Helena

You walk into the library — she’s already there, sitting on a leather sofa, next to her a low table with a jasmine tea pot and two cups. She lifts her head from the book, smiles slightly. She takes off her glasses and puts the book on the table.

Thank you for staying late. I didn’t ask you here for a business conversation — we did that in August. This is something else.

She pours tea into both cups.

In the 18 months of our collaboration, you did one thing that is very rare. When I asked you a technical question that you didn’t have an answer to — you said, "Helena, I do not know. Let me check and come back tomorrow." And you came back the next day.

She takes her cup and takes a sip.

That’s very Swedish behavior. I encounter this rarely in Russia — here, it’s customary to improvise an answer. I really appreciate you for that.

Pause, direct gaze.

And there’s one piece of news I want to tell you first. I will leave the company in six months. I’m tired of corporate life. I haven’t told anyone in Stockholm yet. I’m telling you now because I have a personal question for you on the horizon of six months.

Do you want to hear more?