Other People’s Business
Pamela Yaye
Acknowledgments
I have been blessed with a God-given talent and I am truly thankful for my gift. Without God as the head of my life, I don’t know where I would be.
This novel would have never come to fruition had it not been for the love and unconditional support of my family.
To my husband, Jean-Claude, I adore you and I am honored to be your wife. Thanks for believing in me and calling me an author long before I ever achieved success.
Mom and Dad, you are incredible people of God and wonderful parents. Thanks for teaching me the ways of the Lord and for modeling love, faith and respect in our home.
Bettey, you’re my best friend and my life is sweet because you’re in it. Love you, Miss B!
Kenny, you’re the coolest big brother a girl could have! Thanks for reading the first draft of the book and giving it a thumbs-up.
To my Super-Agent, Sha-Shana Crichton, you are a godsend! You’re the first person, outside of my family and friends, who believed in me. Any success I achieve is a direct result of your dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm. You rock, Sha-Shana!
To my editor, Mavis Allen, thank you for making Other People’s Business the best novel it can be.
I have grown tremendously as a writer and I appreciate your insight and invaluable contributions.
Special thanks to the following people who encouraged me, supported me, lifted me up in prayer and gave me godly counsel: Pastor and Sister Farquharson, Pastor and Sister Dawkins, Tommy and Donna Thompson, Misan and Joyce Odidison, Dorothy and Trevor Johnson, Verona and Fitzroy Allen, Mary Odidison, Sam and Shermain Babalola, Natasha and John Otitoju, Marla Johnson, Crystal Wiens and all the wonderful writers in CARWA.
Contents
Chapter 1
“This file needs to be delivered to Rawlins and McGill right away. Mr. Whithers has to have this package before he leaves for the day, and I don’t have the time or the patience to wait for that bungling courier. Since you did the bulk of the work on the report, I’d like you to take it over, Ms. Nicholson.”
Autumn Nicholson glanced up from her computer screen and inconspicuously closed her message box. Ms. Barstow would skin her alive if she caught her surfing the Internet during working hours. It was Friday afternoon and near quitting time but her gray-haired boss wouldn’t care, she would ream her out all the same.
Ms. Barstow remained firmly planted in the doorway, cueing Autumn she was expected to leave, immediately. Thank God I didn’t duck out early, she thought, hastily packing her briefcase. She would have ordered me back to the office just to haul me over the coals.
Autumn checked the wall clock. She was going to get stuck in dreaded Washington, D.C., rush hour on her way downtown but it would be ten times worse on the drive home. After ribbing her best friend Melissa Grisbey about her tardiness for as long as she could remember, Autumn couldn’t afford to be late to her best friend’s dinner party. She was dying to tell Ms. Barstow to take the documents her damn self, but clamped down on her tongue. She valued her job and its hefty paycheck far too much to get fired, and if she gave in to her displeasure and told her boss what she was thinking, she would be first in line at the unemployment office come Monday morning.
After applying to more than fifty accountancy firms and wearing down the soles of her favorite pumps, Autumn had leapt for joy when Ms. Barstow had offered her the junior accountant position at the conclusion of her interview. She loathed the long hours, heavy workload and the fact that her office was the size of an airplane bathroom, but she had fallen in love with Monroe Accounting.
In her third year with the company, her assiduousness and devotion had paid off and she had been promoted to a senior accountant position. The title had come with a fifteen-percent salary increase, a lighter workload and an office three times the size of her previous one. Autumn was one of the most well-liked employees at the firm and no one worked harder than her or put in as many hours as she did.
Autumn knew her boss was overstepping her bounds, but she wasn’t about to give The Glacier any ammunition for mistreating her later on down the road. The steely-eyed, fifty-something woman had earned the nickname after unleashing a tongue-lashing on a snot-nosed intern at a staff meeting. In a matter of minutes, she had reduced the pro-wrestling-size man to a puddle of tears, and he’d quit on the spot.
Ms. Barstow was unreasonable and downright rude, but Autumn had learned from her just how far fierce determination, hard work and a no-nonsense attitude could take you. The Glacier could scare the pants off a grown man with just one look, but she was also insightful beyond measure, incredibly tough and highly esteemed in the accounting world.
Extending the bulky manila envelope, Ms.