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