Curious_Muse
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2016
- Posts
- 168
Be careful what you wish for (closed for LitShark and Curious Muse)
This thread is closed for LitShark and me.
Paul Anderson looked out of the open kitchen window and watched his teenage daughter Olivia in another stand-off with her mother, but he was too preoccupied to feel stung by her unwillingness to attend his 50. birthday party.
Things had gone south at work recently, and he needed to fix it.
He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer. Neither his lovely wife Kate nor his daughter had ever wondered out loud how an accountant working for a company shipping fruit from Mexico and South America to supermarkets across the country was able to afford the lifestyle they had: Olivia’s private education, the nice house in an upper middle class suburb, the three cars, the personal trainers, the swanky holidays in resorts all along the Mexican coast. Olivia found his profession way too boring to show even feigned interest in what he did all day, and Kate did not talk to him about much at all anymore.
It was likely that neither of them suspected the fruit company to be a front for an international drug cartel based in Mexico, and that the avocados, mangos and pineapples shipped into the US were by far not the only delights they distributed to willing buyers north of the border.
Thanks to years of hard work and a keen sense for numbers Paul had gained the appreciation and trust of his employers and had worked his way up to a management position, a comfortable salary, and a better-dressed social circle of friends for his wife and daughter. While the more generous amongst his acquaintances would probably describe him to be a “good egg”, most thought of him as pretty dull. However, he was excellent at his job, and it just so happened that his skill to juggle eye-watering amounts of cash between dozens of accounts on five continents, and all without rousing the suspicion of the Feds or the IRS, was in high demand amongst people who were willing to pay good money for it.
He simply hired out his wage labor to those who valued it the most, just as everybody else tried to do. Paul Anderson never thought of himself as a mobster.
But recently, money had gone missing. Not a lot of money, measured against the sums moved across borders and into offshore accounts every day and chances were that so far, the bosses down south had not even noticed. Small amounts of cash pried from transactions here and there, everything in less than five figures, over a period of several months and counting.
Paul took another swig from the bottle and noticed that his hand was shaking.
Of course he had nothing to do with the missing money. He prided himself in being a meticulous and honest worker, someone who considered all company property, including blocks of sticky notes and highlighters, strictly off limits. He would never dream of stealing from the firm. But he was the head accountant, and therefore responsible to make sure that his employers’ money was safely moving along the channels it was supposed to.
The thing was that he had not told anyone yet. In his opinion it was better to let sleeping dogs lie. Why occupy the Mexicans’ time with something so trivial? He had been sure to be able to catch the person who had had his or her hand in the cookie jar and fix this problem without making a fuss. However, the little mouse had turned out to be cleverer than he had initially thought, and he had not gotten any further in his inquiries.
And now, weeks later, his silence might start to look conspicuously like complicity to an unkind observer.
“Are you coming, Paul? We need help lighting the BBQ!”
He waved at her through the window. “I’ll be right there, darling! I was just checking if we have enough beers in the fridge!”
Paul hoped that his joyous expression looked believable. Things had been shaky between Kate and him for a while, and he wanted to convince his wife that he was looking forward to the birthday party she had planned for weeks. He loved her, and he knew that he was neglecting her for his job. As soon as this affair was sorted, he would take her up on her wish to see a relationship councilor to signal his intent to do better.
Downing the rest of the beer, he promised himself that he would give himself one more week to look for the pickpocket.
***
“Why do I have to be here for this stupid BBQ?” Olivia whined. “All of your friends are so old!”
“Because it is your father’s birthday.”
Olivia threw herself theatrically into one of the chairs by the pool. It was simply not fair. Everybody else from her school – everyone that mattered, anyway – would be at her best friend Emily's house tonight. Emily’s parents were away and she was throwing a party, and since this was their senior year and because Emily was a spoiled little deviant, this one would be epic.
Emily Cooper really had it all. She was beautiful, smart, and rich enough not to have to care about what anyone thought of her. Her parents both worked in executive jobs in the movie business, and she was their only daughter. They lived in an amazing house that towered above the (private) beach, and they had staff! Olivia scowled watching her mother fiddle with the BBQ. For tonight Emily had hired a sushi chef and some underground bar celebrity who had created a line of cocktails just for this party. It was simply unbelievable that she was not allowed to go.
“This is my last year of high school!” Olivia tried again. “I cannot believe that you would do this to me!”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “There will be other parties.”
“Not like this one.”
“For all your father does for you, you could at least show enough gratitude to be there when he turns 50, Olivia. This really isn’t too much to ask.”
Olivia crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed. Her father! How often had she wished to have a father like her friends in school, a powerful lawyer, or someone who ran a tech empire, someone cool. Her dad? Her dad was a banana seller, and he was boring and old-fashioned. Sometimes she wondered why they even lived where they did. Her dad would not even let her drink alcohol because the law said so, and when he once busted her smoking weed, he had grounded her for over a month. What should she be grateful for? For still being treated like a little girl? For constantly missing out on life, because he was a loser and wanted everyone else to be, too? Fuck that.
“Plus, you know that I don’t like you hanging out at Emily’s house when her parents aren’t there”, her mom carried on. “That girl just doesn’t have any healthy boundaries for her age. The drugs, the booze…the boys.”
“We are high school seniors, mom! Of course there will be booze and boys! Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Language, young lady.” Her mom sighed. “And you have been 18 for a week. There will be plenty of time for all of that.”
It was hopeless. If truth be told, Olivia didn’t even care all that much about the boys at her school. Those who weren’t entitled, preppy assholes were ridiculous posers who talked big because their rich daddies had their backs when they got in trouble, and that trouble never consisted of anything truly exciting, or dangerous. And despite all the constant manly boasting and the locker room talk, Olivia had the impression had that few of them had any real ideas of how to handle a woman, even if she had never gotten past some fondling and groping herself.
But Olivia wanted more, and Emily had promised that at tonight’s event, there would be men, not high school boys, looking to party. Men, with – how had she put it? – “ill intentions”. Emily, having long gotten rid of her virginity, was somewhat of an authority when it came to sex, and Olivia was tired of still being so clueless. She was sure that the party would have proved an excellent remedy to her curiosity.
Now she would hang out with his father’s dull colleagues, watch them chew on BBQ meat and listen to them complain about hick-ups in the mango delivery chain.
With a sour pout Olivia sat down by the edge of the pool and drew figures into the still surface of the water with her naked feet. Why not drop dead right away, and be done with this interlude of a so-called life?
This thread is closed for LitShark and me.
Paul Anderson looked out of the open kitchen window and watched his teenage daughter Olivia in another stand-off with her mother, but he was too preoccupied to feel stung by her unwillingness to attend his 50. birthday party.
Things had gone south at work recently, and he needed to fix it.
He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer. Neither his lovely wife Kate nor his daughter had ever wondered out loud how an accountant working for a company shipping fruit from Mexico and South America to supermarkets across the country was able to afford the lifestyle they had: Olivia’s private education, the nice house in an upper middle class suburb, the three cars, the personal trainers, the swanky holidays in resorts all along the Mexican coast. Olivia found his profession way too boring to show even feigned interest in what he did all day, and Kate did not talk to him about much at all anymore.
It was likely that neither of them suspected the fruit company to be a front for an international drug cartel based in Mexico, and that the avocados, mangos and pineapples shipped into the US were by far not the only delights they distributed to willing buyers north of the border.
Thanks to years of hard work and a keen sense for numbers Paul had gained the appreciation and trust of his employers and had worked his way up to a management position, a comfortable salary, and a better-dressed social circle of friends for his wife and daughter. While the more generous amongst his acquaintances would probably describe him to be a “good egg”, most thought of him as pretty dull. However, he was excellent at his job, and it just so happened that his skill to juggle eye-watering amounts of cash between dozens of accounts on five continents, and all without rousing the suspicion of the Feds or the IRS, was in high demand amongst people who were willing to pay good money for it.
He simply hired out his wage labor to those who valued it the most, just as everybody else tried to do. Paul Anderson never thought of himself as a mobster.
But recently, money had gone missing. Not a lot of money, measured against the sums moved across borders and into offshore accounts every day and chances were that so far, the bosses down south had not even noticed. Small amounts of cash pried from transactions here and there, everything in less than five figures, over a period of several months and counting.
Paul took another swig from the bottle and noticed that his hand was shaking.
Of course he had nothing to do with the missing money. He prided himself in being a meticulous and honest worker, someone who considered all company property, including blocks of sticky notes and highlighters, strictly off limits. He would never dream of stealing from the firm. But he was the head accountant, and therefore responsible to make sure that his employers’ money was safely moving along the channels it was supposed to.
The thing was that he had not told anyone yet. In his opinion it was better to let sleeping dogs lie. Why occupy the Mexicans’ time with something so trivial? He had been sure to be able to catch the person who had had his or her hand in the cookie jar and fix this problem without making a fuss. However, the little mouse had turned out to be cleverer than he had initially thought, and he had not gotten any further in his inquiries.
And now, weeks later, his silence might start to look conspicuously like complicity to an unkind observer.
“Are you coming, Paul? We need help lighting the BBQ!”
He waved at her through the window. “I’ll be right there, darling! I was just checking if we have enough beers in the fridge!”
Paul hoped that his joyous expression looked believable. Things had been shaky between Kate and him for a while, and he wanted to convince his wife that he was looking forward to the birthday party she had planned for weeks. He loved her, and he knew that he was neglecting her for his job. As soon as this affair was sorted, he would take her up on her wish to see a relationship councilor to signal his intent to do better.
Downing the rest of the beer, he promised himself that he would give himself one more week to look for the pickpocket.
***
“Why do I have to be here for this stupid BBQ?” Olivia whined. “All of your friends are so old!”
“Because it is your father’s birthday.”
Olivia threw herself theatrically into one of the chairs by the pool. It was simply not fair. Everybody else from her school – everyone that mattered, anyway – would be at her best friend Emily's house tonight. Emily’s parents were away and she was throwing a party, and since this was their senior year and because Emily was a spoiled little deviant, this one would be epic.
Emily Cooper really had it all. She was beautiful, smart, and rich enough not to have to care about what anyone thought of her. Her parents both worked in executive jobs in the movie business, and she was their only daughter. They lived in an amazing house that towered above the (private) beach, and they had staff! Olivia scowled watching her mother fiddle with the BBQ. For tonight Emily had hired a sushi chef and some underground bar celebrity who had created a line of cocktails just for this party. It was simply unbelievable that she was not allowed to go.
“This is my last year of high school!” Olivia tried again. “I cannot believe that you would do this to me!”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “There will be other parties.”
“Not like this one.”
“For all your father does for you, you could at least show enough gratitude to be there when he turns 50, Olivia. This really isn’t too much to ask.”
Olivia crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed. Her father! How often had she wished to have a father like her friends in school, a powerful lawyer, or someone who ran a tech empire, someone cool. Her dad? Her dad was a banana seller, and he was boring and old-fashioned. Sometimes she wondered why they even lived where they did. Her dad would not even let her drink alcohol because the law said so, and when he once busted her smoking weed, he had grounded her for over a month. What should she be grateful for? For still being treated like a little girl? For constantly missing out on life, because he was a loser and wanted everyone else to be, too? Fuck that.
“Plus, you know that I don’t like you hanging out at Emily’s house when her parents aren’t there”, her mom carried on. “That girl just doesn’t have any healthy boundaries for her age. The drugs, the booze…the boys.”
“We are high school seniors, mom! Of course there will be booze and boys! Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Language, young lady.” Her mom sighed. “And you have been 18 for a week. There will be plenty of time for all of that.”
It was hopeless. If truth be told, Olivia didn’t even care all that much about the boys at her school. Those who weren’t entitled, preppy assholes were ridiculous posers who talked big because their rich daddies had their backs when they got in trouble, and that trouble never consisted of anything truly exciting, or dangerous. And despite all the constant manly boasting and the locker room talk, Olivia had the impression had that few of them had any real ideas of how to handle a woman, even if she had never gotten past some fondling and groping herself.
But Olivia wanted more, and Emily had promised that at tonight’s event, there would be men, not high school boys, looking to party. Men, with – how had she put it? – “ill intentions”. Emily, having long gotten rid of her virginity, was somewhat of an authority when it came to sex, and Olivia was tired of still being so clueless. She was sure that the party would have proved an excellent remedy to her curiosity.
Now she would hang out with his father’s dull colleagues, watch them chew on BBQ meat and listen to them complain about hick-ups in the mango delivery chain.
With a sour pout Olivia sat down by the edge of the pool and drew figures into the still surface of the water with her naked feet. Why not drop dead right away, and be done with this interlude of a so-called life?
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