Isn't It Time (3 page)

Jack hurried back into the office at exactly 5:01.  He swung
by the opening to my cubicle and started apologizing.

“Sorry to keep you waiting like this; I lost track of the
time.”

“It’s 5:01.  You hardly kept me waiting.”

“Well, I feel bad anyway.”  He stretched up on his toes and
looked out over the tops of the cubicles.  “Is everyone gone already?”

“Of course.  It’s Friday afternoon.  There is no lingering
on Friday afternoons.”

“Okay, good,” he said, sounding a little distracted.  “Are
you ready?”

“Yep.  Lead on,” I said and followed him to his office.

He unlocked the door and gestured me in ahead of him.  “Have
a seat,” he said, closing the door behind him.  I sprawled into one of the
chairs in front of his mammoth desk while he walked around to the opposite
side, removing his jacket and loosening his tie as he did so.  There was no
Casual Friday for poor Jack.  He tossed the jacket in the general direction of
his credenza, knocking over a haphazardly-piled stack of paperwork in the
process, and rolled up his sleeves.

“Ah, that’s better,” he sighed, as he settled into his own
chair and gave me a grin.

I returned the grin and asked, “So, what’s up?”

“It’s actually two things…” He trailed off and took in a
deep breath, leaned back in his chair, exhaled and then leaned forward again,
clasping his hands together on top of the desk.  He looked nervous and I studied
him, wondering why. It wasn’t like him.

“Okay, here it is.”  Another deep breath followed by another
long exhale.  “You know that I love you and that I’d do anything for you,
right?”

I was starting to feel a little worried about where this was
heading. “Yes, and you know I feel the same.”

“Right.  So, there’s all this love between us…”  He paused
at that point, just long enough to smirk at me.  I smirked right back, and then
he continued, “We get along great, we’re nearly identical in our likes and dislikes
– we were even both named after songs, for Christ’s sake.”

“Yes, all true.  That’s what makes us friends, Jack,” I said.

“Yeah.  But how do you think that would all come together if
we were in a…a
different
kind of relationship?”

I tilted my head slightly and eyed him warily.  “Exactly
what
kind
of a different relationship?”

“The intimate kind,” he said, looking me straight in the
eye.

I straightened out of my sprawl and squeaked, “
Together?
”

“Well, yeah, that was the general idea.”

Being sure to enunciate clearly, I asked, “Are you out of
your mind?”

He actually laughed at that. “No, wait.  Just hear me out
before you dismiss the idea completely.”

“Okay, I’ll listen, but I’m telling you right now - this is
going to require some serious convincing.”

“Understood.”  He looked down at his clasped hands and I saw
his lips twitch slightly, the way they did when he was trying not to smile, and
I had to wonder what was so amusing.  “Ah, hell,” he muttered.  “I’ve already
got my ass swinging in the breeze, I might as well put it all out there.”

I was still staring daggers at him when he looked back up. “First
of all, how do you feel about submission?”

I arched an eyebrow and replied coolly, “I’m against it.”

“Let me be clear. I don’t mean submissive as a lifestyle.  I
mean submissive strictly in the bedroom.”

“Still against it,” I retorted stubbornly, folding my arms
across my chest and giving him a look that dared him to continue.

He accepted that dare and went on, almost as if to himself. 
“Well, that wouldn’t be a total deal breaker, I suppose.  It’s something that I
like.  A lot, actually.  But it’s not something that I
need
.”

Oh my God.  I feel like I’m in the middle of a really bad
romance novel
.

“Oh my God,” I said out loud.  “I feel like I’m in the middle
of a really bad romance novel.”

“What?”  He blinked a couple of times and looked confused.

I uncrossed my arms and leaned forward.  “Jack, you’re a hot
guy with a little kink and a lot of money. All you have to do now is tell me
that your parents were both tragically killed when you were young, leaving you
to be raised by a sadistic guardian, which, in turn, has left you emotionally
unavailable, and you would be the perfect romance novel hero.”

He burst out laughing. “You think I’m hot?” 

“Oh, please,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. “You
know you are.”

“You sure seem to know an awful lot about romance novels.”

Shit. This was dangerous ground. My love of romance novels
was one of the few things about my life I didn’t share with him. I could just
imagine the ribbing I’d get. So I lied.  “Yeah, well, I hear things.”

“Right,” he said, drawing the word out for about four beats
and looking amused.

“Look, Jack.  What’s this really all about?” I asked,
changing the subject.

Keeping his eyes on me, he leaned back in his chair again
and ran a hand through his hair.  “Can I be totally serious?”

“Please.”

“Okay, well, you know how we’ve talked in the past about
what we’re looking for in a relationship?  How we’re both positive that when
the exact right person comes along, we’ll know it immediately?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, around the time I turned thirty, I started taking a
hard look at my life and while, obviously, everything was going great,
career-wise, I felt as if there was this big, gaping hole in my personal life. If
I’m going to be honest about it, I guess what I was feeling was a little bit
lonely and a lot hopeless.  Like, I wanted it so badly but it was never going
to happen for me.  You know I’ve dated my fair share of women - but there
hasn’t been even one that I’ve met and immediately thought, ‘this is the one’. 
And I realized I had also never met one that I was as comfortable with as I am
with you. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I answered quietly.  And I did understand.  It was exactly
the way I felt about him.

“So, anyway, I began to wonder, what if it won’t hit me the
minute I meet the right one? What if it really
is
all about friendship
and compatibility first?  And what if I’m so busy looking for some big sign
that I’m missing what’s right under my nose?  I know we don’t
think
we
feel that way about each other, but what if we’re both overthinking and missing
the obvious?”

I stared at him as I sank back into my chair.  Oh, my God. What
if he was right?  I mean, it was definitely possible.  We were 100% compatible and
I’d trust him with my life - and I knew he felt the same. Maybe it wasn’t such
a ridiculous idea, after all.

“Maybe,” I said slowly.  “I suppose you have an idea about
what we should do to either prove or disprove that theory?  And bear in mind
that I would be extremely upset if whatever you came up with destroyed what we
have now.”

“It shouldn’t surprise you too much to hear that I feel
exactly the same way,” he said with a smile.

I smiled, too, and thought again how much I loved this man. 
And I wasn’t kidding when I implied I would be devastated if he was no longer
in my life.  I had never felt anything sexual for him, but maybe, in the
beginning, I had subconsciously shoved those feelings aside because I worked
for him.  I didn’t have a definite list of traits that I envisioned my ideal
man having but, if I did, I’m sure Jack would have every item on that list
covered.

“So how about this?” Jack said.  “Since neither of us is
seeing anyone at the moment, maybe it would be a good time to have a test to
see if there are any hidden feelings of a sexual nature between us.”

“Jack Murphy!” I exclaimed indignantly.  “I am not sleeping
with you just to test a theory!”

“Oh, settle down; I’m not asking you to.  How about we try
something smaller – like a kiss?”

Frowning, I said, “I’ve kissed you before.”

“Yes, I know.  But never with
intent
.”

“Oh. Well, that’s true.”

Deciding that his idea had some merit and agreeing with him
that we could very well be overlooking the obvious, I quickly ran through any
possible negative consequences of a simple kiss. Not finding any, I stood up.
“Okay; let’s do this.”

“You needn’t sound so pained about it,” he said dryly.

I laughed and said, “Well, you’ve got to admit – this feels
a little weird.”

“Eh, maybe a little, but not so much that I don’t still want
to try it.”

“Okay.”  I released my breath through puffed cheeks, trying
to calm down the nervous tremors that were working their way across my entire
body, and considered the logistics. “How do you want to do this?  Should I come
there, or what?”

Rolling his chair away from his desk, he patted his leg and
said, “Yeah, come over here and sit on my lap.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.”

Wiping my suddenly damp hands down the sides of my thighs, I
approached him slowly.

He gave his lap another pat. “Park it, sister.”

That made me laugh and I felt the smallest amount of tension
leave my body.  Finally arriving at his chair, I looked down into his grinning
face and settled myself awkwardly across his lap.  His right arm came up
immediately and encircled my waist and my left hand landed on his shoulder.

Then we just looked at each other.

“You’re making me want to laugh,” he said.

“Laugh?  Why?”

“Because you look like you just walked to your doom.”

“I’m hoping that’s not the case.”

He looked me in the eye and cupped my jaw, moving his thumb
gently back and forth across my cheek.  “Relax, honey,” he whispered.

“Okay,” I whispered back. I moved my right hand to his chest
and didn’t relax at all.

We took a simultaneous deep breath, both sets of eyelids
fluttering closed as we leaned toward each other, lips slightly parting. 
Contact was made and he began the kiss gently, slowly moving his mouth against
mine.  His lips were pleasantly warm and firm - but I didn’t feel that tingling
I usually got when I kissed someone. What I felt was absolutely nothing. 
Remembering I was expected to participate in this endeavor, I put some effort
into returning his kiss.

I noted he had some technique going for him but, still,
nothing.

Using his lips to further part mine, he slid his tongue
smoothly into my mouth.
Oh, God
. Knowing it was Jack’s tongue in my
mouth felt way beyond strange and I suddenly wanted to laugh.  My lips stopped
moving and my eyes flew wide open, only to find myself staring directly into
his. 

He withdrew his tongue as the first signs of laughter started
at our still-joined lips.  Full-blown hilarity ensued as we pulled our faces
apart.

“Oh my God!” he exclaimed, bursting into laughter.

“Worst. Kiss. Ever!” I proclaimed through my own giggling.

“Hey! I’ve never had any complaints!” he said, as
indignantly as he could, considering how hard he was laughing.

“Well, you’ll never be able to say
that
again!” I
choked out, muffling my own laughter against his neck.

Jack started laughing so hard, he let out an unexpected
snort, which set us both off into further gales.

Eventually we began to settle down, with only minor residual
outbursts. Both of his arms were around me, his hand was rubbing my back, and
my cheek was on his shoulder, lips against his neck.  We stayed like that for a
while and I realized how completely comfortable I felt in this position - and
there wasn’t any place in the world I’d rather be at that moment.

“You smell good,” I murmured into his neck.

His gave me a squeeze. “So do you,” he said, pressing a kiss
onto the top of my head.

Neither one of us seemed to be in any hurry to move from our
little cocoon, so we stayed like that a little while longer, each of us lost in
our own thoughts.

“Jack?”

“Hmmm?”

“Would it be wrong of me to say that I’m a little
disappointed?”

Another squeeze, another kiss on the top of the head. “No,
it wouldn’t be wrong.  I’m a little disappointed myself.”

A few minutes later, Jack gave me a hug and a pat that
signaled our quiet time was over.  I lifted my head from his shoulder and hoped
my tears of laughter hadn’t screwed up my mascara too badly.

“You have black stuff all under your eyes.”

Wiping my dry fingers underneath my eyes, I looked at him. 
“Better?”

“Nope.”

Sighing, I reluctantly got up from his lap and headed toward
his bathroom.  “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Bring me back a pop, will you?” Jack asked.

“Sure.”

Jack’s current office used to belong to his father.  Between
that space and the empty office Jack had previously occupied was a smallish
connecting room, consisting of a kitchen/bar area and a full bathroom. The room
had doors on both sides, allowing privacy between the two offices.

I walked into the bathroom, repaired the damage to my makeup
as best I could, and grabbed Jack’s Diet Coke from the small refrigerator.

When I returned, I saw Jack had pulled his chair back to his
desk and was going through some paperwork.  He accepted the Diet Coke with a
distracted “thanks” and I returned to the chair I had previously occupied.

“So,” I said.  “Are we ready to discuss the second thing?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking up as he pushed his paperwork to
the side.  “I’ve been looking over the income statements for the past few years
because something has seemed a little off to me. Last night I went to see my
dad to see if he could confirm that and maybe shed some light on what could be
causing the problem.”

“Off in what way?” I was a little confused because I hadn’t
heard of anything out of the ordinary.  Business seemed to be good; Jack had
managed to bring in a lot of new work, despite a sluggish economy. 

“Well, gross revenues keep getting higher, but net profit
has been decreasing pretty steadily.  Which, obviously, means we have a problem
with our expenses.  Payroll seems fine, and I don’t think that could cause this
big of a decrease anyway without it being noticeable. I’ve done some
spot-checking on the invoices of some of our bigger suppliers and
sub-contractors and haven’t seen any large increases in individual pricing, so I’m
not exactly sure where the problem is.  But I have my suspicions.”

“Which are…?”

“Somebody is stealing a great deal of money from me,” he
said.

I slumped back in my chair in disbelief.  “Holy shit!” I
exclaimed.

“Yeah,” he said with a tight smile.

I ran through possible suspects in my head.  I couldn’t come
up with anyone at all who I thought would have the balls to do such a thing. 
“Have you asked Frank what he thinks?” I asked.

“No,” he said.  “And here’s why:  My dad and I went through
all the possible ways this could have been done and who in this office would be
in a position where they would be able to put something like that in motion. 
And Frank would be number one on that list.”

“No way!” I exclaimed.  “Frank has been with your dad since
he opened the doors here!  They’re good friends, for Pete’s sake.  I can’t
believe he would do something like that.”

“We don’t want to believe it, either,” he said.  “But we
can’t rule anyone out.  Except you, of course,” he added with a smile.

“Well, thank you for that,” I replied gratefully.

Jack’s dad had hired me for this job.  He was much like Jack
in personality and manner and I adored both him and Peggy.  They made it clear
that the feeling was mutual and over the years of my friendship with Jack, I
had spent a lot of time with them.

“So what are you going to do about it?” I asked.

“Well, my first priority, and the thing I’ll really need you
to focus on, is to perform an extremely confidential internal audit to see if
we can’t find the thief by ourselves. Luke will be around next week to help
where he can. And I’d rather not bring in outside auditors if I can avoid it.”

“Okay, that might be a problem,” I said, frowning.

“Why is that?”

“I don’t exactly have top-notch analytical skills,” I
confessed.  It was true.  While I could easily put all those compliant numbers
where they were supposed to go, I was always at a loss to make any sense out of
the final product.  Frankly, I just didn’t know what they
meant
– and,
further, I didn’t really care.  I provided all the pieces of the puzzle to
Frank or Jack, and then
they
deciphered the meaning.

“I know that, Angie,” he said with a grin. “But this won’t
require you to analyze anything.  You’ll just be trying to find anything that
looks inconsistent, or even just weird.  Think of it like detective work – and
if you find anything that you don’t understand, either my dad or I will be
available to take a look at it.”

“Okay, I’ll try. When were you planning to tell Frank about
the promotion?”

“I’ll talk with him Monday morning – and by the time I do,
you’ll already be working for me. I want you to start right away.  But, before
that happens, you and I need to get together with Luke and work out a battle
plan.  He’s going back home in the morning, but he’ll be staying with me while
he’s here.  He’s planning to be back Sunday evening, so what do you say we get
together then?”

“Works for me. Will you make me dinner?”

Jack laughed at the absurdity of that question. “Maybe, God
willing, it won’t be raining Sunday and I can grill some steaks. You can make
everything else.”

Jack excelled with the grill.  He was much better at it than
me, for sure.  But if food couldn’t be grilled or microwaved, he was at a
complete loss. So whenever I had dinner at his house, he would grill whatever
needed grilling and my job was to provide the side dishes.

“Consider it done,” I said. “You know, you should probably
send out a memo announcing the change after you talk to Frank.”

“Yeah, I’ll have that done before I even talk to him.  And I
want you to move into my old office. It’ll be the most convenient.” He paused
and grinned at me. “And I just now decided, as your first official duty,
you
can write the memo.”

“Great.”

Jack laughed at my lack of enthusiasm and looked at his
watch. “One more thing, then I have to get out of here.  I know I probably
don’t have to tell you this, but that little thing you just found out about my
personal life?”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“Please don’t share that information with anyone.”

I smiled.  “Jack, I pay your bills.  You used to have a
membership at a known sex club.  I might not have known the exact details of
what you were into, but I knew it had to be
something
.”

Surprise registered on his face, then he looked at me
pointedly. “How did you know it was a sex club?”

“At the risk of repeating myself, I hear things.”

This was a lie of the self-preservation variety.  I actually
heard very little.  The truth was, my curiosity had gotten the better of me
and, feeling like the worst kind of friend, I had performed some clandestine
research via Google and sheer determination.

He cocked his head and looked at me questioningly.  “You
never said anything.”

“Well, just because I…um…
come across
…certain
information, it still doesn’t make it any of my business.  I would never repeat
something like that.”

“You’re awesome, you know that?” he asked, looking as if he
wanted to ruffle my hair.

“Yep.”

He grinned and then wrapped it up.  “Okay, so my house
Sunday.  I’ll text you the time if I don’t talk to you before then.”

“Okay,” I said, standing up.  “I’m going to head over to
Foster’s for a drink and see if anyone’s still around.  Do you want to come
with me?”

“Can’t,” he replied, also standing.  “I promised my dad I
would help him with some stuff at the house tonight.”

He threw some files into his briefcase and grabbed his
jacket from the credenza, ignoring the mess he made when he knocked a good
chunk of the disheveled papers to the floor.  I sighed. Come Monday morning, it
was going to be my responsibility to clean that up. He walked with me to the
door, gestured me out ahead of him, then turned off the lights and locked the
door.

After a brief stop at my cubicle to pick up my purse and
jacket, we headed out to the parking lot and stopped by my car. “Have fun
tonight,” he said, reaching over to give me a one-armed hug.

“Will do.  See ya, Jack.”

“See ya, Ange.”

Then we got into our cars and drove off in opposite
directions.