The young woman visibly bristled when at the nickname, gritting her teeth. “Please don’t call me that… you’re not the first, and its rarely been meant with kindness…” the last part Tahlia finished more quietly than the rest. When she’d been going to school she’d gotten called that too. Because people had known who she was. The only saving grace here was that she knew the other woman didn’t. And that as kind as Mika had been thus far, it was meant only in jest. But that still didn’t make it sting any less. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t drop the things that gave her station in life away. And she had to stay in her father’s good graces. He tolerated her dropping of the family name only because he admired her drive to succeed on her own merits, to work her way through the company from the bottom before she took it over, unlike her cousin.<br/><br/>“Uh.. no… he… he’s in communication like me… big company though, and we don’t share a name. I didn’t want anyone… I mean ITC’s got enough nepotism, right?” she floundered kind of helplessly, before taking a long drink from the bottle.  “That must have been some thank you, an entire pallet.” she tried to drag the conversation back over to the other woman, not wanting to talk about herself anymore. She hated lying, but she had always been good at the white kind, vague enough answers or skirting around the truth. She eyed her bag with all of her work in it, torn between talking to this woman, which was definitely helping her calm down, and getting back to work. But no. she needed this. And she’d have eleven days to sort through it all on their way to Grissom.