Playing Doctor

Kelly laughed again. "Maybe I need to get sick and find myself a hottie doctor too!"

Aurelia felt her blush spread down her neck. "Shut up!" she said laughing.

"Speaking of hottie doctors, let's watch some reruns of Grey's Anatomy while we eat," Kelly suggested.

"You're on."

Chapter 4

Aurelia

Sitting back down in her office chair, Aurelia felt queasy. The medicine that Dr. McHottie had prescribed had thankfully taken away the excruciating chest pains, but she still felt weak and unfortunately nauseous.

"Hey, you okay?"

Aurelia looked up at Melissa and gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, just an upset stomach from the medicine I think."

"Oh, golly, yeah. I have trouble taking some meds too. I've found if I eat a few saltine crackers, it helps. I have some in the break room, you want me to get them?"

"I'll walk with you. I don't want to eat at my desk; and thank you." She stood up to walk with the younger woman.

"Did you get the chance to go over the Wickland file?"

"Not yet; I was just finishing the Mary Carl Cosmetics one. I found a loophole in section b we could utilize that will give her another couple thousand to deduct."

"Where?" Melissa frowned. "I went over that one for three days…"

"It's a rarely used deduction, but I think she can benefit from it. It was in the second paragraph of section b."

"Will you show me? I swear you know more about tax law than all of us here combined, well, except for Sarah and Mark. How did you learn it all?"

Aurelia chuckled. "Well, I wasn't completely idle these last six years. I read a lot, mostly tax laws from little-known cases."

They entered the break room and Melissa pulled a box of saltines from the cabinet and brought them to the table. Aurelia pulled a couple dollars from her pocket and bought a bottle of water from the vending machine, then sat down at the table with Melissa.

"So, will you show me?"

Aurelia nodded as she opened the crackers. "Sure. I have to leave early today, though. So, we'll have to make it fast."

"Of course."

"You know, you did a great job on the Veritec file. I couldn't find anything to add, and you did manage to find them an extra tax credit, they'll be happy."

Melissa grinned. "Thanks."

After eating the crackers, Aurelia's stomach felt better, and they returned to the office where she pulled the Mary Carl Cosmetics' file and showed Melissa what she was talking about. "See here?"

"But isn't that for going to college?"

"Yes, and no. It's for continued education related to her work. If you go back through her file, she took numerous classes on marketing, and then there was the essential oils classes, they weren't from a college, but she did pay to take them and she is continuing her education in her chosen field, so she can add in the deductions. Several of those classes were in different locations, so she can also deduct her travel expenses and anything she purchased to be part of the class. She saved all her receipts, and it added up to over two thousand dollars."

"Wow, I didn't even think to look at all of that."

Aurelia smiled. "You just have to think outside of the box on some of these. If it can be reasonably justified, then it can be claimed." She recalled a former client, from before she'd given up her job and her smile widened. "I once had a client who claimed his dog was a guard dog for his business and therefore all vet bills, food, and care were deductible. We had to throw the claim out though." She laughed as she recalled the case.

"But isn't that an allowable deduction?"

"Yeah, it would be if the dog wasn't a teacup poodle who belonged to his ex-wife and the guy actually worked from home instead of from a mechanic garage."

"Wait, he tried to claim his wife's dog?"

"His ex-wife's, yeah. Had we allowed him to do it, I think the IRS would have come after me." Aurelia shook her head. "I will look for everything reasonable for a client, but I'm not going to put my head on the chopping block for them."

"Yeah, I wouldn't either, besides, I don't think Sarah and Mark would be too happy if we tried to get something like that to go through."

"Right?" Aurelia glanced at the clock. "Crap, I need to go. I have to get to my appointment."

"Okay, good luck." Melissa smiled.

"Thanks."

Aurelia cleaned up her desk, dropped the Mary Carl file off with Sarah and then headed to the bus stop. She made it with about three minutes to spare, but she was feeling extremely exhausted just from the brisk walk. She slumped down in her seat as the bus headed to its next stop. Twenty minutes later, she stepped from the bus and walked toward the massive office building. Once inside, a glance at the information kiosk told her Dr. West was on the fourth floor. She looked over at the stairs and then feeling like an invalid, she pushed the button for the elevator. She just didn't have it in her to climb the stairs.