Kirk doesn’t want an update—he’s trying to waste the rest of the afternoon, so he asks for a run-down of the whole quarter. Promotions, incentives, sales, overstock, discounts, everything. I spend an hour at the front of the boardroom, clicking through an endless collection of PowerPoint slides, pointing out where we’re doing better than projected and glossing over the fact that the money we spent to attend CandyCon last month hasn’t resulted in one damn order. Even I’m bored with this, and a glance around the room shows I’m not the only one.
Charity sits hunched over the table, her head so far down that her nose almost touches the paper in front of her. She pretends to be studying the figures but I can see from her scribbling that she’s writing up a grocery list. Across from her, Amber
