Chapter 5: The Directors' Lunch

The directors' reception was on the sixteenth floor at three-thirty, and I walked in with the green ledger under my arm.

I had not been invited.

The boardroom had a long table, a view of the river and four directors in suits.

At the head of the table stood the vice president, holding a cracker.

Next to him, in a pink knit top and a lanyard, stood Cassidy with a silver tray.

On the tray were my tins.

Three of them were open and empty down to the gold crown on the bottom.

Two sat in a bowl of ice, still sealed.

"And these," Cassidy was saying, "were donated by Althea on my team. She's so generous. Everyone loves her."

"Hi," I said.

The vice president turned around, delighted.

"Ah, the generous Althea."

"I'm not very generous," I said. "I'm accurate."

Cassidy's smile did not move at all.

I did not grab the bowl.

I walked up to the table and put the ledger down next to the ice, and I opened it to a clean page.

"Those are lovely," I said. "The tin in your hand is two hundred and forty dollars."

The vice president looked down.

He had a spoon in one hand and a tin in the other, and he held both very still.

"Cassidy told me these were a gift," he said.

"She did say 'thanks for the tins.' I have that in writing."