Page 37 of Mr. Infuriating (Mister #1)

Gabe

“Hey, boss!” Rick called out as he walked into the shop.

I looked up from marking lines for the design I was putting on a TV lift cabinet.

“What’s up?”

“So, I called Gretchen Wainwright about scheduling the cabinet installation, like you asked,” he motioned to the phone in his hand, and I eyed it with suspicion.

Something Rick noticed because he quipped, “She’s on hold—I triple checked. But she’s wondering about a contractor’s lien.”

What the hell?

“Why would she want a contractor’s lien? We came up with a payment plan for her.”

Rick’s brows went to his hairline. “We did?”

Fuck, I hadn’t meant to let that slip out. I didn’t want this to become a habit, and thought it was best if my employees didn’t know it was an option, lest they mention it to future customers.

“Yeah. It was a one-time exception.”

My foreman lifted his shoulders to his ears.

“I don’t know. All I know is I asked if we could schedule an installation, and she came back with a date in June after she gets out of school. Then she mentioned the lien. I told her I’d have to check with you about how that works. ”

I knew she was pissed at me, and she had every right to be. But I really hoped she wasn’t cutting her nose off to spite her face.

I needed a few minutes to think about things.

“Tell her I’m not here, and you’ll call her back.”

Rick pushed a button, then put the phone to his ear and said in a friendly voice, “Hey, Gretchen?”

I was taken aback by how jealous I felt that he got to talk to her.

“Yeah, I can’t find Gabe anywhere. He might have run to the hardware store; his truck’s gone.”

Oh, nice touch.

I gave him the thumbs up sign, and he grinned at me while listening to what she had to say.

“I’ll call you back as soon as I’m able to talk to him.”

There was another pause, then he continued, “Yeah, in the meantime, I’ll get you on the books for mid-June.”

Pause.

She must not have trusted Rick was going to talk to me because he told her, “I promise I will talk to him and get back to you no later than tomorrow.”

Another long pause.

“That won’t be a problem; there’s no need for that. Talk to you soon.”

He ended the call and turned to me with narrowed eyes.

“What’s going on with you two?”

“Nothing! Why?”

“She just said…” He trailed off, and I waited with bated breath for him to finish his thought, but he didn’t .

Finally, I burst out, “She just said what ?”

“She said to tell you not to worry, she’d make sure she and her son were out of the house while we were doing the work.” He cocked his head and crossed his arms across his chest. “Now, why would she say that?”

I hung my head and let out a long sigh as it dawned on me how epically I had fucked this situation up.

“I think I gave her the wrong idea when I met her son. But I think I at least know how to fix the issue with the contractor’s lien.”