Amanda
Being a woman in a man’s world is not easy. This is not the nineteen-fifties anymore, but the underlying image of a woman staying at home with the kids while the man brings home the bacon still looms over my head.
I’d worked hard to get where I was. I’d gone to business school in Boston before I came back to Tampa. Most of my class and all the lecturers had been male. I’d furthered my degree part time in Tampa while I’d worked for an ego-centrical asshole who had thought that I was a waste of time.
When James Weber had come a long with his father’s money and no limitations on what he wanted to do, I’d known that this was the one place I would be able to succeed. I’d had enough money left to me by my father to invest into the company James had wanted to start and James didn’t seem to mind so much that I was a woman.
Our company was thriving because of it. Not just because he had taken the initiative to partner with me, but because he trusted me to handle the most important things.
James was a playboy. There was no doubt about that. He had the money to do what he wanted – he’d grown up with so much money nothing was unreachable to him – and he knew how to employ the right people to do all the work.
I wasn’t like that my life hadn’t been that simple. My father had been a tight-fisted son of a bitch, smart with money and stingy with his affections. When he’d passed away the money he’d left me had been more than the attention he’d ever given me, and his final absence in my life had finally set me free.
My partnership with James worked for the most part. I was irritated with his lax attitude toward life. Business and pleasure melted together for him – I wasn’t sure he knew the difference at all. If I hadn’t been there to pick up the pieces whenever James disappeared on one of his party streaks with women and alcohol, our company wouldn’t have been nearly as successful as it was. I was the backbone of the company.
Naturally, it meant that I dealt with the important things. Like money and image. And those two worked for me.
I sat in my office, looking out over the Hillsborough River. The morning was sunny and clear.
My phone rang. Derek’s name flashed on the caller ID.
“Are we still on for later?” I asked him.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “I’m not calling for our meeting.”
I kept quiet, waiting for him to get to the point.
“I visited Hush on Friday and again last night.” I rolled my eyes. Gentlemen’s clubs were disgusting. “Weber was there. I just thought you’d like to know.”
“You’re my accountant, Derek, not my spy.”
I imagined him shrugging. “I just thought you’d like to know,” he said again. “I’ll see you at three.”
He ended the call. I didn’t exactly have James followed but I liked knowing what he did when he wasn’t in the office. I worried that his escapades would affect the company’s image. We weren’t a public company by any means – it wasn’t like we dealt with the press daily and our involvement with the company didn’t make us celebrities. But James wasn’t serious enough. He’d gone out on a binge on a Sunday night, for God’s sake. It explained why he wasn’t in yet.
He’d grown up without a mother and a father that had had a reputation of pain-in-the-ass. That explained a lot of it. Charlie – older, richer, more handsome – was just as bad with women. He was the kind of man I would let that slide with, though.
My office phone rang.
“Mr. Thompson is here for you,” Lauren said.
“Send him in,” I said and shuffled the papers on my desk, waiting for Caleb to walk from the waiting area all the way to my office. I glanced around. The office was immaculate, as always. Not a thing out of place. I’d already taken the files out of the cabinet for our meeting.
“Morning, Amanda,” Caleb said, walking into my office and closing the door behind him.
“Caleb.”
“I trust you’re well?”
I shrugged. “As well as could be expected.”
He sat down opposite me glancing at my empty desk. Other people had frames on their desk, ornaments, keepsakes. I didn’t waste time with sentiment. I was here to work and all I needed was the documents I for work, my laptop, my phone, my printer.
“What can I do for you?” Caleb asked. I’d called him in to discuss finances. Caleb was our financial advisor. I didn’t particularly care for the man – he was more like James and less like the businessman I thought he should be – but he was good at his job and he seemed to have our best interest at heart. Most of that was because he was so close with James – the men were closer than James was with his own brother – and that meant his advice was sincere.
I handed Caleb a bunch of pages in an envelope that he’d asked for. Derek had faxed a few things through concerning our current financial affairs that Caleb could look at as our advisor. He took it from me and turned it over in his hands, noticing the seal was still in place.
“I want to know what you think about our expansion,” I said. “The last time we spoke was when James was with us and I want to hear your personal opinion, not your professional one.”
“Away from James, you mean?” Caleb asked. I couldn’t read his face – he looked serious and professional. I wasn’t sure what he meant by it.
I nodded slowly. “I just need to have a handle on things. It’s a big move.”
Caleb took a deep breath before exhaling slowly, taking the time to formulate his answer. The atmosphere was tense. I didn’t get the feeling that Caleb was any more positive toward me than I was toward him. Still, he kept it professional. He was a man that seemed to understand that business came first and opinion would follow. It was the only reason why we got on as well as we did, why we could work together at all.
“I don’t think you should take that leap,” he finally said. “Sure, in theory, it’s viable. But so much can go wrong and from what I’ve seen I don’t think you have the spare cash for contingencies.”
I waved my hand at him. “Money isn’t an issue,” I said. “I will make sure it’s there when we need it.”
Caleb blinked at me. I hated his poker face. I never knew if he was on my side.
“Does James know about this extra cash you’re planning on pushing into the company when it’s necessary? He might have to budget for it.”
I shook my head irritably. James had so much money he didn’t know what to do with it. What was a few hundred thousand extra to him? If I had that much money behind me, the possibilities were endless. James needed a good woman to step into his life and manage his finances. If he was serious enough, mature enough, I might have tried to step into that role. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. I was better than that and I wouldn’t be with a man who lived in the shadow of an older brother and a late father.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to burden him with things that might not even happen,” I said. “Let him enjoy himself. You and I both know we go about business differently, him and I.”
Caleb nodded. “I do know that. I also know that you’re partners. From personal experience, I can tell you that not being open with your business partner and potentially ruin what you have.”
That’s right, Caleb’s father had gone into a partnership that had blown up in his face. It was back in the day when I was still in school. If not for Caleb, the old man wouldn’t have bounced back. It was another reason why I tolerated the financial advisor despite his loyalty to James. He knew what he was doing and he wasn’t scared to get his hands dirty.
“I appreciate it,” I said to him. “I know where you’re coming from. I think I know what I have in James as a partner, though.”
Caleb shifted in his seat, looking toward the window although I doubted he saw any of the views. He was uncomfortable around me.
“With all due respect, Amanda, I wasn’t just talking about what you have in your partner.”
In fact, after that comment, I had the feeling he was decidedly against me. I couldn’t work with people like that. If it were up to me I would fire him as our financial advisor, but we had to make choices together, James and I, because we were partners. It was the only reason we still had Derek Burgess on our team. I vouched for him and without my consent, James couldn’t get rid of him any more than I could get rid of Caleb.
“Thank you for your input,” I said tightly. “I will take it under advisement.”
Caleb shrugged with one shoulder and the gesture irritated me. I wanted him out of my office. I wanted to carry on doing my thing the way I knew how. I had taken a chance asking him his opinion – you must test the waters continuously – but he was firmly on James’s side.
Caleb stood up and reached across the desk to shake my hand. I took it briefly. When he turned to leave my office, I wiped my hand on my pants.
“I’ll see you at our next meeting,” Caleb said over his shoulder. We were scheduled to meet along with James in a week’s time.
“Looking forward to it,” I lied.
“Me too,” Caleb answered and I didn’t get the feeling it was any more sincere than my response. When he disappeared, I let out a breath and sank back into my chair. In business, it was good to know who was for you and was against you.
I’d always thought Caleb was in the middle – professional and organized. I’d respect the man if I hadn’t liked him. The tables had just turned.
James walked into the office just after eleven, the air of partying still hanging around him. His eyes were red and he looked like he’d had little sleep although he was dressed immaculately. I had the feeling he made more of an effort the worse he felt, to compensate.
“Nice of you to join us,” I said sarcastically from the espresso station.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m late.”
“Yeah, a little.” Only three hours. James shrugged. I watched him. Other than his sluggish attitude this morning I wouldn’t have been able to tell he’d been out if I hadn’t heard as much from Derek. James closed his office door, effectively shutting me out and I took it personally even though it probably shouldn’t have been.
I turned to my office with my cup and closed my door, too.
Derek Burgess arrived a few hours later, exactly on time. I let him into my office and I looked toward James’s door. It was still closed. I hadn’t seen him since he’d arrived. Maybe he was sleeping in his office. I closed my door and turned to Derek.
“What’s the plan here?” I asked him.
We were expanding and I needed to be sure that our new branch would be something investors would be interested in. I needed to know that Derek had my back the way he always did.
“We do the same thing as we have before. Accelerating Revenues. If we make it look like the assets are worth investing in, we’re golden. I have to warn you again, though, Enron and WorldCom both did this and it didn’t end very well for them.”
I waved my hand. “You’re making sure it doesn’t come to that, right?” I asked him.
Derek shrugged. I took it as a yes.
“Besides, you’re not pushing it as far as corporate fraud or anything.”
Derek hesitated. “Refusing to call it what it is, doesn’t make it any less wrong. I’m just saying, you need to know that if this goes up in the air you can lose everything.”
“Which is why I have you. To make sure it won’t go that far. Right?”
It was a threat of sorts. When Burgess and I had started working together he’d offered to twist things just a little to ensure that everything ran smoothly. I didn’t want to wait forever to make my big break. I trusted him to keep my ass out of hot water and in the six years we’d been working together, Derek hadn’t disappointed me. In return, I made sure that he was set, financially. His daughters went to the finest schools in Tampa. His wife didn’t have to work. No accountant was paid what he earned.
“Right,” he answered. Money talked and Derek spoke the language.
I nodded. “Thank you, Derek. As usual, this stays between us. I’ll ensure that James authorizes whatever we need. I gave Thompson the envelope this morning you sent me.”
Derek nodded and got up. He smoothed his blazer as if he wasn’t used to wearing one – he probably only wore a suit when he came to see me – and turned toward the door.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Derek said. “I have to take leave for a few days. I won’t be able to make our next meeting but I’ll contact you as soon as I’m back.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“And until then?”
“Your books will be fine, Miss Fowler. Don’t you worry.”
I nodded and let him go. I wasn’t happy, but I could hardly tell him he wasn’t allowed to go. He worked for an independent accounting firm. He did my work as a personal favor. I wasn’t sure he even submitted the money I paid him as an additional income.
Derek was the one person I had no choice but to trust. And I did, wholeheartedly. If I found out that he was playing me, though, I could show him what Amanda Fowler looked like on a bad day.