Page 5

Lacey

I made sure to come into the office an hour early today. Benny was scheduled to be here in an hour, and I wanted to make sure the office was cleaned up in order to present it professionally. Mark Shepard left the office a complete mess when he left on Friday, with invoices littering his desk, used coffee cups all over the place, and unpaid bills filling the wastebasket. I cleared some of it up over the weekend and was determined to finish it up this morning.

My phone jingled just a few minutes before eight. After a quick look, I rolled my eyes and slipped it back into my purse. My old boss got extra bonus points for disengaging his ‘asshole gene’ long enough to try and lure me back with promises of better benefits. I might have been tempted if he weren’t such a creep and just plain mean. Only a complete idiot would sign up for more of what he was dishing out when I worked there.

When Benny showed up this morning, I was just putting the vacuum away. The office looked almost like I remembered it growing up.

“Good morning, Benny. I’m glad you decided to follow through with our meeting this morning,” I said with a smile.

He stopped short and glared at me. “If I say I’m gonna do something, I do it. A man is only as good as his word.”

I shut the closet door and gave him a nod. “Women too. Keeping your word isn’t just a man thing.”

Before he could respond, I heard a meow from what I thought was his tool bag. “Do you have a cat ringtone on your phone?”

He smirked at me. “No, I brought Katy Purry. I’m fostering her and she gets anxious when I leave her all alone.”

Ignoring that, I said, “Follow me, please. I’ve drafted out a contract I want you to look over.” When the cat meowed again, I felt the need to state the obvious, “You know you can’t take your cat out on jobs, right? That wouldn’t be professional.”

“Oh, I’m well aware of that. I’ve got other plans for Miss Purry.”

We walked into my office, and I sat down behind the desk. Benny took one of the two empty seats in front of my desk and put his cat carrier on the other.

I didn’t really know what to make of this man who brought his cat to iron out the details of a professional partnership agreement. It seemed out of the realm of possibility that this could be construed as normal in his world. If Zoe and her husband hadn’t vouched for him, I would have turned the handsome bastard away at the first meow. By the way he was smirking all over the place, I was almost certain that he had some trick up his sleeve. I just couldn’t imagine what it could be.

I slid the rough draft of our agreement over the desk for him to read along as I explained each part. He picked it up and started reading, so I quickly launched into the speech I had prepared.

“The first part of the agreement stipulates that we’ll keep both of our businesses separate. Livingstone Electrical has been in business for over thirty years. Until very recently we were well respected in Griffinsford. I intend to do everything humanly possible to get our family business back on track.”

“Do you even have the authority to speak on behalf of Livingstone Electrical? How do I know your parents won’t blindside me further down the line by refusing to follow this nice partnership agreement you’ve sketched out for us today?”

This guy was smart, way smarter than he looked. I’d have to give him that. But I was smart enough to have solved that problem over the weekend.

I pulled out a notarized copy of the power of attorney my parents signed for the business appointing me to act in their stead moving forward. “Since I’m their only heir, in addition to having their express permission to make whatever decisions I see fit to get the business back on track, I stand to inherit the business in the unfortunate event of their death.”

“Shit,” he responded sounding a little shocked. “You talk about your parents dying with the kind of casual ease that someone with a cold heart would.”

My mouth dropped open because he wasn’t the only one shocked by this conversation. “I love my parents dearly. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that because I can discuss their death that I’m not dreading that with every fiber of my being.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. I recently lost my mom and can tell you right now that I sorely underestimated the gaping hole losing a parent leaves behind.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. I truly am. However, it’s probably best if we keep our conversation professional today.”

His eyebrows flew up again. “Sure, Ms. Livingstone. Whatever you say.”

“Look Benny, I’m not trying to be rude.”

“You can call me Mr. Ross. You were the one who said to keep things professional. Let’s move on. We’ve got this whole partnership agreement to get through and you’ve got employees coming in soon.”

“I texted everyone and asked them to come in at ten this morning. But you’re right. We’d best get through this material.” Taking a second to catch my breath, I felt anxiety twisting in my gut. This man had a way of catching me off guard and putting me on the defensive. I couldn’t let him get to me. I had to overlook his prickly personality and make this work.

I glanced up at him as I rearranged the papers on my desk. He was wiggling his finger in front of the cat carrier, tapping the cat’s feet.

Getting back on task, I picked up where I left off. “Mr. Ross, if you’d like to read over the first section. It deals with the structuring of our partnership. You keep your own clients, and so does Livingstone Electrical. All the calls that come in through our company line belong to my family’s business.”

He took the piece of paper and gave it a cursory glance, but didn’t look up or seem interested in asking questions, so I continued, “If you forward the calls from your business line to me, I’ll answer using your business name and those clients will obviously belong to you exclusively. I’ll keep your electronic appointment book, which you can sign into at any point to maintain an awareness of your workflow. I can flag which clients are yours, invoice them whatever your going rate is per hour, and forward that money to your business account immediately.”

“That all sounds fine,” he commented. “I’ll give you as much notice as possible when I need a day off. Obviously, if emergencies come up, we’ll have to reschedule jobs.”

“I understand completely. If you jump down to the next paragraph, I’ve built in some consequences for poaching each other’s clients. There’s a penalty of twenty-five percent on top of whatever was billed.”

A smile ghosted across his face. “It’s weird that you felt you needed a consequence. I would have gone with a verbal agreement and mutual trust on that one.”

“I prefer something a little more tangible. Plus, I thought you’d appreciate that clause because I’m the one taking all the incoming calls, which puts you at distinct disadvantage. In any event, I’ll keep track of when your taxes are due and calculate what you need to pay based on the income you generated for your business. And I’ll keep track of all the information you need in order to file your taxes at the end of the year. You can use my tax specialist. I’ll be happy to send your information alongside my own but I’m not paying for that. I’ll forward you his invoice and you’ll need to pay that on your own.”

“It looks like you’ve thought of everything. I saw that you outlined all my responsibilities as well. You wrote that this is a front-facing position, dealing directly with customers. I’m to give estimates, source and pick up my own supplies, complete jobs in a timely manner and communicate with you about what work was done, so you can bill for it. I’m not going to read it all out loud because it’s a fairly comprehensive list.”

“It’s all pretty standard. Did you note the hourly rate our company is willing to pay?”

“Yeah, that seems generous enough. The issue for me is that you want me to keep two separate travel logs. I don’t see that as necessary.”

I responded mildly, “Well, if you don’t fill out a travel log, I can’t pay for your mileage, which has always been standard operating procedure for Livingstone Electrical. We can both write that off on our taxes, so you should be as eager to do that as I am. The last thing either of us wants is to owe a larger tax burden than necessary come tax time.”

He frowned, “Yeah, I guess all those cents add up.”

My eyebrows shot up because I was struggling to understand what his problem was with tracking mileage. “Livingstone typically has anywhere between three and six employees at any given time. If you add up the mileage to and from jobs, running around to pick up supplies and all the other things you do professionally, it adds up. Why should we forgo the tax credit?”

“I guess you’re right. I should start thinking like a bean counter if I’m ever gonna run my own business efficiently.”

“I’ve decided to go ahead and put you on our company health insurance and you’ll be covered whenever you drive one of our company vehicles. All the work you do through this partnership will be covered by our business insurance, so you don’t have to worry about purchasing your own business insurance if you haven’t already.”

Leaning over the desk, I gave him a stern look because I couldn’t let him think that because I was a woman, I was a pushover. “I’ve intentionally written the partnership agreement with generosity in mind, so I don’t want you coming back to complain later. Whatever we decide today is the deal. No takebacks or modifications. If you don’t hold up your end of the agreement, I will terminate the partnership.”

“There are a couple of things I need in order to make this partnership work from my perspective.”

“I’m all ears,” I told him, eager to hear what I could have possibly left out.

“I want you to be responsible for sourcing and purchasing materials for the Livingstone jobs. I don’t have time for that. It cuts down on my productivity.”

I frowned at him. “How am I supposed to know what supplies you prefer to work with?”

“You ask me. We talk about it. I’ll probably just tell you when I send the estimate.”

“Alright. I suppose I could do that. I did sourcing and purchasing for my father, so I know how time consuming that can be. Was there anything else?”

“Yeah, I want a solid forty-hour workweek.”

I was shaking my head before he even got the words out. “I’m sure that once we get geared up again there will be enough work to go around, but in the meantime, I’ll need to split the Livingstone jobs between you and my one remaining electrician.”

“I’m not gonna waste my time working here when I could be working for myself, while you give all the best assignments to your Livingstone employee. I’m more valuable to your company than he is, because I’m a master electrician and can work circles around him.”

I hated that he was putting my back against the wall on this issue, but if there was one value I learned from my father, it was to respect loyalty. “Harvey Snodgrass has been with our company for twenty years. He’s the one who alerted us that Mark was running the company into the ground. He deserves a fair shake when it comes to hours.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to make it work, Ms. Livingstone.”

This man was as difficult as he was annoying, and I wanted this meeting to be over as soon as possible. “Is there anything else?” I asked, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice.

“One more thing,” he said with a smile that looked a little smirky. Pulling the big calico cat out of its carrier, he held her up for me to see. “I need you to keep Katy Purry here with you during the workday. She gets neurotic if I leave her alone too long.”

My eyes snapped from him to the cat and back again. “Absolutely not. That’s an absurd request and I don’t know anything about cats. We had a dog growing up.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “You got to write a whole bunch of shit into the partnership agreement. I agreed to all of it. You said we would compromise. I haven’t seen a lot of compromise from you thus far.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” I told him, truly in disbelief that he was trying to get me to pet-sit for him.” Can’t you have her kenneled?”

“Nope. There’s no money in the budget for that,” he said so casually that I was almost convinced it must be true.

“How about friends or family?”

“Do you think if I had someone to help me out with my cat, I’d be dragging her to your office? This is something I need, and you promised to compromise.”

Rubbing my temple, I tried to think of a way out of this situation. “I meant that I was willing to compromise on professional issues and I did. I agreed to source and purchase materials for you. That saves you the time and trouble of turning in receipts and waiting for reimbursement.”

“Yeah, but most of that partnership agreement is filled with things you wanted. I can’t help it if my cat has an anxiety disorder and can’t be left alone all day. Plus, it’s not like she’s a dog. You don’t have to walk her or bother with her at all. I’ll put out some food and water and clean out her litter box every evening when I pick her up. She just needs to see that there’s a human in charge. This should not be the big ask you’re makin’ it out to be.”

I sighed, “Fine, she can hang around the office with me during the day.”

The moment I capitulated, he let her down on the floor and she stretched and pranced away to explore her new space. Jesus, I couldn’t believe I just agreed to pet-sit for this man.

“That’s great,” he said brightly and tossed what looked like a pen in my direction. “She likes to play with a laser light.”

Looking down at the object I caught, sure enough, it was a laser pointer. I ran one hand over my now throbbing temple. This was just great. I didn’t know a single thing about cats, had never held one a day in my life and now I was practically a full-time cat sitter.

I really didn’t like the smug expression on Benny’s face and had a vague suspicion it was because I had turned him down for that one-night stand a couple of nights ago. “I’ll update the partnership agreement, and we’ll sign off on it in front of Harvey. He’s a notary. That should make it all legal.”

“You mean enforceable in a court of law, right?”

Damn this man. He was pushing all my buttons this morning. I took a deep breath and pretended like I hadn’t heard that last question. “Just give me a few minutes.”

“I’m gonna go out and get Katy’s stuff from my truck.”

“I’ll buzz you out. We keep the door locked outside of business hours.”

“Great, don’t forget to add the section on Katy Purry. It’s a big part of what makes this partnership work for me.”

“I’ll bet it is,” I muttered under my breath as he walked out of my office. Damn, damn, and double damn. When I said I’d do anything to save my family business, this asshat just had to test my limits. I got the distinct impression this whole cat thing was some kind of power play, one that I clearly had lost. One thing was for certain, I was going to have to be on my toes when dealing with Benny. I wasn’t going to let him get one over on me again.

I got to work amending the agreement, buzzing Benny out and back in again. At least he was planning to stick by my side when dealing with the terminations. I wasn’t afraid of either of the men involved but I wasn’t looking forward to doing it alone, just on the off chance that one of them became irate.

My phone buzzed again. A quick look told me it was another text from Mr. Edwards with yet another incentive to get me to come back to LA. I’d stopped responding to them after the first one. It felt uncomfortable having to tell him no multiple times.