Chapter 2: Chapter 2
That right there is enough for me to say enough. I’m not about to start refereeing their schoolyard bickering again, and if they insist on keeping it up…well, let’s just say that the look they both give me as I stand makes it obvious that they know I’m annoyed. Not that I would try and force my position. Not anymore. We’re men, not hooligans. Some things can’t be unlearned, though, and their voices fade as their tongues still. I lighten my face into a smile and shove the plans back in Mark’s direction. “And if they do,” I tell him, “then they’ll spend the three and top it with the extra two before they realize that the entire plan was way too much of an undertaking, and we’ll buy it from them for half the price.”
“But—”
“Trust me.” I reach up and tug at my collar even though my tie is already hanging loose. Whenever I get stressed out, my throat gets overly sensitized, as if some unseen noose has fallen over it. “I’ve haven’t been wrong yet, have I?”
It’s an argument I’ve used before, but it’s an argument that never fails me. I have yet to be proven wrong on a business hunch. I make no pretense on the fact that it could and probably will happen someday, it just hasn’t happened yet, and for the time being, it’s made the three of us very successful. They won’t argue with me. Each other? Hell yes; all day long if I’d let them. But not with me. The hallway of the upper level of our building is almost blinding with daylight as I walk towards the stairs that will take me to the reception area and front entrance. It was Devin’s idea to go with skylights up here, and I’m glad we let him run with it. We spent way too much time in dingy, poorly lit spaces during our youth. Besides, it’s supposed to make for a positive environment; vitamin this, that, and the other thing being leeched into our skins, making us all happier and healthier as we trudge through the workday. I’m not sure I buy into that sort of thing, but if Devin believes it, all the more power to him.
I glance down at my watch and frown. I’d been hoping to run to the gym before lunch so I can squat away some aggression and pump some adrenaline back into my muscles. That will have to wait, though. I already know this fact unquestionably, as the moment my feet fall on the landing, Haley from accounting is marching towards me with her four-inch heels clicking harder than Stacy’s keyboard. “He’s here,” Haley says with an I-can’t-believe-you-kept-us-waiting huff. While I, in my let’s-not-forget-who-is-the-boss way, stop at Stacy’s desk to grab my messages and steal a mint out of her faux cut-crystal candy dish.
Stacy has been our receptionist since last summer. Everyone thinks she’s the sweetest little thing they’ve ever known, with her dimpled smile and perfect teeth and chipper “Hiya!” greetings. I, on the other hand, know that Stacy started here through a work release program after spending eighteen months in jail for possession and trafficking. I happen to know that those teeth are only perfect because two years ago the prison dentist replaced the leftover nubs of her choppers with fake ones. Some people say that someone with Stacy’s history is too risky to have around a business. Some say they wouldn’t trust Stacy with things like petty cash and office supplies. I know better. I say you don’t know loyalty until you’ve been on the savior end of a soul that’s crashing and burning.
“Be there in a second, Haley,” I say, propping myself on the right-side corner of Stacy’s station so I can flip through the pink squares with Stacy’s swirly handwriting on them. “Did you offer him a cup of coffee? Glass of water?”
I hold back my smirk, glancing at Stacy who I can tell is doing the same thing, as Haley offering someone a coffee is about as likely as her offering to do a strip tease. Some people like to think they’re above certain things. I often wonder what it would have been like to grow up in an environment where a person was taught to believe they were too good to do something. Where you didn’t ever have to scrub up vomit. Or shit. Or blood. I wait until Haley spins in balletic disapproval and clicks down the hallway, no doubt retreating so that I don’t take myself seriously and actually decide I really do want her to get coffee. I nod at Stacy. “So?”
“Hot.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“Hot like, you’re the perfect eye-candy, it’s going to be great working with you, welcome to the company? Or hot like, there’s no way I can hire you because all I can think about doing is bending you over the desk and pounding you senseless?”
Stacy laughs, lifting her hand to hide teeth that are perfect, in a habit she’ll probably never get over. She looks around the entrance and feigns consideration over the comparison. “Hot like, oh my God little baby, Daddy is going to take very good care of you.”
I growl. I wink. “Best keep that ad running then. There’s no way I can hire someone like that.”
We’ve been advertising for a Junior Purchaser for almost three months, and as with most job postings that sport the word “junior,” everyone and their brother thinks that a junior job is beneath them. Nobody wants to be a Junior Anything. The kids coming out of school think they’re worth three times the salary that their experience says they are, and anyone over the age of thirty that’s applying for the position despises the fact that they have to. Everybody thinks they have a God-given right to be a manager. Our problem is that we don’t need one of those. We don’t even need a purchaser. What we do need is a blow-guy for the two purchasers we already have. At the same time, we need someone with a higher level of expertise than “just” a clerk. Job costing is a bitch. Every dollar counts. It was Haley that got us the interview with Mr. Waiting-in-the-Lunchroom. Haley told me her girlfriend’s brother had a neighbor that was looking for just such an opening. Actually, she told Mark. Who told Devin. Who told me. Haley tries not to talk to me much. I’ve been told that I make her nervous. I’m pretty sure I do that to a lot of people.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone