The Understudy CEO

By George Chu

A database glitch just made her the CEO. She still doesn't know how to use the espresso machine on the executive floor.

Arabella Fairfax has one professional goal: get through the workday without anyone remembering her name. Six quiet years in accounts payable have suited her perfectly.

Then a botched HR data migration accidentally names her Interim Chief Executive Officer of Wyndham & Sterling Industries - for thirty full days, with the real CEO unreachable on a digital detox retreat and no way to undo it.

What follows is equal parts disaster and revelation: a sycophantic VP who agrees with opinions she hasn't had yet, a board member scheming to install his own candidate, a devoted intern who believes in her more than she believes in herself - and a slowly uncovered financial scandal that nobody with an actual MBA ever bothered to notice.

The Understudy CEO is a whip-smart, big-hearted workplace comedy about competence hiding in plain sight, the specific chaos of accidental power, and what happens when the person who actually reads the numbers finally gets a seat at the table.
A sharp, funny send-up of corporate politics and executive egoA genuinely satisfying financial-mystery subplot with real stakesA slow-burn workplace romance that never overshadows the comedyEighteen original illustrations, one per chapter
Perfect for readers who love office comedy with real bite, competent heroines who don't need to be loud to win, and a boardroom showdown that's actually satisfying.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HBVJM25W
• ISBN13: 9798189500459
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"