Accountant Ch. 01

She leant forward, clutching the baby to her to take it as I reached her. I dropped it in her outstretched hand and sat down on the arm of her chair and looked over at the infant making goo goo baby noises.

"Shush, I want him to go back to sleep. He's just had a feed and a little play and he usually sleeps through till dinner time."

I made a 'sorry' face at her and carefully stood and walked out to the kitchen to make coffee. She followed on in as I sat sipping mine, the baby snug in its carry.

"Yours is over next to the percolator." I said quietly.

"Thanks," she mouthed back.

"No bother," I said softly back as she walked over to pick the cup up.

The weight of the baby carrier skewed her frame and gave her bum an odd jiggle as she walked. She turned and arched her eyebrows as she inclined her head to the front room.

I nodded understanding and walked behind as she returned to the front room. She sat on the settee with the carrier next to her while I returned to my armchair.

She slipped off her shoes and curled her legs up under her. "I think he's fast asleep now," she said in a louder voice as she peeked at him and retucked his blanket in.

She reached for her cup and sat back into the corner.

"What shall I call you? If you're going to marry mum you'll be my new daddy."

"Oh, I wouldn't plan on any marriage just yet awhile. I mean I like her and all but we need to find out how tolerant we can be of each other... Living together is the next thing."

"Oh," she said putting on a mock pout. "I wanted to be the maid of honour."

I laughed. "I need to earn my pocket money. I've got some small points to iron out with Beasly's later this afternoon and I need to go over the figures one more time before I take the returns to him."

"Can I help?" she asked straightening a little.

"No, not this time, let's leave the man some secrets."

"Okay," she said smiling back at me.

I smiled back at her as I stood then walked over to my desk to boot up the computer. I'd put in a good half hour's work when I felt her presence behind me.

"Sage, isn't that an herb?" she asked as I swivelled my chair around to face her.

"Yes, but it's also a program I use."

"Shall I make some more coffee?"

"Yes...thank you." I answered. "I'm nearly finished here."

"Okay," she said turning.

I spun back around, and quickly ran through the figures on the final page then saved the current data to the usb stick. I stood up and stretched then turned and made my way to the armchair, peeking at the baby as I passed.

I turned to watch as she entered with the tray.

"I brought some biscuits as well, hope that's alright."

"Yes, if you don't mind me dunking them."

"Dunking's cool," she replied with a smile.

She put the tray down and peeked into the baby carrier before she moved it over to sit nearer to my chair and the tray.

"Do you have many calls?" she asked.

"No, not as a rule but there's a submissions deadline coming up so I've got a few during the week."

"Ah," she said. "Why have you got two computers?"

"One's a server for the virtual private network that I run and the others what I use for work."

"You don't watch much TV do you?"

"No why?"

"Something to talk about," she explained. "You won't know about modern music and with your writing I didn't think you watched anything but news."

"That's all filled with gloom and doom. What with climate change and the threatening economic collapse." I looked over at her baby. "I feel sorry for those born now; life's going to be much more of a struggle for them."

"I don't know much about those things, I see discussions sometimes on blogs but I don't read them 'cause they usually get technical."

"I can explain a lot of it if you want."

"Mm, not now. You can tell me how you get your ideas for your stories; the ones I've read so far are good. What are those little red H's?"

"If your score is over four point five it means 'Hot'."

"So where do your ideas come from?"

"My muse is the best answer, I kind of imagine a situation and then tell the story of what and how it happened." I paused and raised my eyebrows questioningly.

She gave a slight nod.

"I sit and write what I see the characters are doing in my mind, sometimes the characters do things I don't expect but the stories always seem to work out."

I retuned my focus to her face.

"So it's all just imagination?"

"Yes, but I try to keep it consistent with reality, people acting out events in their lives with lots of sex thrown in. No, if I'm honest it's about the sex in people's lives and what could be happening behind closed doors."

"Your heroes are shy and intelligent?" she asked probing deeper with an open question.

"And my heroines are slim and small breasted like you. All designed to appeal to a section of readers, there's little bits of fetish and allsorts. I just write them, I don't live them though there are some I wouldn't mind, magic powers would be nice."

She laughed. "I could use them as well, or mind control."

"I've got one of those half written," I said. "Couldn't decide where to take it."

"Let me see?"

"Maybe, it's in the 'pending' folder."

"How many stories have you got?"

"Dozens, but I've only published a few and dozens more half written that I might get back to one day."

"Would you write a story for me?"

"Yes if you want, what sort of story do you want?"

"A 'happily ever after' ending, I want to fall in love with the perfect man."

"How will it start and with or without lots of sex?"

"Oh I want sex in it and it should start in her bedroom as she gets up and wishes she had someone to share her bed with."

"Whoa, you need to be more subtle in your opening. Let's see she's been without a boyfriend for X months. She's seen a boy she likes...."

"No," she interrupted. "He meets her, spills his drink on her and then tries to chat me up."

"In a pub? At a party?"

"At a party."

I looked at her, waiting for her to carry on.

"He follows her into the kitchen and while she dabs the beer off her blouse he tries to dry her skirt, she hits him for touching her leg and he apologizes more."

"Good, now go and write that down and what happens next. Don't worry too much about what they say." I said standing. "You can use my laptop."

I went and retrieved the bag from by the door, unzipping it as I walked back. She moved the carrier onto the table to make room for me and I sat down next to her.

She looked over my shoulder as I booted up and logged in. I brought up Word and passed it over.

"Here you go, just keep thinking what happens next and type it down."