"I think the public relations department is the right place for you," he said when he saw she had finished her drink. The second cocktail was in her hands almost instantly, and she had to drink half of it down before she had the courage to stop him and tell him what she had to say.

"Uh, Mr. Harvey, I have to apologize to you. I'm not here to apply for a job. I'm here to speak to you about my husband."

Harvey gave her a blank look. "I don't understand."

Kim got up and went to his desk. "My husband, Curt Stevens, he works for you. I'm here to ask you if you can't arrange for him to be promoted. He's working far below his potential."

Harvey stared at her a moment, then his face went dark. "You actually came in here to try to induce me to promote your husband out of turn?"

"He's been here three months already. He deserves a raise."

Harvey stood up and leaned over the desk, his eyes blazing,

his face turning red. "Never, in all my thirty years in business, has any man under me done anything so unethical and dishonest as to send his wife in to beg for a promotion." He blustered around the desk like an angry bull. "I don't see anything else to do but give the bastard his walking papers. Fire the bum and get his ass out of this company."

Kim stood there, incredulous. "Fire him? Oh, you can't do that. It would ruin everything."

"Look, lady. Everybody in this company works their way up through honest effort. Nobody sends their wife in to tease the boss into giving it to them."

Kim was sobbing now, knowing that she had made things so much worse than they ever could have been without her meddling. "He didn't send me in. I'm not here to tease you."