“To Lacey! Kicking ass and taking names! Woohoo!” Kate raised her margarita high, nearly tipping it into my lap in her jubilation. “Oops! Sorry. I’m just so excited for you, girl!”

I had to practically shout to make myself heard over the raucous music of Kate’s latest favorite dive bar. “I’m not kicking ass! My ass is going to get kicked! How the hell did this happen?”

I took a gulp of my own margarita and barely tasted it through my panic. “I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to screw up and I’m going to get fired and everyone is going to laugh at me and I’ll never get a job in this town again and I’ll have to move back in with my parents and I will die of embarrassment. Oh god. This isn’t happening.”

“Hey!” Kate took hold of my shoulders and shook me gently. Well, as gently as she could judge with the amount of jubilation and alcohol currently in her system. Her red locks swayed violently with the clumsy motion. “That is my best friend you are talking about, and she is not going to screw up anything, because she is my best friend and I have a strict only-awesome-people-for-best-friends policy.” She tapped my chin, forcing me to look her in the eye. “Look, you’ve been doing Jacinda’s work for years, right?”

I nodded tentatively.

“So now you’re still doing her work, but you’re actually getting paid for it.” She sat back triumphantly, the bright flashing lights of the nearby dance floor flickering on her face like victory fireworks. “That’s the only difference, girl. Now drink to it.”

I took a deep breath, then a sip of the sweet margarita, and realized she was right. I hadn’t thought about it that way before, but it was totally true. I let out a long sigh of relief and felt my shoulders relax, the muscles of my neck un-tense.

“Thanks, Kate. I guess I’m just weirded out by how fast it’s happening, you know? One second I’m the grunt nobody knows, and now I’m in charge of so much shit I might forget it all if I didn’t have a flow chart.” I felt my heart start to speed up again, anxiety trickling back into my system. “And what if Grant fires me as quick as he fired Jacinda? He’s on some sort of weird power trip or something, hiring and firing people like an emperor, and I don’t know if you’re totally caught up on Game of Thrones, but that shit does not end well. He has no idea what he’s doing! What good’s a promotion on a sinking ship?”

“And you say I mix my references,” Kate said. She set down her drink on the scarred wooden countertop, fixing a no-nonsense expression on her face. It was tricky, since Kate’s normal expression is that of an eager Irish Setter puppy, but she managed it. “Look. Maybe it is a sinking ship. And you know what you do then? You use this as an opportunity to prove yourself. You do your best, and you document yourself doing your best, and if he does bring down the company you’ve got a kick-ass resumé that’ll make you welcome anywhere you go. Plus, you’ll know that after this, you’ll never have a tougher boss!”

I thought about it.

“You’re smart,” I admitted.

“That’s why we’re friends,” Kate said. “Your wonderful powers of perception.”

“I just feel so selfish, though,” I mused. I raised my hand quickly to forestall any objections. “I know, I know it’s irrational. It’s just—there are so many people there, they’ve worked there so long—what if I don’t know what I’m doing and I lose them their jobs? What if one of them would have done it better? I don’t want to hurt anybody.”

“Hey, no jumping off the positivity train until it pulls into the station!” Kate said sternly, raising her margarita threateningly as if to tip it into my hair.

“Okay, okay!” I held up my hands in surrender. “You’re right. You’re always right.”

“Besides—” She waggled her eyebrows mischievously. “Even if the whole positivity train is doomed to a train wreck, he’s a sexy train wreck, right?”

I raised my eyebrow. “Does Stevie know you’re lusting after the boss?”

“Girl, I’m taken, not blind.”

“Okay, he is pretty hot,” I admitted grudgingly.

“Just pretty hot?” my skeptical friend pushed.

“Okay, very hot!” I said. “He is the hottest. He is so hot he is basically a volcano. It should be illegal the amount of hotness he generates, with the ripped arms and the shoulders and those eyes and you can stop giving me that look right now, Kate, it’s not like I’ve got a lot to compare him to, lately.”

“Jason?” she asked hopefully. “Come on, he wasn’t a complete bust, was he? He came highly recommended!”

“Cute at best, until he opened his mouth,” I said. “Grant’s smart underneath all that playboy bullshit, which is actually really hot too. It’s just too bad he’s shallow as a water fountain.”

“No disembarking from the positivity train, missy!” Kate pulled some pictures out of her purse, and pushed them across the table to me. “Here, this’ll cheer you up. Take a look at these new designs of mine.”

Kate is a genius with lingerie design. I never even imagined that was a thing before I met her—you’ve seen one pair of lacy silk panties, you’ve seen them all, right?—but I’m serious, she was a genius and I was pretty sure someday she was going to be famous.

This latest batch of designs was no exception in showcasing her talent: strips of boldly colored fabric that titillated but didn’t quite reveal, glossy textures that promised smoothness and sleekness, bows and lace that teased at lust with a just a hint of innocence…

“These are gorgeous.”

Kate grinned, delighted. “Glad you think so! You choose whatever you want and I’ll whip it up for you for when you get your next date.”

“I wish I had someone worth these designs,” I said. “I know I say this all the time, but you do know you’re a genius, right?”

Kate snorted. “If I’m such a genius, listen to my advice!”

So I did. It wasn’t easy at first, but as the night wore on, laughing and joking with Kate—and eventually Stevie and his friends when they showed up—it got easier. I remember, later that evening, looking up at the stars as we waited for a taxi, my heels in my hand and my mind clear as I suddenly realized, you know what? I really believed I could do this.

That was the moment when I made up my mind. I was going to give this promotion a shot. No, scratch that—I was going to give this promotion my best shot.

And maybe, just maybe, now that I had a little control, people would listen to me and I could help save the company.