Page 23 of Ace of Swords

Chapter Eight

The next morning Ihad one task on my mind. I couldn’t resolve my feelings for Tatiana quickly, but I could definitely use some creative math to hide the fact we’d gone over budget at Barneys.

I didn’t have the heart to tell Tatiana to return her overpriced dressing gown, and even if she would agree to, there was the small matter of the come stain on it. I knew Tatiana got the VIP treatment at Barneys, but I didn’t think they’d bethataccommodating, even for a Montalla.

I couldn’t let Sergio know we'd gone over budget. For one thing, I didn’t want him on Tatiana’s case. More importantly, I wanted Sergio to trust me; trust me with his finances and also with his daughter. If he knew that I’d allowed Tatiana to spend so much, he may have the inkling that something was up between the two of us. And thatcouldn’thappen.

Quickly making a pot of coffee for Tatiana to wake up to, I snatched my keys, jumped into my car, and drove to the office. If she needed anything, she'd text me. Part of me expected her to get dressed and scramble home the second she remembered where she was.

Or would she be waiting for me when I got back?

Half-dressed, newly ruined pussy waiting for another round, and we—no. I had to fix one mess first before I got caught up in another.

Walking into my office was the favorite part of my day. As soon as I saw my neatly organized desk, everything in its place where I’d left it the day before, I was flooded with a familiar peaceful feeling. I was good at what I did. That gave me confidence, which I needed right now.

I opened my laptop and pulled up Sergio’s account. With a few clicks of the mouse, I retrieved the Amex statement. Tatiana’s card was under the same account as her father’s. I scanned the recent charges. For all of Sergio’s talk about tightening his purse strings, it was clear he was full of hot air. The Barneys purchase didn’t stand out in the list of charges. In fact, there was a recent charge from Brooks Brothers thatexceededTatiana’s. The old man was obsessed with luxury goods. The gold encrusted apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

As long as Sergio doesn't directly ask me about the shopping trip, he won't notice the overspending.Fuck, had I been so worried over nothing?No, she really did waste too much money.Normally that would strike me as terrible. Somehow, when I remembered Tatiana wearing that gown, her breasts displayed for me... it was a struggle to get mad.

Comforted that, for now, both I and Tatiana were off the hook, I decided to do some real work. It was the only way to soothe my guilt towards Sergio. I cracked open the files that Marcus had left on my desk. It had taken him days to get me these, and I’d been frustrated with the delay. Sergio was giving me more responsibly, and today, I was going to familiarize myself with the Montalla Shipping Division, his flagship company.

Sergio’s corporation had started with a single truck. He told the story frequently and with pride. In his youth he was a truck driver, making the same route every week, delivering heavy machinery throughout the state. But when Tatiana was just three years old, tragedy struck when her mother died from a sudden heart attack.

He knew he couldn’t continue driving as a single father, so he used the insurance money from his wife’s policy and bought his own, then paid for a driver. Through persistence and hard work, he undercut the competition and earned trust, securing a few lucrative long haul routes and building his business steadily with a team of drivers.

His determination to provide for Tatiana urged him on. She may not have had her mother anymore, but he would give her the world. Smart financial advisers, instinct and luck had made him one of the wealthiest men in the state in just fifteen years.

I started reviewing the last few quarterly reports, feeling calm as the numbers floated pleasantly in front of my eyes. Everything seemed in order, but I always liked to look at data from several perspectives, so I opened my laptop to graph the expenses and profits to see if I could find any room for improvement. I was in my zone. X axis. Y axis. Inputting numbers and watching them come to life on my computer screen. After yesterday’s storm of unpredictable emotions and events, this activity calmed me. I found myself humming, thoroughly enjoying my work.

But then I saw something that bothered me. Little kinks every few months in the expense curve. Had I inputted the numbers incorrectly? My skin started itching unpleasantly looking at the anomalies and not understanding where I’d made a mistake. The numbers weren’t making sense.

I scrapped my model and started again, paying closer attention to my work. After the fourth rendering of the graph, each one displaying the same discrepancy, I was certain I hadn’t made an error.

I took the elevator upstarts to the filing room. It was an enormous labyrinth of cabinets, lit by overhead fluorescent lights. I was surprised when I first joined the company that so much of Sergio’s records were exclusively on paper. I’d taken to the habit of digitizing every record I worked with as I went along, and it irked me that the rest of the employees weren’t doing the same. The system was senseless and outdated.

It took me half an hour to find the cabinets marked Montalla Shipping Div., and another half an hour to pull all the records I’d need to make sense of the numbers I’d read downstairs. I loaded them into a box and went back to my office, eager to lose this gut feeling of paranoia.

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