Chapter Six
Thursday arrived with more sleep under my belt. I guess confronting Richard, and my few crying sprees had helped and allowed me to shut my brain off enough to get some rest. I could still do with a few more hours, but hey, nothing new there.
I set my alarm a little early again today, planning to get in early for work. I did my morning routine, leaving a note for Dad and the car keys where I knew he'd find them. I'd not long been on the train to work when I received a text message from Richard, asking me to open the front door.
I actually couldn't hold in the evil grin as I imagined him trying the door and not getting a reply. I was so glad I had set my alarm early today. I was tempted to leave him hanging, but didn't want him to do something stupid, like trying to break in, or harass the neighbours, so I replied, telling him I was out and what part of 'after 6pm' did he not understand. I didn't receive a reply back.
I arrived into work just before 8am and found Marc already in as well.
"Morning, you're in early?" I leaned against his office door.
"Yeah, lot to do you know?" He looked stressed and looked worn out already.
"Anything I can help with?" I pushed off the jamb and walked to his desk. He let out a long sigh.
"Any chance you could do my job?" He joked. His desk was strewn with files and folders. A quick glance at his laptop showed me far too many unread emails than I was comfortable with.
"I'm already handling the new site," he picked up a folder and dumped it in another pile to his left "on top of sorting out a hand over of my current workload to the management team. They are dragging their heels over appointing someone to either take all of it, or work out how to divvy it all up." He sighed again. "The time difference with the States is both a blessing and a curse. They're eight hours behind so I'm using the downtime to do my job. However, when they are online, it's never ending, and getting in early is the only thing helping at the moment. I really need to be over there."
"OK. What do you want me to start on?" I took off my bag and coat.
"It's fine, I'm just moaning." He smiled at me.
"I'm serious. I'm kind of at a loose end right now. My hand over is pretty much done, I can help with yours until I go. I'll still be around if Lucas or Megan need me." He stilled for a moment.
"Are you sure-"
"Positive. Now, let me help you for a change." I grinned at him, and made 'gimme gimme' motions with my hands. He laughed then picked up a huge stack of files and loaded them into my arms.
"Life saver, thank you!" I shifted them slightly and picked up my coat and bag and with a backwards smile left his office to get back to my desk.
I spent the morning going through Marc's workload. Luckily as we had worked together for so long I knew his role inside out. I marked anything that needed his final authorisation, the rest was diligently worked through, loading any additional information into the online system, checking equipment requests were all OK, giving people a few gentle nudges to do their jobs. By lunch I'd even managed to close off a few minor projects and nailed production down for some delivery dates. By the time Marc came to check on me at lunch, I was just finishing up a phone call.
"...yes, no problem Mr Barclay, 18th July and we'll be in touch to confirm your new account team as soon as we can… you are more than welcome… 'bye." I hung up and turned to Marc. "Lunch?"
"Was that Barclay Medical Trust?" His eyes skimmed my desk, honing in on the account folder.
"Yes, I was just letting them know their equipment would be with them on the 18th July. I also told them about you moving jobs, so they'd have another person to deal with for the final phase and sign off." I stood and grabbed my bag.
"How the… I've been waiting ages for production to get their arses in gear, how on earth did you manage that?!" He followed me as I strolled towards the lifts, a little cocky swing of my hips.
"Ah, it's not what you know, but who you know…" I gave him a little wink and he groaned.
"Ah Kate, come on, please let me know whose cock I have to blow to make shit happen, it will make my last few weeks here much easier." He pouted.
I laughed and jabbed the lift call button. "Bob."
"Old Bob? Bob who hates everyone? Bob who is the definition of cantankerous? That Bob?" He asked incredulously.
"The one and the same." I replied. "Although don't be mean, he's lovely."
He scoffed "I never realised he had a thing for the younger ladies. Do I need to wear a skirt next time I need something?" He asked a little petulantly.
"No, just treat him like a human being." I retorted, a little hurt on Bob's behalf. "Half the office has him down as some cranky old bastard-"
"Because he is." Marc muttered.
"-but he just doesn't like talking to people on the phone." I continued, ignoring the little dig. "Once you get him to talk it gets easier. We had a lovely chat, caught up on everything, Audrey is doing better which was good to hear-"
"Who the hell is Audrey?" Marc looked baffled.
"Bob's wife." I replied "She had cancer a little while back, and she's just gone in remission."
"Oh. Great, now I feel like a complete dick." Marc bowed his head. I gave him a little nudge as the lift arrived.
"I'm just saying, give the guy the benefit. He's a bit rude on the phone as he just doesn't have a great phone manner, but he's got other shit going on too you know." I rebuffed Marc gently as we stepped into the lift. "I let him know we were both off soon, and he promised to do what he could to ensure as many of your outstanding orders were fulfilled before we both go. He asked about you, I said you were fine, a little stressed over everything and sorry you hadn't spoke to him in a while. He wished us well on our travels."
"Now I feel even more like shit." Marc looked genuinely upset.
"Go speak to Mandy, get his address and send his wife some flowers, and him some beer as a thank you." I replied, shrugging my shoulders as we descended. "He likes cask ales. I'll send you a link to a brewery he likes, you can order online."
"Why aren't you my PA instead of Karen?" He asked. I shrugged my shoulders again.
"I guess I'm shit at the gossiping. It seems to be a requirement of the job." I dead panned.
After a disappointing lunch in the work's canteen, we spent the rest of the afternoon in Marc's office going through the State's project.
"So, the upshot is we're there to oversee getting the sites up and running. The warehousing unit and manufacturing plant are going to be built at the north end of the Tribe's reservation. There's a river outlet which runs into the Pacific and there will be hydro generators providing power. There will be back up generators and connection to the main power grid in the area to keep production downtime to a minimum. We're going to have to source local trades to come in and basically build everything from the ground up, and then once ready, organise the transfer from the old unit to the new. Office wise, which is mainly your responsibility, will be basically replicating the set up we have here. Get the right people in the right positions, work out if we can actually make what we have here better if we are starting from scratch."
I nodded through all this. I was glad Marc was mainly on the building side of things, he had all the blueprints and building requirements to hand. I was to get the Satellite office in Port Angeles up and running. It did raise a question however…
"Why is the office all the way out in Port Angeles?" I asked Marc. "Given we are going to have to employ mostly people from the Quileute Tribe, surely it would make sense to have the office closer? It's like an hours drive isn't it?" Marc nodded. "I'm assuming from the unemployment rate that they are not exactly the most affluent of areas, so will they be able to even make the trip twice a day? Do they all drive? Didn't Mandy say there was no direct public transport links, so how's that going to work?"
Marc smiled at me then. "That's why you are needed. I don't think anyone else has even considered it to be honest." He sat back in his chair and tapped a pen on his notepad. "OK, with no limits, what would you suggest?" He asked me.
"Well, firstly, I'd find out if there is a reason for the Port Angeles location. It might be we are tied in there for some reason. If not, then I'd see if there's offices somewhere closer that we could rent, and see if the Tribe have anything themselves they could offer up. Having the offices closer would be helpful for them as we could in theory employ more of their people for other roles, like general cleaning and maintenance, that might be good to get those who can't do full time hours a chance to earn some more if they need flexible hours." I paused for a moment. "If we are tied to Port Angeles, then for how long? Do we have something in the budget for transportation for the workers? Like, I dunno, get some of those school buses to ferry everyone back and forth daily?"
I didn't know how any of this was feasible, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw it all out there.
"Well, that's now your job." Marc grinned. "Everything you said… do it. Check it out. We can run it past the Elders tomorrow and get their input. They might be able to offer suggestions and what works for them."
"Oh, wow I didn't think…" I trailed off.
"What? That you'd be given that much control?" I nodded. "This is the reality Kate. You are now in a position to troubleshoot problems and not be constrained by prior processes, or expectations. You are management. People will be coming to you with ideas, and you get the final say on if it's possible. It's truly letting us think outside the box, and as long as we don't go stupidly over budget, or break any laws, we can actually get these ideas off the ground."
I could now see why this appealed to Marc so much. The freedom to actually change how we did things was a heady feeling and I could feel my excitement levels ramping up the more I considered thing. The scope we had, wow, we could do so much good here. I couldn't stop the grin and laugh that escaped me.
"I just, think… we could sort out that stupid filing system. Why do we use so much bloody paper all the time, the amount of files we lose… and trying to cover work when someone if off and they haven't updated the online system, and you can't find their notes… Oh, and catering, we would look at getting a local company in rather than the reheated swill they call food the canteen downstairs serves. Oh, we could-" Marc held up his hands.
"OK, OK, write it all down, start your list. This will be your responsibility going forward. You are now officially the Facilities Installation and Relocation Director, Kate. This is your project, your baby now."
I couldn't help the grin spreading across my face. It would take some time to get use to having this level of control. I was so used to working within the limits of processes and procedures and often found it constraining to have to jump through so many hoops all the time. To actually be able to build the process up from the ground… my brain was firing so many ideas. I grabbed my notepad, and began to jot down everything and anything that sprung to mind. If it was shit, it would get weeded out, otherwise we could build on it. Marc was right, this role was perfect for me, and me for it.
I looked up at him then, to see him smiling at me. I pointed my pen at him.
"If you tell me 'I told you so' I will smack you." I smiled at him. He held his hands up in mock surrender.
"Didn't say a thing." He grinned.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in quiet companionship. I started looking into other office rental locations whilst my internal enquiries into why we went for the Port Angeles site waited on the Seattle office to come online. I could already see Marc's frustrations with the time difference. I wanted answers quickly and having to wait a minimum of eight extra hours when I was on a roll was a tad annoying to say the least.
I made a list of questions to ask the Quileute Elders tomorrow to clarify some points, hopefully if Seattle came back to me today, I could then give them the option of at least considering alternative locations, if not, I wondered if they would be opposed if we laid on transportation for the workers. I didn't think it would be an issue, but there were cultural differences to consider, and given their history and current economic status, I didn't want to insult them by looking like we were offering charity.
I mentioned to Marc that I would have to leave bang on 5pm tonight as I had to be home for Richard. He raised an eyebrow at that, and I explained about the window of time I'd allocated for Richard to collect his stuff. I may have forgotten to mention yesterday about taking his house key, and Marc roared with laughter when I mentioned the text message this morning.
"The nerve of him." He shook his head, "OK, well I think we've made good progress today, you might as well take off now," It was 4:40pm at this point. I nodded my agreement and packed up my stuff. Saying my goodbyes to Marc, I swung by Megan's desk to see how she was getting on. Neither her or Lucas were about. Figuring they would have found me if they had any problems, and telling myself to let my old work go, I made my way out rather than hunt them down.
I made it home just after 5:30pm, and was surprised to not only find my Dad's car still on the driveway, but Richard's car blocking it in. His car was empty, and I briefly wondered how the fuck he would have got in the house, when I spotted his legs on the porch and him leaning against the front door. A little vindictive part of me wanted to walk back up the street and let him stew there until six, however he spotted me before I could finish the thought and he jumped to his feet.
"Kate! Can you tell your Dad to let me in, I've been waiting out here for nearly an hour now!" He called before I'd reached the front gate. That's right, make a scene. It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes.
"And if I hadn't come home early, you'd be waiting even longer. What part of 6pm do you not understand Richard?" I scolded him as I reached the front door.
"Well, we wouldn't have this problem if you hadn't taken my door key. I want it back." I snorted at that.
"No. As I said, you lost that right Richard." I didn't go into more detail. We'd had this conversation yesterday.
As I went to put the key in the lock, the door opened to reveal my Dad, who was doing nothing to hide his glee. "Hey Poppet." He bent over to peck me on the cheek, all smiles then he turned to face Richard, face morphing into disdain. "What do you want dickbag?". He remained blocking the doorway, giving me just enough room to squeeze past.
Richard stepped back from following me and glared at my Dad. It was a pathetic attempt really. Wanting to get this postering over with, I put my hand on my Dad's arm that was blocking the doorway. "You can let him in, Dad. I told he he could come round after six to collect the rest of his belongs to take round his Mum's. Isn't that right Richard?" I placed emphasis on the time, glaring at him myself.
"Well, if he can't tell the time, I'm not surprised he couldn't tell he was shagging the wrong woman-" My Dad replied, still glaring at Richard.
"Dad!" I called, slightly horrified. I tugged his arm again. "Let it go, he's not worth it." I wasn't above begging him. He seemed to come back to himself as he turned and gave me a sheepish look when his back was to Richard.
I moved back and turned to walk into the kitchen. Richard followed behind and my Dad brought up the rear, glaring daggers in Richard's back. I quickly took out my phone from my bag and fired a quick text to Dad telling him Richard didn't know about my work, and not to mention it. His phone beeped and after glancing at it, he nodded at me, sliding it back in his pocket and taking sentry by the kitchen door.
"Why are you here so early Richard? I told you after 6pm." I started. I took off my bag and coat and dumped them on the kitchen counter. I was suddenly bone tired and just wanted to have some food and veg in front of the TV tonight. I mirrored my Dad and leaned against the counter, staring Richard down.
He glanced back at my Dad and took a step towards me. "Love, look, could we talk somewhere without your Dad-"
"I'm not leaving. Unlike you, my presence is wanted here." My Dad interjected. I appreciated the moral support, but didn't want this to decent into a slanging match.
"What do you want to talk about?" I asked. "If it's the house, you can email me your concerns and I'll raise them with Barry. Once I've spoken to him I'll get a meeting set up for the three of us to work out the finer legalities."
Richard sighed, and shot my Dad another glared before inching closer to my side of the kitchen.
"It's just… I love you, and I made a mistake. I want us to work this out, to go back to normal. Please Kate. I can't apologise enough." He implored. He actually sounded sincere, and if it wasn't for my Dad's angry expression over Richard's shoulder, I may have even believed him. It didn't change anything however.
"True. You can't apologise enough." I stated. "You disrespected me the worst way you could, with no regard to my health-" I saw my Dad's face darkened at this realisation and he pushed off from the door jamb, anger radiating from his frame "- for at least a year, and you expect to just come back here to be forgiven and everything goes back to normal?"
My own anger was rising again. I felt like a broken record, he just wasn't getting it. Unless he did and just didn't care. I didn't know what scared me more, the blatant stupidity or the lack of fucks given to the consequences of his actions. I had a feeling it was the latter, and it worried me that I never saw this side to him in all the years we've been together. Richard just stood there, hands on hips staring at the floor in front of him.
"What else can I say to get you to forgive me?" He said quietly. I pushed off from the counter and stepped a little closer.
"Honestly? Nothing. I've said it once, twice and this will be the final time. We are done. You need to pack your stuff and go."
I walked around him and into the living room. Plonking myself on the sofa and rifled through the paperwork still on the coffee table, reorganising it into better order from where Richard had touched it yesterday. God, this was like the longest week ever and I just wanted him to leave now. I quietly heard my Dad reiterate my instructions and Richard behaved himself and said nothing as he made his way upstairs. I went to stand to follow when my Dad motioned me to stay, and followed him upstairs himself.
My Dad was clearly a better packing influence as they were both back down in under ten minutes, two more suitcases in hand. Richard looked particularly pale and was shooting worried glances at my Dad as he moved passed him to the front door. I stood and walked slowly to the hallway.
"I'll um… email you about the house tomorrow Kate." He mumbled, unlatching the door and making a grab for his cases.
"Oh, let me help with this one." My Dad grabbed the second case and motioned for Richard to lead the way. Richard didn't move immediately and peered round my Dad to look at me.
"I'm so sorry Kate. I'm...sorry." He turned on his heel and left, my Dad following behind. I watched from the porch as my Dad helped him load up. Before Richard could close the boot, my Dad grabbed his wrist and said a few quiet words in his ear. I'd imagine it was some reminder of whatever passed between them upstairs. I was honestly too weary to care that my Dad was probably threatening him with bodily harm. Maybe it would actually do some good and ensure Richard stayed away from now on and respected the boundaries I set him. Hmm, that would be the day.
Dad stood by the curb until Richard had pulled off and only turned back to the house when the car was out of sight. Once he was back in the house and the door close did he look at me properly.
"Oh, Poppet…" I burst into tears at the endearment and found myself in a bone crushing hug. I was just too tired to be strong anymore and took the rare moment to just absorb my Dad's affections like a little girl again.
"Come on, I bet you are hungry. Go get changed and I'll order us in some food." I nodded and peeled myself away to go upstairs.
Ten minutes later I was back downstairs, feeling more composed. I found Dad in the kitchen, setting plates and glasses on the kitchen island.
"I ordered Indian." He called over his shoulder from the fridge. He pulled two diet cokes from the depths, then rummaged under the sink to pull out a bottle of rum.
"Don't know why you hide all the best drinks under here." He muttered, standing.
"Richard would drink them if I didn't. As we've established, he has no respect for people." I replied without feeling. My Dad huffed in reply, then poured out two generous measures.
I raised my eyebrow. "Coke just for decoration?"
"Nope. I thought we could have a small toast." He passed me a glass and I gave him a bemused look.
"Here's to getting rid of bad rubbish!" He called, and knocked back the neat rum. I followed and grimace at the burn. I was about to place the glass down when he sloshed in another hearty measure.
"Ah, ah, ah! This one's for being the smartest girl I know and getting a bloody awesome new job in the USA. You make me proud sweetheart!" He gave me a warm grin then tossed back that measure too. I followed suit; the burn not too intense this time.
He went to stash the run back under the sink, but changed his mind and left it on the counter instead.
"Fuck that little prick. You won't need to hide your stuff from him anymore. Back in a mo." He patted me on the shoulder as he almost skipped past me, and I sunk onto the nearest kitchen stool.
True to his word, he walked back in, but with an armload of paper. My paperwork. It was all the house stuff from the coffee table.
"What's this?" I asked, reaching to grab the coke cans to fill our glasses.
"Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking this week-"
"Careful, don't do yourself an injury Dad…" I smirked.
"Shut it you." He replied. "Anyway, I think I might have a solution to your problem, well, one problem at least, if you want it?"
"Oh, which problem, and what solution." The drink and my tiredness had made me slightly mellow, so I was just going to humour him.
"This house. I can buy Richard's half out." I paused, mid sip of my drink.
"Say what?"
"I can buy out Richard."
"Yes. I heard, but explain...please?"
"OK, so plan is, I buy out Richard, I therefore own fifty percent of the property, you would continue to own the other half. We can remortgage at a better rate, and we can rent it out fully furnished, when you are in the States. That income will pay the mortgage and bills and means you'll still own the property in the future. You know house prices are skyrocketing around here. You'll want to keep this place to come back to when you finish your job, or keep it as an investment if you want to get another place elsewhere."
He sat back in his seat. I copied him and mulled it over. Holy… I've never even considered this, mainly as I never gave much thought to my Dad's finances, or knew anyone that could be in that position to do this.
"Forgive me for asking, but how the hell can you afford to buy him out?" Dad smiled at me.
"Ah, daughter mine. I've not been idle since I retired." He almost looked cocky. What has he been upto?
"What have you done?" Please don't say anything illegal.
"Nothing dodgy, thank you." I raised my eyebrow again. "I know what you are thinking. No, I've just been investing my payout and pension. Plus your Mum's life insurance hasn't been idle either."
"I thought Mum's insurance paid off your mortgage?" I was 14 when she passed away and was too young to help with sorting out her estate.
"It did, but we didn't have much left on the house to pay off, so with that, the cash lump sum on her death, my injury payout and both pensions coming in, I had a lot of money all of a sudden." He took a swig of his drink. "Plus, as a certain stubborn daughter of mine didn't want to go to University, I also had about £10K saved up that wasn't needed…"
My mouth dropped in surprise.
"You were going to pay for my university?! I thought I'd have to get grants and loans…"
"I know, I didn't bother telling you at the time as you were so set on the apprenticeship course with Equinox and I didn't want to influence your choice. So I just figured I'd invest it and give it to you if you changed your mind, or for your wedding or something like that." He looked a little sad at that, and I didn't blame him. It had been his dream to see his little girl walk down the aisle, and now that was crushed. I mentally cursed Richard, I wasn't the only one affected by his poor life choices.
Before I could reply the doorbell rang, and Dad jumped up to get it, returning moments later with a couple of take out bags full of steaming Indian cuisine.
I started to dish out the food as Dad pulled out more drinks.
"It sounds good, but I don't have a clue about renting, and I'm not exactly going to here to sort stuff out." I began, pulling apart a naan bread. "Unless you've become a property tycoon recently, where would we even start?" I shoved the bread in my mouth and waited for him to speak.
"Yee of little faith. As I said, I haven't been idle. How do you think I know Barry?" He forked food into his gob. I was surprised it didn't fall back out through his shit eating grin.
"You're fucking kidding me?!" I sat up straight "When, where?"
"I've got a couple of little flats over in Bromley, got them about four years back. They needed work so I got them cheap at auction. Got a few old Army buddies to help refurb them. Rent them out to some London yuppies. Boom, jobs a goodun."
I set my fork down in shock. Then it hit me "You've been using Richard's tools for it haven't you?" An even bigger shit eating grin graced his face and he laughed.
"Dad! How did I not even know?" I moaned. I thought we were pretty close, but clearly not!
Dad shrugged and speared a piece of chicken. "It wasn't a big thing, I was just going to punt them on, but Barry convinced me to hold on and rent. He was right, they're paying themselves off very nicely." He chewed his chicken for a moment before getting serious. "I was going to tell you, but you were kind of wrapped up in Dick features back then."
"I had no idea, I'm sorry." God I felt like shit again. This was the second time I've been told I got so wrapped in Richard I couldn't see past him, and it turns out it was happening for a lot longer than I realised.
"Hey, it's fine. I never mentioned since as it just never came up. But anyway, to go back to your question, no, I'm not a tycoon, but I know what I'm doing so I can do the landlord thing when you are gone."
I loved my Dad. "Thanks Daddy" I whispered, feeling teary again. I felt I had started the process to reclaim the house as my home again over the past few days (once it was cleaner) and now knowing Richard couldn't just walk back in at will, and that Dad could co-own with me, it allowed me a modicum of peace I had been missing the past week.
"So, do you have any plans for Saturday?" He asked. I shook my head no. "Good, in that case, we'll have lunch with Barry, get the paperwork started then, once we're set we'll approach Dickhead and get him to sign over his half."
He made it sound so easy. I guess it actually was when you knew what you were doing. I raised my glass.
"To my Dad, best man in the world."
He clinked his glass against mine. "Too bloody right." He grinned.
I laughed. This might all just come together nicely.