Page 7 of Muted

Getting to my feet, I wait for the others to stand as well, then follow them out of the office.

I hold my breath as I peer around the space, but I don’t see the bear anywhere, so I exhale slowly with relief. Just as Chester has me situated at one of the tables in the back of the room, I hear a loud thunk and shoot my eyes over to where the two baby grand pianos sit facing each other.

Briefly, I wonder ifanywomen work here, because now there’s a fourth man dropping his stuff on the floor next to the piano bench and sitting down while checking his phone. I also can’t help but question if there’s a requirement for looks in this place because he’s probably one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever seen.

Without standing next to Chester or the bear, it’s obvious he also has a bit of height to him. Nowhere near the bear, but still tall. He’s slimmer as well, more comparable to Cliff’s thickness, but where Cliff is slightly pudgy around the face and midsection, this guy is toned. His white button-down shirt does nothing to hide the shifting of muscles across his chest while he breathes hard from exertion, or his biceps stretching the material of his sleeves.

He’s hunched over, fingers flying over the screen of his phone as he texts with his near black hair hanging across his forehead and dipping into his eyes. I notice the strands are damp, so I glance toward the window to see that it’s now raining outside.Fantastic.

My eyes are drawn back to him when he lets out a small growl and drops his phone a little too forcefully on top of the piano.

“Do you have any questions, or are you ready to get started?” Chester asks me, the sound carrying through the space to cause this new guy to jerk his head over, just now noticing there are people in the room with him. I jolt when his eyes meet mine and I glance away, blushing slightly at being caught staring.

I grab the pencil Chester has set on the table and give him a forced smile, then focus on the documents in front of me. The man sitting at the piano starts warming up, and I let the sound of the notes wash over me, wrapping me in a sense of peace where I don’t pay attention to anything around me aside from the notes and numbers.

It doesn’t take me long to balance the last month. Some amounts that are being deducted seem higher than what I’d expect, but I’m not an expert on the cost of running a bar. Overall, they do end up with a decent profit. I smile as I set my pencil down, happy that I could accomplish this smoothly and without any hiccups.

Lifting my head, I look around for Chester and find him sitting at the table next to me, just… watching. I also notice that the music has stopped and the man playing is nowhere in sight. It’s just Chester and me in here, so I stand, then walk over to him with the papers in hand.

His eyes are still locked on me and there’s a curiosity in his gaze that I’m not sure I know how to answer. He doesn’t say anything until I’m stopped in front of him; the papers bending under the grip of my fingers.

Chester clears his throat, then asks, “All done?”

I hold them out to him until he slowly takes them. He watches me for another moment before he lets his eyes finally fall to read over what I’ve done.

I watch as he scans the paper, his brow slowly dropping into a frown. “Are you sure these are right? Cliff got different numbers.”

My brows pinch together as I run the numbers through my head, then nod my head slowly, confident that I have it right.

“Can I show you what we got so we can find where we’re off? It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I want to ensure—”

I hold my hand up to stop him, then sit down in the chair and pull his books toward me. Laying my calculations next to his, I run my finger down the list until I find where our numbers differ.

Chester is hovering over me to watch as I skim through the numbers, and his scent of wood laced with spice assaults my nose. I have to breathe through my mouth so I’m not overwhelmed by how good he smells, but now I find I can taste the mint of his breath.Fuck me.

I do my best to keep myself from getting distracted until I see the mistake.Thank God, it’s not mine, it’s theirs.My finger drops to his official books, and I look up to find that he’s once again looking at me rather than the documents spread before us. He doesn’t look down until I point again and tap on the paper.

Chester finally drags his eyes away from me, then grabs the calculator and does the math himself. “Well, fuck. We were wrong.”

I pull my phone from my pocket after looking at their mistake. It’s easy to see what happened. Typing out another quick message, I hold my phone out for him to take.

‘It’s easy to swap 9 and 6 around. It’s a common mistake because the numbers are next to each on the number keypad.’

He hums to himself as he hands my phone back. “Maybe, but that’s a $3,000 difference.” I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or himself, so I don’t react. Instead, I wait as he pages through the books again, then sighs and closes it after circling the error. “Thank you. So, Susu, when do you want to start?”

My heart thumps twice in my chest. Relief and nervousness battle to be the main emotion I’m feeling right now. Grabbing the pencil and a scrap piece of paper, I quickly scribble my answer.

‘As soon as you want me.’

“Perfect. You start tomorrow. We just balanced for the month, so after entering receipts and the cash we bring in tomorrow night into the system, I’d like you to comb through the last twelve months and just recalculate everything to make sure we don’t have any other mistakes like this one. Does that work for you? I still need to run the background check, but other than that, I think we’re good to go.”

I try to hide my relief over being offered the job by clenching my hands together against my chest. The background check worries me, but if I need to run, I’ll run. That’s a tomorrow problem.

I mouth, “Thank you,” to him and he nods once.

“See you tomorrow, Susanna Walston.”

Chapter 2

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