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him?” Reese pointed to the gaggle of analysts.
    I looked over and was not at all surprised to see Adam holding court. Still.
    â€œOh yeah. I know him,” I said. “He went to Princeton. And just in case anyone doesn’t know he went to Princeton, he name-drops about his eating club, wears at least one orange item every day, and carries a duffel bag with a giant tiger’s head on it. He has a huge ego.”
    â€œSugar, if you don’t like big egos, you’re in the wrong industry. I’m going to cheer you up though. Watch this. Hey, Tony the Tiger! Come over here.” Reese waved to Adam, whose face lit up like a hundred-watt bulb as he realized that Reese wanted to speak with him. He pulled his shoulders back and adjusted the buckle on his belt, clearly thinking that he was being summoned because he had made such a good impression on a Cromwell managing director. I wasn’t sure why Reese asked him to join us, but I knew kudos were not on the menu. Adam smoothed the collar on his tangerine Lacoste polo shirt before he shook Reese’s hand, while simultaneously patting him on the back.
    â€œHey, Reese, right? We spoke a little while ago about Greenspan and the Federal Reserve.” Adam flashed him a big smile before turning his attention toward me. “Hey, Amber.”
    â€œMy name’s Alex.”
    â€œRight, sorry.”
    (“No, you aren’t.” I didn’t say that.) “No problem.” Sounded better.
    â€œHer friends call her Girlie, though.” Reese was enjoying this. I wondered if I could make it if I tried to swim to shore.
    â€œGirlie?” Adam was confused, a new feeling for him.
    â€œOnly her friends, though. I mean, I call her Girlie. You should stick with Alex.”
    Adam shrugged. “How long have you been at Cromwell, Reese?”
    â€œTwenty-one years. How long have you been at Cromwell?”
    â€œTwo months. But I think I’m really adding value quickly.”
    Reese gave me a wink. “Yeah, you were saying that earlier. Why don’t you tell my girlie friend here about your trade last week.”
    This caught my attention. He was allowed to do a trade? I wasn’t even allowed to pick up the phone.
    â€œIt was great. I’m trading size already, you know? They want me to just hit the ground running.”
    â€œWhat does trading size mean?” I asked. Reese pretended to cough to muffle his laughter.
    â€œYou know, big trades. Moneymakers, not the little dinky trades that don’t matter if you fuck them up.”
    â€œI sit on a folding chair. I guess I’m doing the opposite of trading size,” I said.
    â€œAdam, tell Alex how you did it. Teach her how to work the ropes. Tell her the whole story like you told me.”
    Adam was loving the attention. “So there’s this company called Cox Communications, a major player. So this guy I’m working with is a fellow Tiger. He’s a great guy and really lets me get involved—we were in the same eating club. He took the order from his client and then told me to shout out the order to the trader.”
    Here I had to interrupt, because I knew he was lying. “Adam, you haven’t passed the Series 7 or the Series 63 yet. You aren’t allowed to trade. There’s no way they let you do that. It’s illegal.”
    â€œWell, no, I didn’t execute the actual trade, but his client wanted a big chunk of shares. I had to tell the trader to start building a position, but it wasn’t an actual order.”
    Reese continued to prompt Adam to finish the story. “So, Adam, what exactly did he tell you to do?”
    â€œI had to stand up and scream across the floor to the trader that I was a large buyer of Cox.”
    Reese started laughing and asked Adam to repeat what he’d said.
    â€œYou said what?”
    â€œI said I was a large buyer of Cox. Everyone started clapping and cheering. It was