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She puts a hand on my cheek. “Thank you. I’m going to try very hard.” She straightens up. “Of course I might end up like CeCe. I think this therapy might end up being gin therapy. I half expect Thomas to drive us to a bar.”
What is even happening right now? “Thomas is taking us?”
My mom shrugs like this is an everyday occurrence. Sure. She normally has a driver take her to her therapy appointments. “CeCe said it might be easier to get there if Thomas took me, and he kindly said yes. I think it might take longer because of traffic, but he assures me traffic is no problem for him.”
“We might need that bar after the trip,” I say as we start walking down the hall. I’ll make sure she’s buckled up.
When I enter the office, everyone is huddled around the monitors. There are a bank of them we use when we’re collaborating. Ria sits at one of the keyboards, scrolling through a bunch of text I don’t recognize.
Lydia looks up at me. She’s got a martini glass in her hand, and she looks like she’s enjoying it. “There you are, darling girl. Come here and see what’s happening. Oh, do you want one of these? They’re delicious. Thomas made a whole pitcher of them.”
CeCe smiles. “He opened the bottle. He’s excellent at opening bottles. You know a good martini needs very little work but must be poured by a master hand.”
So they’re drinking straight gin. It’s going to be a fun afternoon.
“Yeah, Nonna’s discovered hard booze,” Heath says, his mouth in the primmest line. “And now CeCe is taking her to Monte Carlo.”
“I find her deeply amusing,” CeCe admits. “It’ll be good to have a friend. And perhaps when the therapist dislodges the stick in Diane’s ass, she can come, too.”
My mom flips her the bird. “I’m coming to make sure no one gets in too much trouble. I have a lot of vacation time I haven’t taken.”
CeCe winks her way, like that had been her plan all along. “Excellent. You could use a vacation.”
“What is happening?” Heath whispers.
“I think the older generation is about to get their groove back on.” I, for one, am happy for them.
“Seriously, Ivy, you need to see this.” Anika points to the monitors.
“It is pretty cool,” Darnell agrees. “A fitting redemption.”
“What is this?” I ask as I focus on what Ria’s brought up.
“It’s the comments section of Nick’s article,” Harper announces. “It’s only been online for an hour, but there are already forty comments. Read them.”
This article is bullshit. Ivy Jensen is one of the smartest women in the business and the best boss I ever had. I worked at Jensen Medical and when it went under, she was there for us. Nick Stafford fled like the piece of crap he is along with the rest of the management team. Ivy stayed even when it cost her because she had her employees’ backs.
I recognize the username. “He was on our development team.”
He’d been an excellent worker with an amazing sense of humor and a great work ethic. I’d pulled some strings and got him on with a rival firm.
“There’s so much more.” Ria scrolls down to the next comment.
Mr. Stafford has misrepresented what happened at Jensen and Ms. Jensen’s part in the failure of the company—not the excellent product she developed. That is still going strong despite the fact the woman who developed it no longer profits from her hard work. What brought Ms. Jensen down was inexperience. Not hubris or a lack of talent. She also might have hired the wrong people, but that is a function of her youth. All geniuses have their ups and downs. I am waiting eagerly to see what she will do next.
I wouldn’t be in this country if Ivy Jensen hadn’t busted her butt to find a job for me and my whole team when Jensen went under. Who does that these days? She’ll get her house in order and come back stronger than ever, and when she needs a developer, I hope she gives me a call.
Tears fill my eyes.
“It keeps going,” Anika says, putting an arm around me.
Harper is on the other side, my best friends bolstering me, joining me in this marvelous moment and making it bigger and more meaningful because they’re here to share it with me. “There are a bunch talking about you working to find them jobs so they didn’t lose their visas. Or how you mentored them. I know it felt like failure, but you proved yourself to so many people.”
“And she’s going to continue to do so because Huffman called me right before you came in.” CeCe looks perfectly satisfied. “He said the article doesn’t scare him off at all. He likes a challenge. I think he’s already heard rumors, and those comments mean something to him. So get the terribly named Emma ready and force your boyfriend into a suit.”
