastern European accent could only belong to Kaleena. The words sounded like praise, but he knew her well enough to know she wasn’t really praising him. Goh finished filling his water bottle before responding to her. It was just the two of them in the pantry, so he could afford to let his disdain for her go undisguised.

“Yeah, we’re going to win this one. Guess you picked the wrong side, huh?”

“Nyet. I do not choose sides, I choose bets. Given the situation in the room, Brock was the smart bet. It was nothing personal.”

Goh scoffed. “Well, now you know that the smart bet is not always the right bet. You should always go all in to support your own team.”

She took over the water cooler from Goh and started filling her own bottle.

“No, Goh… that is where you are wrong,” Kaleena replied with a smile. “I might have lost this one, but people do not win this game by going all in on every hand. You win by consistently choosing smart bets over time. Do not let your emotions tilt you.”

There was no point trying to win this debate, so Goh left the pantry without another word.

Dang it, who designed this office? Amy found herself lost in a maze of nondescript corridors and identical cubicles as she tried to make her way back to the Marketing department from the restroom. Her introductory meeting with Jon went on for longer than expected (her new boss was quite wordy) and she’d rushed to the restroom immediately after, armed with some directions from Sean. In her hurry, she’d failed to study the environment and commit landmarks to memory.

She remembered using her new security card to tap through one locked door on the way to the restroom, but her return journey had already taken her through two such doors, so she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. She wanted to call Sean or someone from the Marketing team, but she had yet to trade phone numbers with them.

“Hi! How are you?”

Amy spun her head around and saw a tall, smiling woman and a man struggling to carry two large boxes of documents.

“Excuse me for asking,” the woman said. “But you look lost.”

“Yes,” Amy replied. “I was at the restroom, and I’m trying to find the way back to my desk, and it’s my first day, and these corridors make me feel like I’m in Huxley’s Brave New World.”

Amy clapped a hand over her own mouth. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to sound so hysterical.”

The smiling lady laughed heartily. “That is okay. Frustration is common here in Ellie B. You are Amethyst Turner, yes? The new Social Media Executive?” She had a curious accent, which Amy placed as Eastern European.

“Yes, how did you know?”

“I work in PR, so it is my job to know everything that happens here. Amethyst is an interesting name. I like it.”

“Well, my friends call me Amy. Oh wait, I’m supposed to be Amy T in this office because Amrita is already Amy.”

“Oh, is that so? Well, if your friends call you Amy, then I would also like to call you Amy, if you would permit. As for me, me they call Kaleena Mordavia.”

As Kaleena introduced herself, Amy took the opportunity to get a better look at her. Kaleena was tall and beautiful, with long red hair that contrasted against her pale skin. If Hom had the kind of attractive beauty that befitted a pop singer, Kaleena had the kind of alluring beauty that songs were written about. Her attire was fashionably classic, with a little black dress that brought out her curves and the color of her hair, paired with a suit jacket that declared “Boss Lady.” But what caught Amy’s eye the most was Kaleena’s smile. It was a mysterious, lopsided smile that favored the right side of her face.

“Hey, Kaleena,” the man behind her grunted. “Sorry to interrupt, but can we put these boxes away first?”

“Oh, please go ahead and take them down to Finance for me. Just say it is from me, and they will know what to do.”

The man started walking away as he struggled to balance the two boxes. “Are we still on for drinks after work?”

Kaleena smiled. “Mike, you know I would love to, but I have the most biggest presentation to prepare for. How about next week?”

Mike’s reply was a dejected sigh.

“Amazing,” Kaleena said. “I will call you later, okay? Thanks again. You made my day with your help.”

She turned her attention back to Amy.

“Come,” Kaleena said as she performed a graceful, almost balletic spin. “Walk with me, and tell me about yourself.”

“Maybe we can help your friend carry those boxes? They look heavy.”

“Mike will be fine. Let us return to our desks.”

Amy obliged, and the two of them started an animated discussion about their respective roles while walking back to the Marketing department. She found that their roles were quite similar in that they were both corporate storytellers. The difference was in their mediums; Amy would operate through social media, while Kaleena used press releases, media coverage, and other forms of strategic communications.

It was reassuring that Kaleena seemed to understand the fundamentals of writing. After hearing the others use technical jargon like Cost per Click and audience segmenting all day, Amy was glad to find a kindred spirit.

After her fun chat with Kaleena, Amy returned to her desk and greeted Goh, Alex, and Sean. Kaleena waved at the others but kept walking and disappeared into a meeting room.

“I see you’ve met Kaleena,” Sean said.

“Yeah, she’s great,” Amy said. “I think I’m going to learn a lot from her.”

The other three glanced at each other with worried looks. Amy picked up on the undercurrent, and her smile faded.

“Hey… what’s wrong?”

“You might want to be more careful around Kaleena,” Goh said.

“Why? She seems so friendly and likable.”

“She works in PR. It’s literally her job to be friendly and likable,” Sean explained. “But do you know what we call her?”

Alex cupped her hand and whispered into Amy’s ear. “Kaleena la Culebra.”

Sean continued to explain that while Kaleena was all smiles and sunshine, this was all just a front to hide her true nature as a self-serving predator. Nobody truly knew what insidious plots were being concocted behind her cold eyes and well-rehearsed smile. Thus, she earned her reputation as Kaleena the Snake.

“Alex was bitten badly by Kaleena before,” Goh said with his eyes on the meeting room that currently hid Kaleena.

Amy covered her mouth and gasped. “Goodness gracious… I’ll keep my distance. Is there anyone else I should be aware of?”

“Should we tell her about the Inner Circle?” Sean asked.

“No, it’s only her first day,” Alex replied.

“It’s definitely too early,” Goh said.

Amy’s attention was totally captured. “No, it’s not. You should totally tell me all about the Inner Circle.”

Sean clasped his hands together. “Do you like gossip?”

“As much as Murakami loves writing about whimsical animals!”

The four gathered closer together, and Sean spoke in hushed tones. “The Inner Circle is the shadow council that really-for-reals runs Ellie B. Madam B might be the founder, but she hasn’t been calling the shots for a long time. I reckon she’s too busy with her other philanthropic pursuits to care about this place.”

Shadow council? Hidden agendas? Amy figured there would be some office politics at her first workplace, but this was far beyond anything she expected. She was simultaneously intrigued and worried by this revelation.

“So… the Inner Circle is the leadership team? Upper management?” Amy asked.

“Well, some of them are… but not all of them,” Alex explained. “For example, our boss is the Director of Marketing, which technically makes him upper management, but Jon’s not in the Circle.”

“And then Helen is one of Madam B’s closest confidantes,” Goh added. “But we don’t think she’s a part of the Circle either. She doesn’t seem to interact with them unless necessary.”

Amy clenched her fists impatiently. “Then who is?”

“JJ,” came the synchronized reply from all three.

Sean summarized a brief bio of JJ Johnson, a hotshot writer who joined Ellie B a few years ago as the Executive Creative Director. He was previously an acclaimed journalist with a renowned fashion magazine named Fleur, but his claim to fame was his best-selling book called The Lost Panpipes of Silmaria (now adapted into a documentary). Madam B was a culture vulture, so she was instantly smitten by JJ’s reputation in the literary world.

After JJ joined, he formed the Inner Circle to protect his influence over Madam B. The Inner Circle bullied Kiki, Jon’s predecessor, and forced her out of the company. Most recently, the CEO of Ellie B retired earlier than expected, and everyone knew JJ and his little gang was involved.

“I’ve heard of him,” Amy said. “Never read his book, though.

“Neither has any of us,” Goh said, with a tinge of pride in his tone. “It sounds boring as shit.”

“Then there’s Amrita… the one that welcomed you this morning,” Sean continued. “She’s the HR Director and JJ’s secret police. She’s one fecking dangerous lady, and anything she knows about you can and will be used against you.”

“Watch out for her spies; they’re all over this office,” Alex said. “Kaleena, for example. Don’t let her know too much.”

“She’s an HR spy? I thought she was just being friendly.”

Next on the list was Rivers McMahon, commonly known as Old Man Rivers. Rivers was an old friend of Madam B’s and one of the original employees of Ellie B. This company was his life, having helped build it from the ground up, and Rivers did not like anybody messing with it. Old Man Rivers lost most of his influence and authority when JJ and the younger members of the Inner Circle grew in power. While he no longer had any real influence over the Circle, his position as Vice President of Operations was secure due to his long history with Madam B.

His age and tenure at Ellie B was also a matter for contention: the Gang had heard disgruntled members of the Operations team complain that nobody could get promoted because Rivers refused to retire and make room for the next generation, even though he was quite advanced in his years.

“But you probably won’t see Rivers much,” Goh said. “He tends to stay at his desk unless he has to be in a meeting, and he generally doesn’t bother anyone much. I kind of feel bad for the guy, to be honest. I’ve seen the others push him around.”

“Why do they push him around?” Amy asked.

“Why do bullies ever push people around?” Alex replied. “Because they can.”

Amy was fascinated with all the gossip, but at the same time, she was increasingly worried that perhaps she had joined the wrong social group in the company. The Marketing Cool Gang were undeniably funny and welcoming, but they seemed to have a lot of enemies in high places. She wondered if the Cool Gang were like those people who subconsciously sought out trouble and conflict because they secretly craved the drama.

“Seriously though,” Goh continued. “If we can stop all this bullying and power-struggling, we could really do some good for Ellie B and make it a powerful brand again. Say what you will about the Old Bat, but her heart is in the right place, and we’ve mostly got good people here.”

“Mostly, but definitely not including my arch-nemesis,” Sean said. “Brock the Dawdler.”

An unsuppressed guffaw erupted from Amy. “Brock the Dawdler?” She had never heard that term said out loud before. “The guy that was at Alex’s pitch?”

“Yeah, I call him that because he cannot get anything done on time,” Sean said with a grin. “He used to be quite the athlete, but when it comes to work, he moves like snails having sex.”

Sean explained that although Brock was technically the Director of Sales, he did nothing to lead the Sales team besides throwing motivational sports clichés around - which did little to improve the team’s performance. He was rumored to be a family friend of Madam B, or maybe a boy toy that kept her warm on cold nights, which explained why he landed on this role.

“Isn’t Madam B too old for him?” Amy whispered.

“Yes, but Brock will jump on anybody with a pair of tits,” Sean declared.

“Don’t ever get caught in a room alone with him,” Alex said with utmost seriousness. “Find a way to excuse yourself immediately if you do.”

“What’s he look like? So I know how to avoid him.”

“Hmmm… he’s about my size,” Alex replied. “Short brown hair. Traditionally handsome face...”

“He’s basically Gaston from Beauty and the Beast,” Sean interrupted. “Ego included.”

Amy carefully noted this particular piece of advice and was glad she had this conversation with the others. As a Disney fan, she was particularly happy to hear Sean's Beauty and the Beast reference, as it meant she had some things in common with her new coworkers.

“And that’s the Inner Circle. Welcome to Ellie B,” Goh said with a grin.