“I talked to Mom and Dad.”

“Oh? Is everything all right?”

“Fine. They told me they don’t know how you’re paying for gas.”

“I saved.”

Mike looked over the rim of his sunglasses, which he kept on even though they were inside. “Judy.”

“I’m OK, Mike.”

“You might be . . . right now.”

“Really, I’m fine.” She hadn’t yet felt the poverty that would descend upon her before the holidays. Hard to feel poor when she lived in Beverly Hills and danced with the rich and famous.

He reached into his sports jacket and pulled out an envelope, slid it across the table to her.

She didn’t have to look inside to know its contents.

“Mike, no.” She moved it back.

“Judy, yes. I assured Mom and Dad you were fine. And after our little conversation the other day about Alliance, I know you might be feeling the pressure.”

“It’s normal pressure, Mike. Every college graduate needs to find their feet and get a job.”

“Which you’ll do. You’re working for free to gain experience. It’s like you’re not out of school yet. Consider this a student loan.”

She knew arguing wasn’t going to get her anywhere. And why fight it anyway? She didn’t have to spend the money. Giving it to her would give her brother and her parents some peace of mind. “Loaning money to family is a bad investment.”

“A graduation gift.”

“You gave me a party.”

“I gave my gardener’s daughter a party when she turned fifteen. I can give my sister more.” He slid the envelope back her way. “Take it, Judy. Use it.”

Pushing her pride aside, she took the thick envelope and tucked it in her purse. She leaned over and kissed her brother on the cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

The waiter showed up with their food, and the conversation around money ended.

Forty-five minutes later Mike was walking her back to her office building. “Should I go back in with you?”

“Love ya, big brother, but the girls in the office are going to be hard to peel off as it is. Another Michael Wolfe dose might be too much for the water cooler to bear.” She gave him a big hug. “Safe flight.”

“I’ll text when I land so you won’t worry.”

She liked that. Liked the fact that she knew what was going on in her brother’s life. For too many years, he’d been absent. His temporary marriage to Karen seemed to have reminded him about his family, and Mike was working overtime to make up for some of the lost time. “Thanks again.”

“Anytime.”

People were still staring as Mike walked into the parking garage.

Judy made it back into the office before the majority of the staff returned from lunch. She took a moment to glance at the amount of money Mike thought was a graduation gift.

She stopped counting at ten thousand dollars, closed the envelope, and rested her head on her desk. I don’t have to spend it.

It was nice, however, to know emergency money was close at hand. She opened the drawer to her desk and started to place her purse inside. A copy of the magazine Mike had given her was there. Someone must have seen the magazine and placed it in her desk . . . but when? It wasn’t there when she left for lunch.

Not entirely comfortable with someone going into her space, Judy tucked the envelope with all the cash inside her boot, closed her purse in her desk, and made her way to the ladies’ room.

Chapter Nine

Tuesday started with a little more buzz than normal. Seemed everyone needed a night to sleep on the activity of the day before.

Nancy greeted her with more than a wave. “You didn’t tell me Michael Wolfe was your brother.”

“I don’t even know if you have a brother,” Judy said with a laugh.

“I do, but he’s no Michael Wolfe.”

“He’s probably just a brother who picked on you growing up and didn’t drop the toilet seat.”

“I guess. But wow.”

Judy waved her off and found many of the same conversations following her throughout the day. On her desk were a couple more magazines her brother managed to find himself in. Most didn’t even have her face on them . . . just Mike’s. Looked like the staff had picked up on her celebrity brother and were running with it by leaving the magazines.

One of the junior architects found her in the mail room and picked up a stack of mail to help.

“It’s José, right?”

“Yeah.”

Judy shoved a large envelope in Ms. Miller’s box in the top row.

José wasn’t a lot older than she was, but he already had a ring on his finger and she knew he had a picture of his two-year-old son on his desk.

“Tell me, José, who did the mail before I came on board?”

He moved through his stack of mail faster than she did. “We have interns every six months.”

“And do all of them have mail duty the entire time they’re here?”

“Depends on the intern.” He handed her an envelope that said Design Manager but was missing the name.

Judy placed it in Marlene’s box.

José handed her another letter, this time to the marketing director.

Judy filed it only to find José handing her several pieces of mail, none of which had names, only departments. When he stopped handing her mail, she realized they’d gone through all of it.

“Thanks for your help,” she told him. “Guess I’ll see what Mr. Archer needs me to file today.”

“Actually, you’ll be spending most of today with me. You have everyone’s name down and the departments they work in, now it’s time to match the faces.” José turned away and called over his shoulder. “Coming?”

She scrambled to catch up with him. “Wait, the mail thing was a test?”

“Not a test. A practical need. Everyone in the office will work with each other at one point in a project or another.” He kept talking as he made his way down the hall to his tiny corner of the huge center office. “A good architect knows their team, knows who is responsible for every step of the design process, that way when you go to the boss and pitch your designs you have more than just your input on the table.”

For the first time since she’d walked into Benson & Miller Designs someone was talking architecture with her. Her heart skipped and a real desire to greet the rest of her day made her smile.