Emma sat on the bench, flustered and late. Her interview had been scheduled for 9:00 AM sharp, and thanks to a fortuitous signal failure, her train was stuck midway for over twenty minutes. She cursed her luck, though the irony wasn’t lost on her—it was the same train line that had delivered her to countless places, always on time.

As she finally arrived at the company headquarters, she was greeted by a stern receptionist who launched into a diatribe about punctuality and corporate responsibility. Emma, already anxious, felt her confidence unravel.

Inside the interview room, her words came out incoherent, stitched together by panic and embarrassment. The HR manager, a woman of the same ilk as the receptionist—rigid, old-school—barely masked her disapproval.

Emma’s usual charm was buried beneath layers of inhibition. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t speak the way she normally did. Her voice trembled, her thoughts tangled.

Afterwards, she stood outside, defeated. But as she turned to leave, a man in a gray suit approached her.

“I saw your resume earlier,” he said. “I just started my own firm and I think you’d be a great fit. Want to talk?”

Her eyes widened. Maybe, just maybe, that fortuitous delay had opened the right door.