“Hurry up, Kate,” Tully called out, knocking hard on the bedroom door. “You don’t want to be late on your first day of work. I’ll be down in the parking lot.”

“Okay, so maybe you are following her.” Grabbing her briefcase off the twin bed that was hers, she left her bedroom and headed downstairs.

In this last week of school, the hallways were crazy-busy with girls studying for finals, saying goodbye, and packing up their things. Kate wound through the melee and went out to the small parking lot behind the house, where Tully sat in her brand-new VW Bug, with the engine running.

The second Kate sat down and slammed the door shut, they were off. Prince’s Purple Rain soundtrack blared from the tiny speakers. Tully had to yell over the music.

“This is so great, isn’t it? Us finally going to work together.”

Kate nodded. “It sure is.” She had to admit she was excited. After all, she was a college graduate—or would be soon—and she’d found an excellent starter position in her major field. It didn’t matter that Tully had gotten the job for her, or that she was essentially following her best friend. What mattered was doing this job to the best of her abilities and finding out if broadcast journalism was for her. “Tell me about our boss,” she said, turning down the stereo.

“Johnny? He’s totally good at what he does. Used to be a war correspondent. In El Salvador or Libya; who the hell knows? I hear he misses combat, but he’s a great producer. You can learn a lot from him.”

“Have you ever wanted to go out with him?”

Tully laughed. “Just because I slept with my prof doesn’t mean every boss is fair game.”

Kate was relieved by that; more so than she should be. She wanted to ask if Johnny was married—she’d wanted to ask the question for almost a week—but she couldn’t quite form the words. They’d be too revealing.

“Here we are.” Tully pulled up to the curb outside the building and parked. All the way up the stairs and down the hall, she talked about how great it was going to be to work together, but once they were in the small, cramped set of offices, she made a beeline for Mutt and huddled with him.

Kate stood there, clutching her fake leather briefcase to her chest, wondering what she should do.

She had just decided to take off her jacket when Johnny appeared, looking both incredibly handsome and profoundly pissed off.

“Mutt! Carol!” he yelled, even though they were all standing right there. “That new company, Microsoft, is announcing something. I don’t know what the hell it is. Mike is faxing the info. They want you to go to the company headquarters and see if you can talk to the boss. Bill Gates.”