Falling for You by Caisey Quinn Page B

inspection, Fate could see that the woman was supermodel attractive. She held a finger up indicating that Fate should wait, so wait she did. And then she waited some more. Checking her cell phone screen, she saw that it was already nine. Orientation was supposed to begin promptly at nine.
    “I’m sorry to bother you. It’s just I’m running late and—”
    “Eighteenth floor,” was all the woman said.
    Okay then. So she wasn’t in Texas anymore. Got it.
    Sprinting into an open elevator, Fate nearly knocked over a raven-haired woman with a stylish haircut she envied immediately. The sleek woman’s blue eyes were like lasers burning over her.
    “Excuse me. I’m so sorry,” Fate told her, leaning forward to press the number eighteen on the elevator panel.
    “Maxwell Medical new-employee orientation?”
    Fate nodded. “Yes, and I’m late. I got on the wrong train and I’m not from here and…this is probably much more than you care to know.”
    Several men in business suits shuffled to allow the dark-haired woman to stand closer to her.
    “I’m Gwendolyn Scott,” she said, moving a designer purse and a stack of files to her other hand so she could offer one to Fate. “Please call me Gwen. I’m helping out with orientation today, and I have the paperwork, so they can’t start without me.”
    Fate exhaled and shook the woman’s hand. “Fate. Buchanan. And that’s the first good news I’ve heard in…forever.”
    They stopped on several floors and had to let a few men out before both of them finally exited on the eighteenth.
    “Don’t be nervous, Fate,” Gwen told her as they entered a conference room labeled with only the letter B. “I’ve only been working here a short while, but so far, it’s great.”
    “Um, this may be completely inappropriate to ask, but how often do we get paid?”
    Gwen smiled, flashing bright, white teeth that were so perfect they could’ve been veneers. “The first and the fifteenth of every month. Your first payment will be a check you’ll have to pick up in HR, but after that, it will go directly into your account. When do you start?”
    “Next week.” Fate did the math. She wouldn’t have worked a full two-week pay period by the first of July, but it would be better than nothing. What in the world she was going to do until then, she had no idea. She made a mental note to apply for night and weekend shifts at some of the diners she’d passed on her way to Maxwell. Maybe she could survive on tips until her paychecks kicked in.
    “Which department?”
    “I’m one of the assistants to the director of marketing. They said they hired a few recently.”
    Gwen smiled again. “They did. I’m one of the recent hires as well, but I interned here my last year at Columbia. Collin Pierson is the director, and he’s…interesting. So far, not a bad guy to work for though.” Fate followed her new colleague into the conference room, where people were still standing in line for name badges. “Well, I better get these to Collin so we can get started. I look forward to working with you, Fate. It was nice to meet you.”
    Fate smiled and nodded as she picked up her name badge. She found an empty folding chair at a table full of women who looked to be about her age. Engaging in conversation with Gwen had put her temporarily at ease, but glancing around the room, she felt shabby compared to the sophisticated-looking people around her. People who had not gotten on the wrong train and had to walk a million blocks while sweltering on the sidewalks. No one else looked quite as haggard or disheveled as she felt. They looked as if they’d been beamed into the room.
    It’s not a modeling job, Fate.
    As multiple speakers introduced themselves, Fate had to remind herself that she belonged here, that she’d graduated magna cum laude with two degrees, one in marketing and one in business finance. She might have looked a little rough around the edges, and Trevor and Melissa had each shot a