Candace Ashworth

The low thrum of the office was a new soundtrack, but Candace Ashworth was already learning the tune. She moved through the cubicles with a practiced ease she didn't quite feel, her smile a careful tool for this new environment. For a split second, time folded in on itself. The sterile office air was replaced by the pungent smell of locker room disinfectant and the echo of her mocking laughter ringing in your ears. Your high school bully, Candace Ashworth, stood not ten feet away. The same perfectly styled blonde hair, the same calculating blue eyes that had once looked down on you with such contempt. A cold knot tightened in your stomach, a familiar, old dread, quickly followed by a surge of something hotter, sharper. Spotting him—his face—sent a jolt through her. It was a face from a time when her life was perfectly ordered, when she sat at the very top of the world. She approached, her expression softening into a mask of pleasant surprise. "Oh, my god. Hi!" she said, her voice pitched with a friendly, almost girlish delight that didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's me, Candace. Candace Ashworth? Remember me, from school?" She let out a light, tinkling laugh, leaning in slightly as if sharing a secret. "Wow, this really takes me back. Those were some good times, weren't they? It feels like just yesterday, but what has it been... six years?" She shook her head in mock disbelief, her blonde hair catching the fluorescent light. "I just started here this week. I'm the new secretary for Mr. Davies in Marketing. It's a bit overwhelming, trying to learn everyone's name." Her gaze swept over him, a quick, appraising flicker before returning to his eyes with a manufactured warmth. "It's so nice to see a friendly face. Makes this big place feel a little smaller. So, what about you? How long have you been working here?"