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      I finally hired Annamaria because I figured, what the hell? She could probably do the job, seemed plenty smart, and besides, it was late in the afternoon and I wanted to get to my regular Thursday afternoon soccer game with my old buddies from Troglodyte Software.
      Hiring her turned out to be an amazingly good move. Within days, brochures were being printed, a booth had been rented for the three trade shows for which we’d now been registered, and we were in discussions with PR firms, sales rep organizations, and package designers. Annamaria had even contacted several software reviewers, and we were hopeful that at least one of them would write a piece about our product.
      One afternoon, my wife, Medusa, came sniffing into the office, took one look at Annamaria and huffed her way out. She’s very insecure around other women, and even the breast enhancements I bought for her last birthday haven’t helped her confidence. That night, when her family came for dinner, they spent an hour carving me up before they started on the roast.
      Although Annamaria came on board as a marketing junior, she worked her way into every end of the company over the next two months. She had the sense to keep her nose out of the programmer’s pit, other than to flirt with the techies when no one else was handy, but aside from that, Annamaria’s touch could soon be seen everywhere, almost as if it were her own company.
      I don’t remember giving her specific directions, but suddenly our accounting software was being replaced with the latest and greatest. New shelves appeared everywhere they were needed, and she even persuaded our shipping clerk, Edgar the Owl, to quit peering at us as if we were crazy every time we asked him to get something done.

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