Already he had the premonition that some of his less smart but more socially graceful classmates would have no trouble glad-handing their way into jobs: that affability was a bigger factor than he gave it credit for. But the idea of being affable for affability’s sake ran counter to the grain of his purity. He prized his intelligence, clung to it as his ticket to a better life, and he felt that to entrust his success to mere schmoozing would be to insult his own talents. He’d gotten this far on his own and he was determined to thrive on his own. So he took Kirit’s suggestion and recast it as a
...more
