More catching up with coworkers

“Tan,” I called.

The kid - and it felt weird thinking of him like that since he was only really a few years younger than me, but he acted like this was his first job so he gave off ‘the kid’ vibes - didn’t turn around.

“Tan,” I called again. He was looking up at one of the big wall mounts in the main Ballroom.

I sighed and went over to him. “Tan,” I said again, and he jumped a little even though I didn’t have my voice raised.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said. “I just-” He looked back up at the wall mount. It was a big brass ring that could be used to hang a bunch of different decor items we had available, from drapes to garlands to banners. I’d even hung a string of skulls from it once - fake skulls, but still - when we hosted a Wiccan award ceremony.

That was a client we didn’t talk about around the Owners. Fun ladies (mostly), and the Owners likely wouldn’t have had any actual problems with them, but they had to have the appearance of fundamentalist Islamic ideals at times so sometimes we kept a buffer between them and the more… Vegasy things that came up.

“I think this mount is crooked,” Tan said, tilting his head the same way he had been before.

“It’s not,” I said.

“No, it is,” he said before I could explain further.

I sighed. “It looks crooked because of the way those lights there,” I pointed to the ceiling, “cast shadows when those lights there,” I pointed to the nearby lights in the corner, “aren’t on. Believe me, we’ve checked, it’s centred and straight.”

He tilted his head the other way. “Are you sure?”

“Yep,” I said. “Now come on, we need to head down into storage to pull the proper linens and I’m gonna need an extra pair of arms.”

“I’m gonna get fired.”

“You’re not going to get fired,” I sighed.

Walt slumped into the same seat in my office that Tracy had been occupying that morning. “No, I’m pretty sure Doug is going to look for a way to fire me. Like, it’s bad, dude.”

I grunted and closed out my emails, looking over at him. He’d left his suit jacket in his office down the hall - after the all-hands meeting that morning he’d been hosting a pool party after lunch, and there was a live band playing poolside sometime that evening. He was allowed to wear pretty much whatever he wanted when he was running those events, but when he was up in the office he had to be in suits.

And, begrudgingly, I had to admit he wore them well. I always felt just a little too stiff in mine, even if Cassidy and Dayana always assured me I was fine.

“You got the vendor approved through the regular processes?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Contracts were all buttoned up and signed?”

“Yeah.”

“Insurance was set up and paid?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not going to get fired,” I said.

“OK, but have you seen what happened?” he groaned.

“The aftermath and a video,” I admitted. “Though I could hear you in the background of the video trying to get control of the situation, so that’s a point in your favour. I don’t know what I would have done any different if I had been in charge that night instead of you.”

He shrugged and groaned.

“Is your band here yet for tonight?” I asked.

He checked his watch and then closed his eyes, leaning back in the seat. “Should be here in a half hour.”

I shook my head at him since he couldn’t see me. “You gonna camp out here until then?”

“You mind?” Walt asked without opening his eyes. “Doug won’t come looking for me here.”

“Sure,” I said. “You do you, buddy.”

“Thanks, dude.”

“Could you please go talk to her?” Doug asked me.

It was right at the end of the work day - my evening was clear, like most Mondays, since there were rarely any big events on a Monday. The dinner in the Sunset VIP ballroom didn’t need my supervision or an appearance, so the shift managers would handle it.

Doug knew that coming to me at this time of day was throwing me under the bus. He also knew that I was likely his only hope of convincing Vanessa to go out of her way to help him out with the budgeting stuff.

“Really, Doug?” I sighed.

“I would really appreciate it,” he said. “She scares me a little.”

“She scares everyone a little,” I countered.

“Everyone except you,” he said. “You saved her life.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t argue. That was how I’d gotten on Vanessa’s good side. “Fine,” I said. “I’ll go talk to her.”

“Heeey,” I said, wincing as I presented the Venti Starbucks Cold Brew. Black, bitter and still cold as ice without the ice. We didn’t have a Starbucks in the building so I’d had to go out to get it - and damn straight I was expensing it.

Vanessa turned slowly in her chair. She nominally shared an office in the marketing department with Azir, but more often than not I saw the guy working… literally anywhere else in the building. That meant that Vanessa’s ‘two-person office’ was more like a one-person office and rivalled the size of any of the VPs.

“You know I can’t be bribed,” she said coolly as she gestured for me to hand her the cup.

“I know,” I said, handing it over and then producing the chocolate chip cookies I’d picked up from the bakery downstairs. They were closing up for the afternoon when I got there but I managed to finagle a couple of them along with getting them heated in the oven.

She narrowed her eyes as she took them as well. “You know I’m not going to do Doug any favours.”

“I know,” I repeated myself, gesturing and silently asking if I could sit. She nodded and took a sip of her cold, black coffee.

“So this is all a pointless gesture.”

I shrugged. “Pointless? Maybe, though having an excuse to bring you a pick-me-up at the end of the day isn’t awful.”

She narrowed her eyes just a little more, looking at me through slits.

“How’s Sicily?” I asked.

She let out her breath and smirked at me. It was more emotion than she gave most people in the office. “My cat is doing fine, Robbie.”

I reached into my pocket and slowly pulled out the cat toy that I’d pulled from the stash I kept in the bottom drawer of my desk across the building for just this sort of occasion. When Vanessa saw what it was she snorted and rolled her eyes, holding out her hand. I gave it to her; the scrunchy, crackly toy looked like a little cartoon salmon and was designed to have catnip put inside. It would also look very cute if it was being carried around in the mouth of a cat.

“You’re a real bastard, you know that?” Vanessa said, actually giving me a little grin.

“That’s what I’m told,” I sighed, shaking my head.

“I can shift over one month of those commercials, but not next month. I need lead time,” Vanessa said as she tossed the toy onto her desk and broke off a piece of cookie from inside the little bag I’d carried them in, popping it into her mouth.

“That sounds entirely fair to me,” I said. “Thank you.”

“You’re lucky you’re good at your job,” she said. “And are very good at kissing ass.”

“Vanessa,” I mock-gasped, putting a hand to my chest. “What are you suggesting? That I can’t just happen to bring you gifts like this just because.”

“If you did I’d be even more suspicious,” she said, shaking her head.

“Cassidy says hello, by the way,” I said. She hadn’t, but only because she didn’t know I had to interact with the blonde today or else she would have.

“Well, tell her I say hello back,” Vanessa said. “Now get out of here before I decide Doug should learn to do his own dirty work.”

“Thanks, Vanessa,” I said, standing up and leaning down to give her a kiss on the cheek.

Her glare, combined with her smile, at the move was always funny to me because I knew she liked it even if she would have murdered anyone else for being so presumptive. What was a kiss on the cheek after we’d been in a full-on lip lock before, though?

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