Roommates with Complicated Benefits - J. S. Cooper Page 0,2
love. It was the last thing that I wanted. The very last thing.
“I don’t think I really need a girlfriend right now, do you guys? I’m just trying to figure out what I want to do next in life.”
“Aren’t you a bit old for that?” Harry stood up, walked over to the bar that he had in his apartment, grabbed the whiskey decanter, and poured more into his crystal glass. “Don’t you think it’s time you grew up?”
“Oh, no way. I know you are not saying that to me. Really?” I stood up and grabbed the whiskey bottle from him. “Dude, I’m not trying to be funny,” I looked over at Sarah, “but you’ve been in love for barely two seconds, and you’re preaching to me? You used to get around town like—”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Harry frowned at me. “Not in front of Sarah.”
Sarah started laughing. “Harry, I’ve been your best friend for years. I know that you used to be a dog.”
“Hey, I never was a dog!” He shook his head. “Okay. Maybe a little bit of a dog, but a cute one. A very, very cute one.”
“Oh, the cutest!” Sarah went over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “That’s why I decided to date you.”
“You decided to date me because you love me,” he replied before kissing her on the lips.
“Geez!” I groaned. “Guys, I didn’t come over here to watch you guys make out. I thought you wanted to talk about business—”
“I did want to talk about business, but Sarah’s here right now, and—”
“And what?” I said, suddenly frustrated. “It means I have to watch you guys kiss and tell me I need to be in a relationship?”
“We’re not saying that you need to be in a relationship,” Sarah said gently, her eyes shining. “I just think you’d be really happy if you found a nice girl.”
“That’s okay, thanks. I’m not really into nice women.” I winked at her. “I like them bad, you know? I’m a bit of a rough and tumble sort of guy.”
“Really, Ethan?” Harry hit me in the shoulder. “Not in front of Sarah.”
“Harry, I’m not a baby or a little doll.” Sarah laughed. “I can handle your brother telling me that he’s into kinky sex.”
“Well, I didn’t say I was into kinky sex—” I stopped as I saw the warning on Harry’s face. “Anyways, I’m not looking for a good girl. At least not right now. Maybe in ten, twenty, thirty years.”
“Thirty years?” Sarah exclaimed, laughing. “What?”
“You’re all talk,” Harry said snorts. “Whatever.”
“Whatever,” I mock him. “Just because you got yourself settled down doesn’t mean that me and the other brothers are going to.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Harry said with a smile. “So,” his voice suddenly becomes serious, “I’ve been going over the books, and I feel like we’re gonna need your help.”
I rolled my eyes. “Need my help with what?”
“There’s some money missing from one of the accounts. I think we need an internal investigation.”
“What’d you mean, there’s money missing?” I frowned. “How much money?”
“A couple million dollars,” Harry said quietly.
Sarah’s jaw dropped. “No way!”
“Yeah.” Harry nodded and gestured toward the couch. “Come on, let’s sit down.”
“So what do you want me to do about it?” I asked as I took a seat.
“Well, no one really knows you at the office.”
“What are you talking about? Everyone knows me at Huntington Enterprises.”
“It’s not at Huntington Enterprises that we’ve got the issue.”
“Oh? So where is the issue?”
“It’s at that new real estate company that we purchased. Eklund Morrison Realty.”
“Didn’t we change the name to Huntington Realty?”
“Yeah, but it hasn’t officially gone through yet, remember? That’s next month.”
“Okay. So what do you want me to do?”
“I’ve been going over the books from the merger, and there’s a couple million missing. So we need to figure out who’s doctoring the books or who’s taking the money and ensure that they’re not with the company much longer.”
“And you want me to figure this out?”
“Ethan, you trained as a private investigator. You’re the best guy for the job. We need someone that can be trusted.”
“Any investigation company can be trusted.”
“I don’t want just anyone. I want you.”
“Really? You know that I—”
“This is our family company, Ethan. This is important. I know you don’t want to take over the business, and that’s fine, but you’re not doing anything else right now.”
“It’s only because I sold my last startup.”
“Yeah. We all know you sold your tech startup for ten million, and you don’t need