Ok, sixty minutes till this has to be on Michael’s desk. Sitting in my glass office, watching people walk by. I just need to do the finishing touches. The formatting is done, save, fifty minutes left now. Spell check is done, save, forty minutes left. My phone starts ringing, it lights up, Hubby on the screen. I love it when Will calls he always calms me down, but I really do not have time for this. “Hi, what’s up?” I say fast. “Nothing, I just wanted to check on you since you were out the door before I was up.” he replies. “I know, I am so sorry I am finishing the report now and I just needed to make sure it was perfect. I need to get this done. Is there anything else?” I ask. “Nope. I will see you tonight in celebration of getting my wife back?” Will jokes. I cannot control my laughter when I see Michael walk by and look at me. He does not look pleased with my laughter. I stop immediately.
Michael’s talking about all the work we need to get done this week and how busy he is when he really just sits at his desk all day and does nothing. Monday at nine in the morning we are always going over the same thing, how busy he is, how much work needs to get done, and how stressful his life is. I cannot wait till I am out of this place and taking care of the baby Will and I are trying so hard to have.  Trying to get pregnant is not easy, especially with a job and boss as stressful as mine. “ANNMARIE!” Michael yells. I jumped not realizing how long I had been spaced out. I only get called Annmarie by Michael when he is mad otherwise he does not use names. “Did you hear what I said?” Michael continues. “Yes, sir, every word.” I reply, but he knows I am lying. Sarah sitting next to me nudges my arm and winks. She will fill me in on what he was saying, so he cannot prove I was not listening. Sarah and I help each other out all the time . If it were not for her I would have quit this job a long time ago. Sarah is the closest thing I have to a mentor, although she is actually a colleague. She tells me that I need to write the audit for Sam’s company. I have never written a real audit before. Yeah we has practice ones in school, but my teacher always rushed through them and no one in the class knew how to write an audit properly. As I sit at my desk and look into the company I have to conduct the audit for I see the owner is Sam Culter. I use to work with her!  We were so close then I had to focus on school and leave my job and she and I just fell out of touch. That make this job so much harder. I call her to set up and interview with her and all the other employees I need to talk to.
“Yes, you will see me tonight. I have to go. I love you.” I say shaking. “Forever and always.” Will response and hangs up. I am the worst wife. Why am I working all these crazy hours and not with him? We both just want a family and my job has taken over trying to get pregnant. It’s the last week of the month. I am late! I have thirty-five minutes left. I can finish this give it to Sarah t look over , while I run to the convenience store and fix all the mistakes when I get back. Ten minutes go by like seconds and I am done editing it!  As I leave the office to go to the convenience store I dropped the report off at Sarah’s desk and tell her to check it over while I run outside. When I get back Sarah is in my office with the report. “It is great Annie! Nothing is wrong with it, so Michael has no reason to yell, so he will probably yell louder.” She says. We both start laughing. She leaves my office as I look over the report when I see the blue pen and yellow paper on my desk.
Blue ink on yellow paper in the giant conference room with and even bigger table. I sit through interview after interview of almost all of Sam’s employees. Just to see how the company is running and if there are any problems. When I am finally done with all the interviews I sit in the conference room alone and stare at the empty chairs around the table. I pull out my laptop and go to start writing the audit. At Sam’s office I do not have to worry about Michael near me, so my stress is lower while still being high. I just need to write how much money was lost, where it went, how often it was taken, and the amounts that were taken each time. Audits are completely boring, like my job. I wish I could change my entire life around and not have just picked and easy and well-paying job. All I have ever wanted was to be a stay at home mom. Will, my husband, and I are trying to get pregnant, which is much harder than I thought it would be. The stress from this assignment is defiantly not helping me. Ok focus now. One hundred thousand dollars was stolen from Sam from the vice president of her company. It was stolen in small amounts over the past year. This audit is an extremely detailed analysis of everything that happened with the money. Audits have three parts to them all consisting of one page. The first page is all responsibilities of directors and auditor. I need to write how I am affiliated with the company and what my part is in this process. Then the directors, Michael, my boss and Sam the owner of the company. Michael's responsibility is to oversee my work and the interviews, like he would ever put that much work in. Sam’s responsibility is to get me all the financial paper work I need to get a better understanding of the company and to make sure her employees are work with me. The second page is the GAAP, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the standards and procedures that compile their financial statements. I need to write the combination of authoritative standards and simple commonly accepted ways of recording and reporting accounting information. I need to write what was said in the interviews with the employees at Sam’s company. The third page is the auditor’s opinion. That’s me. I have to write how the company is doing and how I see the company going forward. This is the hard part because Sam will see it and if I do not see her company going anywhere her investors might stop investing and she could lose her company.
I run out of the door to my office to the bathroom to take this test before handing in this assignment. I take the test and wait and wait and wait. I never realized how long it took too get the results until now when it’s me taking the test and I want it so bad. If it says I am not pregnant I will be so upset and have to call Will to calm me down. He is the only person who helps me relax when I am too stressed out. I am still waiting. Why? As I look down waiting to see it be blank there is a plus sign. It is positive. It is positive! I cannot wait to tell Will! Everything is great! I am done with this assignment and I am pregnant. I never thought this would happen! I grab my phone and call Will. “Did you quit your job yet?” he answers. I am too happy to even understand the joke. “I am pregnant.” I respond. Nothing on the other end of the phone. Until he starts laughing. “So you called to tell me you are going to quit your job in a few months when you are about to have our baby.” He finally says. I start crying hearing him say our baby. It took so long to get pregnant I thought it was never going to happen. “What is wrong? I thought we both wanted this. Didn’t you?” he says. “I wanted this so bad I thought it was never going to happen because things never happen the way I want them to.” I respond in sobs, “We are going to be parents! To the cutest baby in the world!”. “Of course we are I never doubted for a second if we would have a baby. I am so happy! Isn’t it two? Did you turn in your audit already?” Will says. “S***! I have to go!” I hang up without rethinking it. Running to my office and grabbing the report. I am in Michael’s office at 2:01 with the report and he is not even there. I wait for two minutes and he comes barging in. He see me with the report and yells to sit down. “Now listen, this job is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you are either in it or you’re not. You have to choose because you are not focused and you need to be.” He said. This job is not a once in a life time he is just trying to make himself sound better. “Yes, sir” is my response like always. It should be I am not in it, I hate this job, or I am not the right person for the job because I do not care enough to focus more on this job. He nobs and I leave his office and go to mine. I sit there doing nothing and waiting to go home. It has been a long day. About an hour later my email pings and I have an email from Michael. I open it with one eye ready to be yelled at. It is two lines and says Great job. Thank you. Wow the complete opposite of what I was expecting. I did not even realize I was walking till I was at Michael’s office door. I walk in and say “I hate this job. I am the total wrong person for this job. I am not focused enough for you and I will never fix that because I could care less and that is a disadvantage for you and this company.” The words are out before I even know what I am saying. He stars at me for a moment and says “Thank you. I knew you hated this job and at your age I hated this job too, but I stayed and now looking back I wish I had left and done some, anything else.” I am so surprised by his response. “I thought you would be able to take this assignment and be smart enough to leave or dumb enough to pretend to like it and stay. I am so happy for you. Making this decision at this point in your carrer is extremely difficult, but you did it and I will forever be in aw of you. Pack your office up and leave.” He says. And I walk out. Once my office is packed I leave. I will tell Will what I did when I get home. He will probably be happy because he hated this job for me more than I did. As I pass Michael’s office on the way out he says “Have a great life and do not regret any mistakes, but if you do not like something change it before it takes over your life.” That was one of the best pieces of advice I had ever gotten.