The canteen manager Pete was a large, cheerful man who had been running the Vane Sterling staff kitchen for eleven years. When Briar came in the next morning he looked up from his clipboard, looked back down, and said, "You were sick.""Yes. I'm really sorry about the short notice, I felt terrible, I couldn't even get out of bed, I""Did you bring it into my kitchen?""No, I""Then I don't want to know." He handed her a fresh uniform top without looking up. "Cutlery station. Henderson quit so you're on napkin fold training too.""Henderson quit?""Life is change, Briar." He was already walking away. "Roll with it."She liked Pete. She liked the canteen in general, actually, in a way she did not like most things at Vane Sterling. It was the one part of the building where people talked to her like she was just a person standing next to them.---She found the tie clip at a men's accessories shop in the shopping center near the tower.It took her forty minutes to decide. She had almost no
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