Chad chuckled, "I never studied that stuff."
"So how did you figure out they were cooking their books if you didn't investigate their company?" Molly probed.
Chad shrugged, "That's the auditor's job, not mine."
Molly pressed on, "Don't you even glance at their tax returns?"
Chad replied, "That's for the tax folks, not me."
Molly sighed dramatically, "So that kiss earlier was all for nothing, huh?"
Chad pulled her into a hug, laughing, "I can help you dig up some references."
When Mia learned her best friend's plan had also hit a dead end, she sighed, "Mine's a total flop too. Andre's playing dumb about it now. Let's head back to the old house and pick our topics together."
The day they chose their topics, the sisters dusted off their ancient laptops and sat at the dining table, opening a group chat with Leo.
"Leo, what's the site for picking our topics?" Mia asked.
Leo sent over a link, and Mia meticulously typed it in.
Andre stood behind his wife, holding their son, while Chad lounged beside Molly.
Logging into the site, the sisters exchanged a look, simultaneously asking, "What's the password again?"
They had so many passwords that they often mixed them up, so they decided to use the same one. If one forgot, she could always ask the other.
So, before picking their topics, they had a bit of a password crisis.
Listening in, Leo smacked his forehead in his apartment, "Just recover your password already."
Anya watched Chad, who was clearly frustrated but had nowhere to vent. She quietly jotted down all her account passwords in a notebook. Leo noticed but kept his comments to himself.
Andre suddenly asked, "Mia, is this system's password the same as the one you used for your last exam?" remembering when his pregnant sweetheart dragged him along as her exam buddy.
Mia nodded, "You remember, honey."
Andre rattled off a series of numbers, "Try eight eights, then the pinyin for 'warm' and 'foam'."
The sisters typed it in and, sure enough, they logged in.
"You're amazing, honey," Mia exclaimed, beaming.
As Leo talked them through choosing a professor, the sisters followed his guidance step by step.
With the system overloaded, the sisters hollered again, "Leo, hack us in!"
Leo quipped, "Jade, is your husband with you?"
"Yep."
Suddenly, silence.
Molly realized and awkwardly coughed a bit, nudging Chad under the table, "Chad, maybe step out for a bit. We’re about to do something kind of, well, illegal, and it's hard to focus with you here."
Officer Chad grinned, "I'm staying right here today, curious to see how bold you three are."
After endless refreshing, Leo finally tweaked the network and got in, selecting a professor’s topic.
Then, on his own computer, he logged into the sisters’ accounts using their student IDs from Anya's notebook. "Jade, Mia, which topics do you want?"
Mia said, "I'll take the easiest one."
Molly echoed, "Same here."
Leo teased, "Leaving it to fate, are we?"
He scanned the topics and picked two he thought seemed straightforward.
When everyone else struggled to secure a topic, Leo managed to snag ones for all three of them.
The sisters refreshed their pages and saw their topics were set.
"The subprime mortgage crisis?" Mia looked at her topic and turned to Andre.
Andre, holding their child, met her eyes, "I've got work at the office."
Molly checked her topic, "Financial derivatives?"
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Sweet Mischief’s Rollercoaster Romance
Please edit seems like a nice novel but not readable...
the novel status is showing as completed but it is not and what About the left over chapters...