The Job Read Online Free PDF Page B

kittens on your way there, boss.”
    “Why
haven’t I fired you yet?” I ask.
    “Because
you couldn’t live without me,” Linda smiles.
    “That’s
right,” I tell her. “I might need you to remind me of that every once in a
while.”
    “Sure
thing, boss,” she says and goes back to whatever she was doing on her phone.
    Eric
and I leave the store and start walking.
    “So,
tell me about yourself,” he says.
    “Oh,
not much to tell,” I answer. “I moved here a few years back. When I got to Lady
Bits, well, first off, it wasn’t called that at the time. It was actually a
hipster warehouse.”
    He
laughs. “That sounds pretty dreary,” he says.
    “Oh,
it was,” I answer. “Nothing but black plastic glasses as far as the eye could
see. I’m pretty sure that most of them didn’t have prescriptions in them.”
    “So
what made you decide to go into women’s clothing?” he asks.
    It’s
an obvious question that should have an obvious answer, but I find myself
grasping for anything with which to respond.
    “I
don’t know,” I tell him. “I guess I’ve always said that I wanted to provide
women of all sizes an option in clothing where they could still get designer
clothes without the designer price tag, but really, I think it comes down to
the fact that I don’t really know how to run any other kind of store.”
    It’s small talk, sure, but it’s kind of nice seeing a side of him that’s not such an asshat .
    “What
about you?” I ask. “What got you into contracting?”
    “It’s
a family business,” he says. “My grandfather started this company about fifty
years ago. My father worked here, all my brothers worked here. It was just kind
of inevitable, I guess.”
    “How
many brothers?” I ask.
    “Four,”
he says.
    I
can’t help but cringe. “I’m sorry,” I tell him.
    “Yeah,”
he laughs, “me too. Hey, I didn’t think of this, but does this Carver’s place
have a dress code? I don’t think what I’m wearing really qualifies as
formalwear.”
    “No,
it’s just a bistro,” I tell him. “I’ve seen people show up looking almost as
grungy as you, so I think it’ll be fine.”
    “Gee,
thanks,” he says. “Like I was telling you,” he goes on, “I really do apologize
for the way I’ve been acting. I let my personal life bleed into my work, and I
want you to know that’s not how I usually do business, and I just wanted to let
you know that I’m glad to be working with you, and I think we’re going to end
up with something really great.”
    “About
that,” I start, and I can already see his muscles tensing. I know that means
resistance is probably on its way, but it’s not a bad perk.
    “Yeah?”
    “I
was wondering if there was any way we could extend the window a little bit
farther than we talked. I know you guys have already cut out the frame for what
we’d already discussed, but as I was walking in today, it really struck me that
people coming from that direction on the sidewalk could see what we have so
much easier if the window went just a little bit farther.”
    “How
much farther are you thinking?” he asks.
    “Only
like three, four feet or so,” I answer.
    He
takes a deep breath to calm himself.
    “If
it’s going to be a problem—”
    “It
shouldn’t be a problem,” he says. “It’s just that we’ve already got everything
set up for what we had initially talked about, you know, what we decided on
after what we decided on during the initial discussion.”
    He’s
a bit curt, but it’s dialed way back from what it has
been, so I let it slide.
    “I
know,” I tell him, “but I really think it would add something unique to our
store and could really help bring in the foot traffic.”
    “You’re
the boss,” he says. “That’s going to push our timetable back a little bit,
though. We’ll have to cut out more of that wall and make sure everything’s
reinforced, after that, we have to do the moldings and—”
    “I’m
sorry. Could you excuse