Chapter 9
T here was another knock on the door, and Adam stepped in. ‘I think Jake needs you,’ he said, looking at me.
I quickly glanced at David, but he didn’t raise his head.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked Adam.
‘We’re having a meeting with the roofers, and they’re disputing the under certification on their account,’ he explained. ‘Jake’s been doing well and stood his ground, but they’re demanding to speak to someone more senior.’
‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ I said. ‘Let me just send this email.’
Adam nodded and left, closing the door behind him.
I finished typing, attached the financial report I’d been working on to the email, and scanned the narrative for typos – there were none. Then I checked the attachment was the correct version, made sure I’d copied in all the relevant people, and, satisfied, pressed the send button.
*
Before entering the meeting room, I smoothed down my shirt, buttoned my blazer, checked the two large pins in my hair, straightened my posture, and put on a polite smile.
Jake and Adam sat with their backs to the door, while on the other side of the oval table were three tanned men, casually dressed and wearing orange hi-vis jackets.
They all looked up at me, pausing their discussion.
Before I could speak, one of the foreign visitors attempted to pass me their empty mugs for a refill, but I ignored the gesture .
‘Good afternoon, gentlemen. I understand there’s some disagreement here.’
‘Hi, yeah,’ said the one on the right, opposite Jake. ‘We were wondering if we could talk to Jake’s boss about it.’
I forced a smile again. ‘That’s why I’m here. How can I help, Mihai?’
‘You’re Jake’s boss?’ asked the eldest, who didn’t look older than forty. He had a distinctly Eastern European accent. The shock in his voice angered me, but I was used to letting such things pass. I remembered his name was Julian; he was the director of the roofing company.
Faking another smile, I said, ‘Yes, that’s me. Evelyn Harris. We’ve met before and have corresponded via email.’
‘Oh, I didn’t realise you were Jake’s boss.’ He finally lowered the mug and placed it back on the table.
‘My title is on my email signature, and we were introduced before you started the works,’ I replied calmly.
‘I remember a blond fella…’
‘You must mean David, the contracts manager,’ I told him. ‘Anyway, what seems to be the issue?’
As I wasn’t planning on staying long, I remained standing. This always gave me the upper hand in a short negotiation, as my business partners had to raise their heads to talk to me. If I sat down, men would typically look down at me due to my height.
The subcontractor’s team looked at each other as if deciding which of them should present the issue. They quickly murmured something in their native language, then nodded at each other and let the short and chubby Mihai retake the lead (probably because his English was the most fluent).
‘You see, we don’t understand why you’re not paying us for the works we did. You gave us 45K less than we applied for.’
All eyes were on me, waiting to hear what I’d respond. Drawing in a long breath, I enjoyed the silence for a second before I spoke.
‘I looked at the valuation before Jake issued it back to you. His assessment was quite detailed, and he made notes against each claim he wasn’t able to certify in full. Which of his comments exactly do you disagree with?’
Mihai seemed uneasy, squirming in his seat. ‘Well, erm… we just want to get paid what we’re due,’ he said.
‘Right. I understand my colleague flagged three main issues with your application. One, you’ve been overclaiming on the roof area. Jake carried out some measuring with you on site, and the figures claimed don’t reflect what was agreed.’
There was some turmoil again among the subcontractor’s delegates.
‘Marcos, did you not change the measures on the sheet before you sent it?’ Mihai asked the one on the left.
Skinny Marcos looked down, slightly shaking his head, turning slightly red.
‘One sorted then,’ I said, glad we were now making progress. ‘Second, you’ve been claiming for items without photo evidence. As per your contract, these are required for variations that can’t be visibly identified after completion.’
Julian spoke to Marcos, who replied briefly, but once again, I couldn’t understand what. Marcos continued to sink in his chair, looking smaller by the second.
‘We have the photos,’ said Mihai. ‘We’ll get them over to you.’
‘Great. Please send them to Jake and Adam. Two sorted then. Three, the one that caused the biggest issue, is the rates you inputted are not what you signed up to—’
‘But you see… there’s been inflation… Material and petrol prices have gone up,’ argued Mihai, losing his composure. He’d been good at displaying no emotions until now.
‘They’re still not the agreed rates,’ I noted calmly. ‘You only started working for us three and a half months ago, and the current rates are valid for a year.’
‘But we can’t work on those rates anymore.’
‘That’s fine. We can agree to terminate your contract, and my team will just have to go out to the market and find another subcontractor to undertake the remainder of this works package.’ I paused, watching their worried faces, before adding, ‘Of course you’ll have the opportunity to submit a tender again, but we can’t guarantee you’ll win. There are quite a few roofing companies on our books we can approach for these works whose rates were very similar to yours.’
The three foreigners repeated their ritual, first by having a brief discussion quietly among each other – not that we’d have been able to translate a word. Then they nodded at each other once more, this time somewhat unhappily, before allowing the short one to speak.
‘We’ll accept your assessment for now,’ said Mihai. ‘You’ll have the photos by the end of today.’
*
‘Thank you,’ said Jake, barely looking at me, after we’d finished the discussions with the roofers. I could tell he was embarrassed for having to drag me into his meeting.
‘No worries. I heard you’d been doing great; they were just trying to be difficult,’ I told him kindly, and the colour returned to his face.
It came as no surprise that the subcontractors couldn’t take him seriously – he looked no older than a secondary-school student with his small physique, ginger curls, and thick round glasses. Yet he was a couple of years older than me.
‘Can you please draft an email on what we agreed and ping it back to them?’ I asked. ‘Copy me and Adam in just so we have a record of the discussion.’
Once Jake left for upstairs with his laptop, I straightened up the chairs around the table and went to make a coffee.
The staff room was empty until Adam came back after seeing out the subcontractor’s team.
‘That was bloody brilliant,’ he said, grinning and leaning against the fridge door with arms crossed.
I looked up at him and asked, ‘Would you mind?’
When he finally stepped aside, I took out the milk .
‘Can I get a coffee too?’
‘Help yourself,’ I told him then settled on the sofa with my drink.
‘You know, I didn’t think you were racist. Is that why you didn’t want to go out on a date with me?’
No one had ever called me that before. I found the accusation preposterous but calmed myself before answering, ‘I’m not – what makes you say that?’
‘You always use the white mugs, never the yellow or the black ones.’
Black, yellow (or rather gold), and white were the signature colours of Brooks O’Grady, and the stylised logo with a modernised image of a shovel was present on all brand merchandise, including the kitchenware. I looked at the steaming drink in my hand. Adam was right about the colour of the mug. I tried to recall when I’d last used a different one – never. Perhaps he was a better observer than I’d thought.
‘Funny, I never realised that…’
‘But seriously, what’s your problem with me?’ he asked.
‘Besides the fact that you’re extremely childish and won’t leave me alone with your silly questions?’
‘I’m not childish, but yes, besides all that.’
‘You just can’t take a rejection, can you?’
He tilted his head and rubbed his jaw in an exaggerated manner. ‘Then is it only men with beards that do it for you?’
‘What beard?’
‘I don’t know… like David’s.’
‘He’s got a nice, neat short beard, but behind every beard, there’s a man.’
Adam dropped his hand and pulled his eyebrows together in confusion. ‘Are you saying I could have the neatest beard and you still wouldn’t be attracted to me?’
‘I’m saying you’re not David.’
As soon as the words slipped out, I regretted them. I’d basically just told him I was into David. How the hell had he managed to manipulate me into revealing that ?
Still he didn’t seem to comprehend the significance of my sentence as he said cheerfully, ‘So you are attracted to me.’
‘That’s not what I said.’ God save me from men and their logic!
‘I thought you liked me because you wouldn’t shut up about it on the way to Cardiff.’
Feeling drained from this conversation, I gave him a pleading look and said, ‘Can we please stop talking about Cardiff? That was ages ago now. And I must have meant I liked you as a colleague.’
‘That was my sixth week at the company, and we hadn’t even spoken much before.’
‘I was drunk.’
‘In my experience, drunk people tell the truth…’ he noted.
‘Then why do you want me to repeat it?’
‘So you do like me.’
‘What a deduction, Watson!’ I scoffed, sipping on my drink.
‘Then why won’t you go out with me?’
‘I don’t like you that much.’
Taking a Mars bar out of his pocket, he sat on the sofa next to me. ‘Is it true that there are plenty of other subcontractors we can choose from for roofing?’ he asked.
‘Nah, I was bluffing. There are a couple, but they wouldn’t work on this contract because they think the client is too difficult. But frankly, these guys have no reason to complain; their rates are already one of the highest in the region.’
He was silent for a second, taking a bite of his sweet treat and watching my face with great interest. Still chewing on it, he said, ‘Do you play poker?’
‘No – why?’
‘You should. You pulled that off with a straight face. Even fooled me. You’re great at negotiating.’
‘I was gambling. I shouldn’t have. We’d have been screwed had they decided to walk off site. If David had been present, he’d have tried to smooth things out differently.’
‘You mean he’d have made you pay them what they wanted? ’
‘We’d have likely met them somewhere in the middle,’ I admitted reluctantly. ‘I probably wouldn’t have said anything about reprocuring the works either. He’d have gone mad at me for saying things like that. He knows we don’t have any other options.’
‘Well, I think you handled it well.’
‘Thanks, but I don’t need your validation.’
‘I’m not trying to patronise but compliment you.’
‘Why?’
‘This is the first time I’ve seen you in action. Can I not be nice for no reason?’
‘Men are never nice without a reason,’ I said. ‘Like these subcontractors, they’re nice when they want more work, but as soon as they get scrutinised or don’t get paid as much as they want, they throw tantrums like children. I feel like a nursery teacher every time I go into an assessment review or a final account meeting with them.’ It had been a long time since I’d had to sit in one of those meetings; they were tiring and a waste of everyone’s time. If everyone adhered to their signed agreements, such meetings would only be about signing off the account, shaking hands, and discussing future works.
I sighed and added, ‘Today that Julian really pissed me off.’
‘How? By not remembering you? Yeah, I find it hard to believe too. How could anyone ever forget about you?’
I took another sip of my drink then said, ‘It’s just so typical: I step into a meeting, and before I can introduce myself, everyone starts asking for coffee. As if a woman could only work as an office manager or admin.’ Frustrated, I shook my head. ‘Three months ago, I sat opposite the same three guys when David was vetting them for the job. They must have thought I was his PA.’
‘Surely not—’
‘You heard them.’
‘Hmm,’ he said, ‘I’ve never thought much about how hard it can be for a woman in construction.’
‘I’m okay. I do numbers, mostly behind the scenes. I rarely go out on site with subcontractors to do measures – that’s what my team is for. But I do feel sorry for Ritha and Chrissy; they have to spend so much time with these ignorant men…’
Adam sneered. ‘Do you mean you have feelings for another human being? That’s shocking.’
‘Oh, shut up,’ I told him, desperately wanting to throw something at him, but there weren’t any cushions on the sofa, and I didn’t want to waste my drink on him.
‘Don’t feel sorry for Chrissy. She’s tough like you,’ he said. ‘She’s actually not a bad site manager. The guys respect her on site.’
‘Glad to hear,’ I murmured, sipping my coffee. I didn’t know much about her; she wasn’t on my team. All I knew was she was loud, smoked like a chimney, and was from somewhere in South America, often addressing Selena in Spanish. She always dressed in colourful skinny trousers, which I suspected was to appear more youthful than her thirty-seven years. Apart from last year’s Christmas party, I couldn’t recall ever chatting with her; but she seemed friendly enough, always giving me a smile and holding the door for me.
‘Anyway, I’m popping out to site for a bit,’ said Adam, throwing the chocolate wrapper in the bin. ‘I might grab a bite too. Do you want me to bring you back something to eat?’
‘I’m good; I’ve got a sandwich in the fridge.’ I’d also seen his orange plastic container in there, full of pasta.
‘I’ve noticed you don’t eat much. Surely you need more than a sandwich for the day?’
‘Not that it’s any of your concern, but I eat enough.’ I looked at my watch, wondering whether he truly intended to go to the shop or if he was just trying to force-feed me. ‘I should get back to work.’
Adam zipped up his hi-vis jacket. ‘Alright, I’ll see you later. If anyone asks, I’ll be checking out these roofs again in case I discover something else you can deduct from them. That would cheer you up, wouldn’t it?’ With that, he left.
Shaking my head, I heaved a sigh, washed up my mug, then went back upstairs.