35. How To Win My Man – Everett
Chapter thirty-five
How To Win My Man – Everett
Sitting at my desk, looking out into the non-functioning brewery, normally gave me hope.
Today, it made me sad. The demo crew had finished removing all the damaged drywall and flooring.
It hadn’t taken them long, despite having to move our equipment over to the undamaged flooring.
We’d have to do the same thing in reverse when we laid new floors.
The rafters were now the big issue. We needed someone to come in and build a temporary support structure to remove the damaged beams and replace them.
That wasn’t going to happen soon, though, because we couldn’t get anyone to commit to coming out.
But my mind kept wandering from all of that. I flipped my pencil around and around and around like my spiraling thoughts. How could I win Cameron back? He didn’t seem the type to not give second chances, but he was obviously not interested in doing that with me.
Conroy knocked on the door, breaking into my thoughts. “Come in.”
“Hey, Boss. I have a question for you.”
“Sure.”
“How long before we get back to work? When will you need me?”
“Oh. Yeah…I’m not sure. I’ll pay you to wait for me. Like being on call. Will that work?” I didn’t want him to go without the paycheck he needed. And apparently, I had a lot of donations on the site Cameron had set up, so I could do it.
“Okay.” He lingered in the door, one hand on the knob, one foot in the room.
“Anything else?”
He pursed his lips then shook his head. “I’m just going to say it. Don’t fire me.”
“What?”
“I think you broke him.”
“Broke? Him?”
“Cameron. I saw him last night at Nuts and Bolts.” That was the local hardware store. “He, uh, he looked like that.” He pointed at me.
“What are you talking about?”
Conroy blew out a long breath. “You and him both. But you were grumpy before, so I get that. Cameron though? Never. Last night was the first time I have ever seen a frown on his face.”
“And you think I did that?”
“Didn’t you?”
How could I argue with that? The truth was I’d broken both of us, and now I had to put us back together, and I wasn’t sure I could. “Conroy?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“How about brainstorming some ways to fix this with me?” I needed help from someone, and he was the only one brave enough to tell me like it is.
“Sure.” He stepped fully into the room and sat at one of the side chairs. “Don’t know how much help I’ll be. I don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend or anything.”
“No, but you know Cameron, and you saw that we were both hurting. So, let’s do this.”
“Right. Hmm…”
We both took a moment to think. What did I even know or like about Cameron? He was outdoorsy, fit, happy, and cheerful all the time. He probably had the biggest heart in the county. He deserved better than me for sure.
“Maybe you should take him camping.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Not my thing.”
“Maybe not, but it is his thing. He likes fishing and hiking and all that.”
“Right. And this is about him, not me. Gotcha.”
He nodded. “It would be a nice surprise.”
“Uh, how could I even get him there? If I ask him, he won’t come.”
“You’ll need help, and I know just who to ask.” He grinned like a loon. But crazy or not, I was totally going to take him up on all the help I could get.