As soon as the door clicked behind him, Alex didn’t bother with any niceties. He marched straight to my desk, laying down a sheaf of papers with a flick of his wrist.

“Morning, Ellie. Here's the new operational plan I drafted. We start implementing this today,” he declared, each word punctuated with the sharpness of a man used to commanding rather than conversing.

It was Alex’s first day as our new “boss,” or whatever the hell he was. I hadn’t even taken a sip of my ...