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heavily through her firmly set jaw. She crossed her arms in a stance she’d lately adopted to show off the four-and-a-half-carat diamond the hedge fund manager she’d been dating for three years had finally conceded to give her.
    â€œI don’t know who you slept with,” Lillian spat, “but I hope you realize who you’re stealing from.”
    Tara felt her stomach knot in instinctive dislike of being in trouble. “Wha—”
    â€œHook has decided to go public and they want you to be the ECM.”
    â€œWhat?” Tara’s brain and heart raced. “Who—” she started, but Lillian wasn’t listening.
    â€œI’m a managing director at this firm and you
just
got promoted to VP. And you
know
I’ve been working on a Silicon Valley strategy. Josh Hart has been in the system under my name for the past year.” One of Lillian’s favorite pastimes was putting every executive or potential executive in the business universe in the internal database as someone she knew so that she could get credit if and when they became clients of the firm. “I was supposed to meet him next month,” she lied. “This deal should be mine.”
    â€œLillian, I—”
    â€œYou must have slept with someone. Who was it?”
    â€œLillian, how do you even know—”
    â€œSteve got a call from Harvey Tate saying you’re supposed to be one hundred percent on this and I have to pick up your other work.” She made a face. “How does Harvey Tate even know who you are? Eww, did you seduce him? He’s like seventy.” Lillian’s face went white and her painted lips parted. “Oh my god, did you fuck Todd?”
    Lillian had infamously thrown herself at Todd Kent at a holiday party three years ago, only to be rejected in favor of a girl in IR, whom Lillian had been instrumental in edging out of the firm six months later. Despite filling her present calendar with wedding planning, Lillian still felt Todd was her territory.
    â€œNo, Lillian.” Tara shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is the first I’ve heard of any of this.”
    Lillian’s green eyes lasered into Tara’s. Lillian was legitimately gorgeous: silky chestnut hair framed her perfectly symmetrical face, and her petite features looked handcrafted. Tara could feel Lillian thinking about whether Todd, the man who had rejected her in all her physical perfection, would actually be seduced by Tara’s plain frame and last-season shoes. Lillian squinted her eyes at her junior colleague’s imperfections until she regained her cool and turned to her computer, apparently satisfied that it was out of the question.
    â€œWell,” she said to Tara flippantly, looking at the screen, “whatever happened, you’re not getting any help from me on this. And you haven’t made any friends.” She turned to face Tara one last time. “And everyone is going to think you slept your way into it. There’s no other explanation.”
    Tara ignored the remark. “So is Todd Kent the—”
    â€œI said no help from me,” Lillian snapped.
    â€œOkay.” Tara put her hands up defensively and turned to leave the office.
    As she closed the door behind her, anxiety gave way to adrenaline. She was going to be on Hook’s IPO deal team? Flying solo, with no one else from ECM? Was that really possible?
    The thought made her brain clear, as if she were waking up after a groggy nap, as if that thing that might make the static routine more exciting wasn’t just happening—it was happening to
her.
    But what did Todd Kent have to do with it?
    She turned the corner and saw Todd himself sitting at her desk.
    â€œHello again,” he said merrily, swiveling the chair. He gestured to the desk drawer where she kept her vitamins; he’d opened it. “You’re quite the pill popper, Miss