And to think — it all started with a meeting he never showed up to. The real agenda had nothing to do with staffing. He just wanted an excuse to sit across from her, face to face, and finally make a proper introduction. So he put it on the calendar, sent the invite, and then — somehow — missed the very moment he had engineered. She showed up. He didn’t. And yet, that empty chair became the beginning of everything. The meeting he missed turned out to be the one that mattered most. Some meetings change your whole agenda. This was one of them.