Things were glowing over there. And I should be part of that glow. I was that glow for the past few years. Huda had said so many times that I was the one who had made it all happen, that I was her secret ingredient. I ran a tight ship. When I got my first intern, I was a strict boss, maybe too strict, but it made the company skyrocket, let Huda shine while I smiled on the sidelines.

And then I was booted without any credit.

Mom’s manipulative trick to get me into Manhattan was the final nudge for me, a sign, as she would call it, that I couldn’t wait any longer to confront Huda. So as the train rickets its way down the track, I stare at my phone, waiting for the three dots to appear, showing that she’s responding. I know it’s a Saturday, but she’ll definitely be at the Union Square office. And I know she’s seen my message. In the old days, not a minute would go by without a response from her. Once, she took an urgent call from me midcoitus, about a wholesale account for a small boutique in Miami. Now she is ignoring me, and I almost send her a selfie of me on the train to dangle that yes, bitch, I’m coming. Whether you like it or not.

It’s not until I’m at Grand Central Terminal, detraining, that I finally hear the ping I’ve been waiting for.

Sure. I have thirty minutes at 12. See you at the Starbucks on Fifteenth.

She’s late to the meeting, an obvious power move on her part. I pick a table facing the entrance and sip my green tea latte, not even pretending to be busy on my phone or reading a book. I want her to know, from the moment she walks in, that I mean business. I have the file, revenue sheets, articles, meeting notes from the past few years. Physical evidence of my dignity, my worth, all in print on Mom’s recycled paper.

When she finally comes in, she’s hard to miss, as always. At six feet, Huda towers over most of the men in her vicinity. Her dark hair is chopped into a pixie cut and she’s wearing a black sheath dress—ours, I mean hers—with a teddy coat, even though it’s pushing seventy degrees outside. She has red-heeled booties on, too, adding even more inches to her height.