Chapter 4
“Are you coming to Maureen’s going-away thing after work?”
I looked up at Jared standing in the doorway of my cubicle. Maureen Cassidy, an editor, was leaving the company and relocating to Dallas with her husband. She’d been with Axis for ten years and the company was sponsoring a happy hour for her after work at some Irish pub near the office. I’d e-mailed with her and probably spoken with her once or twice, but she was practically a stranger to me.
“I don’t think so,” I answered. “I mean, I barely know her.”
“So what? Come anyway and have a drink. I don’t plan on being there long myself, but I have to go and show my face. Ashley’s coming, aren’t you, Ashley?” he asked, looking over the cubicle wall at her.
“I can’t,” she said. “I have to pick my kid up from day care. My hu
