Isn't It Time (7 page)

“Yeah, you’re right,” I agreed reluctantly and took a sip of
iced tea.  I didn’t want to look for the bad; it went against my nature - but I
knew I was going to have to take off my rose-colored glasses, at least for the
time being.  “So do you think it has to be someone in the accounting
department?”

“That seems most likely. But what’s not likely is that it’s
only one person. My dad and I both agree that it’s probably at least two. 
Either both of them from the office, or one from the office working with
someone on the outside who is submitting fake invoices.”

“Do you have an idea yet of how much money we’re talking
about?” I asked.

“It looks like it could be anywhere from one to two million
dollars over the last three to four years.  We’re not talking about chump
change.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered, stunned at the enormity of that
sum.

“Yeah, whoever is doing this is getting really ballsy,” he
said.  “I think they must be feeling pretty confident in their ability to
continue to get away with it because the amount seems to be higher every year.”

I picked our plates up from the table and put them in the
dishwasher.  “But you would think it would be obvious in some way.  A person
with that much money has got to be spending it somewhere and I don’t see anyone
buying big houses or boats or expensive cars.  The only one who seems to have
more money than they earn is Marla, and that’s only because her husband has
more money than God.”

“Are you sure about that?” Jack raised his eyebrows and
looked at me thoughtfully as I sat back down and finished off my iced tea.
“Have you ever met her husband?  In all the time you’ve worked there, have you
ever even seen a picture of him?”

I thought about that and realized it was true.  At any
company functions where families were invited, Marla always showed up alone,
with some excuse as to why her husband couldn’t be there.  I never thought much
about it, because I tried to avoid thinking about Marla very much in general,
but Jack was right.

“But why in the world would she invent a husband?  It
doesn’t make sense,” I said with a shake of my head.  “What possible reason
would she have for doing that?”

“Who the hell knows,” Jack answered.  “People do weird shit
all the time for reasons that only make sense to them.  I’m just saying, it’s
something to think about.”

“Okay - but Frank?  He hasn’t changed his style of living in
any major way since I’ve known him.  I haven’t heard anything to make me think
he has any expenses he can’t handle.  And, remember, he makes quite a bit of
money.  He just doesn’t seem to have a motive to steal.”

“No, it doesn’t seem like it, but what do we really know
about his personal life?  Only what he tells us and lately, even that isn’t
much.  We don’t know that much about Heather, either, except that Frank was
insistent on hiring her.  Which is also strange because I don’t think he really
likes her very much.” 

Jack had an intense frown of concentration on his face as he
mindlessly continued to eat chips from the now half-empty bag. I wondered how
it was possible that he didn’t weigh 300 pounds.

Letting go of my envy of his fast metabolism, I turned my
thoughts back to Frank and Heather. Frank claimed to have hired her only to
make my job a little easier.  He said a part-time person to do the grunt work
of processing the payroll, which used to be part of my job, would free me up to
do other things. Although I was grateful to get rid of that time-consuming
aspect of my job, and I liked Heather very much, I couldn’t help but think that
Frank didn’t do it solely for my benefit.  It was more likely he did it so he
could dump some more of his own work on me.

And I agreed with Jack in that Frank didn’t seem to like
Heather at all.  He avoided her whenever he could and anything he had to say to
her, he said through me.  A memory flashed through my mind of Frank, standing
inside Heather’s cubicle, holding the picture of her daughter that sat on her
desk.

Although it had been Heather’s day off, it was still strange
to see Frank there.  He went out of his way to avoid Heather’s cubicle.  He was
looking down at the picture in his hand with a wistful, almost sad look on his
face.  Sensing my presence, he looked up briefly from the picture and said
quietly, “She’s so beautiful, isn’t she?”

Heather changed the picture on her desk regularly and this
was a new one I hadn’t yet seen. The little girl was indeed beautiful, her
almost white hair was pulled back into a ponytail, held with a purple bow, a
style that emphasized her bright blue eyes.  She was standing outside what
looked like it might be a daycare center, her small hand held by a larger one,
and she was laughing up at the man standing next to her – whom I assumed to be
Heather’s husband, but all that was displayed in the picture were his
jeans-clad legs.

When I agreed she was a beauty, Frank gave a small,
shuddering sigh, set the picture back on the desk and walked away without
another word.  I thought it was strange at the time for a lot of reasons, but
put it off as Frank missing his grandchildren, as two of the three were
currently living out of state.

A thought occurred to me and I asked Jack, “Do you think
it’s possible that Frank and Heather are related in some way?  I mean, I know
it sounds stupid, but maybe he doesn’t want anyone to know it.  He was pretty
adamant about creating that position and putting Heather in it, yet he won’t
even speak to her directly.  Do you think he’s just putting on an act to throw
off any suspicion that he hired a relative?”

Jack gave the idea some thought before replying. “Well,
maybe.  It
is
against policy to have relatives working together in the
same department.  And if they are somehow related, it might even make sense
that they’re working together to get as much money out of the company as they
can.”

I was shocked at this assumption and said so.  “Heather and
Frank? You’ve got to be kidding!”  A more unlikely pairing I couldn’t imagine. 
“Heather is not flashing around a lot of money. She doesn’t even have a
reliable car, let alone a new one. In fact, I’ve had to lend her my car more
times than I can count just so she could go out for lunch because hers wasn’t
running.  And I’ve seen her house, Jack - it’s small and not in a great
neighborhood.  And, on top of that, I think they’re only renting it.”

Jack stopped my rambling defense of Heather with a look.
“Angie, whoever is doing this is not stupid.  If they were, they wouldn’t have
managed to get away with so much and for so long.  Just because they’re not
waving the cash under our noses, doesn’t mean they don’t have it.  Don’t write
anyone off based on what you
think
you know about them. Everyone is
under suspicion.  Don’t forget that.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. 
“But I don’t like it.”

“I know you don’t and I don’t, either.  But it’s the way
it’ll have to be for a while.  And, again, don’t say a word to anyone.  We
don’t want them tipped off that we’re on to them.  Now, take a look and tell me
if I have any bread stuck in my teeth.” 

He bared his perfect teeth in a gorilla grin and I leaned
forward slightly to assess them.  “Nope, you’re good.  How about me?”  I bared
my own teeth in a similar fashion for his inspection.

He looked them over carefully.  “All clear.”

“Good,” I said.  “And by the way, we need to talk about my
new responsibilities so I can have that memo written before I see you tomorrow
night.”

We discussed the particulars, the most notable being that
Jack had “just this minute” decided Heather would now report directly to Frank,
instead of to me.  “I’m going to force him to interact with her and see if we
can pick up on anything,” he said. 

Jack stood up and stretched, and I found my attention
riveted to the small section of his abs that he had bared. Jack liked his food
too much to ever have a true six-pack, but the muscles there were lightly
defined and, I just realized, very sexy. My attention slid to the line of hair
that was barely showing below his navel.
Hot
. I had a sudden urge to
lick my way down that enticing trail and see where it led.

Jack pushed his chair back under the table, breaking me out
of my reverie and signaling he was either getting ready to leave or preparing
to camp out in my living room.

“Do you have plans for tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got a date later, so I should get home and get
some work done before then.” He started walking toward the front door and I
followed behind him, thinking how perfectly bitable his ass looked in those
well-worn jeans.

“Oh. Who’s the date with?” I inquired nosily.

“Just a girl I’ve been talking to on a gaming site. She’s
been pushing me to meet in person so when she wanted to get together for dinner
tonight, I said okay.”  He shrugged and didn’t seem too excited at the
prospect.

“You don’t seem too excited,” I pointed out.

“Eh.”  Again with the shrug.  “She seems okay, but not
entirely my type.  I guess we’ll see.”  He paused for a second then stared out
over my left shoulder while he appeared to be considering something.  “But,
then again, maybe it’ll work out and I’ll be able to get her to sign the
contract.”

“The contract?” I asked with knitted brows.  “What
contract?”

“You know,” he said, giving me a
come on, don’t be dense
kind of a look.  “The
contract
.”

It took me a second to realize he was talking about a sexual
contract. I had a hard time imagining Jack the Dom.  He was just too playful
for that kind of thing and I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) picture him in
leather chaps, or whatever the hell he wore, whipping the shit out of someone
with a leather flogger. I hoped my momentary shock that he would tell me this,
or that he would even
do
that, didn’t show and I quickly rearranged my
expression into one I assumed a woman of the world would wear.

“Do you really make them sign a contract?” I asked,
genuinely curious.

“Well, yeah.  It’s pretty standard for that kind of thing.
It makes it easier right from the beginning knowing what someone will and won’t
do.”  He flashed me a grin and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.”  I reached up to hug him
goodbye. “Well, good luck with that.”

He bent down slightly and returned the hug, squeezing me
tightly. “Thanks.  And thanks for lunch, too.”

“Any time,” I told him as he released me.  “I’ll see you
tomorrow night.”

“Right.  I expect Luke around 6:00, but I’ll be home all
day.  Come by whenever.”

“Okay.  I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.”

“Sounds good,” he said as he opened the door.  “See ya,
Ange.”

“See ya, Jack.”

I closed the door behind him, finding myself wondering
exactly what kind of sexual expectations Jack had and what he would write in to
his side of a kinky contract. I shook off the thought before it led me back
down that wayward path of perverted thoughts that I shouldn’t, and wouldn’t, be
having.

Then I settled myself in and restarted my reading marathon.

Jack hopped quickly down Angie’s front steps and headed for
his Jeep, almost in pain from suppressing his laughter.

God, she is so gullible, he thought with a snort. It was
just one of the many things he loved about her.  She was so trusting and, in
some ways, so naive, that she believed every ridiculous word that came out of
his mouth. 

As soon as he was settled in behind the wheel, the door
pulled firmly closed behind him, he let the laughter erupt.  He rested his
forehead briefly on his arms on the steering wheel, as his whole body shook
with it.

A contract
!  Oh, that was genius, Jack.  Pure,
fucking genius! 

He was sure he was going to lose it entirely when he got to
the part about why a contract was so important.  It took everything he had to
maintain a straight face. 

And the look on Angie’s own face when she realized what he
was talking about!  Her jaw had briefly dropped and her eyes went wide before
she managed to compose her expression. He took a moment to savor the
recollection of her futile attempt to look as if she had conversations on that
subject every day of her life.

Priceless.

His laughter quieted down, but he still had a smile on his
face as he started the car and pulled out of Angie’s driveway.

During the seven minute drive to his house, he thought about
how Angie, who was always so open about everything else, did all within her
power to hide her obsession with romance novels.  Like he cared.  Jack himself
had a love of novels that involved espionage, intrigue and several dead
bodies.  He didn’t bother to analyze that or try to explain to people why he
liked those types of books - he just did. 

And if romance novels were what entertained Angie, then he
wished she would just own it and give a hearty “fuck off” to anyone who didn’t
like it.  His mother and her mother both read those kinds of books and they
couldn’t care less who knew it. But Angie felt a need to hide it, like it was
something she didn’t want people to know about her.

It’s not like he hadn’t known about it for years.  Before
her parents had bought her the Kindle for Christmas two years ago, he had
spotted many of those books lying around her house.  He would barely catch a
glimpse of the bare-chested, six-packed men on the paperback covers before
Angie was hastily shoving them in drawers or under couch cushions.  In what he
supposed she thought was a very surreptitious way.

He laughed out loud again.  She totally sucked at being
sneaky.

But what she didn’t know is that today wasn’t the first time
he had picked up her Kindle to take a look at what she was reading.  Today was
an exception only in that he had been in the mood to mess with her. He read her
books a lot, actually.  If he was at her house, waiting for her to get ready
before they went somewhere, or if she had fallen asleep while reading at his
house, he read. 

And some of it, like the over-the-top shit he read today,
was just ridiculous.  And some of it was pretty hot.

When he read a few pages of the previous year’s blockbuster
on her Kindle, and noting that she had all three books in the trilogy, he had
downloaded his own copy and read the first book. He soon realized the book was
not written with a male reader in mind.  He enjoyed the sex scenes, but found
himself quickly flipping past the parts that went on and on with all that
emotional drivel women seemed to love.

So why that book flashed in his mind on Friday while he was
having a serious conversation with Angie about their relationship was anyone’s
guess. But he hadn’t been able to stop himself.  Before he knew it, he was
“confessing” to his BDSM tendencies, even paraphrasing dialogue from some of
her own books, and she bought it – hook, line and sinker.

Yep.  Totally gullible.

This had all the earmarks of being a classic among the
stories he had fooled her with over the years.  Even better than the greatness
of what he liked to think of as The Steely Dan Whopper. It started in the
middle of a perfectly innocuous conversation he had been having with Angie
about how they had each gotten their names. He had formulated a very convoluted
story, on the fly, about his mother winning tickets and a backstage pass to a
Steely Dan concert when she was 18.

  He embellished the story by saying that the band had taken
such a great liking to her, and she to them, that she decided on the spot to
accept their invitation to spend that entire summer touring with them. Without
coming right out and saying it, he had also hinted that she had a sexual
relationship with more than one member of the band.  And so, based on the fond
memories she had of that summer, she had named him Jack after their song
Do
It Again
.

The song was right, but he was named after it simply because
his father liked it.  His mom couldn’t stand Steely Dan.

It was one of the most outrageous fabrications he had ever
told her.  His mother had never even been on a single date with anyone but his
father; they had been together since they were in high school. But Angie hadn’t
known that at the time.  And Jack didn’t know if Steely Dan was even touring
when his mother was 18, but Angie didn’t know that, either - and so she
believed every single word.

Then a few months later, long after he had forgotten telling
the story, she innocently asked him a question about it.  He had laughed his
way all the way through his confession.  Angie was significantly less amused. 
And for over a week his arm had carried the bruise to prove it.  For someone
who was only 5’4” and about 120 pounds, she sure packed a mean punch.

But even after all that, and the many other yarns he had spun
over the years, she still fell for it.  Every single time.  He snorted and
thought again that this BDSM stuff was going to be a classic. He wondered how
long it would be prudent to keep it going.  Maybe if he told her the truth
sooner, rather than later, she wouldn’t hit him quite so hard this time.

Returning his thoughts to the rest of their conversation on
Friday, he had to admit, she had thrown him for a loop by bringing up the sex
club. He made a mental note to nag her about it until she told him exactly how
she had known the particulars of what went on in that club.

The truth was, that membership was something he had for
customer entertainment. The days of simple entertaining via dinner and drinks
were over. Some of those purchasing guys from the larger companies, the
companies that handed out the big money jobs, were only interested in
entertainment with a sexual theme. Most were content with visiting topless bars
and maybe enjoying a lap dance or two, but others needed more. There were three
men in particular who were obsessed with the club, but there were also several
others who liked to dabble. So he had kept the membership for a while, hoping
the payoff would be worth it.

But Jack hated everything about the place. He hated seeing
people doing things in public that he felt should only be done in private.  He
hated that the guys he took there were married, yet doing everything they could
to get their rocks off with other women.  He hated sitting alone at the bar for
hours, trying not to pay too much attention to what was going on around him,
while overly made up women in skanky clothing - and an alarming number of men -
tried to talk him into participating in whatever it was they had going on.

He tried not to judge them; whatever they had to do to get
off was their own business. It just wasn’t his thing. He preferred his action
to be one on one with women he actually felt something for, however little that
might be.  Sex with random strangers wasn’t generally for him - but he was no
angel.  Sometimes, when the loneliness got the better of him, he found comfort
in the occasional one night stand.

But he also hadn’t had a long-term relationship since
college - and the women he’d been with since then generally only lasted a month
or two before they did something to irritate him. And more often than not, what
irritated him was their whining about his friendship with Angie. He would
explain the platonic nature of the relationship exactly once.  And if they
brought it up again, he cut them loose without a single regret.

His mind returned to the club and some of the things he had
seen there. His own sexual preferences just weren’t that kinky.  His playful
nature extended to the bedroom and he liked to share laughs along with the sex,
with someone whose company he enjoyed. And he was always open to trying
different things, but he didn’t think the specific things he took the most
pleasure in were too out there.

There was just that one little thing that he’d ever had
women complain about. One woman was so offended by it that she put an immediate
halt to the action, mid-stroke, no less, and he found himself being escorted,
rather huffily, to the door. He smiled, a little chagrined at the memory. She
had been in such a hurry to get rid of him that he left with his shirt
unbuttoned, condom still in place, and his shoes in his hands.

He mentally shrugged, knowing that a woman who couldn’t
handle a little thing like that, a thing he was almost compelled to do because,
for him, it escalated the act from hot to scorching, obviously wasn’t right for
him.  Not even for one loneliness-busting night. 

Arriving home, he got out of his car, clicked the locks and
walked in through the back door of his silent house - the house Angie had
helped him to pick out.  He sighed and wondered again if the family he was so
anxious to have, the fantasy family he had in mind when he bought this large
house, was ever going to materialize.

He headed for his office and the nearly overwhelming amount
of work that awaited him there.  Checking his watch, he saw he only had a
couple of hours before he had to go meet Melinda at the restaurant. If he could
think of a way to do it without looking like a complete dick, he would back out
of the date. It wasn’t going to lead to anything further and he already
regretted agreeing to it.

He fired up his computer and considered which of his
projects he should tackle first, thinking how much easier this was all going to
be once Angie took on the role of his assistant.  He was pissed that his being
distracted by so many smaller issues had allowed someone to steal so much money
right out from under his nose.  He should have caught that sooner. He had never
considered hiring an assistant, but when his parents brought it up the other
night, suggesting Angie would be perfect for the job, he had to agree. He
definitely needed the help.

Procrastinating, he picked up a framed photograph from his
desk and gazed at the headshot of himself and Angie.  Taken last summer on a
friend’s boat, they were both wearing sunglasses against the bright sunlight,
the dazzling blue of Lake Michigan all around them. Angie was looking up at him
and they were both laughing. Jack loved that picture. He saw it as the
embodiment of how he felt about Angie and their relationship – love, laughter and
sunshine.

He snorted and shook his head at that pussy-like thought and
wondered if he was starting to grow ovaries.  It wouldn’t surprise him; it
seemed like he hadn’t had much use for his balls lately.

Sighing again, this time much louder, he examined the image
of Angie.  On top of the hundreds of personal qualities he loved about her, she
was a beautiful woman.  Great face, great smile, great ass.  And her hair. He
could never understand why she hated it so much. Her hair was the epitome of
the expression “crowning glory”.  It was sexy as fuck and Jack thought it was
her best attribute.  Well, maybe second best, after her ass.

Her hair was wild and curly, dark with some lighter
highlights running through it - and it was incredibly soft.  He pictured himself
holding all that hair in his hand while he fucked her hard from behind,
treating himself to a view of that spectacular ass - and he immediately felt
his dick spring to life.

He paused in his fantasy and gave that vision some thought. 
It wasn’t the first time he’d indulged in thoughts of fucking Angie.  Or the
first time he’d gotten hard from the experience. He was still a man, after all,
and she was a gorgeous woman.  But this time, unlike the other times he had
these thoughts, it bothered him.  It bothered him a great deal because he
realized if he didn’t do something, and do it fast, his fantasies might never
become reality.

He considered Friday’s unimpressive kiss.  She had been so
nervous, he wondered if he should have tried again.  While she was in his lap,
wrapped in his arms, and they were both feeling the love – now
that
would have been the time to go for it.  He still wasn’t sure why he hadn’t.

Fear?  Maybe. He couldn’t stand the thought of losing her. 
Jack always tried to be honest with himself and when he took the rare
opportunity to examine his feelings, he knew, all the way down to his bones,
that Angie was always going to be the only one for him.

When they first became friends, she had just started dating
Steve, so making a move then had been out of the question.  He cursed himself
for not going for it when they first met. By the time she broke up with Steve,
they were firmly entrenched in their friendship and he didn’t know if he could,
or should, try to change it.

And for a long time after that break-up, she seemed to have
lost all interest in men. He wasn’t sure if her heart had been badly broken or
if something had happened she wasn’t admitting to.  Whatever the reason, it
allowed him to have her all to himself for those two years, and he reveled in
it.  And he realized now that it was during that time he had started falling in
love with her – and he fell a little harder every single day. But because of
whatever it was she was dealing with at the time, he hadn’t felt like it would
be right to push for anything more.