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“I have rules.”
“Of course you do.”
“Pants off. Because no subway clothes on my sheets.”
They made a cozy nest – pillows propped, coffee within reach. Nora lost the leggings again but kept the T on, since he liked it so much. Beck followed suit, kicking his jeans off and serving her eggs and bagels in his boxers. They traded sections of the SundayTimes –allowed in bed because technically it was reading material – and stories about their favorite snow days as kids. Because, as if the universe had decided things weren’t cozy enough, snow had begun to fall.
“I wish…” Nora began.So many things in this moment.It was hard to even put into words, but she couldn’t remember the last time she felt so settled. In the moment. Not stuck in her head.
“You can tell me,” Beck set aside the paper, reached for her. “Anything, Nora. Seriously.”
She climbed into his lap, hands meeting his and entwining fingers. He tilted his head up, watching her. “A part of me wishes it would keep snowing all day, so hard that the office couldn’t open tomorrow and your flight would be cancelled Tuesday and we could just stay here, like this.”
It came out in a rush – she knew she was babbling, but it was hard to contain it once it started. “But another part of me knows…”
He kissed her as her voice broke. Leaned up to kiss her eyelids so no tears would come. “Nora…do you trust me?”
Nora opened her eyes, nodding. Lightly touching her forehead to his.
“It’s a two-way street, you know.”
“Unlike Sixth Avenue,” she muttered. When Alex raised a brow in question, she added, “When I couldn’t go after you the other night. In the Town Car, because my heels were too high and the driver – never mind. You were saying?”
“I’m saying, I trust you, too.”
He locked eyes with her, and she felt all at once the vulnerability and intensity of what they had shared wordlessly last night. That vivid, tender whirlwind, right before they came together. Opening parts of themselves for the other. To each other. There had been trust there too.
From the moment she had reached for his hand in the crowd while leaving the party, there had been trust.
Leap…and the net will appear.
“Hedstrom has been stealing from Britesmith employees. For years. And I think I’m to blame.”
* * *
Alex was hearing Nora speak the words, but they weren’t fully sinking in. Something about 401(k)s and missing contributions. Audits and trustees. She was leaning so softly against him, her breasts heavy under the thin cotton of his shirt. He closed his eyes and breathed her in, wanting to memorize her scent, this intimacy. To shut out all the reality of what she was admitting to him.
Grandpa My had been so careful.
Therehadbeen audits. Forensic accountants. Due diligence to make sure everything was on the up and up with the target company pre-close, because it was a hell of a lot easier than trying to untangle themselves, post-close. Britesmith was not Myers and Sons’ first rodeo when it came to mergers and acquisitions. They knew what flags to look for in a company’s financial records.
But the plan assets Nora was talking about were not considered company assets. Employee contributions – whether they were deposited properly or not – would not show up on any balance sheet, positive or negative.
“He was just ‘borrowing’ it.” She dropped his hands so she could hang air quotes around her words. “He called it ‘unclothing Peter to clothe Paul,’ whatever that means.”
“I think that’s a saint thing.” Although he was pretty sure he’d learned in business school it was a Ponzi scheme thing.
Not that Hedstrom was capable of reaching Bernie Madoff proportions – he was just a small-change businessman who’d made a series of foolish decisions. Keeping Britesmith afloat just long enough for a larger company like Myers to swoop in was probably more dumb luck on his part, coupled with loyal employees – like Nora – playing kingmaker.
Whether unwittingly or…not so much.
“I thought you were HR. Not accounting – how would you know?”
“I am…well, I’m People Operations. That’s what we call it. He made me People Operations Officer.”
Nora’s job title was POO?It was no wonder she felt so shitty about Britesmith.
“I convinced people I hired – good, hardworking people – to contribute. Believing Hedstrom when he said he’d handle the investment portion of it. Not knowing he was basically using their funds like a ninety-day checking account,” she gulped. “And I only found out because…these are mypeople, Beck. And one of them came to me. For help.”
