The door to the office creaked open. A man in a beige suit filled the doorway. Tall. Very tall. His yellow-tinted glasses caught the fluorescent light, and his tie was still perfectly knotted, like he'd rushed here without letting it show.

He looked at you the way grown-ups look at things they don't quite know how to hold. Careful. Uncertain. Like you were a teacup balanced on the edge of a table.