Page 14 of The Holy Grail
“Um … seven years?”
Her eyes widened. “Sevenyears?”
He appeared to be thinking about it again. “Yeah, seven years, give or take a few months.”
“Have you had any raises during that time?”
“No, but I get a Christmas bonus every year.”
“How much is this bonus?”
“The last one was five hundred dollars.”
Jules almost didn’t know what to say to that, because the way Evan said it, indicated he thought that was a decent bonus. Hell, maybe itwascompared to previous bonuses? “How many hours do you work a week, on average?” she asked, changing the subject slightly, and praying the answer was no more than forty—
“Fifty, maybe sixty. I rarely pay attention anymore, to be honest.”
“No overtime?” She figured it was a long shot but had to ask.
He blinked at her before shaking his head. “I’m a salaried employee, so … I only get paid for forty hours a week.”
Jules felt like shaking him, then tracking down his brother and sister and shaking them, too. There was something seriously wrong going on here and she needed to find out what it was. She gave Evan a calculating look, then just dove in because there was no time to waste. “Would you be willing to let me look over the bar’s books?”
Evan stopped wiping down a table to stare at her. “Why would you want to do that?” he asked, shocked at the request.
“Because it’s my job.”
He blinked slowly, as a wispy remnant of a memory surfaced from the night they met, when she’d given him her business card for the now-discontinued monthly drawing for a free drink. “Your business card …” he trailed off as he vaguely remembered reading she was a self-employed accountant of some sort. “Holy shit … you’re an accountant.”
“Yes, I am,” she confirmed, amused by his struggle.
His brows drew together, at the thought of this hot woman crunching numbers, then gave a shake of his head. “No offense, but I’m having a hard time picturing you at a desk, doing ... accounting things.”
“Because I don’t seem smart enough?” she teased, overlooking the ‘things’ reference.
“No, because accounting seems … boring.”
“To most people it is. But I love it because numbers are honest. They don’t lie.”
“Like boobs?”
She chuckled. “Yes, just like boobs.”
“So, what do you do, exactly?”
“I’m a managerial accountant, with a specialty in cost accounting.”
“English, please.”
“It’s basically the focus on the cost structure of a business. There are three basic elements: materials, labor, and overhead. Are you familiar with these?”
“Why don’t you pretend like I’m not?”
Her mouth lifted up at the corners. “All right. So, materials can be categorized as either direct or indirect. The difference is that direct materials are used in the finished product, like ingredients in the meals served in a restaurant, while indirect materials are used in the production, like the cooking utensils used to prepare the meals. Make sense?”
“Sure.”
“Labor is the cost associated with producing a product or service, like waitstaff, cooks, bartenders, janitors. You’re obviously familiar with that part.”
