“Blake, you’ve been doing really well so far,” Bianca said with a gentle smile. “If anything difficult comes up, like we said before, we’ll be here to support you.”

“That’s great!” Blake replied, pouring himself a glass of wine and raising it toward Dave.

“You’re giving me too much credit,” Dave said. “You’re the new rising power in Edenfield’s business world.”

He clinked glasses with Blake and spoke seriously. “When it comes to partnerships, two things matter ...