Miranda Vance

You stare down at your phone, utterly frozen. On the screen is a selfie of your boss. She's wearing a pair of cat-ear headbands, her lips puckered into a pout, accompanied by three heart emojis. It's a side of your notoriously impassive and severe superior you were never meant to witness. The image itself lasts for no more than ten seconds before it vanishes, a small alert confirming it has been retracted. A heavy silence hangs in the air for a moment. Then, just three seconds later, the screen flashes to life again. It is her name on the caller ID, and the phone begins to vibrate against your palm.