In out and back in love with you.

13. Being professional.

The meeting was quick and productive. Cassie exposed the risk points her team had found. Some of them Monica knew were there and Alexander had been working on them for a while, but some others had not been noticed, and it was incredible how fast and accurate the diagnosis of Cassandra's team was, not only did they expose weak spots but had proposed a variety of strategies that could be implemented to strengthen them. The intention was to take the first 3 days to finish verifying the entire process and make the necessary changes to implement the preventive strategy, during the first six days they would also document the financial leaks and evidence, to punish those responsible and the last four days would be dedicated to implementing new processes to prevent something like this from happening again. 10-day program five days a week, so, two weeks of hard work and Alexander's company would be safe and clean of cockroaches. CDBC Inc. was worth every penny charged.

After the meeting, the team went to their workplaces to begin their work with the now approved proposal. Cassie stayed behind to coordinate with Monica them to do in her area.

- Hey Cassi, can I ask you a couple of questions unrelated to work? -Monica asked and it was evident that she was up to something.

- Ahm I would prefer not, but if you really need to, sure. - It was Cassie's short answer.

- Ok, the first one: where can I get a costume made for children with immediate delivery? - Monica asked completely disconcerting the young consultant.

- Hu? ... well... I have ordered costumes for my kids on a cool website called "Happy Costumes.com" I think their delivery time is just a couple of days, but… is not your baby a little young for costumes.? - Cassie was still somewhat confused but answered, nonetheless.

- Oh, it's not for me, but thank you! And the second question is: what’s he’s story? -Monica asked but didn't look her in the eye, Cassie knew who she was asking about, Monica had been checking out Anthony since they arrived and during the meeting she couldn't take her eyes off him.

- What exactly would you like to know? -Cassie wasn't making it easy.

- You know, the usual... is he single? looking for a relationship? ... would he be interested in a hot mommy? - Monica asked with a big smile.

- I don't know Mon! Would you be interested in a hot daddy? - She mocked her.

- Is he a daddy? - Monica didn't expect that.

-Yeah, he has a one- year-old Baby girl, the mother took the baby and left him when the baby was only a few months old, she left him for another man, so I don't think he's looking for a relationship right now but he's definitely single.

- What a b***h!! But since he's single, there's no harm in trying, right? - If Monica wanted to try after knowing this about him, she must be very interested, Cassie thought.

- Ok look, Anthony is a good man, he's smart as F**k and I told you he's my best chameleon, he's very sweet and responsible, he's also loyal and very honest, but he's kind of vulnerable right now...so. -Cassie didn't want to see her young apprentice hurt.

- So. are you saying don’t go there? - Monica asked.

- So, I'm saying don't go there if you're not serious. he is a good guy, so no monkey business, ok? -Cassie concluded.

- I could be serious about him, you know, we could go out and have fun and maybe something else if I find that kiss in him, you know, all the girls are looking for that kiss, that toe curling, heart raised, mind mushing kind of kiss. Who knows, maybe he's IT! - Monica said dreamily.

- Yeah, we're all looking for that kind of kiss- Cassi murmured and her mind went directly to that moment so many years ago, their first kiss.

(Flashback)

It was Cassandra Donovan’s sweet sixteen party, and she couldn't be happier, Arthur had thrown the house out the window inviting relatives, friends and all the people Cassie had ever met, maybe more. After the formal dance and the traditional dinner Cassie jumped to the dance floor with Alexander by her side and they danced the night away, at some point the uncautios teenagers sneaked out from the ballroom to the hotel gardens. They were running and laughing like a couple of love birds when Alexander found the perfect hiding place behind a tree line, hidden from curious eyes, he stopped and looked at Cassie with a huge smile and his hand outstretched.

- Dance with me -He asked in a hoarse voice.

- Alex, we've been dancing for three hours straight, my heels are killing me. -Cassie replied.

- Come on baby face, indulge me!

She took his hand and while they hugged Alexander began to slow dance with her, with his breath in her ear humming a love song of his own inspiration. Suddenly they both stopped and looked into each other's eyes, losing themselves in the warm embrace of each other's gaze. They began to move slowly towards each other, so close they could feel each other breaths.

- Cassie, are you there?!!!- Arthur Donovan's loud voice was heard on the other side of the garden at the door of the ballroom.

- You have no idea what I’d do to you if your father wasn't looking for you right now- Alexander's voice sounded mesmerizing.

- He’s not that close, maybe you could do it anyway.... - Cassie said, her breath short.

And then it happened, Alexander took her face in his hands and kissed her gently, so softly and sweetly her toes curl, then Cassie tilted her head to deepen the kiss, their tongues touched, their breaths mixed in total synchrony like their hearts which from that moment on would beat at the same rhythm. Love, it was pure love, and they both knew it. When Alexander pulled back and looked at her with darkened eyes, Cassi confirmed what she had known for a while now: He was IT for her.

- Cassie where are you? Arthur's voice came from somewhere in the garden. Cassie ran out from behind the trees towards her father.

- I'm coming!!- she said finally finding her voice.

(End of flashback)

- Cassie!!! Cassie, are you listening? - Erik's voice brought the consultant back to the present, the accountant had entered the boardroom again to tell her friend about his discoveries.

- I'm sorry, what? - She replied, her lips still tingling from the memory.

- Are you ok beautiful? You just zone out!!- Erik was amused, but also somewhat worried, his friend called them at 6 am this morning to prepare everything for the meeting, and the fact his boss asked him to start working before working hours was unusual, something was up.

- I'm sorry, I was thinking about some adjustments to the proposal, what did you say? - Cassie tried to cover her daydreaming by changing the subject.

- I was telling you I think I found how they are making money transfers unnoticed. At least I know how they are trying to cover their tracks.

- Erik! That's brilliant! Monica, call Mr. McIntyre back here, we have to inform him.

When Alexander heard there was news, he told Monica to take them all to his office, it was a more private and safer place for the topic at hand. Once settled in the CEO's office, Cassy introduced Erik as her expert accountant and her best financial tracker, and Erik began to summarize his findings:

- As my beautiful boss here just said- Erik began and ignore the frown on the cold CEO’s face- I began to review the accounting structure. You’ll see, when a contract is signed goes directly to the finance area to make a payment roll, and this goes to the CEO for approval, so far everything is normal, in the next section of the timeline is where I found discrepancies, the finance area requests invoice payments weekly and the manager must signed as authorized, this is where the first duplicates appear and the authorization signature is from Mr. Edward Black, the problem is, once approved its sent back to the financial analyst who schedules them for payment an verify no errors occurs, that means Mr. Black could not do it alone, some analyst in the area had to help him, anyway, once this is in the system, the payment must be made through the company's operations account and although the transactions seem to have been made from the CEO's office, the duplicate came out of the company's savings account, not the operations account, the IP used to carry them out is inside the building, but not in the CEO's office.

- What are we doing with all this Erik? - Cassie asked knowing very well her friend would have already acted about it.

- Sonia is reviewing the evidence of the financial area as we speak, she’ll find the analyst involved in the fraud. The IP address is being tracked by Anthony to know exactly which computer they used and who has access to it, and Amanda is investigating how the final authorization was made, since for larger transactions the payment app requires facial verification and unless there’s someone with Mr. McIntyre's face, we have no idea how it happened. - Erik concluded

- What about the receiving account? Is there a trace? Who’s the receiver? Cassie asked but everyone looked at the accountant in anticipation.

- That's exactly where they cover their tracks, the receiving account is in the Cayman Islands, you're going to have to call Martín to follow the trail. -Erik replied

- Who is Martín? - Alexander asked, he had been quiet and somewhat stunned by the efficiency of Cassie's staff.

- He is my contact in Switzerland, a banker who has connections with banking systems all over the world. If anyone can follow a trail from the Caymans, it's him. -Cassandra said somewhat reluctantly.

- You'll have to accept his invitation to dinner this time if he finds this one - Erik said playfully.

- Hahaha we'll see, just send him the record of the last transfer and let's hope the trail is still hot. - She instructed

- As hot as you are beautiful, the last one is less than 8 days old. -Erik said winking at her, he always made jokes like that, after decades of friendship that interaction was normal for the pair of friends.

- Good job Erik, Mr. McIntyre we wanted to inform you of all this, and now we are going to continue with our work. I hope you find it professional enough so far. - Cassie threw the jab, and carefully saw the clenched jaw and the closed fist Alexander had, what was his problem, they had just discovered how they were stealing from him and there was evidence of whom!! That was great. What’s with the face??

- An excellent job Miss Donovan. Keep it up- Said the CEO in a cold tone.

Cassie and Erik left the cold man's office and while each one took separate ways to their areas the consultant continued to wonder about Alexander's attitude.