The Cardinal and the Crook

As he walked back to his room, James was feeling several different emotions—anger and frustration at one moment, hope and excitement the next. His head was spinning by the time he got back to his dorm. Anthony was already in the room when James arrived.

“Hey, Jimmy, how you doing?”

“Pretty shitty. I’m feeling like a real loser right about now.”

James went on to explain that he had not been invited to any second interviews and that his adviser had suggested graduate school. Anthony thought the world of James and had an idea.

“So, what do they pay at these big accounting firms?”

“I’ve heard that they start you at around twenty grand plus bonus.”

“That’s all? You’re worth more than that! Hell, you are one of the smartest guys I know.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot, but my grades don’t show it.”

Anthony grabbed two bottles of beer from the refrigerator, handed one to James, and then said, “Fuck the grades. You have the smarts and plenty of common sense.”

He thought that his friend was just trying to make him feel better, but the next thing Anthony said made James practically spit out the beer he had just sipped.

“How would you like to make twice as much?”

After wiping the beer from his chin, James laughed and replied, “Yeah, sure . . . in my dreams!”

“No . . . no, I’m dead serious, kiddo. You can come work for me in the restaurant business.”

James continued laughing and said, “I don’t know the first thing about the restaurant business. What do you want me to do, be your head waiter? You’ve got to be kidding, man. Thanks for trying to lift my spirits, but you can’t be serious.”

“I’m dead serious. And no, I don’t want you to be the head waiter—although you’d probably look pretty good in a tux. Look, you want an accounting job, right? Our controller, Nick, needs an assistant. He’s been with the business forever. My father says that Nick is the best. Pop says no one knows the numbers like Nick does. You could learn from the best, and someday you could take over for Nick. Just think, Jimmy, you’d be my controller—my numbers guy. You’d be making a lot more money than those pansies in the big accounting firms. And you would always eat at the best restaurants in Boston!”

James could not believe how quickly circumstances had changed for him. Less than an hour before, he’d been feeling like a victim, and now he felt as though he was on top of the world.