The Job (9 page)

He
writes back, “Knowing that no matter how bad yesterday was, today can always be
better. At least that’s the bullshit I tell myself even though about an hour
into the day, I r”

His
next message comes through, finishing the thought.

“
ealize
just how full of crap that
statement is. Yeah, today can always be better, but it can also be a lot worse.
Still, it gets me out of bed.”

It’s
not a bad response.

Another
message comes in, reading, “What about you?”

I
respond, “The thought that maybe, just maybe, something big is going to happen
today, and that I don’t want to miss it lying in bed.”

“What
ya
doin
’?” Kristin asks,
effectively startling the hell out of me.

“Nothing,”
I tell her, dropping the phone to my side. “I’m just watching the movie.”

“I
may be drunk, but I’m not—what’s the word?” she asks.

“Stupid?”

“That’s
no way to talk to your sister,” she says and lies her head back on the arm of
the couch.

My
phone beeps and I watch Kristin closely, hoping that there’s some way I can
check my phone without her noticing that I’ve fallen right into her little
trap.

For
a moment, I think I’m going to be okay, but as soon as I pick up my phone, she
says, “You are so fucking busted.”

“What?”
I ask. “Someone just sent me a message. That’s all.”

“Yeah,
but someone’s been sending you a lot of messages. That usually doesn’t happen
unless you’re sending messages right back.”

For
now, my unwillingness to prove her right outweighs my curiosity regarding what
this guy just sent me, but drunk as she is, she can’t stay awake forever.

Chapter
Six

Learning
to Work Around Obstacles

Eric

It’s
been a few days since the big blowup between Jessica and I, and we’ve only
managed to keep the peace because we’ve completely avoided each other. Sometime
today, though, I’ve vowed to myself that I’m going to get Alec his job back or
I’m walking right the fuck off the job.

I
won’t force the decision on my guys, though. If things go sour, I’ll simply let
José—who narrowly avoided arrest due to the quick thinking and quicker words of
Linda—know that he’s in charge and tell the guys to stay on the job.

They’ve
gone long enough without a good payday.

Jessica
comes out of her office, and I’m ready to put my cards on the table, but she’s
quickly approached by a customer. As much as I’d love to put her in a position
where she’d be forced by propriety to say yes, I don’t want to do anything to
ruin her business either.

There
are limits.

“Hey,
boss,” Ian says, “we’re ready to put this window in. You
wanna
let Miss Davis know, or do you just want to chance it?”

“Go
ahead and put it in,” I tell him. “I’ll be right back.”

Jessica’s
dealt with the customer and I know she sees me coming. She doesn’t look at me,
but I can see her deep breath from here.

I
don’t want an argument, but I’m ready to give one if that’s what has to happen.

“Hey,”
I say, approaching her. “Could we talk for a minute?”

“I’m
kind of busy right now,” she answers. “Is it important?”

“Oh,
I’d say so,” I answer.

“All
right,” she says, “but we’ve got to make it quick. I’ve got a meeting with a
supplier in a few minutes, and I’d really prefer not to have him come into a
screaming match in my store.”

“I
don’t see any reason why it has to go that way,” I tell her.

“Let’s
go,” she says and we walk in silence back to her office.

I
close the door as usual, but before I can start, she jumps right in.

“I
thought about what you said, and you’re right: It’s not fair that that man lost
his job for trying to stand up for one of his coworkers,” she says.

“Great,”
I tell her. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“What
I do think is fair, though, is for you to fire whoever actually
did
break into my store. So I think if
anyone’s being unfair here, it’s you,” she says.

“Me?”

“Yeah,”
she says, “you. Once you told me he wasn’t the guy, I didn’t want to see him go
any more than you did. I was angry, though, and I just let it go the way it
went. That part was my fault. Knowing who broke the law and broke into my store,
however, you shouldn’t have just let him quit like that. You should have held
the right person responsible and that should have been the end of it, now I
have to go. It looks like my supplier is here a little early.”

“No,
we’re not done here,” I tell her. “Either my guys—all my guys—stay, or I go.
They’ll finish out the job for you, but I’m not going to work in a situation
where you’re going to try to dismantle a group of people I’ve worked with and
come to trust implicitly for years.”

“Hmm,”
she starts, “you’d think that having one of your own people commit a crime
against one of your clients might do something to that trust. Maybe you should
think about your judgment. Now, unless there’s anything else—”

“What’s
it going to be?” I ask. “Lose me and Alec, setting you and your plans, whatever
the hell they are this hour, back who knows how long, or realize that a mistake
was made, but it’s no reason to fire anyone and you can have me and my
whole
team working hard for you until
this job is finished.”

“Neither,”
she says. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Here’s
my predicament: She’s opening the door now, so anything else that I say to her
has a good chance of being overheard, not only by my guys and her staff, but by
this supplier of hers.

If
I do something to screw with one of her business partners, chances are that me
and my crew are immediately let go. If, however, I hold my tongue, Alec, a good
friend of mine, either stays out of a job because he did a good thing for José,
or I lose the best guy on my crew for making a mistake.

Fuck
it.

“It’s
going to have to be one or the other,” I say quietly and with a smile on my
face.

“Now
really isn’t the time,” she says, mimicking my actions, trying even harder than
I am not to see the whole situation explode.

“Now
is the only time,” I tell her. “Either make your choice or I walk now.”

“I
don’t do business with people who hold a gun to my head,” she says. “Mr.
Burbank, it’s great to see you again. This is Eric. He and his men are doing
some renovations for us. Would you come into my office and we can talk about
our future together.”

I
wait for the older man to walk past me and then I give her my best “I’d make a
choice unless you want me to really embarrass you” look.

She
takes a step toward me and, still smiling, she whispers, “Call your guy and get
him back here. Don’t think that I’m going to forget this.”

“Thank
you,” I tell her. “You made the right choice.”

Although
Mr. Burbank is already in her office, we’re still too close for her to do
anything but mouth her final thoughts on the matter.

“Screw
you.”

I
smile and walk back over to the work area.

“What’s
got you so happy?” Tripp, the newest new guy asks.

“I’m
going to call Alec and tell him to get his ass down here. He’s late for work.”

I
glance back toward Jessica’s office as the crew claps and offers their
congratulations, but I can’t see anything more than the door closing.

“Great
job, boss,” Ian says.

Even
José has a smile on his face.

I
walk outside and make the call.

“What’s
up, boss?” Alec answers.

“Good
news,” I tell him, “José’s safe. The inquisition is over and you’re hired. When
do you think you can get here?”

“Uh,
I’m kind of busy at the moment,” he says. “Any chance I can just come in
tomorrow?”

Right
now, I’m glad I stepped outside for this.

“I
don’t know what you’re doing, but you have no idea what I just risked to make
this happen and the
shitstorm
that’s going to be
waiting for me before the day is over because of it. So, do you want the job or
not?”

“Of
course I want the job,” he says, “it’s just…”

“It’s
just what?”

“Well,”
he says, “I’m kind of out of state.”

“How
can you be
kind of
out of state?” I
ask.

“Okay,
so I’m in Delaware. There’s a pool tournament going on here and it’s fucking
wicked.”

This
is one of the guys I just risked my livelihood for.

“You’re
in Delaware for a pool tournament,” I echo. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Well,
it’s not like I knew that I was going to be rehired today,” he says. “Besides,
I kind of, you know, already found another job.”

“You
really could have told me that,” I scold. “I’m going to look like a fucking
idiot when you don’t show up here.”

“I’m
really sorry about that,” he says. “I’ll totally quit this job and come back to
work for you, only…”

I’m
waiting for the end of the phrase, but it looks like it’s not going to come of
its own freewill.

“What?”
I ask, “Only what?”

“Well,
I kind of promised these guys that I’d stay on at least until the job at that
store finished up,” he says. “I figured you’d hire me back eventually, but I
didn’t know you’d do it so soon.”

“This
really sucks,” I tell him. “You know you’re putting me in one hell of a
position here.”

“Sorry,
bro,” he says. “I need a job, and I didn’t think I was going to have one with
you for at least a little while longer. I can talk to my boss here and see if
we can—”

“Don’t
worry about it,” I sigh. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks,
boss,” he says. “If you want, I really do have the day off tomorrow, so I’d be
happy to drive up there—you know, assuming that I can get a little
reimbursement for gas money.”

I
hang up the phone.

Fuck.

How
the hell am I going to spin this so I don’t end up looking like the idiot I
apparently am.

Sure,
it makes sense now that I should have called Alec before giving that ultimatum,
but in my defense, Alec’s one of the laziest motherfuckers I know. How was I
supposed to know he’d actually go out and get himself a new job?

I
walk back into the store, smiling at Linda as I pass her on my way to the newly
sunken floor which, after a whole lot of back and forth and more wasted
concrete than I’m prepared to admit, now sits level at sixteen-and-a-half
inches below the rest of the flooring.

Really,
unless Jessica comes out here with a list of changes sometime in the next day
or so, we’re pretty much done here.

The
old storage room was taken out weeks ago, the floor—well, we’ve already covered
that—and my team is now in the process of setting the window.

There
are a few more things left to do, mostly small and cosmetic, but maybe this
won’t be the end of the world after all.

I
really need to learn how not to be optimistic about anything.

Jessica’s
door opens and Mr. Burbank comes walking out with a smile on his face. Jessica’s
smiling, too, but hers is strained.

She
waits for Burbank to pass hosiery before turning toward me and motioning for me
to meet her in her office.

This
should be fun.

I
step into the office and close the door.

“You’re
probably going to want witnesses,” she says. “In fact, knowing that someone
could see what I would really, really like to do to you right now is probably
the only thing that’s going to keep me from doing it.”

“I
know I took a hard line before, and I just—”

“I’m
not done talking,” she interrupts. “It’s bad enough that you forced that
ridiculous decision onto me, but doing it where one of my most important
business contacts could potentially hear you was beyond irresponsible and I
can’t tell you how livid I am at you for it.”

“You’re
absolutely right,” I tell her. “It was wrong of me to do that. So, to make it
up to you, I’ve decided not to bring Alec back onto my team until we’ve
finished up this contract.”

“Great!”
she says manically. “That’s just great! I was so pissed off at you that I
wasn’t paying close enough attention to what Mr. Burbank was proposing, and I
just agreed to a cost structure that’s going to completely gut my profit margin
on everything he’s going to supply for me.”

I
wince.

“How
much does he supply for you?” I ask.