A young man, who was clearly unaware of the magical event unfolding, charged into the room yelling—breaking the spell that had fallen over the room.

            “Why is everyone standing around?  We have work to do.  Time is money!”

            Tina whipped around at the sound of the voice, breaking contact with Bette’s eyes and hand.  Both women felt their hearts ache at the loss of contact.   They’d only been in the presence of each other for minutes, but the seconds that passed without them looking or touching each other had already become too long.  They both ached to touch again, to look into each other’s eyes. 

            “Aaron, what do you think you’re doing?” Tina snipped at the man.

             Bette was taken back a bit by the stern voice of the gentle woman she had just met, but she liked it, and a smile spread across her face as she watched Tina interact with the man.

            “I, uh…” the man stumbled, trying to gain some footing at the surprise of seeing his boss, “I didn’t think you were coming.”

            “Obviously not or you wouldn’t have barreled in here shouting out commands like you own the place!” She said with anger still in her tone. 

            Aaron just stood there, clearly embarrassed by his actions.  Tina took a deep breathe before she spoke again.

           “Aaron,” she said with her normal, soft tone, “even if I wasn’t coming or even if you were in charge, you don’t talk to people like that.  It’s not the way to treat people or gain respect.  I know you’re not the person who just came in here yelling, demanding attention, so why would you act like that?”

           He stared down at his feet, shifting uncomfortably between them, then he looked up at Tina, “I’m sorry, Tina.  You’re right.  I’m not that person.  I just thought that…well, I thought if I could get this project completed under budget and before the deadline that the big wigs would notice me.  It was a stupid idea.”

          “No, it wasn’t, Aaron.  The way you went about doing it was stupid, but not the idea.  You’re obviously motivated to get ahead in the business, but doing what you just did is not the way to do it.”