“Nice to meet you, Anne. So, what do you do?”
“I’m an accountant.” Anne braced herself for the boring joke.
“Nice. Boring, but stable. My parents would have loved it if I had become an accountant, but I think I would have blown my brains out ages ago.”
And, there it was. “Really?” said Anne. “Why is that?”
Chad hesitated, apparently having just realized he was talking to an accountant, and that she might be offended by his comment. “I just couldn’t handle looking at numbers all day. Math was never really my strong suit.”
“So, what do you do?”
“I’m an editor.”
“Ah, so looking at numbers all day would drive you crazy, but making sure writers have dotted all their i’s and crossed their t’s gives you a reason to get up in the morning?”
Chad blinked a few times before saying, “Well, yeah. Typos bug me, so I like that I get to fix them and put everything in order. Plus, I get to read all kinds of things, and that part is fascinating.”
“What are you working on now?”
“I’m editing a sci-fi novel for an indie author I’ve worked for before. It’s the sixth book in his series and I’ve read all the previous books leading up to this one, so I’m able to spot inconsistencies and things he might have forgotten about.”
“You like looking for plot holes.”
Chad shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I like when I find one. It makes me feel smart, and it reaffirms that I’m worth what the author is paying me because, if he hadn’t hired me, he would have some pretty confused readers.”
“I’m the same way. I love finding the holes where the numbers don’t line up, and then figuring out what’s missing so we can put everything in order. It’s really gratifying when I find bills that have been marked as paid, even though they were never paid. Like you said about finding the plot holes, it validates that I’m worth what I charge because without my services, who knows if that bill ever would have been paid? I’m helping my clients make money, and nothing feels better than that.”
“Wow. I guess I never thought of it like that. So, then, do you chase down their customers to get them to pay their bills?”
Anne snorted. “Like I don’t have better things to do. No, I leave that to the bookkeeper. But their bookkeeper never would have known to go after the customer for the unpaid bill if I hadn’t pointed it out to them. And their bookkeeper is not someone you want to mess with. I’ve heard her say things that would make your hair stand on end. But she gets results. Telling her a customer hasn’t paid their bill is like setting a Rottweiler on a burglar. And you’d never guess it just to look at her. She’s this tiny old lady. She can’t be more than 5 feet, and she’s as thin as a rail.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not, I swear. But get her on the phone with a customer who’s in arrears and she can be the most intimidating person I’ve ever heard.”
“Huh. Who’d have thought an accountant would have such great stories?”
Anne shrugged. “People who ask,” she said, taking a sip of her soda.
To be continued…