"Boardroom Etiquette 101. Some of it is very much common sense, the whole, don't catcall women when they show up in a boardroom has sort of progressed since the early twentieth century, or at least one would have hope that that is the case nowadays, just plain and simple manners. And what is not covered in common sense can be covered in the subsection of the whole, 'How To Be A Decent Human' document under 'What Is Considered Acceptable In Polite Society.' Now I don't know how men have managed thus far without seeming to have access to this document I don't know, perhaps it was some inane gene that has now long since died out due to natural selection or some other biological theory. However, it seems to me that as we as a society move forward, the further we move away from the old world in terms of the industry towards a more efficient and brighter future, the further we also move from the chivalry that was common practice in the past, by the gentry of the regency era, before and beyond, who would had times not changed be the very businessmen and women that may well be sitting in the boardroom with me. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, a whistlestop tour in the fundamental basics of boardroom etiquette. If you're still here, you're in it for the long haul. Have fun ;) "
The four walls of the lift felt like it was contorting and closing in on Selena Yingyue Zhao as if there was some kind of vacuum sucking the oxygen from the small space. She had never been claustrophobic, having revelled as a child in hiding in small places where she could just observe, however, for the first time, there was a persistent, ominous feeling of certain gloom. There was a sudden sense of vertigo and then, like one of those old-school televisions in a 50s film, her entire world went blank as if someone had pulled the plug on the power. The sudden sense of darkness terrified Selena and human nature, as old as time itself, of fight or flight, kicked in. She reached out blindly, delicate hands forming hardened claws.
Adrian Lee, who had spent most of the time in Selena's company that day trying to stare at her inconspicuously from his position next to her, had also inadvertently spent most of the day scaring the living daylights out of anyone who crossed his path, thinking that he was in fact directing a scathing side-eye at them. However, alone in the lift, it took him an incredibly long time, relatively speaking, to notice that Selena's face had gone an ashen grey, to the point where she no longer looked like she was human, rather an odd combination between a ghost and some creature that was only half alive. Her breathing was off. Instead of the steady, slight movement of normal breathing, her chest seemed to be rising and falling to an erratic and completely unsynchronized pattern where she was drawing in ragged breaths in some instances and shallow breaths in others.
By the time his brain had put two and two together to make six and turned to face Selena, he only had enough time to react by shooting his own arms out for her to clutch onto as her body crumpled and folded in on itself, her legs buckling as if someone had taken her body into their massive palms and started to compact it down like a piece of scrap paper. She clutched his arm with a death grip, the manicured nails of her left hand digging into his skin through his suit, so tight that he was sure that she was sure she was slowly but surely cutting all circulation to his right arm. Her right arm and hand bore the brunt of her weight as she struggled to prop herself up and also manoeuver her feet in their heels into a standing position. As she collapsed, her hip butted into the red emergency stop button and the shrill alarm rang out was the lift lurched and jolted. The sheer force of the sudden movement knocked both of the occupants: Selena into Adrian and Adrian onto the floor. This domino effect lead to Selena clinging onto his shirt with a vice grip, untucking it in the process. The dim lights flickered as the alarm died down and the whole life was flooded in crimson light, filtered through the ceiling.
The soft whimpers of the girl that clung to him brought him with a crash back to reality and he patted her hair awkwardly having absolutely no idea what he was meant to do and shuffled himself slowly into a less painful position, where he wasn't crushing his own leg at an angle that healthy limbs were definitely not meant to bend.
It felt like she was wading very slowly through an empty void of nothingness with weights attached to her ankles or something. The sudden onset of darkness freaked Selena out beyond anything resembling fear she had ever felt before. She couldn't hear. She couldn't see. Her skin felt like she was standing in a sea of flames with thousands of knives stabbing at her skin again and again. She prided herself on having spent years mastering how to remain calm and think her way out of these kinds of situations, however, it seemed that all rational thought was also completely out of the question for her brain at this moment. She could feel the solid material in her fists and she clutched at it desperately, afraid that if she let go, she would be the one to float away from reality, into the unknown.
She forced herself to calm down, trying every single trick she had ever been taught as part of her therapy or read about. The reins of her volatile emotions flew tantalisingly out of reach and as Selena forced her breath into the 'three counts in five counts out' breathing she had been taught, she felt the rising spikes of panic in the deep pits of her stomach calm slightly, falling into a more regulated pattern. Soon after she tested with the hand that still fisted Adrian's shirt by tentatively letting go, inch by inch until she had fully released the material. There was an odd red light, unlike anything she had seen outside of a nightclub as she tried to open her eyes.
The second she had gained enough consciousness to realise the compromising that she was in, she scrambled backwards, scuttling at an impressive speed until she felt the wall of the lift behind her. Selena made a halfhearted attempt to stand up only to fall again halfway. Adrian watched his attempt a few more times and finally pushed himself with fluid ease which could only have come from practice. He then took two paces, so the space between them disappeared and offered out a hand.
"What was all that about?" he asked neutrally, his piercing gaze fixed on Selena. At first, she adamantly tried to refuse his hand but then accepting that in such tight parameters and with her balance still askew there was no way she would be able to stand up fully, she grudgingly took his hand and let him draw her into his chest, one hand hovering at the small of her back in case she fell. They fell into a silence that was strange, not awkward. Adrian enjoyed the half-hug that he was giving her. Although he was taller than Selena by only a few inches and even less when she was in heels, she felt tiny in his grasp, easy to hold.
"I don't really know," Selena piped up lightly, "I haven't done much out of the ordinary today, I did get up early today though."
"When?"
"About 5.30 am, I couldn't sleep," Selena admitted. They fell into silence again and Selena tapped his shoulder awkwardly, I'm sure I'll be fine, you can stop now. It took Adrian a little while to process this short sentiment and he reluctantly let go of her hand.
"Breakfast. Did you eat this morning?" He asked and Selena stifled a laugh. "What's that for?"
"You could practically see the lightbulb going off above your head like they do in the cartoons. And also, no, I don't do breakfast, like ever." The second part of her answer was short and blunt.
"You really should, your blood sugar'll be so low, I won't always be there to catch you when you fall, and others might do more than just give you a hand up."
"What exactly are you trying to allude to? That I can't protect myself? That I'll inevitably be the victim of harassment?" Selena retorted defiantly.
"Not exactly, but I am saying to be careful, and also, we are very late to your first board meeting."
The very mention of the board meeting made all of the previous conversation about breakfast disappear from her brain and she swivelled round to look for her handbag. "Right, well that is definitely the most important of everything at the moment. How do we get out of here?"
Adrian didn't answer, instead, he balled his hand into a fist and whacked the red emergency button with it again. The lift jolted but this time Adrian was ready for the lurching motion and when Selena fell back into his chest he didn't skid. The second time round there was no delay. She pushed herself off of him and picked her bag before turning to the mirror wall of the lift and rummaging for a brush. It hadn't quite registered with Adrian what she was doing until it was a little late.
The ding which announced to everyone the 31st floor of their arrival sent all of the people in business attire out on the landing into a frenzy. All the board members were inside the boardroom with Elise and a few of her team to look at the liquidity figures from Lee Corporations and their current interactions with Zhao Hai industries while they waited for the arrival of the two young CEOs, so the sea of business people crowding around the lift were the employees who had been enraptured by the story that Colleen Wu, the woman who had taken Selena around on her not-very-informative tour of the lower few levels of the Zhao Hai Industries headquarters building, had been spreading.
This was of course not normal practice, however, after the news was broken to the world that Zhao Bohai had passed away from the media coverage of his funeral the whole company had essentially been a rudderless, captainless ship. Zhao Bohai had ruled with an iron fist, with fear being a huge motivation for every single employee to toe the line, and with him gone for good, it was as if the entire cohort of the company had collectively heaved a sigh of relief. Hell, many of them even cheered and some might say rejoiced at the news and now that there was no possibility of being fired on the spot for something or other.
The lift doors opened and the mass of bodies surged forward, craning their necks en masse to catch a new look of the new acting CEO and also the legendary bachelor of the year, Adrian Lee who also happened to be CEO of Lee Corporations as news had somehow gotten out through the vents that both would be present.
"I heard that the new CEO is so hot, apparently, he's going to bump my Adrian off of the top spot for 30 under 30, pfft, impossible."
"Oh shut up Val, he's not your anyone, you don't get sole rights, he's the company eye candy!"
"Henry, you can't talk ok, you ogle him more than I do!"
"It's not a guy, Colleen said it was a girl."
"It can't be, CEO Zhao would not have given control over this whole thing to a woman, also his daughter's a disgraced socialite, it would be suicide to even consider her for a position."
"Maybe it wasn't the CEO that Colleen saw, maybe its Mr Lee's new assistant."
"Yeah definitely an 'assistant' if you know what I mean, Caleb can only do so much cause Mr Lee doesn't swing that way."
"Ugh what a waste, I wouldn't mind a piece of that..."
"Freddie stop, that's so inappropriate
The doors opened and two figures stepped out. Selena stepped out first, her hair having been tamed back into its long black waterfall, her top was fixed back into position and her bag swinging from the crook of her arm. The only visible evidence that anything had happened at all in the lift was that her skirt was slightly off centre, a detailed that unless someone had worked in fashion retail or was an avid reader of fashion magazines, the untrained eye wouldn't pick up. She walked with a slight limp but otherwise looked every part the acting CEO that she was. Adrian Lee on the other hand came out in quite the opposite state, his shirt, although tucked at the front was crumpled beyond saving and the tails were left out swinging. His suit jacket lay draped over his arm and tie was loosened to the point where it was no longer professional but sloppy. His hair was mussed and looked to be the evidence of some rough and tumble.
In the silence that followed, you could hear a pin drop, then came the instantaneous uproar. It was as if a dam of sound had broken and the chatter was nauseating to Selena who had a massive headache from banging her head.
"Silence." She yelled out at the crowd which was drowned out by the crowd.
"Oh my GOD, Colleen was totally right."
"She is the new assistant, but that's Selena Yingyue Zhao?"
"Do you think she's selling out the company, are we actually going to work for the god amongst men?"
"Wait, hold on, are you saying that there's a possibility of us getting to work in the same building as my Adrian?"
"Again, I have to tell you, he's not you're Adrian, he's a bachelor!"
"Yeah but eye candy."
"To think that she was once the richest socialite in town, she did not age well, look at her now, the mistress of a big name."
"Do you reckon that in a few years, she'll be nothing."
"SILENCE!" Selena all but roared and the chatter died."Boardroom etiquette 101, if you even have access to this floor then consider yourselves privileged as this is not a right. Also, everyone standing here in front of me, you now do not have those privileges, effective immediately. You should all know better."
Her ice-cold demeanour had some of the newer members of staff shaking in their heels and dress shoes and even Adrian shivered. Had the temperature taken a sudden hit too?
"This is a floor of company boardrooms, not a children's play park or a club. I suggest if you want any chance of remaining here after being so disrespectful to myself, my colleague and the rest of the board who are currently in a meeting I might add. You would be well advised to leave this instant and hide under a very large rock." Selena did not raise her voice, she didn't have to. She turned on her heel, thumping Adrian on the arm. "Come, we are late and we are also causing a scene."
He could do nothing but follow obediently.