All three men shook their heads.

“I was at that Dolly Parton concert at the Hollywood Bowl, too, wasn’t it great?” one of the men behind Brad blurted out.

Olivia tried to remember how to smile.

“Indeed. It was my first time at the Hollywood Bowl, actually.”

All of the men exclaimed at this, and spent a few minutes relating their favorite trips to the Hollywood Bowl as they ushered Olivia and Ellie out of the conference room and waved good-bye.

Ellie smiled brightly at Olivia as they walked out of the building and toward her car.

“We’ll talk about it when we get into the car,” Ellie said between her gleaming white teeth. “You never know who is listening around these tech companies.”

They got in the car, and Ellie gunned the motor.

“We’re getting the hell out of this parking lot before we talk about anything,” she said. They drove a mile down the road without speaking, a Beyoncé song from Olivia’s power playlist the only thing breaking the silence in the car. Ellie pulled into a fast-food parking lot and threw the car into park. Olivia started talking before the car was off.

“Ellie, what the HELL just happened back there?” She stopped herself. “I’m sorry, I’m not yelling at you, I’m yelling with you, you know that, right? I just have to yell right now.”

Ellie slipped out of her blazer and folded it on her lap.

“Yell as much as you want. Yell for the rest of the day, at minimum, as far as I’m concerned. I can’t believe he did that.”

Olivia shook her fists in the air.

“I can’t believe he did that! ‘Tell your boyfriend’—what the fuck? In what world is that ever appropriate? But it’s especially inappropriate when my boyfriend is a fucking senator! I let that comment about getting in trouble with the law go, even though it annoyed me; I’m sure his experiences getting into trouble as a privileged white dude were a lot different than mine. But ‘Tell your boyfriend’ was my limit, Ellie!”

Ellie pulled out her phone.

“Say the word and I’ll email that asshole and tell him we don’t want his business.”

Olivia pulled her blazer off and tossed it into the back seat.

“Let me think about that. I can’t decide which one would be better: a cold refusal to do business with them or charging them a great deal of money for our work.”

Ellie grinned.

“Either one would be satisfying, but you’re the one to make this call.”

Olivia put her hand on Ellie’s arm.

“Thanks. I really appreciate that. And I’m sorry, again, that all of this drama has had an impact on our firm. That’s the last thing I ever wanted.”

Ellie patted her on the cheek.