Free The Job by Claire Adams

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