After a few more days of avoiding her at all costs, it was no longer possible when Iris showed up at a business lunch with Charlotte in tow. Matthew Garamound, our CPA, my brother, and I were already seated. Even though I was annoyed at her presence, I stood when she walked toward the table. Nodding my greeting, I pulled out the empty chair next to me, while Garamound did the same for Iris. “Charlotte.”
“Actually, I’m going to sit next to Max on the other side of the table if he doesn’t mind. I wouldn’t want my perfume to bother your allergies.”
Iris’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t have a perfume allergy.”
“It’s something I recently developed.”
Max flashed his annoying-as-shit megawatt smile and stood to pull out a chair. “My brother’s loss is my gain.” He leaned toward Charlotte, closed his eyes, and inhaled dramatically. “You smell amazing.”
I grumbled something about his unprofessionalism under my breath as the five of us sat down. It quickly became apparent that Charlotte was going to avoid eye contact with me, which I initially thought was perfect until I realized that when she wasn’t looking in my direction, it permitted me unlimited opportunity to stare at her face. She was so goddamn distracting. I had to force my eyes to pay attention to something else, so I studied our CPA.
Matthew Garamound had to be ten years older than my grandmother. His hair was silver, his skin tanned, and he always wore a tie with an American flag pin. He’d been the company’s CPA since Iris had opened her doors, and the four of us got together four times a year like clockwork—two weeks after the end of each quarter. Only we’d just had our quarterly meeting a month ago, and we never brought an assistant to these types of things.
After the waitress took our drink order, Matthew folded his hands on the table and cleared his throat. “So . . . you’re probably wondering why we’re getting together today.”
Max leaned to Charlotte and whispered, even though we could all hear him, “I’m actually wondering what perfume you’re wearing.”
I answered through gritted teeth. “How about you try to keep the harassment of employees limited to when you’re lying on the couch in their offices.”
Matthew looked between the two of us. While I sported a scowl, my comment seemed to please my little brother.
“Yes, well anyway,” Garamound continued, “I asked Iris and Charlotte to pull this meeting together today because I, unfortunately, have some bad news to deliver.”
I immediately assumed he was sick. “Everything okay with you, Matt?”
“Oh.” He realized what I thought. “Yes, yes. I’m fine. This is about the business and one of your employees. Namely, Dorothy.”
“Dorothy?” I furrowed my brow. “Dorothy’s sick?”
Iris took over the conversation. “No, Reed. Everyone’s health is just fine. Why don’t I start at the beginning? As you know, I’ve been having Charlotte compile a list of our cleaning vendors so that I could consolidate the number of partners we use and receive a bigger volume discount on services. As part of that project, I had her list all invoices paid for each vendor during the last sixty days.”
“Okay, yes, I knew she was working on that.”
“Well. She came across a few invoices that were paid wrong—a transposition in numbers. For example, one invoice was for $16,292, yet it was paid for $16,992. Another one was for $2,300, and it was paid for $3,200. None of them were off by a lot—all less than a thousand dollars each. But Charlotte noticed it on four different invoices, so she mentioned it to me. Now, Dorothy is almost as old as I am, and she’s been with me as long as you boys have been alive, so I assumed maybe she needed stronger glasses, and I went to speak to her.” My grandmother’s face fell, and I knew what was coming next. “She acted really strange. So I asked Matthew to look into some of the transactions.”
Garamound picked up where Grandmother left off. “I did an audit of her transactions over the last twelve months and found that she’d transposed numbers on fifty-three different invoices. Like the ones that Charlotte found, they weren’t very big mistakes and at first glance seemed to be a simple transposition of numbers. But the errors were never in our favor. In total, those fifty-three payments were overpaid by more than thirty-two thousand dollars. When I dug a little deeper, I found that each payment was being made to two different accounts—the right amount was going to the vendor, but there was a separate ACH payment being made for the difference, and all of that was funneled into one account.”
I exhaled a deep breath. “Dorothy has been skimming.”
Garamound nodded. “Unfortunately so. I haven’t gone back to the beginning of time—but it’s been going on for at least the last few years.”
“Jesus. Dorothy is like family.”
Iris had tears in her eyes. “She has a sick grandson.”
Swallowing that news, I tasted salt in my throat.
Charlotte chimed in, her own eyes about to overflow. “Choroidal metastasis. It’s extremely rare in children. She’s been taking him to Philadelphia for experimental treatment that isn’t covered by insurance.”
“I had no idea.”
The mood of lunch took a drastic turn after that. It was one thing to catch an employee stealing, but entirely another to catch a long-term one who had a damn good reason. We all agreed we needed to give the situation some thought and that we’d reconvene at the end of the week to discuss how to handle things.
At the end of lunch, Iris turned to me. “I have an appointment uptown. Could you give Charlotte a lift back to the office?”
Max responded, even though Grandmother hadn’t spoken to him. “I can give her a lift.”
“It’s a Tuesday, you don’t usually come to the office.” I buttoned my suit jacket. “Don’t you have a massage or some other pressing business to attend to?”
My brother slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “Nope. I’m free all afternoon.”
We already had embezzlement going on at the office; the last thing we needed was a sexual harassment suit. I put my hand on Charlotte’s lower back. “We have actual business to discuss. So we’ll see you back at the office.”
Neither of us said a word for the first five minutes of the drive back downtown.
Eventually, I broke the ice. “Good job picking up on that check inconsistency.”
She stared out the window and sighed. “It doesn’t feel so good. It feels pretty lousy, actually.”
“It’s never fun to discover that a person you’ve trusted has betrayed you.”
“I know. Believe me, I know. But it’s Christian that I feel badly about.”
“Christian?”
“Dorothy’s grandson. He’s only six. And the cancer isn’t just in his eye. He spent months sick from the treatment of a tumor in his lungs only to have it metastasize to his eye. He should be playing peewee baseball instead of being home-tutored and living in hotels with his mom while she desperately runs him around like a guinea pig.”
I caught myself rubbing at a spot on my chest, but it was inside that hurt. I side-glanced over at Charlotte. “How do you know so much about his illness?”
She shrugged. “We talk.”
“You talk? You’ve only been at the company for what—three or four weeks?”
“So? That doesn’t mean I can’t make friends. You know that cute picture of him in the Boy Scout uniform on her desk?”
I didn’t but skirted the issue. “What about it?”
“Well, I commented about how cute he is on my second day, and she just broke down crying and told me the story. We went to lunch together a few times after that.” She paused. “Now I’m the person who got her into trouble.”
“That’s not on you, Charlotte. She got herself into trouble. I understand you feel badly. But you did the right thing.”
Charlotte gazed out the window as a moment of silence passed. She was so damn sensitive to everyone’s feelings, which was admirable but also a detriment sometimes when it came to business. Although when you’re talking about a kid with cancer, all bets are off. The entire situation was horrible.
“What are you going to do to Dorothy?” she finally asked.
I glanced over at Charlotte and then back to the road. “What would you do if you were in my shoes?”
She took some time to think about her answer. “I wouldn’t fire her. She really needs the job. What she did was absolutely wrong, but I don’t know that I wouldn’t have done the same thing given no other alternative. People aren’t perfect, and sometimes we need to balance the one wrong they did with all of the rights they’ve done. Dorothy has worked for you for a long time and was helping her daughter and grandson.”
I nodded. We were both quiet for a long time after that.
It was Charlotte who finally brought us both out of deep thought. She turned to me. “I appreciated the French translations, by the way. I never thanked you. Thank God for Google, though, or else I might’ve accidentally bought granny panties for my upcoming nonexistent trip to Paris.” She rolled her eyes.
“I see you checked my work.” I chuckled. “And, de rien. You’re welcome.”
“So why did you stop the French lesson at the point where I scheduled ‘Blind Date’?”
Trying to skirt around the question, I said, “What do you mean?”
“You stopped translating my schedule right at that spot. It was like the second-to-last item, and you decided to stop right there. That was random. Is there no French translation for ‘blind date’?”
Shit. How was I going to explain that one?
Well, Charlotte, I stopped translating because the idea of you going out with some random man makes me feel violent.
“I was no longer having fun with it, so I stopped.” Clenching my jaw, I glanced over at her and asked, “Anyway, why are you going out on a blind date? In this day and age, you have access to so many ways of meeting people. Someone like you doesn’t need to resort to that.”
“Okay . . . what do you mean, someone like me?”
Of course she wanted me to spell it out.
“Someone . . . attractive and with an outgoing personality doesn’t need to go on a blind date. It’s too risky, especially in this city. You should really do your homework before you agree to meet someone.”
“Like you? Is that what you do? You get background checks done on the people you date? Kind of like how you checked up on me before the Millennium penthouse showing?”
“No. Although I would have no problem doing that. But I wouldn’t be going on a blind date in the first place.”
“By the way,” she said, “I never asked. If you knew I was lying on my application that day, why did you agree to show the penthouse to me?”
“Because I wanted to teach you a lesson, humiliate you for wasting my time.”
“You get a rise out of humiliating people?”
“If they deserve it? Yes.”
I could feel the weight of her staring at me. My tie suddenly felt like it was choking me. I loosened it a bit.
“What?” I snapped.
“Have you dated anyone since Allison?”
Great. I was trapped in this car and wouldn’t be able to escape this question. I had no desire to discuss my dating life with Charlotte.
“That’s none of your business.”
The truth was, there’d been a few meaningless trysts, but nothing more significant.
“Well, you seem to think that my business is your business, so maybe you should think first before offering me dating advice.” She let out a long breath. “‘Blind Date’ was just code anyway.”
“Code for what?”
“I didn’t want people to know that I was going out on a date with Max. And before you say anything . . . I know for a fact that the company does not have a nonfraternization policy.”
What?
A rush of adrenaline coursed through my veins. The car came to a screeching halt as my foot hit the brakes in the middle of Manhattan traffic, a couple of pedestrians nearly getting hit in the process.
“What?” I spewed, even though I’d heard her loud and clear.
Horns were blaring behind me, but I barely noticed.
She repeated, “Max and I are going out tomorrow night. And you’d better move this car before you get us into another fender bender.”
She was right. I needed to pull over.
Parking illegally in front of a Dean & Deluca, I put my hazards on.
It was quiet for a few moments before I turned to her and looked her dead straight in the eyes. “You’re not going out with Max, Charlotte.”
“Why not? He’s—”
“Charlotte . . .” Her name exited my mouth in a warning tone. My ears felt like they were burning.
“Yes?” She smiled.
My anger seemed to be amusing her.
It was like a jealous beast that could no longer be tamed had ripped its way through my body. “You’re. Not. Going. Out. With. Max.”
Without any real justification for my actions, I waited for her reaction. I couldn’t articulate the reason why she was forbidden from dating my brother because I didn’t even truly understand my rage. I just knew that I couldn’t handle even the idea of Charlotte and Max.
I was expecting a big argument, one that included her insisting that I had no right to tell her whom to date. But she surprised me when she said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll cancel my date with Max on one condition.”
My pulse rate began to slow down. “What is it?”
Whatever it is, I’ll fucking do it.
“Tomorrow night is also the last tryout at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. I’ll cancel with Max if you go.”
Christ. You’ve got to be kidding me. Now Blondie was an extortionist?
“You’re bribing me?”
“Bribery makes more sense than the unwarranted alpha-male behavior you’re exhibiting against me with no explanation right now, don’t you think?”
There was no way I was going to sit back and do nothing while she went out with my brother, so I gave the only answer I could.
“Fine.”
“Fine, you agree with my statement on bribery, or fine, you agree to go to the tryout?”
“Fine. I agree to go to Brooklyn. But I’m going alone. Got it?”
Charlotte looked all too pleased. “Yes.”
“Good.”
I put the car in “Drive” and pulled out into traffic as we continued our ride back to the office. A slow and satisfied smile spread over her face as she leaned her neck back on the headrest before closing her eyes.
How the hell this car ride had gone from talking about Dorothy’s grandson to my suddenly agreeing to try out for the choir was beyond me. But this was typical Charlotte. Typical annoying, insistent, sometimes clever but always . . . beautiful Charlotte. Fucking beautiful Charlotte. Fucking beautiful Charlotte who was not going anywhere near my brother.
I could keep her from dating Max—perhaps for now—but I had no right to dictate her life. My need to do so had to end. I needed a distraction from this woman, and I had to figure one out, and fast.
When we returned downtown, Charlotte seemed to be in a rush as she headed back to her office. Meanwhile, I headed straight down the hall to talk to Iris about something that had been on my mind since we’d left the business lunch.
She had just gotten off a phone call when she looked up at me.
“Grandmother, good. You’re here. I thought you might still be at your appointment.”
She stood and walked around to the front of her desk. “I didn’t have an appointment.”
Did she forget she’d given that excuse as to why she couldn’t drive Charlotte back from lunch? It was then I realized she’d likely made up having the appointment to get me to drive Charlotte. I didn’t feel like getting into it with her. So I left it alone.
“Did you just arrive?” she asked. “I figured you’d beat me back here. What took so long?”
“We just walked in. Charlotte and I ran into a little snafu.”
She smirked. “I see. That seems to happen a lot with you two.”
Yeah.
Taking a seat, I was happy to change the subject. “Listen, we need to talk about Dorothy.”
“Yes. I haven’t been able to think about anything else all day.”
“We need to call her out on the stealing. She can’t get away with it.”
“I know, Reed, but—”
“Hear me out.”
“Alright.” She looked worried about what I was going to say next.
“While I think she needs to know that we figured it out . . . I don’t think we should fire her. She’s going through too much. And she’s been a loyal employee up until this happened. I can see how someone in her situation could act in a desperate way. People do strange things when their loved ones are in danger. She stole from us, but I don’t think she meant any harm. To her, it was a life-or-death situation.”
A look of relief washed over her face. “I agree, and I’m happy and proud of you for seeing it that way.”
From the moment I understood what was happening, I knew what I wanted to do. Iris was a charitable person and had always set a good example for me in that regard. It felt good to not only be able to help this family but also make my grandmother proud.
“I’d like to pay for the balance of her grandson’s treatment myself.”
She seemed taken aback. “Are you certain? That could be a lot of money.”
“Yes, I’m sure. I couldn’t imagine having a child or a grandchild who was dying and not having the finances to help save him. I mean, is there anything you wouldn’t do for a sick grandson?”
My grandmother paused as she looked me in the eye.
“No. No, there isn’t.”
