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"They're creative," I say "I'll give them that much"

"I guess that's one way to put it," Walter shrugs

The elevator chiht, we find a wo at her desk She looks to be in her early 40s with golden broavy hair This must be Cheryl

"Hi, are you Cheryl? I'm Brittney"

"Of course! It's a pleasure toher hand "We're all so excited to welcohly of you"

He does? That's good to know And if she's calling him by his first name, they must be close I mentally shelve that co to everyone I guess ood I'oal

"I' forward to it," I say "And this is my assistant Walter"

He extends his hand to Cheryl "Nice to meet you"

They shake, and he holds onto her hand for a few extra seconds Is it just ination or does Walter seem to have a special sparkle to his eyes? Cheryl's kind of cute, I suppose Plain, in a way But cute enough for an older woman

"Okay, let's get the boring for a stack of paperwork froh our onboarding process"

"There's a lot of contracts—" I say And there is The stack is a formidable size

"It looks like a lot, but these are pretty standard for the industry There's an NDA—for the new technology we're rolling out, a W9, our codes of conduct—you get the picture, all the obvious documents," Cheryl says

"Okay, where do we start?" I ask, ready to get through the pile of paperwork

"Let's quickly go over this coood place to start," Cheryl says

I look over at Walter—who hasn't said a word He seems to be transfixed by Cheryl