Page 109 of Fish out of Water
“Um.”
I turned to find Helen standing at the open door. She reached out to rap on the edge of the frame.
“Yes?”
“I scheduled you a phone conference with a new client today.” She cautiously stepped into my office. “I’m not sure you’ll be able to help them, but they were adamant about discussing their options.” Her brown eyes went to the door before coming back to me.
“Okay.” I turned to face her. “Is there something wrong?”
“I’m just not used to your door being open.” Helen was an amazing assistant. She was organized and focused. Smart and driven.
She was also almost finished earning her accounting degree, which meant my time with her might be coming to an end.
Which was not a good thing.
“I can close it if that makes you more comfortable.”
“No.” She gave me an awkward smile. “I think I’m just a creature of habit.” Helen glanced down at the papers in her hand. “I also looked over the numbers for the company you met with last night.”
“You did?” I straightened.
“Not on purpose.” Her lips rolled inward, pressing together for a second. “I was putting information into a spreadsheet and I noticed a few things.”
“What did you notice?”
Helen took a couple sideways steps in my direction, eyeing me as she did. “There were some discrepancies in the numbers.”
“Really?” The owner of the company wasn’t interested in hiring me for an in-depth look at their situation, so I’d done a basic health check on the business as a whole, but ignored the more narrowed-down statistics. “Like what?”
“It looks like something’s missing.” Helen held out the paper in her hands. One finger went to a highlighted line. “This number should be higher.”
“Looks like someone might be dipping into the till.”
“That’s what I thought.” Helen wrinkled her perfectly sloped nose at me. “Too bad he threatened to kick your ass, huh?”
I started to laugh.
Helen’s eyes went wide. “Are you laughing?”
“I laugh.” I snagged the paper from her hands.
“Not at work.” Helen stole the paper back from me. “I’m adding this to their file.” She turned to walk away.
“Helen.”
She looked my way over one shoulder, one black brow lifting in question.
“What are you doing after you graduate?” My business was growing faster than I could manage. I’d been trying to keep up with it, but my priorities had recently shifted.
Helen straightened, slowly turning my way. “I’ve put a few feelers out.”
“What about staying here? I could train you to do what I do.” I should have done this sooner. Should have been more attentive to the woman who worked for me.
I’d been so fucking self-absorbed. So worried about my own shit that I didn’t give Helen’s situation a second thought.
“I’ll think about it.” She pointed to where my computer still wasn’t unpacked. “You should get busy. You’ve got a video conference at nine.”
I checked my watch. I had five minutes.
