After the apologies and an hour of explanations, followed by even more apologies from all concerned, the office slowly became an place of business once again, although one with a much less adversarial atmosphere than in recent weeks.

In the minds of every woman there, Paul had moved from villain to victim, and a rush of maternal feelings toward him washed away any last bits of resentment anyone might have had over how badly he had treated them all. As for Paul, his only thought was to try and make up for all the pain he had caused. As a result, he was polite and deferential to everyone in the office, almost timid in his responses to even the simplest of questions. Having anyone treat him as a real human being instead of a joke was so new, he almost didn’t know how to react.

Karen King retreated with Maisie to the younger woman’s office, where she lowered herself onto Maisie’s sofa with a sigh.

“God, what a mess,” she said. “I can’t believe we almost killed a man.”

The office manager shook her head and settled down on the sofa next to her boss.

“I know. It was like something out of Lord of the Flies,” she agreed. “I’m still a little surprised at Jocelyn, though. I never imagined she had so little compassion in her. Even after she knew what that boy had been through all his life, she still hated him so much ...”

“Good riddance to bad rubbish, that’s what I say,” Karen declared, grimacing. “We’re going to need to watch out for her, you know. She may decide not to let it go. And now she hates me as much as she did Paul. If she tries something ... well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Are you sorry you acted so quickly?”

“No!” Karen looked at her friend. “I don’t much care about making more enemies. I’ve too many to count as it is, what does one more matter? I guess I’m just worried about Paul. Right now, the last thing he needs is Jocelyn working to make his life miserable. It’s the last thing we need, too, if we’re going to get his life back on track.”

“What are we going to do now?”

Karen laughed.

“Now is the easy part,” she said. “You go back to managing your office, and I head back to my office to try and get some work done today. I have some calls out to a few people to help get Paul resettled in his old apartment, but since he threw out everything, that’s going to take a few days. And I need to call Frank about Paul staying with us. I’d hate for him to come back from Geneva this afternoon and find a strange man in our home.”

“I can imagine that might be a bit awkward.”

“A bit.” Karen smiled. “No, the real challenge comes when the simple things are past.”

She rose to her feet, and Maisie followed suit. “How do we show Paul he’s more than he thinks he is? How do we get him to believe in himself? It might just be a matter of us treating him as a human being, and showing him we care for him as a person. If only it were that easy. Still, none of us is an expert in this. Hell, girl, there may not be an expert in this.”

The CEO gave Maisie a small hug and started for the door. Then she stopped and turned.

“For now, set up regular cross-training sessions for Katie and Paul,” she said with a smile. “Have them teach each other the things the other one knows ... about accounting and spreadsheets, at least. If they both manage to learn something more about each other, that’s bound to be a plus, don’t you think?”

She opened the door and stepped through. “Call you later, M.”

“Later,” Maisie replied to her employer’s vanishing back.

‘Just like Karen,’ she thought with a smile. ‘Take charge all the way, even in unfamiliar territory. She may think she doesn’t know what she’s doing, but whatever she decides to do, she’ll do it with all her heart.’

It was awkward at first, for both of them. Paul went first, doing his best to show Katie how he build his cascading spreadsheets, formula upon formula, based on the math he knew so well. Although Katie felt out of her depth at first, she soon began to see how Paul managed to turn accounting rules into a web of equations that led to hours saved making tedious calculations.

Unfortunately, when it came to the legal aspects of accountancy and the tax elements involved, Paul struggled to work his way through even the simplest of rules. When Katie could see his frustration rising, she rose from her chair. Paul looked up at her, confused.

‘Is she going to give up on me?’ he wondered, and part of him nodded. ‘I knew this was too good to last.’

“Come on, Paul,” she said with a smile, reaching out a hand. “Let’s get a cup of coffee. We need to figure this out.”

Paul looked at her hand for a moment, then reached up and took it. He stood, and they walked to the small kitchen together. They each took a turn at the coffeepot and fixings, then sat down across from each other at the lunch table.

“There’s something about these rules that bothers you,” Katie began, cradling her cup with her fingertips. “It’s almost like you’ve got a mental block or something.”

“Maybe everyone was right,” he said, a touch of bitterness in his tone. “Maybe I’m just stupid.”

Katie wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “No way. How could you put together those spreadsheets like that if you’re stupid?”

“I don’t know.” Paul smiled, just a little. “Maybe I’m like those people who now a lot about just one thing and nothing about everything else. What’re they called ... savants?”

She smiled back. “I think the word is ... Trekkies?”

There was a short, uncomfortable silence.

“I don’t know, Katie.” He took a sip of coffee and sighed. “I try to read one of those rules and it comes out all tangled and confused in my head. No wonder I can’t remember them.”

“That’s just ‘cause they’re written by lawyers,” she replied. “If they wrote those rules in plain English, they wouldn’t get paid by everyone and his mother to tell you what they really mean when you need to get things done, right?”

“You understand ‘em, though.”

Katie grinned. “That’s ‘cause I can read Lawyer-ese. It’s a gift.”

“Well, maybe we can find a bookstore and pick up a phrasebook I could use.” Paul gave her a small smile in return, summoning enough courage to try and make a joke. “That way, the next time I’m in Lawyer-ania, I can ask for the loo and make it sound like I’m requesting a writ of habeas corpus or something.”

Katie laughed, and Paul blushed, just a little. He couldn’t believe it worked. Then the woman across from him tilted her head slightly, and her eyes glazed over just a little.

“You know, maybe we’re doing this all wrong,” she said slowly. “Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to teach you the rules at all. Maybe what I should be doing is teaching you how to read Lawyer-ese.”

“Maybe.” Paul gave it some thought as well. “The other problem is, the stuff I have managed to learn doesn’t make sense to me. It’s all disconnected.”

“That’s because you haven’t learned enough to see the pattern.” Katie stood up, excited. “It’s like a crossword, yeah? Or a jigsaw puzzle. Once you see enough of the picture, you can figure out where the other pieces fit. You just haven’t seen enough of the pattern behind the rules to fit it together because you can’t read Lawyer-ese.”

“It sounds like it could work.” Paul looked up at her, and she could see the doubt in his eyes.
“But I could be just as stupid as people said I am. Maybe you’re just wasting your time.”

“Stop!” Katie reached out and put her finger on the tip of his nose. “I’m people, too so you can listen to me, right? So listen. Those spreadsheets you put together, they’re brilliant. And all about logical connections. So if you can do that, you can make the same connections with other things, too.” She leaned forward. “Like accounting rules.”

She reached down and took his hand. “Come on, Paul. It’s time for language lessons.”

Katie walked out of the kitchen, holding her coffee and pulling Paul after her. The young man had no choice to follow, wondering what he had gotten himself into — and why her hand felt so good in his.

Karen was so intent on her computer screen that she failed to notice his arrival, until she felt his lips on her neck and his hands gently rest on her shoulders.

“You work too hard, Mrs. King,” he whispered, and she smiled.

“So do you, Mr. King.” She spun her chair around in time to catch his lips with hers, and the two took a moment or two to get reacquainted. Eventually, Karen rose and they both walked over to the leather sofa together, her husband’s arm around her waist. “I got your message when the plane landed. Apparently we have a house guest for a few days.”

“We do.” They settled in together on the sofa, and Karen let herself relax completely. As strong as she was, she always hated it when Frank was away. “I was a bad girl, husband. I did something cruel ... and I didn’t think about the man I did it to, or what the consequences might be. I ... hurt him so badly, I almost made him kill himself.”

The tears started coming, and she began to shake. “He ... he thanked me for showing him how worthless he was.”

Frank gave her a one-armed hug and kissed her hair.

“Take your time, love,” he said softly. “Tell me when you’re ready.”

And she did.

“So he’s become your latest project?”

Frank had walked over to the small bar in the corner and mixed them both drinks. She nodded a thank-you as he handed her a glass.

“From one king to another,” Karen replied, after taking a sip, “how could I possibly do what I did to him and not do everything in my power to fix it? Noblesse oblige, Your Majesty.”

“No, my Queen.” The man sat back down on the sofa beside her and looked into her eyes. “This is more than that. I know you. I know why what almost happened to Paul was important enough to make you cry.”

She didn’t turn away, but her eyes were wet again. Frank reached out and touched her chin. “I remember when La Belle Dame took off, and you became a success. You promised yourself that you would never use your position to hurt anyone who didn’t deserve to be hurt. We talk about noblesse oblige as if it’s a joke, but we both know that we have a responsibility to be careful with the power we have over the lives of others. You abused it yesterday morning.”

“When you decided to target Paul the way you did, you forgot your promise to yourself and became what you’ve always hated — a bully. You deliberately used your power and position to hurt another person, and worse yet, you did it without thinking of the consequences. You took Paul at face value and, as a result, you almost killed him. And you did it casually, without paying attention to who you were targeting and what he really was. You just saw him as the kind of man you hate, and when you made that kind of mistake ... it made you less than who you are. Made you see yourself as someone you never wanted to be. Of course you want to fix it.”

“Oh, don’t sugar coat it, husband,” Karen said, trying for a light tone and failing miserably. “Tell me what you really think.”

“Always, my wife.” He kissed her softly on the lips. “No lies between us, not ever. The truth is, you hate to be reminded that you’re less than perfect, and now you’re going to do everything you can think of bring Paul back from the edge ... and restore your faith in yourself. If you fix Paul, you get to fix yourself as well.”

Frank sat back on the sofa, stretched out his legs and took a sip of his drink. “So, now that we know where we stand, it’s time to make everything better. Any thoughts about how you plan to make him believe in himself?”

Mrs. King smiled, just a little. “I was sort of hoping you’d be able to help,” she said.

Her husband smiled.

“I have a few ideas,” he replied.

“You always do.” Karen smiled. “That’s part of why I love you.”

“Only part?” Frank raised an eyebrow. “Thank God for that. For a moment there, I thought you only wanted me for my mind.”

“Perish the thought,” she whispered, and leaned over to give him a kiss.

The afternoon flew by, and Katie’s lessons in Lawyer-ese started helping Paul figure out the logic behind accountancy rules (what there was of it, anyway). They took a section that Paul had been having trouble with, and Katie translated it line by line. By the end of the day, he had begun to do some translation for himself, and Katie felt a warm glow of satisfaction as she watched him puzzle out a particularly difficult section of the rules on his own.

“If only we would have talked sooner,” she said, smiling, “I’m sure you could have done much better on your exams.”

“Exams are just tests, anyway,” Paul replied, returning her smile shyly. “It would have been nice to do better, but at least now I have a chance to do the job the way it should be done. It’s just ... the more I think about it, I wonder if this is what I really want to do.”

“Excuse me for interrupting.” Both Paul and Katie turned towards the new voice, and Katie popped out of her chair. Paul rose slowly a few seconds after, unsure why he should stand but feeling that he must. The man in the doorway smiled.

“Hello, Katie,” he said. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”

“Hello, Mr. King. Welcome back!”

“Thank you.” Frank took a step into the room. “You must be Paul. Frank King.”

He held out his hand, and Paul reached out and took it, trying his best to give a firm handshake.

“Paul Merchant. Umm ... pleased to meet you, sir.”

“I understand you’ll be staying with us for a few days.” Frank let go, and Paul took a step back.

“Just until my apartment is ... well, sorted,” the younger man replied, not sure what to say ... or do with his hands, for that matter.

“Hard to lose everything,” Frank said sympathetically. “Been there a few times myself, never pleasant. But Karen will have everything taken care of straightaway. She’s good at that.”

“So I’ve seen.” Paul managed a small smile.

“Speaking of which, I’ve gotten my marching orders from Her Majesty.” Frank looked at Paul’s suit with a critical eye. “That’s quite nice for off-the-rack, but I’ve been told to take you to my tailor soonest and get you some proper suits. When those are ready, we’ll go back and have the off-the-rack ones altered for a better fit. So, sorry Katie, I’m afraid I have to steal this young gentleman from you for the remainder of the day.”

“It’s okay, Mr. King. We’ll pick up tomorrow, right, Paul?” Katie smiled.

“I’d like that,” Paul replied, and was a little surprised to find out that he was looking forward to studying more. “See you tomorrow, then.”

After the visit to the tailor for several suits, shirts, and ties, Frank and Paul hit a few other stores for other clothing essentials to tide him over for a bit. Then, to Paul’s surprise, Frank took him into a pub not far from the center of the city.

They sat at a booth by the front windows, and Paul looked out at the people on the sidewalk and felt strangely detached. The glass was slightly tinted, and even though he was close enough to touch the pedestrians, it seemed like he was invisible to them. That was just fine, as far as he was concerned. He’d been invisible most of his life, when he hadn’t been being ridiculed or harassed or humiliated

When the waiter came by, Frank ordered a Scotch on the rocks. Having never been out drinking with anyone before, Paul had no idea what to order, so he chose the same. When the drinks came, Frank raised his to Paul, and Paul solemnly did the same. Both drank in silence, then put their glasses down.

“Bad choice, suicide,” Frank said softly. “Don’t you think?”

“Depends on your other options,” Paul replied.

“True, as far as it goes.” The older man nodded thoughtfully. “Of course, killing yourself takes any other options you might have off the table. Takes you out of the game, too, of course. But I imagine once you’re dead, you lose interest in keeping score.”

“I always thought I’d be happy just to get the chance to play.” The accountant took a small sip of his Scotch, still not sure if he liked it. “Then I got out there and found out the truth.”

“Truth?”

“That playing never gets fun if the deck is always stacked against you, and the house always wins.”

Frank thought about it for a while, turning his glass slowly on the table.

“You read a lot of science fiction, Paul?” The other man nodded, and a timid smile crossed his lips. “I do, too. Or at least I did. Read any Robert Heinlein? Time Enough for Love?”

Paul nodded. “Lazarus Long. Larger than life and twice as tough.”

“Oh, yes.” Frank grinned. “The Admiral’s idea of the perfect human. Ornery, gruff, old-fashioned, and insanely competent. But also the most confident character I’ve ever come across. He’s why I’m here, today, actually.”

“Lazarus Long? How?”

The older man pushed his glass around the table and watched the liquor moving back and forth. “When I was younger, I always felt out of place. Other people always got the after-school jobs, or the pretty girls, or pretty much anything they wanted. I always seemed to come in second, or third. Or not at all.”

“Because … you were short.”

“That’s what I thought, at first. And part of me was willing to believe it. So it kept on like this for a while, and I began to feel like I’d never amount to anything.”

Frank raised his glass, took another sip, and looked at Paul. “Then I read that book, and one of the things Lazarus said struck a chord. Changed my life.”

After a few seconds, Paul had to ask.

“What did he say?”

“Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you. If you don’t bet, you can’t win.”

The younger man grinned, and shook his head. “It can’t be that simple.”

“Oh, believe me, it wasn’t. Agreeing with the quote was the easy part. It was the follow-through that was tough. I had to stop letting my past failures get in the way of what I wanted in the present, and the future, and that’s never easy.”

He shook his head. “You know, every time I hear someone tell somebody else to just ‘get back on the horse,’ I have to wonder if they’ve ever fallen off, and if they did, if they remember how much work it took for them to put a foot back in that stirrup and swing up onto that saddle again.”

“Because betting when I ‘knew’ the game was rigged was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. It took weeks of not listening to that voice inside of me, and they were some of the worst weeks of my life. Then I got a win. Just one, an after-school job. But the one win made it a little easier for me to tell that voice to go to Hell, every time it tried to pull me down. Then I got another win, and another, and another. And finally, the voice just stopped. I couldn't hear it anymore.”

“So here I am, today, richer than I ever thought I’d be, with a wife who loves me and a life I love. All because some fictional character told me to bet, even if I was sure I didn’t have a chance. And because every time I lost, I’d learned enough to double-down and bet again.”

He finished his drink and put the glass down. “Time for us to get home. Karen’s probably waiting for us all to go to dinner.”

Paul gave him a doubting look. “I understand what you’re saying, and I get it. But your whole life changing, because of a story?”

Frank shrugged. “There’s a lot of wisdom in stories, Paul. Look at Aesop, or the Brothers Grimm. Or Shakespeare, I suppose. But there’s wisdom to be had in the real world, too. I think Mother Teresa said something that even Lazarus Long would agree with.”

He stood up, and Paul followed suit.

“Why? What did she say?”

“God doesn't require us to succeed. He only requires that you try.”

Two weeks later, Paul was back in his old apartment. His clothes, furniture, TV, computer, and everything else he had thrown away had been replaced by the unseen hand of Karen King. His understanding of accountancy had grown by leaps and bounds as Katie had taught him how to understand the rules, instead of him having to learn them by rote without knowing what they meant.

He and Katie had also worked to expand his original program so it could handle additional accounting issues. Mrs. King was even talking about figuring out a way to turn it into a product that could be sold commercially. She said if she could, the profits would go to Paul and Katie. Katie initially refused her share, saying that she didn’t really deserve it. However, Paul made it clear that he couldn’t have gone further than the original program without her contribution. As far as he was concerned, the split would be straight down the middle … if Mrs. King managed to sell it, that is.

Although knowing her the way he did now, Paul was pretty sure Mrs. King could do anything she put her mind to.

Everyone at the company had been so nice to him, it was hard for him to believe how close he came to ending it all a few weeks ago. There were always smiles and “good mornings” when he arrived at the office each day, and even friendly lunches with some of the women. More than a few after work drinks with Frank, too. It felt weird actually having a friend, since Paul never had one before. It was so new, he wasn’t quite sure how to behave. Frank was surprisingly patient, as if he knew this was something outside of Paul’s experience and was giving him as much time as he needed to get used to the idea.

Best of all, he was about to do something he never ever thought he’d have the chance to do in all the years that came before.

He was going on a date.

Paul had pulled together enough courage to ask Katie out to dinner, and to his surprise, she said yes.

They were going to meet at a bar near work and walk together to a restaurant. He didn’t have a lot of clothes to choose from, so he opted for one of the off-the-rack black suits with a light blue shirt, and some casual black shoes instead of the shiny dress shoes he wore to work. He did everything he could think of to make himself ready … fresh haircut, close shave. Still, he wasn’t satisfied. But it was almost time to meet her, and it’s not like she didn’t know who he was, really. So he took one last look in the mirror, sighed, and headed out.

It was just turning dark outside by the time he walked into the bar. Paul scanned the crowd, looking for Katie, and found her. Unfortunately, she was at the bar, looking decidedly uncomfortable. The reason was a walking ego in a cheap suit, looming over her, talking loud, touching her arm, and not listening to a word when she told him she wasn’t interested.

Katie saw him at the door, and caught his eye. She shook her head slightly, and Paul realized she was trying to protect him. She was warning him off.

She was worried … about him.

It stunned him for a second. She was in trouble, and she was worried about him. He had never had anyone put him first before, not ever. He felt strangely calm, and happy, and warm all over. She cared about him. Katie actually cared.

It was only fair that he let her know he cared about her, too. He remembered what Frank had said a few weeks back, about the game being rigged … and about what it took to win. He smiled at her, and shook his head in return. No running from trouble, not this time. Not anymore.

This time, maybe for the first time, he was going to place a bet.

Frank King finished pouring a second glass of champagne for Karen as the two of them sat in the back of their limousine. A few moments before, they had watched Paul enter the bar.

“You knew about the date,” Karen asked. Frank nodded. “And you sent that large, scary man into the bar?”

“Yes.”

“Where did you find him?”

“Casting agent in L.A. I flew him in on the corporate jet. I wanted someone who could be physically imposing, overbearing, and threatening, but still be able to back down convincingly if Paul chose to take a stand. Auditioned him myself. Very credible.”

She looked at him over the rim of her glass. “And Katie knows nothing?”

Frank shook his head. “Not a thing.”

Karen looked at him for a while. “Why did you put this all together, exactly?”

“You know why.” Frank gestured towards the bar. “For that.”

Paul and Katie walked out together, arm in arm. Paul looked like he felt a foot taller, and Katie smiled at him like he was everything she had ever wanted in a five-foot, five-inch tall package.

“Everyone needs a defining moment in their lives, my Queen. I just wanted Paul to get his sooner rather than later.”

“Why?”

Frank’s eyes never left the couple as they walked off down the street. “Because Heinlein was right, all those years ago. The game really is rigged. As supportive as we both were, he could have spent years being kicked around by the world. We can’t possibly protect him from everything until his moment comes. So I stacked the deck in his favor, and gave him the chance to gamble on himself now, so he could get past his past and get on with living.”

“There’s something else, though, isn’t there?”

He smiled.

“Hurting him … hurt you,” he said. “Making him better will help you feel better. And as we both know, I am all about making you feel … better.”

Karen smiled, put down her glass, and kissed him gently for a long time. Then she snuggled into him and sighed.

“You are a manipulative bastard, husband.”

“Yes, I am, darling,” he replied with a smile, holding her close. “But I’m your manipulative bastard, and you know I only use my powers for good. That’s part of why you love me.”

“Only part of why, Frank. Only part.” She started unbuttoning his shirt.

“In the car, woman? You’re incorrigible.”

She finished unbuttoning the shirt and started pulling it out of his pants, while her mouth found his. He reached out and rapped on the glass between the driver and passengers.

“For God’s sake, take us home, Phillip. Right now, before she gets my trousers off.”

“Very good, sir.”

She laughed and rested her head on his chest, as the car pulled out into the night.