Yes. Deshawn picked up his coffee. Then that's what we do. Tommy nodded. Yeah, that's what we do.
Marcus looked at them both. These two men who had thrown in with him, who trusted him, who were choosing the harder right over the easier wrong, the same way he was. And he felt something that was not quite gratitude and not quite relief but was somewhere between the two. I'll have new projections by Wednesday. Marcus said and Deshawn, you're getting a raise when we get through this.
Marcus, I said what I said. Desawn shook his head, smiling in spite of himself. Man, you know that's backwards, right? Company in trouble. Boss gives raises.
The company's not in trouble, Marcus said. The company's in a test. He looked at them both. We're passing it. He didn't see Olivia again until the following Thursday.
He was on the east side of the property. Working through the morning when Richard's car arrived, followed shortly after by the dark blue one. Richard came over first. As was now routine coffee in hand, one for Marcus, and they talked through the week's progress. Marcus showed him photographs he'd taken at various stages.
The way he documented every job. Not because clients usually asked for it, but because it was his own record of the work, his own proof of what had been there and what had been done about it. She was asking about you, Richard mentioned. Without quite looking at him, Marcus looked up from the photographs. What kind of asking?
Professional. A pause. Mostly, Richard handed him the coffee. She's dealing with a difficult situation at the company. Some investors pushing back on decisions she's made.
She could use he stopped. She could use someone talk to who doesn't have a stake in the outcome. Mr. Bennett, Marcus kept his voice steady. I'm a contractor.
You're a person, Richard said simply. That's what she needs, not a strategy, not an adviser. A person. Olivia arrived at Marcus' section of the property about 30 minutes later. She was in different clothes than the night he'd met her.
Still professional, but more like someone who'd grabbed clothes from a real closet than a business trip suitcase. She had a laptop bag over one shoulder and the particular aura of someone who had been in back-to-back meetings since 700 a. M. And was not yet done with the day. She stopped a few feet away and looked at the progress.
It's further along than I expected, she said. Efficient morning. She looked at the exposed framing. The new wood beside the old. You can see the difference, she said.