My speech and financial analysis had been going on for about 25 minutes and I had less than 10 minutes to round off.“As the year runs to an end, we implore our clients to make a few rash decisions and get loans from us.” I joked and the crowd laughed.“But on a more serious note, think three times before you make that decision, I know what it feels like to make a mistake and want to turn back the hand of time.” My gaze found Jared’s, it took all of me to not exhale loudly into the microphone.“Problem is, you can’t.” I smiled sadly and moved my eyes away from him, anymore and I would burst into tears.“If you’re going to make a decision, make sure your CFO’s are aware, they are your best friends. We loan and you return but more than that, we expect your investments to yield a massive increase or how else do you expect us to eat?” I joked again.I had no idea I could work a crowd that good, even Jared cracked a smile. I knew because I always had him in my peripheral vision, always.“T

Jared burst in through the door, his eyes alarmed.“Oh my God.” I screamed for an entirely different reason. His gaze ran the length of my body, worry evident in his face.“What happened?” I had my hands covering myself but I still felt exposed.“Nothing. The shower… I was expecting it to be hot.” I looked up at the shower head that I’d hurriedly turned off immediately the water hit my body.“It was cold.” Jared said in realisation.“So, you’re fine.” I wasn’t, my teeth had started to chatter again but in the way he’d meant it, I was. I nodded. He visibly relaxed and I felt somewhat warm on the inside, he was worried something had happened to me.I didn’t know what to do, I was stark naked and he was in the bathroom with me. As if reading my thoughts, he turned away quickly, muttered an apology and left me alone.Even through the cold shower, which was much needed after that encounter, my skin remained red. I quickly dressed up.“You can use the shower.” He was seated in the same posit

I closed my eyes and opened them again, I wasn't seeing double."What?" I'd completely forgotten he was in the same room as me, that was how silent he was."Something isn't right about this..." I hadn't expected him to be interested but he turned around and stood behind me.I could feel the heat of his body and that of his breath against my neck, despite the cold and I squirmed in my seat."This is supposed to be our annual report, it was attached to a number of files here, but this isn't the report I handled for the event or what I've been handling for the past one week. This is different.""How do you mean?" Goosebumps erupted on my skin, Jared had moved closer and his hands were spread behind my back.I quickly pulled up the records I had from the system and I actually wasn't hallucinating the figures."That doesn't seem right." I looked up at him and there was a frown on his face. He was right though."There's a bunch of zeros missing." He glanced down at me and I looked away hurr

I rubbed my eyes and looked at my phone.‘Fuck!’ I was running out of time. I had a few hours left and I felt like I hadn’t done a lot.After a short while, I realised that, the amount missing from the account I handled at work was a couple hundred million and everything surprisingly summed up to the other accounts Ryan had personally asked me to handle, the companies that seemed not to be in business.‘Were they offshore accounts, disguised as defunct companies? What account was the real one? The missing money, was it diverted into multiple off shore accounts or the money in the offshore accounts were simply sent into Marque and Co.?’ I shook my headNo, that last thought didn’t make sense. No one used an offshore account to send money into somewhere else, they were usually accounts meant to hold money.I grabbed my hair in frustration, there was no way I was going to figure this shit out before tomorrow. I slammed my laptop close in annoyance and lay on my bed.I turned to the corne

Jared groaned as he cradled my head. "Oh my God. I am so sorry." I quickly stood up and held him up, Aarav was cackling by the side and I shot him a glare. "I didn't think you'd fall over." "You should have seen his face." Aarav slapped his knee, bent over in laughter. Aly ran down the stairs with panic in her voice. "What happened?" Her eyes went straight to Nali who was still too engrossed in her toys to notice what was going on. "Lee scared Jared and he fell. You should've heard his scream." My face reddened in embarrassment. Jared’s heart had raced twice as fast under my ears and I revelled in that moment, however how short. "I did not scream." Jared scowled at Aarav and his laughter died down. "Sure man." Aarav patted his back and picked up the boxes he'd discarded on the chair the minute Jared had fallen down. What was he doing here? I hadn't expected him to be around, especially since Aly and I were the ones that made the plan. I shot a questioningly look