A/N: Wow, thank you very much for the feedback! I didn't expect something like this! It was supposed to appear yesterday, and I realised it when I was already lying in bed, half-asleep, that I didn't update a chapter. I'm sorry! Now, enjoy!
By the time the clock showed that it was eight in the evening, he was angry; no, not angry – furious. He was quite happy, when he called the gardening company earlier during the day and heard that someone could come to him even on the same day in order to take a look at the place and get to know what he expected. He didn't expect such a possibility, so he had plans for the evening but decided to change them; he really cared to renovate the house and he was actually taking two weeks leave starting on the next Monday in order to work on it, so if they were to start working on his garden at that time, it would give him a perfect opportunity to supervise them and make sure they don't do something wrong.
He came home earlier, forgot about the ticket to the theatre, which was lying in the top drawer and waited for the person to come, but nobody came. And as much as he could understand that something important might have showed up, something what they simply had to take care of immediately, it wasn't too much to expect at least a phone call, letting him know that he shouldn't wait, was it?! Now, his whole evening was ruined and he could have been sitting in the theatre, enjoying the spectacle, not to mention that he should have already had the discussion about the garden behind himself.
There could be no single doubt in the mind of anyone, who knew him, that he was going to call the company as soon as possible on the next day, in order to ask what it was supposed to mean. He was a customer, he was paying for what they were doing and if happy, he could recommend them to others, so in his opinion, they should have been trying to please him, instead of annoying him. Obviously, someone in the company had another opinion, especially that when he finally called, nobody was answering the phone.
"I would be surprised if they did answer this phone." spoke Jack, when Myles voiced his displeasure and the Bostonian raised his eyes at him. "They start working at 11, later than most of the companies and in result finish later than them as well, but this way all the potential customers can find a good hour to meet with them without the need to take a day off at work." explained Sparky, as he was somewhat surprised by it at first, too, and inquired about the reason. "I think you've got those working hours on the business card, anyway."
Leland glanced down at the card, which he was holding in his hand and groaned, placing his cell phone on the desk. Indeed, they were written in quite visible, dark green letters just above the phone number, but he didn't really pay attention to them, assuming they would be standard. He simply needed to make this phone call a little later.
"Toni..?" came a voice of the receptionist and she looked up from the pile of papers lying on her desk. "We've got a problem. There is a man on the line and well, he's rather angered because he had a meeting scheduled for yesterday and nobody showed up. It turns out Sarah wrote his name down in Clayton's schedule and I tried to explain the mistake to him, but he doesn't want to listen…"
Toni sighed heavily, shaking her head. Sarah was a girl, who was supposed to help Rebecca with all her duties now, that the company seemed to be gaining popularity and with the season starting, they had quite a few orders. Rebecca was her dear friend, who she knew back from high school; she was afraid of what it would be to join the group of people, who knew each other for already two years, as she moved to DC in the middle of high school, but it turned out well and they were very close since that time. Now, that she inherited the small gardening company a couple of years earlier, she didn't hesitate to hire her dear friend, even though her knowledge about the gardening was limited to the basics.
Over the six years, the company developed; it was still rather small, but other than her, there were also four other gardeners, all of who were gaining wonderful opinions from everyone, who they worked for. Rebecca was the one, who kept it all neat from the technical side; she was generally responsible for contact with customers, scheduling meetings and making sure that nothing was colliding. Lately, however, her father had gotten really sick and she was on leave quite a lot, needing to take care of him, but nobody complained. Even if another person in the company was actually displeased by it, they didn't dare to voice it since Toni was the owner, and her opinion was the most important. And she perfectly understood her friend, knowing what it felt like to have a sick member of the family. It was the reason why Sarah joined them; she was a young girl, who just finished high school on the previous year. It was her first week with them and she still didn't know everyone and everything, and even though it was frustrating that she had made such a mistake, she couldn't be truly angry at her.
"It would be quite surprising if Clay showed up, since he had his appendix surgery the day before yesterday." murmured Toni. "Switch the call to me."
Rebecca nodded, walking away and soon the phone rang.
"Good luck." she heard her friend's voice, just before she switched the call and prepared herself for what was to come.
She quickly understood what her friend meant by her words. It was clear that the man on the other side was quite angered, and she tried to interrupt his flow of words a couple of times, with no results.
"Sir, of course, I understand!" she finally managed to get in between his words, raising her voice just a little. "It was a very unfortunate mistake made by the girl, who is still learning and we really didn't mean to place you in such a situation. I can promise you that I will personally make sure that it is corrected."
"I certainly hope you will, but how long am I supposed to wait for someone to meet with me, now?" he asked and Toni opened her calendar, glancing at the empty sheet of paper.
"I can meet with you even today, if it suits you." she spoke and was met with a moment of silence.
"Five o'clock?" she finally heard and wrote down the address, which the man gave to her.
She breathed out, when she placed the phone back on its base. The man definitely didn't sound like the preferred kind of customers, but those difficult ones needed to be satisfied too and the truth was, that they usually brought much more benefits. All she could do was make herself ready to face him and hope, that she would somehow survive it. Still, she couldn't help wondering what she has just gotten herself into.