If you accept, Seattle will reassign your local client portfolio by Friday.”

The automatic file notification flashed in the top right corner of my laptop screen before David ended the call.

I printed the transfer document, put it in my leather work folder, and walked four blocks down the street to meet Monica at a neighborhood café.

At five o’clock, the afternoon sun sat low behind the dark outline of the oak trees outside the café window.

Monica sat across from me at a small wooden table, taking off her rimless glasses to polish them on the hem of her sweater.