Chapter 34

Mr. Foreman walked around the shop examining the work that had been done. The contractor was about to put the wall board up, and this would be the last chance to inspect things before they would be hidden from view. He inspected everything, looking for anything that might be out of place.

Dan watched his former boss inspect the structure like he had seen him do hundreds of times before, then asked, “What do you think of it?”

“He does good work,” Mr. Foreman answered turning around to look at Dan. Of course, this part of the job was the easy part. Nodding his head, he said, “The more important thing, is that he’s right on schedule.”

“Are you impressed?” Dan asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Foreman answered. All of the tricky structural modifications had been completed. A few minor preexisting problems had been corrected. The man even left the site clean at night. The next few steps would go very quickly and the shell would suddenly be transformed into a real store.

“I thought you would be,” Dan said.

“You were right,” Mr. Foreman said. Seated in his car, he had watched James Vic manage the subcontractors and had been impressed. He didn’t need to hear what the man said to know what he was saying. He looked over at Dan and asked, “When is the kitchen equipment arriving?”

“It’s been shipped and should be delivered two days from now,” Dan answered. He walked into the kitchen and looked at the plumbing. He said, “The schedule has them installing it in five days.”

“The shell is the easy part. The kitchen equipment and counters require the most work. That’s going to be what makes or breaks the job,” Mr. Foreman said although he didn’t think there would be much of problem based on what he had seen. A lot depended on who James Vic got to do the installation.

A voice from the door said, “Outside of the fact that there are occasionally problems with items that have been delivered, I don’t expect it to break this job.”

Dan and Mr. Foreman turned to find James Vic standing at the door. There was a very irritated expression on his face.

Taken by surprise, Dan said, “Hello, James.”

“What are you doing here at eight o’clock at night?” James asked.

Having had more than one customer get upset because temporary bracing looked like shoddy workmanship, James didn’t like it when customers walked through his work site without him there to explain what they were seeing. He didn’t mind if their visit took all day, but he wanted to be there.

“We were checking out your work,” Dan said stepping through the framing to enter the main room.

“You were, were you?” James asked stepping into the store. His eyes flicked over the tools making sure that they were all there.

It was obvious that James was more than a little irritated at him. Dan nodded his head and said, “Yes, we were.”

“Who is your friend?” James asked.

The last thing he needed was a friend of the customer walking off with his tools. Even worse was having a weekend Mr. Fixit come in to inspect a job. More often than not, they didn’t know code, and half of their facts were wrong. He’d have to spend twice as long to clarify the misunderstandings that usually resulted from that.

“I’m Peter Foreman.”

James stared at Peter thinking that he was not a weekend Mr. Fixit. Peter had probably forgotten more than he had ever learned. He wondered why Peter Foreman would be so interested in a small job like this. This job wouldn’t earn enough to make his truck payment. He looked at Dan and then at Peter.

He had to make sure and asked, “Peter Foreman of Foreman General Contracting?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s a big outfit,” James said shaking his head. He’d be lucky to ever get a subcontract out of Peter Foreman.

“True,” Peter said with a grin. It was the biggest in the area and that was the problem. It had gotten too big for him to manage alone. Now that James knew he was involved there wasn’t much chance of keeping a low profile. He asked, “Who is installing the kitchen equipment?”

“The Singer Brothers,” James answered.

They were the best in the area for restaurant installations. More important for this particular job, they were also a Master Chef authorized installer.

“They do good work. I would have used them,” Peter said.

“I was lucky to get them. They are in great demand,” James said.

In the summer, the bigger contractors would have the Singer Brothers committed to much larger jobs than he could bring in.

Nodding his head in agreement, Peter said, “They are very professional in how they do their work.”

Curious, James asked, “Why are you interested in this job?”

“Dan is a friend of mine. You can imagine my surprise when he went with you rather than me,” Peter answered with a smile.

“I must have really come under your bid for him to do that,” James answered looking over at Dan. He wasn’t sure that he’d like a friend who treated friends that way.

Dan shook his head and said, “You were a hundred dollars more and his terms were a hundred times better. I know, it’s a bad business decision, but there were mitigating factors.”

“So why did you go with me?” James asked.

“He was doing a friend a favor,” Peter answered wanting to shut down that line of questioning. Looking around, he said, “It looks to me like everything here is under control. I’ll see you in a few days, Dan.”

“Sure, Mr. Foreman,” Dan said.

“Nice to meet you, James Vic,” Peter said as he headed towards the door.

“Likewise,” James said watching the man leave. This experience was a lot like having Donald Trump oversee a real estate deal for a barn. When he was gone, James turned to Dan and asked, “How do you know Peter Foreman?”

“I worked for him until last September,” Dan answered.

It made sense. James had watched Dan move around everyone without getting in their way. He said, “I was pretty sure that you knew your way around a construction site.”

Smiling Dan went over to the door and said, “Well, I better get out of here. I’ve got three lovely ladies waiting for me. I’ll let you lock up.”

“Right,” James said shaking his head. He muttered, “I can’t believe that he told me, ‘Assume that I’m stupid. What is the next step?’ There’s nothing stupid about him. I wish I knew what game he was playing.”

Four women were sitting around the kitchen table. Each with a pint of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. Diana, the youngest woman there, said, “My brother is driving me crazy.”

“What’s he doing?” Alison asked.

“He’s trying to turn me into a nun,” Diana said stabbing her ice cream with her spoon.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Sally commented. She ate a bite of her ice cream.

“I’m not,” Diana said waving her spoon in the air.

Frowning at Diana’s denial, Sally asked, “So why would Dan want you to be a nun?”

“I don’t mean a real nun. I mean that he’s upset that I’ve become sexually active,” Diana said rolling her eyes.

Sally laughed at the misunderstanding and said, “Oh, sorry. Sometimes I have blond moments.”

“There, there.” Ann giggled and patted her lover on the arm. Turning to Diana, she said, “He’s your brother. He’s just concerned about you.”

“I don’t know why. I mean he’s banging all three of you and he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Why does he get so upset because I have a friend with benefits?” Diana asked.

Alison raised an eyebrow at how Diana had worded her complaint. She said, “He’s banging all three of us, huh?”

“You know what I mean,” Diana said waving her spoon dismissively around in the air.

“Yes, we know what you mean,” Ann said looking at Diana with a smile. She said, “He’s making love to the three of us and you wonder why he’s upset about you banging your boyfriend.”

“Right,” Diana said with a frown. Hearing it phrased that way, it didn’t sound very nice. She faltered and said, “I guess it doesn’t sound so nice when you put it that way.”

Laughing at the expression on Diana’s face, Sally said, “To answer your question, he’s concerned about you. He’s not concerned about us.”

“He should be concerned about you. You’re supposed to be important to him,” Diana said. She punctuated her comment with another bite of ice cream.

“She doesn’t mean it like that. He knows that he’s going to treat us right. He’s not sure the boys you are seeing will treat you right,” Ann said and ate another spoonful of her Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream.

Alison nodded her head in agreement and said, “That’s right.”

“So how is he treating you right? I mean, he’s got a relationship with all three of you. Doesn’t each of you wish you had him all to yourself?” Diana asked. She pointed her spoon at each of other three women one at a time to emphasize her point. Some of the chocolate ice cream dripped on the table.

Ann and Sally exchanged a look before Ann answered, “Our case is a little different.”

Shaking her head from side to side, Diana said, “Okay. I see that. Why should you two have to share him with Alison? For that matter, why should Alison want to share him with you?”

“Dan and I have been friends with benefits for a long time, now. We never said that we were exclusive,” Alison said rather defensively.

She ate a spoonful of ice cream to keep from saying more. Diana looked at Alison as if she was telling fishing stories about the whopper that got away.

She said, “Don’t pretend that you don’t want him all to yourself.”

“How did this discussion get to be about me? Aren’t we discussing your problem?” Alison asked defensively.

Stabbing her ice cream with her spoon, Ann looked over at Alison and said, “She has a point. You do want him all to yourself.”

“And you two don’t want to share him with me,” Alison said hotly.

Diana shook her head at the sudden bickering and said, “Do you see what I mean? My brother is doing this to the three of you and he’s all bent out of shape that I’ve got one friend.”

Getting irritated at Diana for upsetting a very precarious situation, Sally said, “Diana, you know better than that. We have done this to us. It has been our decision. The happiness we get out of our relationships with him, far exceed the drawbacks. There are a lot of good things about this arrangement.”

“That’s right. One of the best things is that I get to spend time here. I wouldn’t get to do that if it wasn’t for Dan,” Alison said gesturing around the room. She took a bite of her strawberry ice cream.

Ann and Sally shared a look before turning to stare at Alison. Sally said, “Freud would have a field day with you.”

“What?” Alison asked looking at the two women. Diana shared the same puzzled expression as graced Alison’s face.

“You keep saying the most interesting things,” Ann said.

“Like what?” Alison asked.

Changing the subject, Sally said, “Didn’t you say that you are returning to college in two days?”

“Yes,” Alison answered. She took a half of a spoonful of strawberry ice cream and licked the spoon. She didn’t want to go, but she had a future to worry about. Ann grinned over at Sally who was studiously eating some of her ice cream to keep from laughing.

Turning to Alison, she said, “You’re going to miss Dan.”