She finished putting herself back together and walked to her office, to find Mark working intently at the small desk in the middle of the room where she'd left him.
"Hey. You doing alright?" she asked as she stopped beside the table.
"Yeah. Just plowing through this stuff. It's super easy. I always felt like accounting was too easy, but maybe I'm just missing something."
Paul walked in and moved to stand beside them before looking up at Jamie. "What's up? You've been crying."
Mark jerked his head up and stood. "What's wrong? I didn't even realize you were upset. Why didn’t you say something?"
Jamie gave Paul a stern expression and rolled her eyes. He'd seen her upset more times than she cared to talk about over the last eight months. Being with Alex was a rollercoaster, and her not having any friends left Paul as the only one she really lamented to besides Gina.
"I'm fine. Just got something in my eye and it was hard to get out." She forced a smile. "I'm good."
"Right." Paul moved to sit down. "I'll look over these recs with Mark to make sure they're right. Your phone’s buzzed nonstop with messages. Go take care of your stuff and let me help you."
"Yeah. We got this, boss lady." Mark reached out and squeezed her shoulder firmly. "You sure you're okay?"
"Absolutely. Just something fluttering around in the air, I guess." She blinked rapidly as if still trying to clear her vision, and turned around. She could play the idiot role all day long if it meant not having to really face anything emotional. No drama. No tears. No more shit in her life. She’d had enough of that growing up in a thin family with a mother who was sure to remind her of her weight problem.
"Not anymore," she mumbled, and sat down at her desk as she pulled out her keyboard and started to work.
A few minutes went by before Paul called out to her. "Jamie? Come check this out."
"Sure." She finished typing a message that Alex wanted, and sent it out to the board of directors. It seemed he was going to call a meeting before Nicholas could get to it. Smart, and yet it really just meant more work for all of them. Letting out a weary sigh, she got up and walked back over to the table.
"What's going on?" She leaned in between them and scanned over the documents.
"Looks like there are some odd reconciling items on the main supplies account." Paul pulled it toward her and pointed out the items.
"And on the business travel account." Mark handed her another file. "I might just be looking at it wrong, but it seems a little weird to me. Do you have offices in the Caribbean?"
"No. I don’t think so." Jamie took the two files and stood up. "You guys keep looking through the other accounts, and I'll look into these after I get a few things out for Mr. Reid."
"Sounds good." Paul moved back around the table as they started working again.
Jamie read through the reconciling items and decided it might just be easier to ask Gina about them later. Both accounts that had odd charges were accounts she managed. They were Alex's accounts, but she filed the receipts and worked with accounts payable to process the payments. Maybe they did have an office in the Caribbean.
Gina would know. She would also know what the monies were all about, and, if not, they could call records and have them pulled.
Jamie's work phone buzzed, and she picked it up.
"It's Gina. Alex is on the other line. I'll patch him through."
"He’s not in his office?" Jamie asked, confused.
"He is." She let out a sigh. "In a mood, remember."
"Right. Patch him through." She sat back in her chair and tried to let the fact go that he could have just walked into her office from the door connecting them, then asked her to come see him. Maybe he didn’t want to deal with Mark and Paul right now.
"Jamie. Have you sent out that e-mail to the board?" He was borderline barking at her.
"Yes. It's already out—"
"Damn it!" He let out a long string of curses.
"Now what?” She didn’t mean to snap, but it slipped out. “I’ll come to your office. One sec." She stood up.
"No. It’s fine. I just wanted to adjust the wording a little. Next time you send something out from my desk, I need to review it. Okay?" He wasn't asking, though he made it sound like a question.