Eric's negotiations

Eric shook the hand of one of his foremen and wishing him a good weekend before grabbing a few folders from his desk and heading out the door. He had a few hours of work to do this weekend and giving Lauren some cash just might be worth it to get her out of his hair when he had to do some work from home. Stopping by the bank for cash was easy enough and he might need to spend a little cash for his last errand for the day to get things done. Driving down the road Eric’s thoughts were of Jordan. Not the accidental foot job he was getting the night before, but of how he felt sorry for his friend. Things had gotten out of control, but he was to blame for what is happening now too. If he hadn't threatened to kick him out everything would be different. If he didn’t push him so hard, they wouldn’t be pretending to be a couple and lying to his sister. “Fuck I can’t believe first night in she told mom I was seeing someone.” Eric said as his thoughts drifted to his sister and how she was making this worse while doing her best to help him. “If I tell her the truth, she will tell mom. No chance she won't flip out.”

This wasn’t exactly the busy season at work, but he had more than enough on his plate without his sister or Jordan’s issues coming back on to him. Eric’s mind was in turmoil thinking of the things he could have done to stop this, or how many times Jordan made things worse. “I can’t tell Lauren what is going on, if I do that it could make things worse for Jordan. He makes enough problems without me creating one for him. “I just have to think of what I am going to tell her.. I did say I would tell her everything. Shit, something to think on, I guess. For now, at least let's see if I can solve this issue, she got us into.

Pulling into a parking spot at the front of his apartment complex Eric got out of the car double checking his wallet for the cash for his sister and cash to bribe the maintenance man before walking in side up to the counter. Signing in he listed he wanted to talk to Frank about the repairs in his apartment.

The office girl behind the counter smiled at him when she read it. “He should be right with you Mr. Morrisson, but while I have you, I wanted to talk to you about your rent.”

Eric smiled at the pretty blonde with green eyes. “Is there a problem? I paid the rent this morning.”

“Sir, I have good news for you not bad news. Everyone likes a little good news on a Friday. With the water leak in the unit it seems it effected the floor below you too and yes that is good news for you at least. As it was determined to be an at fault issue we are lowering the rest by two hundred dollars this next month. A small amount compared to the pricing here I know, but you know the rates in the city! The best part of the news is, that the issue happened to coincide with when we figure out if rent will be going up for when you resign your lease. You see the system sees the discount as a lower rent and it was determined for you at least sir that rent would not being going up.”

“It doesn’t go up every year, but that is good news. I’m happy to not pay more if I can help it.” Eric smiled back at the girl.

“I don’t think I was clear, let me try again. The computer sees your rent as two hundred dollars lower for when they are calculating rent and because it is not going up. That means for you Mr. Morrison, when you sign another year lease the rent will be two hundred dollars cheaper!”

“That might be the best thing I have heard all day; I could just kiss you!”

The girl blushed “Maybe coffee instead?” she asked hopefully.

He didn’t actually mean what he said, but the prospect of going out on a date with the pretty blonde made this even better. Of course, he couldn’t do that while he was playing pretend house.

“Listen.” Eric looked down at her name tag. “Sarah, I have company in town for a bit and my sister is a handful. I would love to, but maybe a raincheck?”

Sarah continued to blush and quickly wrote down her phone number on the back of a card and handed it to him. Eric continued to stand there and talk with Sarah for a few minutes before Frank came to the front.

Frank was still in his overall uniform his bald head sweaty and it just gave the older man a look of being slimy. “We good now, sister took care of our umm friendship.”

Eric was used to negotiators at the job with hard men and Sarah just gave him an extra ace in the hole.

“Frank, things are not taken care of. “

Eric stood up straight to his full height, no slouching. “You took advantage of my situation to get yourself something a little extra, that is aggravating to be on the other side of it. You know what though, I can respect wanting to get something for yourself. The two of us have an issue now though.”

Frank took a step back “No issue, is good we good.”

“No Frank, we have an issue. You came blackmailed my sister, that is a big issue Frank. She doesn’t even have claim to any of the things you took from that room Frank. That would be called theft Frank.”

Panic set in on Frank and it was clear to see on his face. “What would happen if I told Sarah over there what happened. Worse thing that happens to me is I have to find a new place to live. You though Frank, you could be arrested for grand theft Frank. I am going to need all the things you took from that room and do it now Frank.”

“No, no, noo I am. I sold the computer and music instrument, rest thrown out. Everything else bad from water. I have the money from it though, you take and maybe we forget.”

Eric held out his hand to Frank like the man had done to him the first time they met. Reluctantly the older man pulled out his wallet and started to count out the bills. Soon Eric was putting an extra two thousand dollars into his wallet. He wasn’t sure what that keyboard was worth, he only knew it was expensive. “We are good now Frank.”

With that Eric left the building smiling, Friday was turning out to be a good day.