4 - Brock
Brock
I’d never been keen on working with new hires. They were already a pain in the ass as it was, but a new hire that was also an ex-con? Yeah that was truly reaching for new heights on this one.
By the time our new client slipped upstairs, the tension in the firehouse was all but brittle enough to snap under a single ill-timed word.
And I was pissed. I had no idea what went down between Merrick and Lauren the other day, but it was evidently bad enough to have completely poisoned her view of him to the point of wanting him kicked off the crew.
And for better or for worse, I couldn’t afford that. But the second she was out of earshot, I pulled him aside, determined to find out the truth.
“Okay, out with it.” I demanded, trying to keep my voice as low as possible. “What the hell happened between the two of you?”
“Nothing,” Rafe said stubbornly. But the expression on his face told me otherwise.
“That didn’t look like nothing,” I pointed out, my eyes quickly darting back upstairs. “I can’t manage this project if I don’t have all the variables, Merrick. I’m asking you one last time. What happened?”
“And I’m saying one last time that it was nothing. You can drop it,” he said.
If there was anything I really hated during a job, it was uncertainty. Dependable facts were what made it all easier and kept things running smoothly. The lubricant of the grind, as it were.
But him being this cagey meant that the rest of us were walking on a minefield.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting.”
Lauren’s voice floated down from the steps. She was waiting near the railing, looking down at us with a wavering smile. “You guys can come up here.”
I looked at Callum and Rafe before we filed after her one by one.
Lauren went through her ideas for the loft area, citing the room divisions she wanted, what type of flooring and wall paneling she’d decided on and so on.
I made a note here and there, though I focused more on the cladding and structural elements we’d have to reinforce before we even started on the decorative phase.
“Planning on keeping that?” I asked, dipping my head towards the circular railing planted in the middle of the landing.
Lauren opened her mouth to answer when Rafe positioned himself to slide down the fire pole before I could stop him, shooting to the bottom floor in a matter of seconds. The remaining three of us stared down at him in respective states of surprise, irritation and amusement.
“You gotta test the integrity of the build,” he called up to us.
I rolled my eyes, thinking that Lauren might take issue with his stunt but Callum laughed and when I checked in with her, that seemed to serve as a good enough distraction from any annoyance she might’ve felt towards Rafe. There was a glimmer in her eyes when she glanced at Callum.
I cleared my throat. “If we’re done here?”
“Uh, yeah,” she said, starting down the stairs.
She and Callum were speaking quietly about something while I took stock of any last-minute potential complications that could delay the reno job.
The place seemed pretty solid for the most part with good bones except the rotted timber framing on a single load-bearing member.
We’d also have to replace the entire plumbing system but other than that, we were likely to stay within the projected timeline.
As we walked our way through the remainder of the space, Lauren grew more and more quiet. Her body language also changed, less confident than she'd been during the first half of this meeting.
“You good?” I asked, wondering if I'd missed something.
“Yeah. It's just…” She glanced at the notebook I had in my hand as well as the phone I'd been using to log safety concerns in-app.
Her weight shifted. “I don't know how all of this works, I'll be the first to admit it.
But you've been taking a lot of notes over there. And I saw your face when you assessed the plumbing and bay ceiling.”
Her face darkened, those bright blue eyes deepening. I felt a pang in my chest.
“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried. It's no insult to you or this company, it's just that I've got my entire life's savings sunk into this place.” She shrugged. “I just really need everything to work out. If it doesn't, well, I'd be hung out to dry.”
This is where my skills run up against a wall.
Technical concerns I can handle, but somehow, I didn't think that was what she needed to hear right now.
I wracked my brain trying to think of how to express that everything would work out in a way she needed to hear it, but Callum beat me to the punch.
He stepped forward, maintaining a respectful distance from Lauren but standing close enough to seem sincere. If anyone knew how to navigate this side of things, it was Callum, alright.
“You have our word that that won't happen, Lauren.
We'll handle everything from here on out and we've never failed a single client this far.
I'll fix up your plumbing today, and you can sleep easy knowing everything is going to be okay. Promise.” Lauren wouldn't have known this, but if anyone took their word as seriously as if it were law, it was Callum.
Fortunately for him, I held a similar ethos when it came to the job. She'd be fine.
Her whole aura relaxed at his words. “I appreciate that.”
“Don't mention it. What you can talk us through is your plans for the apparatus in the bay area. You'll have the most open space to work with here, so I'd guess you already started thinking about it,” Callum added.
Smooth. That was a pretty good way to distract her, and distract her it did. Lauren's eyes lit up like Christmas lights.
“Yes, actually.” She walked over to the nearest wall. “I'm keeping these,” she said, her thumb tracing one of the heavy iron hooks bolted into the brick. “I want to try keeping a bit of the old building's soul intact. Not completely erase its heritage, you know?”
Callum nodded, looking completely engrossed in her presentation.
She turned, her shoes crunching on the grit of the concrete.
Her eyes took in the rest of the cavernous space with the wonder of a little kid walking into a candy store for the first time.
“As for the rest of this? All studio. I'll clear out the junk, let the light hit the bare walls.”
She pointed a vague finger towards the shadowed rear of the floor. “I'm thinking a partition there for the darkroom. I'll need total blackout.”
“So your entire living space is going up there,” Callum clarified.” And your workspace is down here. I noticed the camera earlier and thought you must've been a photographer. That's a cool job.”
“Not quite as cool a job as turning the vision in my head into an actual reality,” she replied. He blushed.
“It's just what we do,” he replied, sounding so lame I actually felt pained on his behalf for a moment. She didn't seem to notice, though.
I could hardly fault Callum. He'd always had a weakness for blue-eyed brunettes but there was something special about the way Lauren's whole body vibrated with excitement when she spoke about her plans for this place that set her up as the true vision in all those ideas.
No.
I was going to immediately take that thought and throw it onto the burning pile of things I would never wonder about again. Or express out loud.
I was the foreman on this project, she was my client and I was already dealing with one impulsive hothead. I didn't need any more complications.
My friend had no such qualms, though. He was grinning at her while she continued explaining more details about the studio conversion.
“I think it'll be great. You'll be able to switch off completely between work and your free time and with the way the loft will be set up, it’ll be like having two different apartments.”
“I like that.” She put her hands on her hips, smiling to herself now as though she could already envision the furniture. “I'll be living up there, work and play down here. It's perfect.”
An unceremonious scoff brought the rest of our attention back to Rafe, who immediately attempted to hide it by wandering off to look at some rogue piece of equipment in the far corner of the room.
Lauren shot daggers at his retreating back, and honestly, I couldn't blame her. I was starting to wonder myself just how I was going to lead this crew with Merrick on board. He was definitely not going to make this an easy task.
Lauren, Callum and I said our goodbyes and Rafe drove off on his bike without so much as a greeting to anyone. I waited until Lauren shut the door behind her and Callum and I were well on our way to the truck before bringing it up.
“Hey. I think we're gonna have our hands full with this one,” I said grimly.
Callum frowned at me. “She seems pretty nice to me.”
“Not her, dumbass.”
“Ah. The new guy.” Callum shrugged sheepishly. “Think you're just being a bit too hard on him? I was new too, once. And if it wasn't for your mentorship, I probably wouldn't have ended up half as good as I did.”
“Yeah, well you weren't fresh off the prison lot.” I grumbled. “And you also weren't half as insufferable.”
He made a sound of resignation. “It is still pretty early on. He might change, get himself together.”
“Maybe. Either way, I'm still not willing to risk the integrity of a job on his mood swings. It's probably best if we keep an eye on him.”
Callum nodded. As I climbed in the driver's seat and began pulling off the apron, it began to sink in just how long the coming year would really be. And it sure as hell didn't leave me feeling warm and tingly inside.