Copyright © 2010 by licapeba. All rights reserved.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is a sequel to "My Bookkeeper" (I devote considerable time and care to selecting my story titles!) and the experience of reading it may be enhanced by reading the other one first.
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Michelle, our part-time bookkeeper, was due to return to work on our accounting system. I was feeling jittery.
The day before, she and I had a sudden and surprising romantic encounter in my office. After she had left, and overnight, I had become concerned about the after-effects of that impulsive event. She was a good bookkeeper. I didn't want to lose her through her own re-evaluation of what had happened. Nor did I want a change in her behavior to make working together difficult. Through morning ablutions and early emails I thought about how to discuss this with her, and was still unsettled as she arrived.
My worrying was wasted, though. Maybe it helped both of us past some awkwardness that one of our consultants was working in the offices when she arrived that morning, but Michelle was completely professional when she arrived, and throughout the day. There was no sign of resentment about what had happened the day before. There was also no fluttering of eyes, no mooning looks, no whispered intimacies... no obvious invitation of any kind to suggest that she thought we would repeat what we had done the day before.
She was more happy than I could remember seeing her, chatting very cheerfully with our consultant and me and laughing easily. In the afternoon after the consultant had left, she was perhaps a bit more friendly and casual than before, but completely professional as she finished our financial reports and walked through them with me. After we were done, she gave me a quick hug, wished me a good weekend, said she'd see me in a few months for our mid-year bookkeeping needs, and left.
A real pro. A grown-up. I thought of some of the other younger women who had complicated my life after intimacy. They had been far less appreciative of what I did for them in bed, and far more demanding of me afterwards, as though they thought that our intimacy gave them a claim of some kind. Even though I hadn't taken anything from Michelle in our encounter, I thought she was pretty great for not trying to make more of it.
In the months that followed, we exchanged emails a few times. Usually I'd start an exchange by asking a question about our accounting, but would slip in something friendly or fun too. She would reply in kind, again showing cleverness and a sense of humor that I had not noticed in years of knowing her. She also avoided turning these exchanges into anything suggestive or cloying. If I was at all uncomfortable with myself, I might have interpreted her lack of communication about what we had done as a lack of interest in a repeat performance. But I didn't, for some reason, and my respect for Michelle grew.
Months later, when she was due back for her usual mid-year updating and tidying of our books, I was out of the country. She came to our offices and did her work for several days, and I returned in the afternoon of the Friday she was finishing up. She told me she had a long list of things to talk to me about, but that didn't worry me.
Michelle had never gotten used to seeing how much money we spent running the business. Her other clients were presumably less successful or more frugal, but I and our handful of consultants burned through tens of thousands of dollars per month travelling, entertaining, training, and preparing and making presentations to groups of executives and senior managers at our clients. We were also forever buying newer and better devices and services to support our activities and make our work easier. Especially in that group, she didn't always understand what our expense receipts were for, and didn't always understand whether they were business or personal expenses.
"Looks like I'm in trouble again," I said with a smile as she came into my office with a thick file folder.
"No," she laughed, "but your expenses must have helped a lot in ending the recession. I need help figuring out what some of these things are for."
She settled into a chair on the other side of the desk and arranged her papers in front of us. We worked through a few dozen expense items quickly, clarifying what they were and what accounts they should be charged to.
"Now this one," she said, "is this what it looks like, almost nine thousand dollars for an espresso machine?! Is that a gift for a client? Who likes coffee that much?!"
"I do, Michelle. So do you. You didn't see it in the kitchen?"
"No! I've been bringing my own Starbucks, I didn't go in the kitchen."
"Ohhh, Michelle," I said, "I can teach you so much. Come with me."
Her eyes softened as she smiled, seeming to remember the last time I said that to her, and she pushed out of her chair to follow me into the kitchen. It was hard to miss the huge new commercial espresso machine there.
"We bit the bullet. I finally concluded that making coffee as good as the best coffee shops is easier using the same equipment they use. I'm going to make you a coffee and you'll stop questioning why I bought it. You'll also never - ever - want to drink a Starbucks coffee again. Do you want to try it?"
She giggled. "I'll try a nine thousand dollar coffee machine any day, but I do love my Starbucks!"
While I busied myself with the exacting ritual of making two perfect double lattes, we chatted about my recent trip, her vacation, family... stuff. I carried the two drinks back into my office, where we resumed our positions across the desk from each other, and I slid her coffee across to her.
I watched her face carefully as she tasted it. She was first apparently startled. People are often surprised that coffee drinks can taste just as good as freshly-ground coffee smells. Then she looked contemplative as she tasted chocolate, and caramel, and a bit of fruit, flavors usually overwhelmed in typically-bad or badly-made coffee. She looked up at me as she sipped, eyes wide. It was at least thirty seconds before she slowly put down her cup in wonder.
"Ohhh Peter!" she said softly, "that is absolutely incredible. I think I've just really had coffee for the first time." She paused. "You do teach me wonderful things." Her eyes sparkled, and we looked at each other for a long moment. I was about to speak when she looked down and said, "OK, how do we handle this wonderful purchase? It's a personal expense, isn't it?"
"I don't think so Michelle. People buy coffee machines for their offices all the time. Some companies spend even more for those all-automatic things that spit out bad cappucinos and coffees at the push of a button. This is office equipment, business. Everyone here is using it. Now including you!"
She gave me a wry smile. "It's in your kitchen in your home, Peter. If you get audited, I don't think it will fly. But I will do whatever you want me to do."
I had glanced away from her when she said that last bit, but I thought I noticed a change in her tone. However when I turned back to her, she was looking down at the espresso machine receipt. She marked it as office equipment, and we quickly worked through another dozen or so more expense receipts before coming to another one that she was uncertain how to record in the company's books.
"What do you think we should do with it?", I asked.
"I will do whatever you want me to do," she said, looking up at me. Her gaze was sure and calm; there was a kind of quiet strength in it. Again we looked at each other for a long moment, and then again she looked down at the papers in front of her.
"Michelle, are you telling me something, something that you think I want to hear?"
Again she looked at me, calmly, certainly, deliberately. "I will do whatever you want me to do." Then she smiled softly, and for the first time I saw in her eyes a trace of longing, of a want that she had probably carefully suppressed for months.
I reached across and closed her file folder, and slid her papers to the side of the desk. Leaning forward, I took both of her hands gently in my own, and looked into her eyes. She looked hopeful, but nervous at the same time.
"Michelle, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go home..." She immediately looked crestfallen, so I squeezed her hands reassuringly. "No, I don't mean it like that, listen carefully. I want you to go home. I want you to take your time, and relax. Have something to eat. Cozy up on the couch for a while and read something sexy or romantic.