In all her years as a Cool Bean, Cora had never been inside the corporate headquarters. She had seen it from a distance, though, and she would use the sight of the six-story concrete building to fuel her motivation to climb the ranks. But before, her goal had been to make her parents proud. Now, as she stared up at the gray facade with office desks in every floor-to-ceiling window, Cora was proving a point to herself.

A familiar presence pressed against her side, and Farron wrapped an arm around her waist. "How're you doing?"

Cora took a deep breath—then coughed as she inhaled a whiff of exhaust from the busy road behind them.

As Cora worked on regaining her voice, a white sedan pulled up to the curb, and Kevin stepped out a second later. After exchanging a few more words with the familiar-looking driver—was that the Cool Beans regular?—then leaning back into the car for a kiss, he watched them leave before joining Cora and Farron.

"So this is what corporate looks like," Kevin said, squinting up at the building as he clutched the wide strap of the laptop bag crossing his chest. "It looks like a prison."

"It's not that bad," Cora said, her voice still hoarse, but she had to admit that Kevin had a point. The dull exterior looked more like a military bunker than an office building, and the lack of foliage surrounding it didn't help—or maybe she was just worried about what might happen to them once they were inside. "Sure, it's a little...intimidating, but we're resilient Bean Team Members! We'll be fine! Probably! Hopefully!"

"Hey," Farron whispered, squeezing Cora's waist. "You're going to be great. You've been practicing for over a week. You literally gave your speech in your sleep."

Cora shrugged with reluctant agreement. While she still didn't believe she had recited some of her lines during an afternoon nap, she did remember dreaming about her impending presentation. It unfortunately ended as a nightmare, and she had been laughed out of the building by coffee beans in business casual attire.

"Even if it doesn't go as planned, anyone can see how passionate you are," Farron continued. "Besides, didn't you think the Fruitastic interview was going to be awful too? And you ended up doing amazing?"

With the reminder, Cora couldn't help but smile. She was making the rounds of beverage headquarters, it seemed, having stopped by Fruitastic's corporate offices a couple days prior. Her terror at the start of the interview ended up working in her favor when a nervous joke ended up inciting a round of laughter, and she ended up leaving with high spirits and a reusable bag filled with Fruitastic paraphernalia. It wasn't a job offer yet, far from it, but she did get a free T-shirt and pen.

"I guess you're right," Cora said, then sighed. "And I guess there's no point in stalling either. If we're not ready by now, we'll never be."

"Speak for yourself," Kevin mumbled, still eyeing the foreboding building. "I could use at least another hour to mentally prepare myself. Or at least to stop sweating."

Unfortunately, their appointment would be over by then, so Cora gave him another five minutes before leading the way inside.

The lobby was a little more lively, but not by much. For one, the Cool Beans color scheme was brown and black, and the headquarters exemplified that perfectly. Cora half-expected the plants to be brown as well—perhaps the green could represent their matcha products. The rest of the decor seemed to be going for the minimalistic approach with sleek chairs, abstract light fixtures, and straight lines everywhere. The only piece of "artwork," if it could be called that, was the large Cool Beans wordmark on the wall above the front desk in glossy black letters.

There, the lone receptionist was focused on their computer, only glancing up when Cora stopped in front of them.

"Hi!" Cora exclaimed, probably a little too enthusiastically. "I have an appointment with the marketing division? I'm—"

The receptionist smacked three visitor badges on the counter, then pointed to the elevators beside them. "Fourth floor."

Cora glanced at Farron, who shrugged. While Farron had acted as Cora's audience for the last few days, they hadn't expected to be allowed into the actual presentation. But if the opportunity was there...

With an innocent smile, Cora grabbed the three badges, thanked the receptionist, and hurried towards the elevators. The fourth floor's receptionist was at least a little more hospitable, and even though they seemed a little surprised by Cora's enthusiasm, they eventually returned Cora's smile, walked them to the waiting area outside the conference room, and left them with a "they'll be with you shortly." Then, all Cora and the others could do was wait.

As the seconds ticked by—literally, the clicking of the analog clock above her seemed to echo in the quiet office—Cora had no idea what to do with herself. Her knees bounced for a few seconds before she forced her heels to remain on the floor. She picked at the edges of her flashcards before dropping them onto her lap and clasping her hands together. Focusing on Kevin to her left wasn't helpful, and he was fiddling with the frayed handle on his bag. So Cora turned to her right, first eyeing the printed slides in the clear folder on Farron's lap, then shifting to visually trace the intricate lines of their dragon tattoo.

Cora's eyes had only made it a third of the way through the dragon's body when the conference room door burst open across the hall. Two people, maybe in their late thirties, stormed out, both wearing gaudy homemade Cool Beans T-shirts under disheveled business casual attire. While the first made a beeline for the elevators, the second paused at the sight of Cora and the others waiting outside.

"Good luck," they whispered with a wince before hurrying after their friend.

Cora stared after them, wide eyed, before spinning towards Farron. Their furrowed brows didn't assuage Cora's renewed fears, but just as they opened their mouth to speak, a head popped out of the conference room.

"Ms. Chun?" the woman said, glancing between Cora and Farron.

Cora jumped to her feet and forced a grin. "That's me!"

"I'm Robin," the woman said, shaking Cora's hand with a smile, as if none of them had seen the last people storming out of the room they were just entering. "Thank you for stopping by today. Our marketing team is excited to hear the ideas you have for us, as are some of our other guests."

Cora didn't register the last remark until she saw the others in attendance, then froze at the sight. Around a dark wooden boardroom table were about two dozen people in cushy chairs, most with their eyes on her. While the three at the opposite end were in their thirties and forties and dressed in business casual, the remainder looked younger than Cora, each wearing formal suits.

Was this what it felt like to pledge to a sorority? Cora supposed it was never too late to get the full college experience, hazing and all.

"These are...members of our board," Robin said, gesturing at the suits. "They wanted a firsthand look at how our division is run."

Somehow, Cora doubted that. Perhaps it was because half of the young "board members" were on their phones, about three had turned their attention to the floor-to-ceiling windows, two were nodding off on the table, and one was blatantly eating a burger. Still, she smiled at them all—regardless of who was actually watching—before helping Farron hand out the printed slides while Kevin connected his laptop to the projector system.

"Whenever you're ready," Robin said from the opposite end of the long boardroom table, needing to use the microphone in front of her to be heard.

Even after Kevin scrolled through a few slides to make sure everything was fine, and Farron gave her a comforting nod and smile, Cora couldn't help but wonder if she was truly ready. Ready for the presentation was one thing, but there was also the future, the unknown, change. Would she ever be ready for any of that?

Cora glanced down at the note cards in her shaking hands, then looked up at her audience with a deep breath. She wouldn't know if she was ready unless she tried, so she might as well try.

"Good day, Cool Beans generals!" Cora announced, startling the sleeping suits awake with her dramatic flair. "I'm Cora, your loyal soldier, and I'm here with my compatriots, Kevin and Farron. I'm afraid I have dire news from the most dangerous warfront of them all: the food court."

When Cora paused, she half-expected her audience to burst out laughing over her unnecessary theatrics, or at least cringe with secondhand embarrassment. But after receiving nothing but surprised wide eyes, Cora continued with renewed confidence.

"I know what you must be thinking: how is it possible for the average food court, a place teeming with possible patrons, to be in desperate need of our attention? Well, for the most part—"

"But what if I'm not thinking that?" one voice asked.

Cora stared at her audience, confused, before one of the suits raised a couple fingers.

"You're talking about shopping malls, yeah?" they asked. "Do people still go to those? I do all my shopping online."

"Oh, mall food courts?" another suit said after whispering to their neighbor. "I was thinking of a concession stand at a stadium or something."

Another suit scoffed. "You mean a basketball court?"

There was a pause. "Oh. Yeah."

"Yes," Cora said to the first suit, smiling as sweetly as she could. "Some people still go to shopping malls. For many websites, shipping costs are too high to be practical."

She silently hoped they wouldn't ask for data. She hadn't expected online shopping trends to be needed for a presentation on marketing freshly made beverages. Thankfully, the first suit seemed to take her word, albeit with mild surprise, before quietly discussing the news with the suits around them.

"Anyway," Cora continued as she glanced at her cards, "if you're thinking that mall food courts would have a lot of potential customers, you would be correct, for the most part. There's a reason why seven out of ten Cool Beans stores in our district are—"

"Wait," another suit said, squinting at the printed slides and a tablet in their hand. "You said your name was Cora?"

Cora, who had been briefly worried she would get another question she couldn't completely answer, was surprised by the unexpected simplicity. "Yes, that's me!"

The suit leaned closer to their tablet. "This says we're supposed to be having a meeting with Cordelia."

Cora's jaw shifted. While she was relieved this was a question she could answer, she was annoyed at yet another interruption. "Cordelia's my legal name, but I prefer Cora."

The suit turned their narrowed eyes to her. "Why?"

"Well..." Cora began, but even though the truth was freshly conjured in her mind, the only thing that escaped her lips was a heavy sigh.

Sure, Darlene had called her that name every work day for the last eight years—and her parents had done so before that. For ages, the sound of her legal name had stirred up nothing but regret. After all, she hadn't deserved anything they had given her. Why would her name be any different?

Before, when people would ask her for the reason behind her nickname, her voice would refuse to cooperate, not wanting to admit her failures. This time, while her voice was silent once more, guilt wasn't what held it back. In its place was frustration—they interrupted her to ask that?

While Cora was busy smothering her annoyance, Farron cleared their throat. "It saves time. Less syllables and all."

"And who are you?"

Farron grinned without missing a beat. "Just another Cool Bean ready to hear more about the current food court situation!"

With no further questions and a reassuring nod from Farron, Cora gave them a grateful smile before facing her inattentive audience once more.

Maybe this was a test. Sure, her audience wasn't as invested as she had hoped, their attention spans more akin to kindergarteners than legal adults, but it's not like every shift at Cool Beans went as planned either. Despite the roadblocks, Cora would manage to make it through every day in one piece—and this would be no different.

Cora was manager material. She was born for this. And she was going to show them just how valuable she really was.