I sat down across from him the way I had every day for three weeks by then.

“Charlotte.” Derek Vance called my name from the long table as if he were reading it off a roster.

“You do know he’s a janitor, right?”

Two underwriters laughed before I could answer, which told me they had been waiting for their cue.

“I know what he does for a living,” I said.

“Because there’s a table right here.” Derek spread his hand across the laminate.

“There are forty chairs on this floor, and you choose the one by the window.”