Chapter 20: Brooks
I hang around the bakery all morning, overseeing the foundation work and hoping Olive will at least come downstairs. I had planned to stay all day but just before lunchtime I get a phone call from one of my site managers.
“Hey man, what’s up?” I ask him.
“Shit man, you’ve gotta get down here,” he sounds exasperated and I can hear a woman screeching in the background.
I’m already collecting my stuff and heading for my truck as I ask him what happened.
“Mrs. Beaty let her three poodles outside and they tumbled into the foundation pad before the concrete set. She’s flipping out about dogs needing to be professionally groomed even though one of my guys volunteered to clean them up. Honestly, the dogs are fine. I’m more worried about the pad. I’m not sure if we will have to redo the whole damn thing.”
I race down to Napa. When I get there, a younger guy is cleaning the poodles, meticulously scrubbing the concrete out of their fur. The trio seem to be enjoying the extra attention. One of them is giving him a hard time, but he’s doing ok.
After a quick assessment, the foundation pad is still soft. I put the crew to work fixing the poodle damage. Once the foundation is repaired, I help the kid dry the poodles with a towel and a mini air blower one of the guys had in his truck. The only thing left to deal with is Mrs. Beaty declaring I should pay for professional grooming.
This isn’t my first rodeo with a client like this. I’ll go pretty far out of my way to make a client happy, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. I tell her I’ll be happy to pay for the grooming but if I do, she’ll have to cover the repair cost to the slab and the extra time the crew was set back. Wouldn’t you know it? It turns out the slab repair cost more.
We agree to call it even and move on with our day.
It’s almost 5pm before I can head back up to Sonoma and check on Olive. Last night has been playing on repeat in my head. I still can’t believe how far off the rails it went. I don’t have a plan, but I’m not going another night without fixing this and making Olive see how much I need her.
Shaking my head to myself, I pull into the parking lot. My crew is packing up for the day, and the site looks great. Everything is on track so I clap Dan on the back and thank him before heading inside.
Olive is nowhere to be found, but in the kitchen I find Lilah putting on a coat and getting ready to leave. She spots me and gives me a calculating look before turning to Luis and declaring, “Olive is going to that little gastropub, Harvest, for dinner.”
Luis gives her a confused look. “Okay… Why are you yelling at me about it?”
She smiles to herself. “Was I being too loud? Sorry, Luis. See you tomorrow.”
She winks at me and gives me a conspiratorial smile as she walks outside.
Luis eyes me with distrust and looks around the kitchen. Seeing he and I are alone, he picks up his knife and shakes it at me.
“You know Olive and Lilah are like daughters to me, yes?” he asks.
I nod.
“Good,” he continues. “Then you should understand that if you hurt either of them, I’ll make sure you suffer.”
Jesus, I’ve never been threatened so many times in one day. “Understood, sir.” I give him a salute and back out of the kitchen. Heading into the chilly winter air, I pull out my phone and look up the address for Harvest.