“I’m sorry, I forgot to bring the contract I need signed.”
“Really? Are you sure you didn’t just want an excuse to see me again?” I tease.
His smile is contagious. “Caught me. I’ll check my calendar and see when I’ll be back in the city and give you a call.”
“You can just email it, you know.”
“But this is a lot more fun.” He winks. “So how long have you lived in Chicago?”
“Oh, I don’t live here. I’m just on assignment for a few months.”
That piques his interest. “Doing?”
“An audit. I’m a forensic auditor.”
“Really? A woman with beauty and intellect. I like it.”
I smile at his compliment. When Cooper called earlier this week asking me to join him for lunch, I almost declined, but there’s something about him that I really do like, so I agreed. Now I’m glad I did. It would be nice to have another friend.
“So, where do you hail from if not Chicago?”
“Detroit.”
“Ah…Motor City. Nice. My cousin spent some time there a few years back. What firm do you work for?” He pops a fry in his mouth and with a smirk hands me one off his plate. I look at it only a couple of seconds before I snag it and devour it before he changes his mind. He winks and I cock a brow, giggling.
“I work for me. I opened my own company last year. ARK Consulting.”
“Wow. That’s great, Alyse.”
“Thanks. What about you? How did you come up with the name of your studio, CB29? I love it. Coming up with a name was probably one of the hardest things when I opened my business.”
His face lights up.
“I actually co-own the studio with my cousin. We had a dream of opening our own photography studio when we were younger, so it’s named after our first two initials and we were both twenty-nine when we opened it.”
“I like it. Very creative.”
Half an hour later, after talking about the challenges of being small business owners, Cooper and I part ways, agreeing to meet for lunch again sometime soon.
Wrapping my scarf around me in a lame attempt to protect against the bitter winter winds and swirling snow that started coming down five minutes into lunch, I walk faster, wishing the four blocks back to CFC weren’t so damn long and definitely wishing I’d worn anything other than a skirt and heels today.
Once inside the building, I’m shaking the snow that’s collected on my hair when I hear my name.
“Alyse, hi.”
I look up to see the head of CFC security, whom I met in the cafeteria earlier this week, talking to a guard at the front desk. What’s his name again? Casey? No. Craig? No. Conner? Hell, I don’t know, so I settle for a generic, “Hi.”
I make polite chitchat with someone whose name starts with a “C” for a couple minutes before I beg my leave. He’s a nice enough man, but I’m a little uncomfortable around him.
It’s after one before I finally reach my temporary office on the thirty-fourth floor. I sit behind my desk with a sigh, still chilled from my short walk but glad I took the much-needed break.
I’ve spent the last two weeks looking at ledgers and balance sheets and bank statements until my eyes are crossed. With a little over a thousand employees, CFC isn’t that big of a company, but big enough this audit could take me well until January or even February.
So far, I’ve not uncovered anything that looks suspicious, but I have yet to really dig into the accounting system or start validating vendors against invoices, which is my next project. With the hundreds of third parties that CFC works with, that alone could take me weeks.
Because of the nature of CFC’s business, I will also need to look at each client account and review billing practices. I may need to pull in Al to help with this after he’s done with his current audit or I could be here for months. Not that I would mind. The more time I spend with Asher, the more I can’t fathom not being able to see him every day.
I’ve spent every night at his apartment this week. Regardless of my own emotional reservations, I can’t deny that’s where I want to be too. I’ve been trying to keep a little bit of distance, trying to protect my heart, but Asher sees right through me and he’s very convincing. I can see why he’s been so successful in his career. He’s tenacious, like a bulldog.
Pushing aside thoughts of Asher from my head, so I can get some actual work done, I turn to my laptop and log onto the SAP accounting system that CFC uses. Last week when I met with Aaron Hinton, the director of finance, and one of his analysts, Amanda, they gave me a cheat sheet to understand the vendor and banking codes within the system. As I search my desk for it, though, I’m unable to put my hands on it.