Master's Apprentice (Completed) Undergoing Edits

Absence of Affection

"Tomas! Have you settled the Petrushenkov Family Group accounts yet?"

Tomas snapped out of his flashback of his brother's wedding and turned to see his immediate supervisor, the assistant head of accounting, outside of his cubicle.

"Yes. They're right here. I just finished going through them," he commented.

"That's great, because I need to figure out how to decrease the amount of taxes they have to pay. Loopholes are getting harder to find these days," the assistant head responded.

Tomas kept himself in check. Having a loose tongue would not help him out here.

"Keep up the good work. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be the one giving orders instead of being an intern?" the assistant head, Frank, teased.

"Alright. Have a good night.", Tomas replied.

"The work shift is almost over, aren't you heading out as well?", Frank asked.

"I have a little more reading to do.", he answered back.

"Its your prerogative. Gotta go.", Frank turned and walked away from his desk.

Tomas sighed and grabbed the next file off his desk.

Letting himself skim over the numbers, his thoughts turned back to the wedding reception.

He smiled as he thought about how he and Aila conversed after the reception; he could still remember what he said to her...

"It depends," Tomas scowled internally. That was not what he meant to say, but now he had to play it off.

"Oh really?" Aila inquired.

"Right now, I'm not in a situation where I am stable enough to be married, but if I met the right person and was interested enough, maybe I would reconsider my stance," he told her.

"Anyways, I'm sorry for not responding to your call earlier this week," Tomas lamented being so quick to judge Aila. Wasn't it by dating someone that you got to know them? He had been a fool for listening to Lauren. She had just been upset at the time. He trusted Aila meant him no harm.

"What call...oh that call! Actually, I was calling because I happened to misplace my earring and couldn't find it in my purse so I called you to see if maybe you had seen it lying around on the sidewalk somewhere we had walked, but then I found it. So you didn't have to answer it at all," Aila lied.

She had been trying to call her commander and pressed the wrong numbers in sequence. Thank God he didn't pick up, because at the time she didn't have this excuse in mind.

"That's good. I was busy," Tomas lied for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, it was not to be his last lie.

"I see that the party is dying down. Do you want to leave this place and get some food?" Aila batted her eyebrows at him and grinned.

Tomas smirked and said, "I would, but I have work tomorrow in the morning, so I'll let you off at your apartment."

"Tomas!"

Tomas hit his leg against the desk trying to stand up. His leg was now throbbing with pain.

"Yes." Tomas was now staring into his distant relative's eyes.

"I want you to do a favor for me," Tomas' uncle uttered.

So much for asking nicely. Tomas wished his uncle was polite or even courteous to him, you know, being his relative and all.

"Shouldn't you be delegating this task to your head of accounting to give to me? I don't think during work hours I should be seen addressing the head of the company so informally," Tomas reasoned.

"Never mind what they think!" his uncle waved his hand away and pulled an envelope from his suit jacket.

"What do you have for me?" Tomas crossed his legs and folded his arms. He was not budging one bit.

"I request that you keep this on the down-low. Due to certain people not being so...happy with the way things are, I implore you to take these accounts home with you and look at them with a close eye, preferably a magnifying glass," his uncle commanded.

"I thought you said to never bring work back to my apartment," Tomas wished to articulate his displeasure with this assignment, but presumed reason would win this argument.

"This is an emergency. Remember what I said when I recruited you into this organization? This is why I brought you in here. If you want to keep your job, you are going to do exactly as I say," his uncle ordered.

"Oh and what you said about us being informal. Here, in this place, you will call me 'The Master', nothing else you got that? No one else knows your relation to me and I want to keep it that way," the Master disclosed to Tomas.

"If you wanted an auditor, you could have sought outside help with more experience," Tomas proclaimed, not hiding his disgust at the Master's actions.

"My books for those auditors are already made by the accountants in this department. No, I have certain things that would look suspicious to other people not in this company, so you will listen to me and do as I ask.Capisce?" the Master was about to walk away when he realized he had missed a special bonding moment with his nephew.

"Want a piece of advice, son? Choose your enemies and then tell your allies apart from them," the Master warned Tomas.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean", Tomas said back to him.

"Soon you will, and men will quiver at the mere mention of your name...or something like that.", his uncle turned and strolled out of his office humming a show tune.

"Deal! But you owe me a dinner date!" Aila responded back.

"I can do that. Friday at 6 sound about right?"

"I can't wait! There's this dress I've been dying to try out in public."

"You never cease to amaze me darling. However, you are beautiful no matter what you wear and you know I mean it."

Now to cancel that date.

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Author's  note: Aila's probably not going to be happy about that. On another note, this song matches so perfectly with this chapter and this story.