The smoke hung thick like a morning haze. White light lit the room thanks to florescent bulbs fitted into the ceiling. This was corporate life and the benefits of being the boss. "please, make yourself comfortable," she told me in a liquid cool tone. I had not known the purpose of our meeting. It was the evening. I would have been home by now enjoying a beer. Over time means nothing on a salary pay.
Furniture littered the room in a mechanical fashion. A velvet red couch hugged the wall with the accompanying coffee table. Front center was my bosses desk. Orderly, neat, compact, with only the essentials for the work day. I chose the chair that sat in front.
The chair felt expensive in the way that made me envy the little use it must get. She pulled on her cigarette. It made a cracking noise like balling up newspaper that echoed in the quite room.
She exhaled.
"Do you mind if I smoke?," she asked as if it was a rhetorical question. I had never enjoyed cigarettes, but who am I to tell the boss no.
"I don’t mind."