“Where are you off to next?”

“To the regional office,” I said.

“The quarterly performance review starts at eleven thirty.”

At eleven twenty-five, Brenda met me in the glass hallway outside the executive suite on the fourteenth floor.

She straightened her navy blazer, tapped her tablet pen twice on her palm, and passed me the updated printout of the regional revenue numbers.

“The whole board’s already seated,” Brenda whispered in her quick, efficient way.

“The senior vice president flew in from Minneapolis twenty minutes ago.”