Blind Date

Anne was a married woman, in her late forties with, from how often she spoke of them, he assumed as many children, and she liked to think of herself as having a motherly presence in the office. She had shoulder length mousy brown hair that, gossip insisted, was dyed, though he didn't much care. Their relationship had been purely professional over the four years since he had started here. They had talked and socialised at the infrequent out of work mandatory gatherings, but it had never progressed beyond that.
"Anthony, I want to talk to you about a bit of a sensitive subject..." she said as she sat, steepling her fingers.
Bad sign.
"Oh?" he said, trying to sound relaxed, though he had to resist the urge to squirm in his seat.
"I've been your manager since the day you joined us here and I'm happy to say you've been an exemplary member of the team..." she continued, causing him no amount of confusion. Bad news rarely followed the word exemplary, but he stayed silent, letting her go on, her voice tentative, as if testing the waters, "Staff have come and gone, my teams expanded, we've received praise, bonuses, all good news and a lot of it can be, in one way or another accredited to you."
"...Thank you?" he said, uncertain as to where she was going with this.
Anne nodded, "I think it's time you branched out."
Anthony groaned inwardly, there was likely a new position coming up, one Anne wanted him to go for and was doing him the 'favour' of giving him a preemptive heads up.
"Anne, thank you I appreciate-..."
She held up a hand, an almost wry smirk touching her lips, "I appreciate the offer but I'm not interested in moving up just yet?" she said.
He hesitated, staying silent.
"Now you're thinking, 'if you knew I'd say that why call me in here.'"
He remained silent. He couldn't fault her and she knew it.
"There isn't a new position coming available, that's not what I'm talking about." she let out a long low sigh and leaned back in her chair, lowering her hand.
"You're a good person, Anthony. A great worker, nice and kind, but you don't have any drive, any ambition." she said, bluntly.