Ashley

I watched from the sidelines as the press conference was about to begin. I kept chewing on my nails as I scanned the crowd for Nina. There were so many people here waiting for Jimmy’s statement. The outrage had grown overnight to a point where people were picketing outside of his headquarters. In this current social climate, things like this were taken very seriously. Part of me was hoping he wouldn’t use my tactic. What he needed was to put up a strong front, to take charge of this situation and try to calm the public about his business dealings, not going around revealing his personal life and opening himself up to danger.

Part of me had suggested that for selfish reasons. Jimmy and I were dating officially but not openly. His and Nina’s breakup still hadn’t been reported to the news, so for all intents and purposes, the two of them were still together. The moment I hung up the phone with him last night, I felt sick to my stomach with guilt at how I was right and how I had allowed my jealousy to somehow creep into the picture.

This wasn’t about me. It was about Jimmy and his company.

“For those of you who are here, I thank you for coming. Big Steps has seen a lot of success over the past few years, so it only stands to reason that someone would want to strike at the core of that. I know a lot of people are outraged by the accusations made against me last night, and if this was someone else’s company I would be just as outraged. So here’s what I’m doing. Right now, my tech department is releasing all my social media direct messages. Instagram, Twitter, and my Facebook business page. They’re going to be posted all online in a database for any concerned customer or potential customer to read through. Never once have I bribed anyone to purchase my product. Big Steps and I take pride in having our product speak for itself. The database of direct messages should be up for the public to view within the next couple of minutes, and then my lawyers will get to work on investigating the false claims made against my company. We’re taking this accusation seriously, and whoever is responsible for this claim will be sued accordingly. No one can walk around filing false reports with the police, and no one can walk around making false assumptions about someone’s business practices. I hope to be fully transparent to the public and swift in my legal action against the person who decided to try to negate all the hard work Big Steps and its employees have indulged in over the years. By the end of the day, I promise you these accusations will be cleared up and the proper papers served to the proper individual. In the meantime, feel free to browse the database.”

Jimmy stepped off the podium without answering any questions. He buttoned his suit coat and turned to me, his eyes beckoning me to follow him. Ross fell in line beside him, and I walked up to the other side, following him back into the building.

The moment we got into his office, I shut his door and threw my arms around his neck.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“For what?” Jimmy asked

He slid his arms around me, holding me tighter than he ever had before.

“For giving you that crappy advice. For all this stuff you’re going through. For Nina and all of ... everything.”

“First off, your advice wasn’t crappy. It was a good tactic. Just one we didn’t have enough information to safely take. While we all assume it’s Nina, there are many people jealous of my success, businessmen who have never been able to keep up who would love to take a strike at me. If I’m going to use a weapon like you suggested, I have to have proof. I have to be sure it’s Nina before starting that war with her.”

“Part of it was out of selfishness on my part,” I said. “I want Nina to be put behind us so we can ... you know.”

I dipped my head down before his finger caught my chin.

“Look at me, Ashley.”

I lifted my gaze to his and got lost in his eyes.

“I know,” he said. “I’ve put you in a terrible situation, but I’m navigating it as fast as I can. I know you’re tired of sneaking around and having to avoid restaurants that allow photographers to take pictures of people. I know some of your favorite restaurants are those types of restaurants. I promise you, the time will come.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Stop apologizing. You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said.

There was a knock on Jimmy’s door, and I took a step away from him. He cleared his throat and situated his tie, smoothing his hands down his suit. I grinned at him as I turned toward the door, taking deep breaths to try and calm the blush on my cheeks.

“Come in,” Jimmy said.

“Hell of a press conference,” the man said. “Sucks to be going through, though.”

“Markus. You were supposed to call me when you landed.”

A man in his fifties embraced Jimmy tightly. He was an attractive man, alluring if that was a woman’s thing. White hair at his temples faded into his jet-black hair, and his deep brown eyes commanded a room with one look around it. He was Jimmy’s height, but his body was broader and stronger, not toned like Jimmy’s but stacked with muscle.

I didn’t recognize him, but I recognized his name.

“So this is Markus,” I said.

“And you must be Ashley,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I shook the man’s hand, and he gave me a kind smile. It was odd. He was this mixture of tough and firm but gentle in his eyes. Commanding, but relaxing. I felt confused looking at him, tense but excited at the same time.

And the look on Jimmy’s face. He was beaming like a son who was proud of his father. I’d never seem Jimmy smile in the presence of someone like that before.

This man was obviously very important to him.

“Will you be staying with us this morning?” Markus asked.

“Oh, no. An accountant’s work is never done. I’ve got balance sheets galore and investors expecting updates,” I said.

“Am I supposed to be getting that PDF today? I swear, it’s much more convenient than those damn packets you used to send out, Jimmy.”

“I better go get started on them,” I said. “It was really nice meeting you.”

“And you as well. I hope we run into one another soon. I want to get to know the woman who finally made Jimmy dump that witch.”

“Ah, another Nina fan, I see.”

The three of us shared a laugh before I slipped out the door.

I did have a lot of work ahead of me. With the scandal that broke on Jimmy last night, it had me worried about the irregularities I was finding on the balance sheets. I still didn’t have a reason for them, but there were many of them, multiple ones on multiple pages, and they only kept multiplying. Even the most basic of accountant would’ve been able to catch these downstairs, so it made me think it wasn’t user error.

But my fear was that it also wasn’t a technological error, either.

The irregularities weren’t only current, though. The greater they became, the more I began to dig back into the company’s history. That was the benefit of being the head honcho accountant in corporate. I could access almost anything with my badge, username, and password. I was pulling up balance sheets and printing them off. I was spending late nights in the office running figures in my head. I was taking this stuff home and curling up with Chipper and continuing to count out numbers in my head.

And the irregularities didn’t stop.

They dated all the way back to the inception of the company.

The irregularities themselves were small. There weren’t thousands of dollars missing at any one given moment. Totals were being fudged to cover thirty and forty dollars going missing, or fifty dollars being slipped into an account and not being noted on the balance sheets. It was easy to miss those small numbers, especially in the beginning of a company. These balance sheets were done once a quarter, so it wasn’t like other people had the luxury of looking at them all at once like I could.

But it was still odd to me that everyone missed this from the start of the company.

I kept flipping through documents whenever I wasn’t working on stuff for the investors. I sent out the PDFs with projected earnings despite the scandal and sent reassurances that things were okay and stable. I worked through lunch again and occasionally heard Markus and Jimmy laughing in his office, and it would give me pause. The happiness that fell from Jimmy’s voice made me smile. I was looking forward to getting to know Markus, whenever that chance might be.

Six o’clock rolled around, and my back was beginning to ache. I needed to go get Chipper from the doggie resort I signed him up for, and I wanted to stop in on my mom one last time. I printed out the final balance sheet—the very first one the company ever had—and sighed when I found more irregularities.

The totals never breached fifty dollars per transaction, but there were a lot of them.

I needed to tell Jimmy. I needed to take all of this to him and go through it with him. But with Markus in town and him getting a bit of relief from all this stress, I figured it could wait. I didn’t want to ruin his happiness with yet more issues with his company, and there was still some research I could do to rule some things out.

I slipped the file folders of balance sheets into my desk and locked it and then gathered up my things. Monday would be a good day to bring it up to Jimmy. He would get some time with Markus, things with this social media issue would settle down, and we could tackle it head-on together.

Monday.

Not tonight.