Page 23 of Loving You

“Rule fucking one, stop scaring me.”

She sighs and crosses her arms in front of her.

“I wouldn’t scare you if you weren’t so paranoid. Seriously? What’s your deal?”

Instead of answering, I point over her shoulder.

“You work in there, and I work out here.”

She nods. “Got it, straight to business—that’s fine, but maybe you can at least come show me exactly what you want me to do and where you left off.”

She's right, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to tell her that.

I walk past her, and she follows me.

“Sit,” I say and pull out the chair behind the desk.

She grins.

“A man who gives orders. I could get on board with that.”

Jesus.

“As your boss, it looks like you lucked out.”

“My boss and myboyfriend. Wow. We move fast.”

“Can you be serious?” I ask, moving to stand behind her so I can show her what to do on the computer. “This is my job. This is how I pay my bills.”

“Yes, I can,” she answers as she turns on the computer. “Sorry. I was just trying to make light of our situation, but clearly that is not the right move. I won’t do it again. So, what programs do youuse? QuickBooks, NetSuite, maybe even Quicken. Personally, I think Quicken is a bit outdated, so I haven’t used it for a while, but I could get by. For what you’ve got going on here, between the labor hours and parts and materials, I think QuickBooks would be the best. But again, as I said, I can work with whatever you have.”

Zero. Words.

Labor hours? Parts? Materials? It’s all generic to what I’d have on an invoice, but everything just fell out of her mouth as if she’s said it a hundred times.

“You’re shocked. I get it. Most people are when I talk about anything other than traveling and which suitcase is best for a weekend getaway.”

“I’m not shocked,” I say quickly, even though I sure as hell am. “I just …”

“It’s fine, really. So, what software do you use?”

I scratch my neck and grab my little notebook with passwords in it, handing it to her so she can log into the computer.

“Excel.”

She logs in without a word and then spins to face me. “Like for …”

Our eyes linger, waiting for the other to speak first.

“For …” She continues to wait for me to say… what? I don’t understand exactly what she’s asking.

“Everything.”

“Miles, seriously? You can’t use it for everything. You have a thriving business and need to be tracking this better. How long have you been using just spreadsheets? How far behind on billing are you? What’s your inventory like? What about payroll? How do you do that with a spreadsheet?”

Her questions blur together. I just make it work. It feels like a mess when I do it, but I get it done, and so far the guy who does my taxes hasn’t told me I’m doing anything wrong.

But now, I’m starting to think that perhaps hiring Quinn might not be as foolish as I thought it would just minutes ago.

---