Invisible String

Author's note:

All the characters engaging in sexual activities are eighteen years or older. References to any artistic works in this submission are made as a tribute to the original works without intending to infringe the owner's copyright. Any other resemblance, which this work of fiction bears to any person/place/event, is purely serendipitous.

This is a slow-burn romance which takes its own sweet time to cook and accordingly is fairly long. However, I fervently hope that you enjoy the duration and the languid pace of this journey, and the journey itself, even though you might know the imminent destination all along.

Ted, here, is a very simple person at heart; so much so that it makes him beautifully complex. I don't think you'll hate him for being like that, but whether or not you like him: I leave that to you. However, I do sincerely hope that you like him and his tale.

Please do let me know your thoughts on this -- really happy to hear from you.

-Ash

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INVISIBLE STRING

[All along there was some invisible string tying you to me.]

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PART ONE

New companies were being pitched. Old ones were further penetrated. Kick-off meetings were relentlessly going on. Risk assessments were being carried out. Internal controls over financial reporting were being perved at. Vouching and verifications of accounts and balances were being offloaded to the new joiners. Analytical procedures were undertaken. Complex spreadsheets were being conceived. Misstatements continued to be traced (and not be traced). Management and the employees of the clients continued to be pestered. Working papers were prepared overnight. Partners in the firm ruthlessly continued to sodomize the audit teams. In audit committee meetings, those charged with governance of the clients continued teaching us new definitions of materiality. Key/Critical audit matters were finalized. Audit reports were being prepared and signed off at impressive speeds. Audit documentation was being completed. Quality reviews and peer reviews were not exactly the proverbial orgies. New companies were being pitched. Old ones were further penetrated. Kick-off meetings were relentlessly going on....

Wait... audit documentation... it can be a pain in the ass. But anal sex is pain in the ass as well, right? Like, literally a pain in the ass. However, it is known to give pleasurable orgasms. If done right, audit documentation, can give intensely pleasurable life-threatening orgasms. And if not done right, can't speak of pleasurable or orgasms, but it can sure be intensely life-threatening.

What the hell am I blathering, right? Sometimes even I don't know -- but in this case, I guess I have a faint idea....

For starters, my incessant blabbers pertain to my profession which is or at least substantially is auditing.

Now what is auditing? Well different technical definitions -- which are beautiful in their own right -- have been given by International Federation of Accountants, other similar bodies and various scholars on the subject. You'll love looking it up online!

But at its very core, the purpose of an audit is to enhance the degree of confidence of intended users in the financial statements. This is achieved by the expression of an opinion by the auditor on those financial statements. That opinion is on whether the financial statements are presented fairly, in all material respects, or give a true and fair view in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework.

Still jargon jibber-jabber? Then let's just say audit is something which is mandated by the Law!

But to me, audit is simple because of its complex elements and it is complex because of its simple elements. Its simplicity lies in its complexity and its complexity lies in its simplicity. What do think about what I just said -- Gibberish? Bunkum? Crapola? Synonyms of those words? Well even I'm thinking the same! But as much as I try to ridicule myself for the way I think, I can't deny my bizarre fetish for oxymorons and paradoxes. And those two coupled with my profession give my brain intellectual orgasms....

To continue my initial blabbers: I was working from home, from my firm's office and also from the offices of our clients. The same food was being prepared and eaten. The same set of movies were being repeatedly watched. Erotica and porn were prodigiously consumed given the amount of time earmarked for their consumption. My cock was asking me my hand -- probably a little more than normal. As regards the hungry mind, it was being fed those oxymorons, paradoxes and all kinds of theoretical and practical knowledge pertaining to my profession. The feeling of me getting overwhelmed, underwhelmed and sometimes just the correct amount of whelmed, was nicely and evenly spread out....

Life continues and it did for me as well. At work and at home. Just the regular stuff -- which in my case very well means eccentric stuff. Now, though eccentricity brings solitude and drives away companionship, I was living a nice rhythm; a nice routine....

But....

When routine bites hard and ambitions are low

And resentment rides high, but emotions won't grow

And we're changing our ways, taking different roads

Then love, love will tear us apart again

Love, love will tear us apart again

Mystifying? Let me start from the top.

One of the companies of the top five listed companies in my country had an opening for a statutory auditor. This company was colloquially referred as Z. The incumbent auditors still held office, but the word on the street was that a formal resignation would be tendered very shortly.

To strategize our future course of action, Jake Porter, National Audit Head of my firm had written to the headquarters -- headquarters of my firm is situated on a different continent altogether and was fourteen hours away from my city by air -- addressing our Global Audit Head and looping in our Global CEO, about this opportunity at Z. After a flurry of mails, both to-and-fro, it was finally decided that William Logan, Senior Partner and Danielle Compton, Senior Manager would fly to our city from the headquarters and we'd schedule an initial meeting with Z.

Before that meeting, we had an internal brainstorming session. Bill (William asked us to call him Bill and not Sir), Danielle, Jake, Andrew Cook (My reporting partner and also one of the most prolific auditors I've ever seen) were to drive this session which would have Directors from my office, Senior Managers, Managers and certain Senior Associates as the audience -- with all of us being assembled in a training room. I was one of the senior associates.

After pleasantries being exchanged, Bill formally started the discussions. "One of our competitors who has Z on a tax retainer has already approached Z directly and the others are lining up fast."

Danielle continued, "We have the strongest of credentials. We know where to strike. Post our meeting with Z here, the Global CEO and Global Audit Head will fly down and together with the Practice Leaders from your country, will lead the final pitch. If we succeed in our pitch, we'll have Z on board as our audit client -- Globally. And you all know how prestigious that'll be."

For the next two hours we discussed the talking points -- ideated and strategized our approach. Danielle lead and drove the entire discussion, with minimal inputs from the stalwarts like Bill, Jake and Andrew.

I saw Danielle for the first time that day. But I'd already heard about her. Word on the floor was that she's one of the most technically sound auditors with an unparalled knowledge -- both theoretical and practical -- in accounting, auditing and the related industry issues. In addition to that, she was also behind some of the biggest wins at the headquarters.

And she was marvelously exceptional just like she was described. Speaking of 'Marvel', to me, she seemed like Captain Marvel. She was not just powerful, but she knew how to use those powers as well -- power in this context means knowledge. Not only she seemed to possess abundant amounts of knowledge, but she also seemed to know how to put that knowledge to use -- Knowledge and wisdom are a deadly combination and makes the one possessing them a force to be reckoned with.

Possessing the knowledge and wisdom she possessed, and carrying herself the way she did, showed Danielle's hunger for knowledge and her capacity for wisdom. Her ways were nonchalant but full of purpose, and her presence was graceful. I'd never said this of a woman in a long time, but I was smitten with Danielle. Maybe even besotted....

I took copious notes during the discussion. I usually take notes whenever I'm a part of any meeting, but then, this time Andrew specifically asked me to do so and also directed how he needed the minutes -- Andrew likes to review the minutes of meeting once it is concluded. It wasn't out of the blue that Andrew asked me to take notes during this meeting -- I was in his good books for certain stuff. It did take some time to earn his trust. But once he took that leap of faith, that leap of faith did develop into the trust I referred.

Andrew concluded the discussions. "You all know your pointers. Start working on them post lunch. Due to paucity of time, send me your individual slides separately. Once the slides are finalized, I'll have them consolidated and forwarded for further reviews."

I was elated when Andrew said that. That most likely meant I'd get that opportunity to consolidate the slides and I started looking forward to it. Any doubts about me not doing the consolidation of that presentation were quashed as Andrew himself confirmed my participation very shortly thereafter, before we broke for lunch.

While the entire brainstorming group was having lunch, I noticed a couple of Senior Managers and Senior Associates from hitting on Danielle. She wasn't rude in her response, but she didn't lead them on either. She responded in polite and professional, way which in no uncertain terms conveyed her disinterest. The boys who were so politely turned down were no ordinary pieces of meat. They were the hottest hunks. They were the man-sluts (Or if that term sounds offensive, ladies' men) of the office. They bedded not only colleagues from our office, but also from the offices of the clients and sometimes even from the offices of our competitors.

I was overjoyed. Did I have the right to be so outrageously overjoyed? I'm not sure. But I was....

Whenever it came to the closeness and intimacy aspects of a companionship, I'm always guilty of coming across too strong. Guilty of scaring my partners / potential partners off. Guilty of falling in love way too quickly. Guilty of getting my heart broken even more quickly than that. That always makes me feel hopeless....

But Danielle... with her, I was ready to take a leap of faith again... something -- on which I couldn't precisely put a finger -- felt different about her in the depths of my heart, my heart which is a city... and in a city so bent, she started something -- hope on the streets....

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When someone steals your heart, losing your mind is complementary. And despite how many times I'd had my heart broken, losing my mind the next time always felt as exciting as the previous one, if not more.

With Danielle, it felt exciting in a way I'd never felt before. Maybe that's the reason I was so annoyingly chipper. Usually I'm a bathroom singer but intoxicate me enough -- sometimes just being chipper intoxicates me more than the strongest spirit drunk neat ever could -- and I become a ballroom singer. And become a ballroom singer, that day, I did, as I gleefully sang:

"Seen you from afar

Wondered who you are

Wondered what you're like

Think you're just my type

And now I'm dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming of you

And now I'm dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming of you..."

After that brainstorming session, everyone else had a task at hand. I had two. Apart from preparing the slides I was assigned to, I also had to dream of Danielle. That wouldn't be difficult as my mind and fingers would do the slides and my heart would do what it so hopelessly, or in this case hopefully, does....

Danielle had clearly spelt how she wanted the slides and I guess as I finished mine, I was pretty happy with the way they turned out.

All the individual slides from the other team members were prepared, first level reviewed, and the final versions sitting in Andrew's inbox by 06:00 in the evening that day. I was in Andrew's cabin by 06:10 and started the consolidation. Andrew was a great help in consolidating the individual decks, ensuring proper flow and smooth continuity of the final presentation. By 07:30 the presentation was completed and by 07:35 it was in Danielle's inbox.

It was 09:00 that night when Andrew called me into his cabin.

"Danielle has reviewed the presentation. She's fine with it. However, as Bill likes his presentations a particular way, she just needs to make a few minor adjustments. Nothing which I'll need to review again. So, you'll have to go to Orchid's where Danielle has set up her temporary office and help her out with the edits. I told her you'd be helping her out."

"Sure Sir. Getting there right away."

I smiled as I left. I even got a back handed compliment from Andrew for the work done. But I was happier to spend some time with Danielle. I knew I couldn't appreciatively glance at her. But just being around her / with her was more than enough for me. I fervently hoped Bill to not be there -- in the meeting room Danielle has set up her office in.

I was exultant as I knocked the meeting room's door, there was no trace of Bill anywhere. My face was burning. My heart was racing. Fast. So fast that my ears, which had turned red, were able to hear it.

"Come in," said Danielle as she saw me, "You must be Ted?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Plug in your laptop and we can start," she said after plugging the HDMI cable out of her laptop.

I nodded and plugged in that HDMI cable to my laptop, waiting for my laptop screen to be displayed on TV screen.

"Can you send me a test mail while the screen loads, and I'll share the presentation."

"Sure Ma'am." I sent that mail and her reviewed presentation was in my inbox by the next minute. Meanwhile my laptop's screen was flashing on the big screen.

"Yes, now, please replace the picture in the background of the title slide with the one I've just shared."

I started doing that and quickly finished the task. After that we went on editing the presentation slide by slide. The presentation which was already beautiful was now becoming the bomb, just like my heart.

When we were on slide 37, Danielle spoke, "Hey, I've just sent you a spreadsheet with some updated data for this slide and the format in which I need that data summarized. Can you-"

"Yes Ma'am," I enthusiastically replied, and started working right on it. Did I mention I loved playing with excel sheets!

Within five minutes the updated data was there on slide 37. I glanced towards Danielle, she appeared impressed.

Only a few slides were left, and we were getting through them quickly. During editing one of those slides I was stuck in a peculiar excel problem. Danielle resolved it with consummate ease. I was getting turned on (inter-alia including figuratively). Any other special skills? Was she a Master of International Tax? She had me wrapped around her little finger by then. Wrapped to such an extent that I missed to read a message which I received from Andrew. (Missed to? Chose to? And eventually forgot to.)

We finished the presentation. We did a proofread while viewing the deck in the slide show mode. The presentation was good to go, and I forwarded the same to her. As I was packing up, I received a mail from her. My eyes were drawn to the carbon copy section of the mail so received. Danielle placed my mail ID before the mail IDs of any of the Directors / Senior Managers / Managers / Other Senior Associates.

It was 11:45 that night, almost the next day, no one would care for that stuff. But I did. Yes, I was definitely out of my mind and reading too much of the stuff, which was not even written, but I liked it all the same. My heart was happy and who was I to argue otherwise?

She snapped me out of my daydream taking place during the night. "You got more work?"

Getting caught daydreaming felt like getting caught masturbating. And that made me going out of my mind official. Coming back to my senses I said, "No Ma'am, just packing for the day."

"You had dinner?"

"I'll go home and have."

"You can join us if you want," she looked me in the eye and continued, "Bill, Andrew and I..."

"If you're sure, I don't want to be a bother..."

"No, you won't be, join us anyway."

We walked side by side until we reached our office's cafeteria. Andrew shot me a look I didn't understand right then. A second later it struck that I forgot to read his message. My hands went into my pocket to retrieve the phone.

Danielle thought it was something else. "I asked Ted to join us for dinner. Better than him going to his place and cooking, it's 12 already."

Andrew realized she misunderstood his look and corrected her. "Oh no, not that, Ted here is forgetting something."

While the conversation took place, I read the missed message. Andrew needed some report I printed earlier during the day.

Realizing that I replied, "Sorry Sir, right at it."

I ran like a cheetah. Retrieved the report from my desk drawer and placed it on Andrew's desk in his cabin. By the time I was back to cafeteria, I was out of breath. I felt stupid.

"On your desk Sir." I said to Andrew.

Andrew quipped, "I don't like you ghosting my messages Theodore!"

When you differentiate (not the English differentiate, but the calculus one) the name Theodore, the result is the one-syllable Ted. I liked being referred as Ted or even Teddy, but not Theodore -- Theodore's special. I was a little embarrassed and a sad. But a little more of the former.

"You don't ghost Andrew Cook Theodore!" Bill added.

God even Bill! I turned slightly and found Danielle grinning behind her coffee mug. I liked her grinning though....

Rest of the dinner went by making small talk. I was mostly talking to Bill with Andrew doing a 'Theodore' in between. I snuck glances at Danielle in between and our eyes met a few times.

We finished the dinner and cleaned up the place a bit. I dropped Bill and Danielle to their hotel. Came back home and slept cuddling my pillow imagining it was Danielle. Sleep was peaceful.

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On the Saturday morning that week, I was on a date with "Ms. Rosie Palmer." In the middle of that amorous date, Andrew had called, and I picked it then and there without giving the action a second thought. Well in my defense, the post-nut clarity was still a few strokes away.

"Yes Sir...."

"Why's your voice echoing, are you in your bathroom?" I could make out that faint naughtiness in Andrew's voice and even Bill's laughter behind him as Andrew finished saying what he said.

"Yeah Sir, Uhm... actually, I was shaving."

"Yeah shaving... can you come by the office for half an hour? Need your help organizing the material for the meeting?"

"Sure Sir. Be there in twenty-five."

"No problem." The call ended with that. I finished what I was earlier doing. Post-nut clarity kicked in and I did actually shave!

I reached office by the end of the thirty-second minute. Set my laptop messenger bag on my desk and beelined towards Andrew's cabin. Danielle was standing outside Andrew's cabin and was watching me all the while!

"So, what are you doing in the office on a Saturday Theodore?"

"Please call me Teddy no, I mean Ted..." I replied trying to hide my blush.