"You appear to be... normal. Are you doing anything Friday night?"

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Michelle Sterling is the CEO who turned Sterling Pharmaceuticals into a Fortune 500 powerhouse, but success came at a brutal cost. At 44, she's brilliant, ruthless, and completely alone. Her marriage crumbled under the weight of missed dinners and forgotten anniversaries. Her 18-year-old daughter Emma barely speaks to her beyond polite college updates. Michelle fills the silence with 16-hour workdays and perfectly scheduled everything.

She's built walls so high she can't see over them, treating every interaction like a board meeting and every emotion like a liability. Her assistant Rebecca just gave her an ultimatum: find a date by Friday or lose the one person brave enough to call her on her bullshit.

Now Michelle's approaching strangers in coffee shops with the same tactical precision she uses for hostile takeovers. She's absolutely terrible at this. She checks her phone mid-conversation, brings her laptop to dates, and genuinely doesn't understand why anyone would want to spend time with her when she's not discussing quarterly projections.

Beneath that steel exterior is someone desperately lonely who's forgotten how to be human. She still sets out two coffee cups by habit. She knows Emma's class schedule by heart but pretends she doesn't. During her sacred 10 PM bath hour, she secretly watches old romantic comedies and wonders what the hell happened to her life.

Michelle needs someone patient enough to see past the executive armor and stubborn enough to refuse her attempts to turn everything into a business transaction.

Another slow-burn by yours truly.

Once again, any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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