David from Development. He’d been looking for a reason to outsource IT. “Elena’s great,” he’d said last quarter, “when things work.” The pause after when was a knife. Today’s presentation on the new donor database was her proof of competence. Without audio, she was just a frozen face on a grid.
Chat exploded with green checkmarks. David nodded, slowly. Not satisfied. Just… watching.
Join again.
She rebooted Chrome. Then the laptop. The countdown clock: 9:31.
9:33. The meeting was live. David’s face appeared, eyebrows already raised. “Elena? You’re on mute.”
She typed in the chat: Mic issue. Dialing in by phone.