Page 359 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

TWELVE

“Listen, I told you last week that I was going to need those profit reports for last quarter, and now here I am, ready to do these spreadsheets and guess what I don’t have? And actually, I told you the week before last to start prepping them for me, right?”

The man on the other end of the line grunted under his breath, already getting his nasty retort for Siena ready. She never understood why people went into a career they knew they wouldn’t like—such as accounting. See, she loved numbers. Her day wasn’t complete if she hadn’t turned on a computer and played with calculations. Not everyone was like her, however, and they didn’t find fulfillment in the same thing she did.

The guy on the phone was one of those.

He was also her go-between for the company she used to manage John’s overall investment profile for his legal side of business. Everything that had to be cleaned, cooked, or otherwise were numbers only she got to touch. At least then, when she sent the numbers off, she didn’t have to worry about anything being wrong.

Not when she didn’t make mistakes.

Not those kinds, anyway.

Maybe Siena was a bit short with her temper lately, too. Normally, she could handle more bullshit from other people than she was capable of lately. She blamed that on the pregnancy, the fact she wasn’t getting enough sleep, oh and because her morning sickness had yet to wane. That shit was all a lie, too, because it wasn’t only in the morning.

It was all the time.

Whenever.

“I will have it—”

“You’ll have it ready by this evening,” Siena said, sighing while she rubbed at the tension headache starting to form in her temples. Or was that a stress headache? It was probably all the fucking same because it sure felt like it lately. “In my email—that’s where it better be when I check later. All right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

God.

Now she was a ma’am.

Perfect.

“Thank you,” she muttered before hanging up the phone.

It wasn’t like she had anything else to say now. As long as those damn reports were in her inbox before she left the office for the day, then she wouldn’t have anything more to say, either. Although, now that she didn’t have those reports, she also didn’t have anything to do. Which wasn’t a bad thing because it meant she could take the rest of the afternoon off, but it also meant that tomorrow, she would have double the work to finish.

Just wonderful.

“Knock, knock.” The man who poked his head in Siena’s office doorway smiled kindly. “You busy?”

“Michel, what brings you to this part of the city?”

Johnathan’s cousin stepped into the doorway and shoved his hands in his slacks pockets. “I was in the neighborhood—actually, I was wondering if you had talked to John at all today?”

That was … unusual.

“Yeah, this morning,” Siena replied. “Before he headed out for the day.”

“But not since?”

“I mean …”

Siena didn’t quite know what to say to that because it wasn’t strange for John to be wherever he was doing whatever he did for most of the day without checking in with her. It was part of his routine, and sometimes he called or he didn’t. Other days, he might show up to have lunch with her at the restaurant where she did the majority of her work.

Like today.

He was supposed to come today for lunch.

For the first time in God knew how many hours, Siena checked the clock on the corner of her computer screen. That’s how she realized John was an hour late for their lunch date.