Beth was on the edge of her seat during Mira’s close contest. She was thrilled when Mira won, though she knew how fortunate the younger woman had been. Takashi had always suffered from his samurai-like mindset, only wishing for victories he considered honorable. His deliberate hesitations had cost him. Still, Mira had shown a lot of intelligence and skill out there, and her mech had clearly not been at a hundred percent. Beth was satisfied that Mira was MBF material—the only real question was if her confidence and funds would hold out as things went forward.<br/><br/>“That was quite a display,” Mike noted. “The fans should really pay more attention to the prelims—a few mismatches aside, they can be just as good as the regular season.”<br/><br/>“It was tense,” she agreed. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am.”<br/><br/>“Well, don’t relax too much—we’ve still got eight more budget items and then some changes to the maintenance schedule I want to run by you.”<br/><br/>“No rest for the wicked then. And I’ve got to make a call to one of the ad agencies—they want me to do some commercials for energy drinks, pilot jumpsuits, and some high school-level MW line. So before that I’m going to have to look over their financials with my lawyer and make sure those companies aren’t using any terribly unethical business practices. Could take hours.”<br/><br/>“So, no practice until tomorrow?”<br/><br/>“I suppose not.” Beth sighed. As busy as she was, she had to settle for shooting off a quick text message to Mira:<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;">"congrats on your win! you were awesome. :) I’m crazy busy today, but please give me a call tomorrow if you have time."</span>