“Your first company Christmas party. You'll have to mingle and network with all the bigwigs before the night is done.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I paused and looked my date up and down. Her blonde hair was in a classic updo, with Loose tendrils framing either side of her face. Expensive jewelry adorned her ears and neckline, leading the way to a plunging red dress that emphasized her cleavage and was already drawing attention from all around us.

“I'm fine as long as I'm with you," I said with total sincerity.

“Aww, that's sweet."

“Well actually," my tone shifted to humorously casual.

“With you standing next to me, my bosses won't care what's coming out of my mouth as long as they can stare at you."

Amber just smiled and hugged my arm. Then we headed off to meet the

Enginerds. They were pretty stationary around a table. Actually, most of the Engineers were relative wallflowers and grouped together for support. I actually saw one guy diagramming out a new schematic for some project, despite the fact that we were supposed to be having fun instead of working this evening.

In any case, all conversation died at the table as we approached.

Marshall's jaw was already on the floor and Vipul was obviously ogling all the cleavage he could before his date smacked his arm.

“Hi guys," I said casually. "I'd like to introduce you all to Amber."

“Hello,” she offered and then politely began shaking hands. Vipul was with his date, the daughter of a friend of his mother's. Dan was with his girlfriend. And Marshall was flying solo.

At first, we all tried to make positive small-talk. The guys regaled the girls with stories of some of our office exploits and the little competition brewing between "Dan & Dave". It wasn't much of a competition, but most of the office enjoyed the idea of a Dan & Dave rivalry.

But after a while, the four Enginerds (yes, me included) got hung up on some technical discussion and the girls found their own conversation.

Amber figured out what was going on and tried to politely engage us all once again. But in the end, she was saved by an Executive VP walking by and calling my name.

The three musketeers shut up behind me, Leaving poor D‘Artagnan on his own as they melted into the background. But Amber stepped to my side as we politely greeted the EVP and his wife, and then I introduced my date.

His eyes dropped to Amber's chest before he schooled his features and pointedly looked her in the eye.

“You're Robert's daughter, aren't you?"

Amber blushed and said "Yes I am."

"I go golfing with him every now and again. Be sure to say hello for me the next time you see him."

Amber smiled, “I will."

He then turned to me.

“I'm hearing great things about you, David. You seem to be one of the rising stars in the company."

"Oh, well, I've only been here a few months, sir.”

“Call me Stan."