Something in the Wine Read Free Page B

were a pump handle. “Thank you again.” After one last pump of her hand, he let go and nearly skipped out of her office.
    With an amused shake of her head, Annie returned to her desk. It was half past five already, so her workday had officially ended thirty minutes before. Most days, Annie was one of the last accountants to leave the office, but today she wanted to get home at a reasonable time and pamper herself a little. Images of a bubble bath, the newest Tana French novel, and a glass of Merlot danced in her head.
    She made a few more notes in Mr. Alvarez’s file, saved and shut the open documents, and was just about to power down her computer when a knock on the open office door made her look up.
    Mr. Cargill, one of her bosses, stood in the doorway, a large pile of folders balanced in his thin arms. “Do you have a minute?”
    The images of bath, novel, and wine wavered and collapsed. Annie suppressed a sigh. “Sure.”
    The office’s fluorescent lights bounced off Mr. Cargill’s bald head as he folded his long, slim frame into the visitor’s chair and set the folders on Annie’s desk. “I’m sure you heard that we were able to win Paul Dettman as a client for our firm.”
    Annie nodded. Dettman was one of the biggest landowners in the area, so of course everyone at Cargill & Jones had talked of nothing else for days.
    “I need you to take over his account,” Mr. Cargill said.
    Me? Annie stared at her boss, caught between elation and panic.
    “I know you’re up to the task.”
    Annie sucked in a breath and squared her shoulders. She had never worked on an account of that size, but she knew she could handle it. Even if it meant a bigger workload, she was determined to show Mr. Cargill that his trust in her had been justified. “Yes, of course. I won’t disappoint you or the firm.”
    “I know you won’t. You always do a good job.” Mr. Cargill leaned forward and gave her arm a grandfatherly pat. “Dettman’s bookkeeper dropped off his files this morning. We need an overview of what we’re dealing with as soon as possible, so you should start reviewing them tonight. Do you think you can stay a few hours longer?”
    Annie eyed the stack of files he had placed on her desk. A few hours wouldn’t be enough to work through them all. She inwardly sighed and added sleep to the list of things she wouldn’t get tonight. But now that she had agreed to taking over Mr. Dettman’s account, she wouldn’t back down. “Sure,” she said.
    A satisfied smile spread over Mr. Cargill’s face. “Good. I knew I could count on you. Make sure to give me a quick report tomorrow, and if you need any help, ask Sarah or Virgil to lend a hand.”
    Annie nodded but already knew she would try to manage on her own.
    As soon as her boss had left the office, she reached over and pulled the stack of files to her side of the desk. Sighing, she opened the first folder and began to read.
    * * *
    “Don’t you ever go home?”
    A voice from the door made Annie jump. Her head jerked up. When her vision blurred for a moment, she realized she had skipped dinner.
    The figure in the doorway swam back into focus. Her colleague Sarah stared at her with a disapproving frown.
    Annie took off her glasses, rubbed her tired eyes, and searched her desk drawer for a chocolate bar. That would have to do for dinner tonight. “You’re still here too.”
    Sarah’s red curls bounced when she shook her head. “I left two hours ago and only came back because I forgot my cell phone.” She crossed the room and dropped into the visitor’s chair. Her feet dangled like that of a first grader before she adjusted the chair’s height for her shorter frame. She straightened the hem of her knee-length skirt, leaned forward, and ran a red-painted nail over the files on Annie’s desk. “Don’t tell me the boss gave you Dettman’s account.”
    Annie gave up the search for a chocolate bar and put her glasses back on to study her colleague. Did Sarah