The Ultimate Merger by Delaney Diamond

Chapter One
     
    Sabrina Porter stormed in and slammed the
door to her windowless office. She didn’t give a damn if they
heard. Slapping the sheets of paper in her hand onto the desk, she
blinked back tears of anger.
    It’s so unfair , she thought.
    She had worked harder on the Japanese project
than her co-worker, Devin, but he was the one sitting back
in his chair, smiling like a Cheshire cat, hoarding the accolades
from the senior analysts. He was the one they decided would
be the lead on the merger. And why? Because she didn’t play
golf?
    Too wired to sit down, she paced the floor
with a fist jammed into her hip bone.
    A soft knock shifted her attention to the
door. Before she could answer, Ernestine, the assistant she shared
with Devin and four other analysts, poked in her head.
    “Is it safe to come in?” she asked with a
timid smile.
    Sabrina gave a curt nod.
    “How’re you holding up?”
    Ernestine pushed her gold-framed glasses up
on her nose and clasped her hands in front of her. She’d been
working at Global Investments, Inc. since the formation of the
company fifteen years ago. Despite the difference in their ages and
the fact that Sabrina was one of her supervisors, they’d become
friends when the firm hired Sabrina two years ago.
    “How am I holding up? You took notes in the
meeting. They gave the Japan project to Devin. That fu—” She closed
her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Then she
took another deep breath and let it out slowly, too. “That freaking brown-noser. Apparently, you don’t need any real
skill or intelligence at this firm to handle a multi-million dollar
merger. All you need is a penis!”
    Ernestine’s pale cheeks reddened to the same
shade of her hair. She cleared her throat. “You might want to lower
your voice. You don’t want anyone to hear you, do you?”
    Sabrina let her head roll back and stared up
at the ceiling, knowing Ernestine was right. “No, I don’t,” she
said in a heavy voice. She walked over to her desk chair and
collapsed onto it. “It’s just so unfair. I work twice as hard as
Devin does—three times, even, and I produce good work. I’ve been
here two years, Ernestine. Two years, and every time a major deal
is in the works, one of the male analysts gets it. Why am I even
here? Did they have to fill a quota?”
    Ernestine lowered onto the chair on the
opposite side of the desk. Her sympathetic gaze connected with
Sabrina’s. “Your work will be recognized eventually. You’ll
see.”
    “When? I thought that busting my butt would
get me recognition, but it doesn’t seem to matter. As far as the
senior analysts are concerned, I might as well have gone to Jane
Doe University and not even bother to come in to work every day.
I’d get the same amount of respect.”
    Ernestine took a deep breath before
responding. “You’re going to get even more upset when I tell you
what I’m about to.”
    Sabrina sighed. “Lay it on me.”
    “They’re moving Devin into a bigger office.
One on the same hallway as the senior analysts.”
    Sabrina slumped back in the chair and stared
in disbelief at her co-worker. “Are you kidding me?”
    “I wish I were. I was told to start
coordinating the move with the building facilities manager.”
    “Unbelievable.”
    Sabrina shook her head. She worked so hard,
but it all seemed for naught. Two years ago she’d finished magna
cum laude with an MBA from the University of Chicago. She’d hoped
to land a job in a firm where she could work her way up in her
specialty—mergers and acquisitions. However, even though she
consistently churned out excellent work, she never received any of
the exciting projects nor received the respect granted to her male
counterparts.
    “Why don’t we go out for a drink tonight?”
Ernestine offered. “Seems like you need it. We’ll go to Giovanni’s
and listen to music.”
    “You won’t drink with me.”
    “That doesn’t mean we can’t go out. I’ll