“Fuck yeah she is. That pretty little body of hers is too.” He said, disregarding the driver but he wasn’t one for eavesdropping. And I think we had worse conversations before today.
“Yeah, I agree with you there. What should we do for her this weekend?” I asked him. We were nearly to the office and I would rather not discuss it there.
“I’ve got no fucking clue. It seems like another hurdle right now and I know we are about to walk into even more.”
I scoffed. “Yeah. That’s true. Let’s start with one thing and then tackle another.”
That’s how it always was with the business. There was always something to do, something to take over. I got used to it and so did Jude but sometimes it was still tiring like all things. We had high hopes for the company and still do, but sometimes i
t got overwhelming.
We arrived in the garage and walked through our private security entrance. We went to our respective offices and I started pushing my own papers. Old contracts, new agreements to look over, past agreements… it was just that time of the fucking month for us.
My assistant buzzed herself in around lunch time when I was knee deep in paperwork and prepared to think about Henley for the rest of the day instead.
“Sir, I have a matter to discuss with you.” Martha was always stoic and serious but she got the job done. Jude and I appreciated her for it.
“Go ahead, Martha.” I gestured to the seat for her to sit down. She cleared her throat and looked at me.
“I have some flags coming up in one particular account we share with Hatchett.”
I held back my groan because the company didn’t know about our bad investment yet. We wanted to keep it to just us because we weren’t sure exactly how it would play out. Things could go horribly wrong and the company would weather the storm, or they could put themselves in uproar and destroy the company for it.
Neither were exactly winning scenarios. The thing about the deal was that it wasn’t just that upfront investment, it was any off rolling and net profits from it we would be set to lose if things went badly. It could end up being tens of millions.
“Yeah… what about it?” I asked her. She rolled her eyes at me, but her sass just came with her job description at that point.
“It isn’t doing well, that is what is about it. Look sir, our profits are down thirty percent with them.” I looked at her print outs and graphic of our sales bar on her tablet and agreed.
I nodded slowly, hating seeing it somewhere else other than my own desktop.
“Look Martha, I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. But this isn’t news to us.” I sighed, leaning back in my chair to shove my fingers through my head in frustration. I opened up my blue suit jacket and swiveled my chair until I had the courage to meet her angry face.
“You idiots knew about this and didn’t tell anyone? Not even the partners? Not even the damned hardworking employees? This is everyone’s money, you invested company revenue stock!” She shouted.
I rubbed my temples slowly as I clenched my eyes together. “I know, Martha. We both know, just—”
She got up suddenly and slammed her tablet down onto the table. She disappeared before I could say anything and I stared after her like a dumbass. Moments later I heard Jude’s grumbling and her griping.
“What the fuck is this, the second inquisition?” Jude growled and angrily stepped in front of my desk. He looked down at me like I was the problem but a quick flick of my wrist told him that wasn’t even the case at all. He knew Martha had found out on her own the second he looked into my eyes.
“No, this is a wake-up call for the both of you. Do you have any idea the legal ramifications you are putting this company through right now by keeping this to yourselves? Millions could be lost, and even after that losses will continue to slide because you invested company stock and our profits will permanently be damaged by this now. Who even allocated these funds?” She asked at the end of her rant.
I stared back at her and so did Jude. Neither of us knew what we wanted to say to her. We still wanted to keep things minimal because it wasn’t adding up just yet. But she couldn’t know that. The company couldn’t know that. As soon as morale dropped, the company wouldn’t work the same way. We’d be screwed.
“No one allocated the funds Martha, we used profit shares to make the initial investment. It will run its course; the market has been up and down for the past few months. It will be fine.” Jude said. He said it so casually, like he wasn’t at all worried about what would happen to us. I didn’t know how he managed to do that.
“Oh Jude, you are so pin headed.” Martha sniped.
“Careful.” He responded with a tight jaw, but she just stood her ground and stared him down, regardless of the fact he towered over her.
“Yeah right. Look, I don’t know what you think is going on here, but it’s bad. I suggest you send it up to accounting.” She sighed heavily.
“I don’t think we will be doing that, Martha. Not because it is not a feasible idea, but because we aren’t at that point yet. Once the company gets wind of things, it will be a lot harder to keep their trust in the long run. There isn’t anything we can do at this point but watch the numbers, all of H&P doesn’t need to do that.” I said calmly.
She calmed down a little bit and nodded to herself it seemed. “Okay. That’s fine sir, I just wanted to bring it to your attention.” Martha said and turned to leave.
“Martha.” Jude clapped his harsh voice at her and I glared at him because it wasn’t necessary. “This doesn’t leave the office at all. This conversation never happened.”