AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER6
Boone
After dropping Angela off,I’d angled toward the hardware store. Adding the hotel to my portfolio had taken some of my focus away from the store, and I wanted to shift it back.
I enjoyed spending time at the store and relished that we provided a needed service to the community. Providing fix-it advice was part and parcel of doing business in a small town like Clear Lake. Our customers appreciated that.
A little while after I’d settled into my tiny office in the back of the store, my phone buzzed again.
CLARA: 911 call me
I prepared for the full dose of Clara that Grace had warned me about and dialed.
“Oh my God, Mr. Benson,” she began. “We have a big problem. You’ll never guess what just happened.”
The line was still while she waited for me to guess.
Biting back anything harsher, I said, “Clara, I’m very busy this morning.”
“Jeannine just gave her notice,” she blurted.
Jeannine was one of our housekeepers, and we were already lightly staffed for the volume of business we were doing.
“When is her last day?” I asked.
“Well, that’s the thing. It was going to be today, but I threatened her and got her to commit to two-weeks’ notice.”
Did she not understand that what she’d done could be serious trouble for me as well as her? “You can’t go around making threats.”
“Well, it worked.”
I was going to have to smooth this over before it came back to bite me in the ass. “What kind of threat?”
“You don’t want to know.” She laughed. “But it’s good.”
This was not at all funny. “Tell me,” I said in my best mean-boss voice.
“I said I was going to tell her husband about her and Joey—”
“Stop right there,” I roared. “You’re right. I don’t want to know.” Getting in the middle of a domestic dispute was as bad as it could get.
“I told you it wasn’t something you’d want to know about. Anyway it’s settled for today. She won’t dare leave before her time is up, but we still gotta fill the position.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Unless you want to help out,” she added with a giggle.
“You wouldn’t want my help. I’ll get started on finding somebody.”
I’d have to check with Grace on how she went about filling these positions. We were one short in housekeeping already, and had been for a month.
The hardware store was so much easier. I hadn’t had to replace anyone in two years.
“Thanks, Mr. Benson. When will you be by?” she asked.
“A little after lunch, most likely.”
“Sarah-Sue wants to talk to you, so I think before lunch would be better.”
