by Holly Rayner
“Done already? Okay, then, let’s go see what’s next on our to-do list.”
Back at the house, Lauren made sure Zeus had water, then she curled up in a sunny spot in the library to catch up on her emails and check in with her VP.
Kayla answered on the first ring. “How goes the second day of servitude, genie girl?”
“Very funny, Kay. I am not granting him any wishes.”
“Except that whole wish of his to bring down your mother.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not doing anything to help him with that goal either. How are things at the office?”
“Fine. If you’ve got time, there are a couple of calls you could make. I’ve got a director and a location scout who would rather talk with you.”
“Yeah, I can do that. Text me the details and I’ll call them in the next hour.”
“Thanks. I’m going to send you a few things to sign electronically, too. We’ve got the final agreement from the new client, so we need your signature to wrap up the paperwork.”
“Got it. I’ll give them a call, too, to welcome them to the family.”
“That would be perfect.”
Lauren heard a worried note in Kayla’s voice. “Anything else going on?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone and Lauren could practically see Kayla dragging her hand through her long black hair in frustration.
“It’s probably nothing. I don’t want to worry you this week.”
“Kayla, tell me. How long have we known each other? I know you don’t worry without cause, so talk.”
“There were some wonky numbers in the accounting reports from last month.”
Lauren thought about what kind of problem that statement could indicate. “What kind of wonky numbers?”
“I don’t know yet. There were some payments that didn’t look right, and a couple of invoices that I’m sure were taken care of a few months ago. I’m taking a closer look through everything right now.”
“Do you want to get someone external to run a quick audit?” Lauren asked.
She trusted her accounting team, but there had been a few new hires as the company grew. It was possible that someone on the team wasn’t following the standard operating procedures, and that’s what was throwing off the books.
Having them look into the problem internally was one option, but if there was a problem, having the team investigate it could cause them to point fingers at each other. It wouldn’t be good for morale. But an external audit could keep the peace, and if it showed a problem within the operation, it would give her a chance to fix it without causing a fuss.
Kayla was apparently thinking along the same lines. She said, “Yes. I’ll get Greg on the phone and have him go over the books.”
Lauren nodded even though Kayla couldn’t see her. Greg was a friend of theirs from college who had started his own accounting firm. He’d advised Lauren when she was starting out, and the company still kept him on retainer for regular external audits.
“Good. Let me know what you find. I’ll be out running errands for a bit this afternoon, but text me if anything comes up.”
“Are you still wearing that awful maid’s uniform?” Kayla asked and Lauren could hear the teasing grin.
“Yes. Not so awful today, since I made a few alterations to it.”
Kayla laughed. “What if he rented it?”
“Oh, well, too bad,” Lauren said in a sing-song voice. “I guess he should have thought of that before he made me wear it.”
“Maybe he’ll let you have it as a gift when this week is up.”
“Funny, Kay. Talk to you later.”
Kayla, still laughing, said goodbye and Lauren disconnected the call. She didn’t like not being there if something was going wrong, but she knew Kayla had everything under control. Wonky books could be anything: a simple mistake, a sign of a poor process that she would need to update, or something more sinister. Whatever it was, she would keep a closer eye on the office for the next few days.
A thought flitted through her head that she could ask Hakim how he handled problems like this one. She could always ask her mother, but Lauren tried to keep her company independent from Patricia, something her mother encouraged. She was always happy to offer advice, whether Lauren asked or not, but Patricia had also told her several times how proud she was of the fact that Lauren could manage her business on her own.
It would be nice to have another CEO’s perspective. But she didn’t want to open her business up to him. She might be willing to give him a chance, but that didn’t mean she was comfortable with him having that kind of insight into her company.
Her phone dinged with a text from Kayla containing the background on the calls Lauren needed to make. Lauren put the question of talking shop with Hakim out of her mind, and focused on running her business for the next hour.
After lunch and running Hakim’s errands, she took Zeus for another walk. It wasn’t on her list of chores, but Zeus was happy to oblige; he tugged Lauren down the street and around the block while she let her mind wander.
If there was a problem at work, maybe Hakim would let her work out some sort of delayed fulfillment plan. She could come back and finish out her week later on. Though if the rest of the week were like that day, Lauren could handle the work remotely. She’d gotten more done than she’d expected.
And after that morning, she was looking forward to getting to know Hakim better. If she gave him a chance, maybe she could broker some sort of peace between him and Patricia. At least she could form her own opinion of him, instead of simply believing everything her mother had said.
Before Lauren knew it, the sun was setting and the afternoon was over, and Zeus had led them back to Hakim’s. His car was sitting in the garage, and so Lauren hurried inside.
The first thing she noticed was that Hakim looked upset.
“Hey, sorry we’re late getting back,” she said. “We were having fun exploring the neighborhood and I didn’t realize the time.”
Hakim shook his head. “No need to apologize. It’s fine. Thank you for taking him out.”
Lauren cocked her head. “To be fair, it was more like he took me for a walk, but you’re still welcome.”
He gave her a distracted smile in response. Lauren could tell something was off as he knelt to say hello to Zeus. She put the keys back in place and hung the leash up on its peg on the wall.
“How was work? Start any more blood feuds today?” Lauren’s tone of voice made it clear she was teasing, and she smiled to take any sting out of her words.
“Work was fine. It was a busy day, as usual.”
There was a bitter tone in his voice that surprised her. Lauren crossed the room and laid a hand on his arm.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” She knew he was supposed to be some kind of mortal enemy, but he looked preoccupied and even a little upset. Lauren supposed she was sympathetic, knowing what a bad day at work was like when you didn’t have anyone to come home and vent to.
Hakim stared at her, almost like he wasn’t really seeing her, then his gaze focused and he shook his head. He gave a short laugh. “I’m an uncle,” he said.
Lauren’s face lit up in a brilliant smile. “Congratulations! That’s wonderful.” She paused. “It is wonderful, right? Everything’s okay with mom and baby?”
His face relaxed into a more genuine smile. “Yes. My sister is tired, but good, and my niece is healthy and without a doubt the most beautiful baby ever to be born.”
Lauren laughed. “Is she your sister’s first child?”
Hakim nodded. “She is. And my parents are over the moon with their first grandchild.”
“Of course they are!” Lauren exclaimed. “So why are you upset?”
Hakim gave her a considering look. “Because I’m not there.”
In a flash, Lauren understood. She was an only child, but she had a large extended family. Her cousins were like brothers and sisters, and if she lived halfway around the world from the
m, she would be upset, too, missing all the important things.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “It must be hard being so far away.”
Hakim took off his jacket and dropped it over the back of a chair. He loosened his tie, and dropped it on top of the jacket with a sigh.
“It is. I was hoping to be back home, but my niece was apparently impatient to make her appearance. She was a week early. I hate that I missed it.”
“I can understand that. Can I ask how often you make it home?”
His expression was weary as he said, “Not often enough. Or at least, not often enough for my parents.”
“Ah, so you’re the disappointing child,” Lauren tried to make him smile, poking at his arm gently. “Welcome to the club.”
He snorted. “You are not the disappointing child.”
“Because my mother only has one child, so there’s no standard of comparison. Trust me, if I had siblings, I would be the disappointing one.”
“I doubt that.”
“You don’t know my mother,” Lauren said, rolling her eyes.
Hakim finally grinned at her. “Oh, but I do, remember? I’m getting to know you, too, and I’m certain there’s no way you could be a disappointment.”
Lauren ducked her head, wanting to shift the focus of the conversation off of her. “Your parents don’t support your business?”
Hakim shrugged with his eyebrows. “No, they do. It’s what they wanted me to do—go into business, be successful. They’ve always pushed me to be more mature, more focused, more business-oriented. And I’ve done that, or I’ve tried to do that. But to let my company grow, I had to expand it. Specifically, I had to expand the company here.”
“Which means you don’t have time to travel back home because you’re working so much,” Lauren said thoughtfully, intimately familiar with the problem of balancing a personal life with running a company.
When she looked up, she caught Hakim watching her. The expression on his face made her breath catch. It was as open as she’d ever seen him, and he looked like he was seeing her in a new light, too.
If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was thinking about kissing her.
Chapter 8
Lauren
Kissing Hakim would be a terrible idea, Lauren thought. Right? It would be a terrible mistake to get involved with her mother’s fiercest business rival.
She gave him a brisk smile and pulled back just a bit. She didn’t need to get involved with him to be a good friend, she thought, and he looked like he needed a friend tonight.
“Why don’t I make dinner for us? You need a home-cooked meal to cheer you up. Then you’ll get a good night’s rest and everything will look better tomorrow.”
Her sunny disposition seemed to amuse Hakim. He said, “I wouldn’t say no to you cooking dinner. But only if you let me help.”
Lauren laughed, seeing the contradiction in his statement. “You really don’t know how this whole servant-for-a-week thing works, do you?”
“I thought the contract said it didn’t cover evening events,” he said and grinned at her.
She held up a hand, palm out. “Fair point. I’ll cook, you pour the wine and keep me entertained. We’ll call it an even trade.”
“Deal,” Hakim said firmly.
Lauren dug through the refrigerator and pantry, pulling out various ingredients as she went.
“Is there anything you don’t want me to use?” she asked, her head stuck in the refrigerator.
“If it’s in there, it’s fair game,” Hakim replied. “I probably have a few things that need to be used up.”
She laid things on the counter. “I’ll see what I can do about that.”
Hakim pointed out the location of pots and pans, then went to pick out a bottle of wine.
“Red or white?” he asked.
“Red, please,” Lauren said over her shoulder as she chopped onions. She added carrots and garlic to the pile of vegetables.
Hakim found the corkscrew and opened the bottle. He poured two glasses, then set one near where Lauren was working. He then took his own to sit across the counter from her.
“Do you cook often?” Hakim asked, as Lauren broke up a head of cauliflower.
“I do. It’s relaxing. It’s also the one thing that my mother and I always did together. She would make sure she was home in time for dinner four or five nights a week, and we would cook. She would often go back to the office after we ate, but it was important to her that we at least got that time together. She expected a lot from me, but cooking was never about being perfect. It was always fun for us.”
Lauren kept chopping, but looked up to see how he’d reacted to what she’d said about Patricia. She wanted to show him another side of her mother. Hakim was nodding, and Lauren hoped she’d made an inroad there.
“Somehow, I imagined Patricia having a professional chef on call. Or having her assistant make reservations every night at some five-star restaurant,” Hakim said quietly, taking a sip of his wine.
Lauren shook her head. “Oh, we did go out to eat; that was part of my training. I learned how to act at a professional dinner before I learned how to drive.”
“So, your mother always wanted you to follow her into business?”
Lauren tilted her head back and forth. “There was that expectation. Whatever field I went into, I wouldn’t be working for someone. At least not after the first few years.”
“That must have been a lot of pressure on you growing up,” Hakim said.
“You know, I used to wish for a more traditional mom. One that took me to Scouts and baked cookies. But as I got older, I realized just how hard it was for her. There weren’t a lot of women in her industry when she started, and when she started her own company, there weren’t many people who thought a woman could succeed as a CEO in the business. She showed them all.”
Hakim nodded. “It’s a tough industry anyway. I can only imagine what it must have been like for her. Is that why you didn’t choose to follow in her footsteps?”
Lauren waved a wooden spoon at him. “Oh, we were both clear on that. One Sanders in the ad biz is more than enough. Besides, I really like being in production.”
She studied him again, noticing that he looked more thoughtful. “What about you? Why did you choose advertising?” Lauren asked.
“I liked graphic design and I liked writing. It also let me do something different every day.” He cocked his head and squinted. “That is, until I became CEO. Now it’s all business meetings, contracts, and negotiations.”
Lauren nodded sympathetically. “I know. I miss getting in the field, but I like watching my team succeed.”
Hakim nodded. “You’re right. It’s a skill knowing when to step back, and that can be just as fulfilling as doing the everyday work.”
Lauren was quiet for a long minute, thinking. She really wanted to talk to someone about what Kayla had told her about earlier, and she felt she could trust Hakim.
“When did you start your company?” she asked.
“Nine years ago.”
Lauren looked up surprised. “That’s impressive. You were, what, twenty-two?”
Hakim nodded. “Just out of university. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had money and the name, so of course I was going to start my own company. I was convinced I was the whiz kid that would rule the industry by the time I was twenty-five.”
Lauren grinned at him. “And now?”
“I still have the money and the name, but I’ve learned a little bit about my place in the world since then.” He grinned back at her.
“Being a CEO is a lesson in humility, isn’t it?”
“If you’re doing it right, yes.”
“How do you deal with problems? Or things you think might be a problem, but you don’t know yet?”
He studied her. “Is this a general interest question, or did something happen at your office today?”
Lauren huffed a laugh. Apparently, her attempt at subtlety
had bombed.
“I checked in with Kayla, and she mentioned that we might have a problem. She’s looking into it.”
“Can I ask for some more details about the problem?” He held up a hand as if to forestall her protest. “I know you said you weren’t going to give me any information about your company, but I’m happy to be a sounding board if you need one.”
Lauren put a baking sheet in the oven with the cauliflower, and set the pan on the stove to simmer. She picked up her wine glass and leaned on the counter across from him.
“It’s probably nothing. Someone made a mistake, or missed something.”
“But you’re worried about it?”
Lauren nodded reluctantly.
“Then it’s not nothing,” Hakim said firmly.
She took a drink from her glass, then said. “Kayla said there was something ‘wonky’ with the books. Our numbers are off, but there’s no clear reason why.”
Hakim nodded, thinking. “You’re going to have someone outside the company take a look at them to confirm?”
“Yes,” Lauren said. Just hearing her thinking coming from someone else made her feel a sense of relief. “We’ve got an accountant that both Kayla and I trust, so we’re asking him to do an independent audit.”
“Good. That’s the right thing to do.” He sounded so certain that Lauren relaxed a little bit.
“Is there anything else I can do right now?” she asked earnestly. “I can’t fix things until I know what the problem is, but I hate to just let it go while Greg does the audit.”
“Kayla is looking through things, too?” At Lauren’s nod, he continued. “You can dig through the books yourself, but that may not be the best use of your time.”
“I thought I might go over some contingency plans, play out a few scenarios. It’s still probably nothing more than a simple error, but if it’s something worse, I want to be ready.”
“Good plan. Do what you can, don’t worry about the rest until you know more.”
Lauren took another sip of wine, and then wrinkled her nose at him. “Thank you. I’ve been fretting over this all afternoon. I appreciate your advice, especially since, you know…”