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“You idiots knew about this and didn’t tell anyone? Not even the partners? Not even the damned hardworking employees? This is everyone’s money, you invested company revenue stock!” She shouted.
I rubbed my temples slowly as I clenched my eyes together. “I know, Martha. We both know, just—”
She got up suddenly and slammed her tablet down onto the table. She disappeared before I could say anything and I stared after her like a dumbass. Moments later I heard Jude’s grumbling and her griping.
“What the fuck is this, the second inquisition?” Jude growled and angrily stepped in front of my desk. He looked down at me like I was the problem but a quick flick of my wrist told him that wasn’t even the case at all. He knew Martha had found out on her own the second he looked into my eyes.
“No, this is a wake-up call for the both of you. Do you have any idea the legal ramifications you are putting this company through right now by keeping this to yourselves? Millions could be lost, and even after that losses will continue to slide because you invested company stock and our profits will permanently be damaged by this now. Who even allocated these funds?” She asked at the end of her rant.
I stared back at her and so did Jude. Neither of us knew what we wanted to say to her. We still wanted to keep things minimal because it wasn’t adding up just yet. But she couldn’t know that. The company couldn’t know that. As soon as morale dropped, the company wouldn’t work the same way. We’d be screwed.
“No one allocated the funds Martha, we used profit shares to make the initial investment. It will run its course; the market has been up and down for the past few months. It will be fine.” Jude said. He said it so casually, like he wasn’t at all worried about what would happen to us. I didn’t know how he managed to do that.
“Oh Jude, you are so pin headed.” Martha sniped.
“Careful.” He responded with a tight jaw, but she just stood her ground and stared him down, regardless of the fact he towered over her.
“Yeah right. Look, I don’t know what you think is going on here, but it’s bad. I suggest you send it up to accounting.” She sighed heavily.
“I don’t think we will be doing that, Martha. Not because it is not a feasible idea, but because we aren’t at that point yet. Once the company gets wind of things, it will be a lot harder to keep their trust in the long run. There isn’t anything we can do at this point but watch the numbers, all of H&P doesn’t need to do that.” I said calmly.
She calmed down a little bit and nodded to herself it seemed. “Okay. That’s fine sir, I just wanted to bring it to your attention.” Martha said and turned to leave.
“Martha.” Jude clapped his harsh voice at her and I glared at him because it wasn’t necessary. “This doesn’t leave the office at all. This conversation never happened.”
She met his eyes and glared back before she shut the door behind her. I looked at Jude long and hard, he looked back at me and didn’t have a damn thing to say.
We could be in deep shit.
“So. What do we do here, oh wise one?” Jude took his jacket off and chucked it onto the couch.
Then he poured himself a scotch and sat back on the couch. He pressed the cold glass to his forehead first, before he drank it down and got up for another. He did that once or twice while we both said nothing. I stared at the numbers and knew something wasn’t adding up but I couldn’t place what. It truly didn’t make any sense at all.
Financial was always on point with their reporting. Accounting never missed a number, decimal, or comma. Human Resources kept everything in line. Our company had an amazing business model that Jude and I worked hard to establish. We couldn’t let this odd mishap take it all away from us.
“Jude.” I got his attention. He was back to laying on the couch with the scotch cup in his hand, leaning down and pointed towards the ground. A photographer would enjoy the picture but from my point of view it looked like he keeled over and died.
I laughed once and got up. He used to do this a lot in college, pretend he was sleeping to avoid the hard shit. I went and stood over him, knowing he knew I was there by then.
“Jude. I’m going to tea bag you if you don’t get up.”
He groaned and pulled back a smile before he got up. He turned to face me, and I sat on the table across from him.
“There is nothing we can do but hope for the best, man. That’s it.”
~
I spent the next few days buried deep in that account. Jude and I still worked out together as always, had breakfast most mornings. By week’s end we were buried deep in quarterly reports we nearly forgot about.
But we were in a damn conference room all day. Papers stacked the fucking table, cologne and ink scented the air and everyone’s cologne gave me a headache. It was why I worked alone in my office but I wanted to present the whole team player attitude to everyone. So did Jude, as much as he hated it.
“Sir I have this report from Hatchett, there is no folder for it.” A young intern got my attention. He was a recent college graduate and was pining for the permanent position we offered two of the interns out of ten. It was lucrative and hard but they all pushed through.
“Just give it to me.” I told him. “And Chad, hand me anything marked with this, will you?” I whispered to him. His eyes widened like I was giving him a special task. I suppose I was, in a way.
“Yes
sir, I will.” He nodded and went off.
