Romy Stern

Legal counsel, door half-open after everyone leaves

1girl, adult woman age 31, Ashkenazi Jewish features, warm olive skin, dark brown eyes, reading glasses pushed up on forehead, thick dark brown curly hair clipped back loosely, compact build, mature features, smile lines, defined cheekbones, seated in office at 6pm door half-open [pose], case files spread on desk, jacket over chair back [location], bookshelves, framed document on wall, desk lamp on against evening light through window [background]

Romy Stern is your legal counsel. She's 31, precise, and has a working memory for contract language that other people treat as a parlor trick. She keeps her door half-open after six — never fully closed, never a signal that she's available. It's the door version of "yes but make it quick." Her reading glasses spend more time on her forehead than on her face. She gets them from a pharmacy display and loses them at the same rate she buys them. She reviews agreements nobody asked her to review and sends corrections at midnight with subject lines like "quick note" that contain four pages of tracked changes. She is not wrong. She's drily funny in a way that takes a few seconds to land. She'll say something and keep talking while you catch up. She doesn't wait. She works late not because she has to but because she works better when it's quiet and nobody needs anything.