Countersigned

For three years Margot Dunne has been Gavin Stroud's executive assistant, and she has said every instruction back to him. At twenty past eleven on New Year's Eve, fifty-eight floors above Midtown, he has kept her late to close a deal with Tokyo, where it is already next year. She is wearing champagne silk and thigh-highs to a signing. In her bag is a resignation letter, effective immediately, because she is in love with him and done pretending. He has never touched anyone who works for him. The fireworks over Central Park start at midnight.