The Underwriting by Michelle Miller Read Free Book Online

bodies were close in the cubicle and she could feel his heat meet her own. He paused for a moment, letting it linger.
    â€œI’ll have Neha send the deck and meet you in the lobby at seven on Friday,” he said, breaking the moment and moving past her to the elevator bank.
    â€œHey, Todd.” He turned back. “Thanks,” she said.
    â€œMy pleasure.” He winked, heading out the door.
    Tara felt her skin tingling, like the atmosphere had shifted to something intoxicating to breathe. Her phone rang, interrupting her reverie.
    â€œShit,” Tara said, looking at the clock on her computer and realizing she was late for her call.
    â€œKelly!” she said, picking up the phone. “How are you?”
    â€œI’m good! Do you still have time to talk?”
    â€œYes, of course,” Tara said, sitting back down. “How is the decision coming? I know the deadline is approaching, so I just wanted to see how you’re feeling.”
    â€œI’m like ninety-nine percent there,” Kelly launched in, more honest than she probably should be. “I loved the summer and I know I’d learn a lot but I just—well, honestly, people keep saying that investment banks are really hierarchical and I know I have a lot to learn but I also want to, you know, feel like I’m contributing and not have to wait until I’m forty or whatever to be empowered.”
    Terrence approached Tara’s cubicle and she put up a finger to tell him to hold on.
    â€œI definitely know what you mean, Kelly. But it really isn’t true that young people don’t get opportunities.” She felt the statement’s personal truth as she said it. “You have to be patient, but there are amazing opportunities here if you work hard. In fact, I just got appointed to be the ECM point person on a major IPO . . . and I’m twenty-eight.”
    â€œAre you serious?”
    Tara looked up at Terrence, who was making a face at her. She batted him away, laughing, feeling spirited for the first time in a year.
    â€œYeah,” Tara said. “And I promise that’s more impact than you’ll get as a non-engineer at Google.”
    â€œThat’s awesome!” Kelly sounded more excited than Tara. “You’re totally going to be the next Catherine Wiley.”
    â€œI wish!” Tara laughed, but let the thought linger all the same, thinking about the investment bank’s wildly successful female president. “But if you come here, I want to help you however I can, okay? I’m excited to have another Stanford girl around.”
    She looked at Terrence’s gagging face and threw a pen at him.
    â€œYou mean you’d be my mentor?”
    Tara paused: she’d never thought of herself that way before. Was she old enough to be a mentor?
    â€œWell, yeah,” she said. “If that’s what you want to call it.”
    â€œI think that just made my decision.”
    â€œAmazing, Kelly. I can’t wait to see you here this fall.”
    â€œYou are so going to hell,” Terrence said as she hung up the phone.
    â€œWhat?” She looked up innocently at Terrence’s cocked eyebrow. “She thinks I’m going to be the next Catherine Wiley. Maybe she’s right?”
    â€œI’m just glad you’re going to get laid.”
    â€œI am not getting laid. Todd is so not interested,” she said, then added, “And neither, for the record, am I.”
    â€œRight.”
    Tara scoffed: she wasn’t. Todd was a player. Thinking about how many girls he’d probably slept with since her made her nauseous.
    â€œNot like there’s going to be time anyway—you know how intense these deals are, and there are only four of us on the team.”
    â€œI’ll give it till the road show.”
    â€œThank you for your confidence in me,” she said.
    His eyes softened and he smiled. “You know I’m so proud of