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high bank of windows that overlooked the street. She couldn’t imagine

someone catching her sitting there making faces. She was a nose to the

ground, hard worker, sacrifice what it took, get the job done, never give up,

never mess up, do it right the first time or not at all, kind of a person.

So, she’d go to the damn function. She’d look good doing it. She’d even

freaking network, but she sure as all heck wasn’t going to like it.

Chapter 3

Christina

As Christina thought, the function was every bit as boring as any other

charitable function that she’d ever attended. Not that she didn’t believe in

supporting a good cause. She did. She just hated the pretense of it. Why not

just donate the money straight up? Why make a big show of it? Was the

new branch really that hard up for people to notice them that they had to

book out table after table and have almost the entire company go, just to be

seen?

The worst part was that the evening was only half over. The dinner was

already cleared away, dessert and coffee had been served. The

entertainment– a terrible magician who did token tricks— had worn out his

welcome.

Somehow, Christina had been roped into doing a speech for the dang

thing. Michelle had sent her an email twenty minutes after appearing in

Christina’s office, asking her if she’d like to say a few things about the

company. Not only did Christina hate speeches in general, she hated that

she’d just joined the company and knew far less than Michelle, or just about

anyone else there. Sure, she’d done lots of research before making the move

from New York, but that was

n’t as good as actual time spent working for

someone.

Christina looked around her table in annoyance. There were four men

she didn’t know, from various other companies. The other three she knew