Chapter 5: You Can't Let it Get to You

The first hot weather of the summer had arrived and the temperature on Granite Ridge rose to over 30°C (86°F) during the afternoon. Gus was wearing a loose, short sleeve cotton shirt, cargo shorts and his steel-toed work boots. It had been several days since he had seen Tatya talking to her landscaper friend and Gus had forgotten about him. As he entered the office to pick up a couple of water bottles, he ran into Tatya and the guy in close company. When Tatya saw him, she jumped away from him, looking a bit embarrassed.

Gus stopped to see what was going on. Tatya broke the awkward silence.

"Uhhm, Gus ... this is Rocco Molinari. He runs Tuscany Landscape Services. We were just going over his quote," she said rapidly.

"Uh huh," Gus said, looking at both of them carefully. "I'm Gus McLaren," he said, holding out his hand. The dark-eyed Rocco took it, gripped it firmly and shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Gus. I'm looking forward to working with your company."

"I guess that will depend on whether you have a competitive quotation and can meet Tatyana's demanding standards."

"I'm pretty sure we can give you what you need at a price that will please you. And Tatya can vouch for my credentials. We've known each other for some time, right Tatya?"

"Uhhm, yes ... yes, that's right," she answered nervously.

Gus surveyed the uncomfortable woman and then the seemingly confident Rocco. There was more here than met the eye.

"Well, Tatyana, we can look over his quote in the morning. Did you provide some references, Rocco?"

"References? Uh, oh, sure. Can do." Apparently Tatyana had forgotten that important detail. One she insisted on for every supplier she dealt with. Interesting.

"Good," Gus said with a brief smile. "I'll see you in the morning, Tatyana, and we'll go over the proposal. I'm off to the roof truss plant. We have some revisions to plan 21. I won't be back today."

"Okay, Gus," she said, almost sounding relieved.

The discomfort wasn't lost on Gus. If he was a guessing man, he would guess that Tatya and Rocco had more than just a friendship. She had blushed red with embarrassment when Gus had walked into the office and found them in close quarters. If it was just a business meeting, why the embarrassment?

He had been on the verge of asking Tatya if she wanted to go out in the boat this weekend. A picnic on a nearby island? He was almost sure she would agree. But now, maybe he would hold back and see what developed. Rocco seemed pretty sure of himself that he was going to get the contract. Gus wondered if he thought his connection to Tatya would be enough to sway the decision. Well, there wouldn't be any changes until Gus was sure that Tuscany Landscaping was a credible option.

He was late getting home from the Nanaimo truss plant. It was over an hour's drive each way and the problem that needed to be solved was a difficult one because the roof design was complex. It wasn't something they had to discuss with the architect, but Gus wanted to make sure that his framers knew exactly how the design should be done.

Gus was in the office promptly at seven the next morning, but Tatya didn't arrive for another half hour. That was unusual in itself. She looked a bit sleepy and that was also different than normal.

"Late night?" he asked as he passed her a morning coffee.

She looked a bit nervous before answering. "Yes. Rocco and I were talking about school and friends. You know, what ever happened to so-and-so."

"You and Rocco ... he was a boyfriend?"

She looked up at Gus and sighed. "Yes. He was a year ahead of me. We dated for a while. It ended when he graduated."

"You still have feelings for him?" Gus asked, wondering if he really wanted to know.

"That's personal, Gus," she said, a flare of temper showing.

"I thought we were personal. Was I mistaken?"

"Drop it, Gus. I don't want to talk about it," she said, lowering her head to gaze into her coffee mug.

"Okay, it's dropped. Now, what about his proposal?"

"It's good, Gus. He can do the job at slightly less than our current guy. Rocco will be on the job every day, so we don't have to worry about supervision. He'll let me know if there are any problems I need to get involved with."

"Okay ... sounds good. Did he supply references?"

"Not yet. I told him I wanted them before we would consider hiring him."

"Fine. Let me know when they arrive."

That was the end of the meeting. Gus was pretty sure there was something going on with Rocco and Tatya, but what it was he couldn't be certain. For a moment, he thought he might be sick to his stomach. For the first time in his young life, he felt he had something special ... something unique with Tatyana.

It would hurt if she decided the old college boyfriend was the better prospect. It would hurt a lot. He could fight for her he supposed, but if she wasn't totally committed to him, there was nothing he could do about it. She knew how he felt about her. He'd made sure of that over the past three weekends that they'd been intimate.

The following weekend was the first weekend in a long time that he hadn't any contact with Tatyana. More tellingly, she hadn't asked him if they were going to be doing anything. The implication was that she wasn't expecting to be with him. He had a very empty feeling that wouldn't go away.

He spent Friday evening with Wade Boudreau, drowning his sorrows in beer. He slept it off at Wade's apartment while Wade screwed some young thing he had picked up at The Grumpy Dog. Gus paid for his sins the next morning, went home to his apartment and alternately slept and watched TV. His mother noticed, of course. She noticed the hung over look and the absence of Tatya. She said nothing, however.

Having sworn never again to get drunk, he borrowed his father's boat and went fishing on Sunday. He was skunked. Not even a bite. He toyed with the idea of running down south to Baynes Sound, but couldn't be bothered. The only thing he achieved for the day was a gas bill and a sunburned nose and ears. Discouraged, he headed back to the Comox boat ramp and waited patiently for almost an hour before he could pull the boat out and head home. All in all, a totally lost weekend.

-0-

"How was your weekend?" Gus asked as he acknowledged Tatya's arrival on Monday morning.

"Fine, thank you," she answered, still not looking at him he noticed.

"Anything to discuss this morning?" he asked.

"No ... not that I'm aware of. You?" she said, shuffling papers on her desk.

"Nope. All is as planned."

And that was the sum total of their communications for that morning. Gus just mentally shook himself, wondering how it had all fallen off the cliff so easily. Was their relationship that shallow? Was she that flighty? He wouldn't have thought so, but the evidence said otherwise. "Damn shame," he thought as he returned to snapping his day schedule onto his clipboard.

-0-

Ten days later he was discussing concrete scheduling with his supplier at the south end of the property. They had a good working relationship and Gus knew he could count on Mid-Island Redi Mix to deliver consistent quality on time. They had finished their discussion when Gus looked around at the area designated a recreation park. It was undeveloped at present, but their new landscape contractor was using the location to store trees and shrubs prior to planting.

He was looking over the items when he noticed a fair number of dogwoods in the group. That surprised him since his previous supplier was unable to locate enough to meet the contract. He walked over to the trees to get an idea of how many there were when he noticed something. Something that did not make him feel good.

He snapped his walkie-talkie off his belt. "Tatya, are you there?"

He waited a few moments before he heard the crackle of the speaker and her voice.

"Yes ... what is it?"

"Can you come down to Granite Close ... please?"

"Now?"

"Yes ... please," he said, keeping his voice even and non-threatening.

"Okay," she said after some delay.

It was five minutes before she appeared, parking her rental behind Gus's truck.

"What's the problem?" she asked.

"Those dogwoods," he said pointing, "were they supplied by Tuscany?"

"Yes. The other people couldn't get any. Don't you remember?"

"I remember very well. Do you notice something about them?" he asked as they walked toward the cluster of trees.

"What?" she said, beginning to lose her patience.

"Do you see a nursery tag on those trees?"

She looked again, then walked closer, looking at a number of the trees, handling them to see if the anything was hidden from her view.

"No," she admitted, looking very worried. "I don't."

"You're aware that any dogwood must have a nursery tag on it before it's transplanted to be legal?"

"Of course I am," she said indignantly.

"So, where are they?" Gus asked forcefully.

"I don't know, but I'll find out," she said, turning and striding to her car.