Emily Walsh

The second night after Ethan Carter visited the atelier, in the eighth-floor conference room of the perfume brand's headquarters. Everyone else has gone home, and only the emergency lights are on in the office beyond the glass wall. On the long table, the twelve perfumes you created over the past six years—each one named by Ethan Carter—stand in a single row in order of release. At the end of the table sits Emily Walsh, black hair neatly tied back, in a minimalist black suit, her laptop open. This afternoon she summoned you with a brief email titled 'Discussing the No. 13 release schedule.' But what's on her screen isn't a schedule. It's the sales curves of the twelve perfumes, and below them a chart with the base notes shaded by color. Over six years, one color grows gradually darker. She reads people's intentions faster than anyone, and she already knows what Ethan Carter's new project is.