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George found that counting the water beads on a water glass was the best kind of distraction. The silence around the table was making her uncomfortable, and that bothered her a great deal. Not because she wanted to fill in the awkward places but because her boss, Ange Dawson, thought that she was in charge of the meeting. When she wasn’t even close to being anything but an annoyance for the three people who had arranged it, back to her beads of water.
When one of them would run into one of the other beads of water, she’d simply start over. As soon as she was finished, rarely did she ever get to all the beads; she would ask for a refill and watch as the water would start to bead up again. It was her thing; she supposed that when she was a customer at this place, she got a fresh glass of water every time she had a refill. George tipped well enough for it, and she felt better about having a nice clean glass every time she wanted a drink.
“Ms. Rogers, are you paying attention, or do I need to have you tell the client how sorry I am that I’ve brought you along. Again.” She glanced around the table before addressing her boss. “Well? You’ve been staring at that glass like it’s going to give you all the answers. It’s not, you know. Whatever is going on outside your head, it’s not in that glass.”
The clients, Ben and Barbara Dennison, simply cleared their throats and looked away. They were embarrassed, and she didn’t blame them one bit. Again, Ange, an ass of a boss, had made a fool of herself and tried to make one of her. George sat up higher in her chair and smiled at the couple she’d been meeting today without her boss. She looked at her watch, never pulling out her phone for the time, and realized that the meeting had gone over time forty minutes. Things would continue to go on like this if someone didn’t act soon. George nearly burst out laughing when Ange apparently decided that she was going to act on the time.
“Ben, are you and Brenda happy with the way things are going on at your home? The renovations? They’re up to speed?” Ange laughed then, sort of manic-like, and Barb asked her what she was talking about. “Well, since I’ve been working with George for the last three months on your home, making sure that she is at least making a showing at showing up to work and making herself look good—I have to admit, it’s been hard doing double duty on my end, I thought that I would as you how things were going.”
Her belly churned up, and she could feel the burning begin right in the center of her chest. The small touch to her leg a pat from Barb, she knew who it was. George felt her confidence rise a bit. Ange asked her what she was going on about, then asked if she was drinking on the job again. That pissed her off, so she looked for a glass to count beads on. Ben shoved his glass toward her without touching the rim or sides so she could see the water beads. When you worked as close as she had with this couple, you got to know a great deal about them. And they had her as well.
“I wish that it hadn’t been required of me to tell you that part of my life, Ange. You use it on me every time you want to put me in my place. Or think to put me in my place. I am sober. I have been for six years. I don’t drink. I don’t snort, nor do I partake of any kind of drugs.” Barb winked at her. “You said that you were going to be running this meeting, so go on ahead. We’re all listening to what it is you have to add to whatever you think is going on.”
“Well, as I was telling Brenda and Ben here—” Barbara told her what her name was. “I’m sorry. Again, I have to keep an eye on Georgeanna every minute. She can be really good at her job when she’s sober, but there are times, like now, when she gets in over her head. Anyway, I was just mentioning that I’ve not heard anything from the two of you in several weeks now and Cara—my airhead of a secretary, told me about this meeting. I wanted to be here in the event that you had any concerns about what we’re going to be doing for your house renovation.”
Barb and Ben looked at each other and then back at her. With a smile, Ben stood up and then leaned down and kissed his wife before simply walking away from the table. Barb was gathering up her things when it seemed to occur to Ange that she was leaving, too.
“If she’s given you so much trouble that you want to go with another firm, I wish that you’d allow me to take over. As I explained to you when I had Georgeanna work with you that she had a drinking problem, and at times, she did use drugs. It’s an ongoing issue that we’ve had with her, but I assure you, as I like to say about Ange Designs, we’re all family, and we work well with each other.” Barb paused to pick up her purse and stared at Ange. “I’m sorry for whatever problems she caused you. I wish you had—”
“I wish you had done your homework before hijacking our meeting. Today was supposed to be a celebration. A sort of launching party, you might say. Every week, when you call one of us and ask how George is doing, we tell you how great of a job she’s doing. You don’t want to hear it at all, so the last time that you called, I told you all about the spit-up that my nephew had done on my carpet. The color, texture, and whatever else I could think of for the twenty minutes that you allowed me to prattle on about it. Let me ask you something, Ange, why did you hire her at all if you were only going to bash her name every time you spoke of her. Or tried to get us to bash her, too? Why? One would think that you’re jealous of her work. Because if you’re not, you should be.” Barb looked around the room before eyeing Ange again. “How about this room? Do you like it? Have you paid attention to the detail of the workmanship in here? George did this for us. Took our restaurant and made it look like a million-dollar country club setting. I just love it, and so do the people coming here.”
Ange looked around the room. If she were invited to the kitchen area, she’d see that more renovations were going on in there as well. Lighting, as well as floors, had been put in for the kitchen staff, which worked better with flow. The uniforms had been changed as well. It didn’t take much to make a staff happy if you simply listened to what it was they wanted. And all this staff wanted was to be recognized as part of the place, not a statue or picture where you could go unnoticed for years, but a vital part that got the work done. George had loved working on that with them.
“Our business has tripled since this part of the clubhouse was finished. Did you know that my husband and I own the country club? Anyway. After the renovations were finished up on our kitchen, four months ago, George came to me with a few ideas about this area of our lives. You see, she knew that we owned this place and helped us, on her own time, in getting the parts of the pieces to make it look like this together so that when we closed up for five days to do the work, that’s all it took. To be closed. I’ve not heard a single person complain either about how they didn’t get paid for being off. Would you like to know why?” Ange nodded, her face paling compared to how tanned she had looked just this morning. “They helped. Some of them painted. Others just took the trash out. It was fun for all of us, including my son. Christ, you should have seen Jess getting into the job. It did my heart and my husbands a great deal of good to see everyone coming together with—”
“I knew about this.” Barb cocked her brow at Ange. “You think that something this massive can go on with my own employees, and I’d not know a thing about it? No, I knew. How do you think she was able to think things up like this with her nose so full of coke all the time? Someone had to keep her on the steady. I’ve told you this a hundred times, Brenda—” she told her name again—“Whatever, Barbara. She’s a crackhead. An alcoholic. When are people going to get it in their thick heads that she’s nothing? Not unless I say so. And all this? Well, it’s my baby, and I dare you to say anything differently.”
“I don’t believe I’ll have to prove anything that happened here and who was in charge of the project. As I said to you before, this was a celebration and a launching party today. Until you had to butt your two cents in. But I’m guessing that’s all right, too.” Barb leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “You go ahead, darling, and tell this nasty person how you’ve decided to go solo from now on and have been working hard on it too.” Barb laughed as she finished gathering her things up. “Oh, I wish I could stay and be here when she gets the news, but I do have some things of my own to launch, too. Goodbye, Agne. I do hope you feel what it’s like to lose a treasure as you have. George is going to be brilliant, and you’re…well, I’m afraid that you’re going to have to do your own work from now on to get any credit for it.”
A platter of fresh food bits was sat in front of George. She picked at it until the waiter brought her a glass of fresh water. With a bump to her elbow from him, she started eating the carrots. Ange stared at her while she enjoyed—well, sort of enjoyed the food. Her belly was churning up.
“You’re going to be working for me forever without a single complaint, you know that, don’t you?” George couldn’t answer with her mouth full of celery so she didn’t bother. She was relieved to see Ivy Tucker sit down across from her and grab a handful of the fresh bits, too. “We’re having a private conversation here. I don’t know what you want, but get your ass up and get out of my face. I’m busy here.”
“Oh my, what a way to speak to a stranger. My goodness. Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed today?” Ivy reached out and took her hand into hers. “Hello, Georgie. I’m sorry I’m late. But I did get the most fantastic call from Barb—not Brenda on the way in. She’s having a wonderful laugh at this.”
The waiter came back and smiled at Ivy. George laughed when he told her that the kitchen would fix her whatever she wanted, and she was laughing like a small child. While she ordered, Agne looked at her.
“Your ass isn’t going to be able to get out of this so easily, Georgeanna. I’ll own you before the end of the day.” George asked her what about her did she want to own. It seemed like a good question to her, but in Ange’s state of mind right now, she didn’t see the humor in it. “What sort of plans did you make with the Dennison’s? I want to see receipts, hours worked as well as the bill that you gave them for all this lavish work. Also? The bit about you having the employees working? Don’t ever do that again. I have contracts with others that—”
“You have contracts. I have none. I don’t think you’re going to like what my dear friend here is going to tell you. Ivy, when you’re finished ordering half the menu, I’d like you to meet Angie Dawson-Grubbs. I should point out that she hates the Grubbs part, but that’s her legal name.” Ivy smiled and took the hand that was sort of offered. “She came to the meeting that I was having with Ben and Barbara. She keeps calling her Brenda for some reason.”
The small kick to her foot had her picking up another bit of food. The people around her were so good for her. They not only kept her on path, but they helped her to keep from babbling as well. Which was something that she did when she was particularly nervous. Like now. Kicking her was Ivy’s gentle way of reminding her to shut up. Nicely, of course.
“I don’t care who you are. I’m going to call my attorney and—” Ivy cleared a small place on the table and laid out the stuff that she’d brought with her. As she continued to take food off her plate, a fresh one was brought to the table. There were olives on this platter, and she knew that Ivy would eat every one of them. George wouldn’t touch them if her life depended on them. While the two women spoke, mostly Ivy, George thought about how she’d met Ivy. She really was her dearest friend and had been since before grade school. The fact that they’d ended up in the same state, much less the same city, by the time George was going down for murder was a miracle. A lifesaving one.
“Georgie?” She looked at Ange and Ivy and smiled. “Honey, your phone is ringing. I don’t know why you have that sucker if you never plan on answering it. It looks like it’s from my husband, Hudson. Answer so we can get on with this blowout.”
Picking up her phone, she answered it as she was leaving the table. He told her that he needed to talk to her about something that was happening near her. It was about her brother’s children.
“I didn’t know that he had any children. Why do you think that it’s important enough to—he’s dead, isn’t he? It’s about time.” He told her everything that he knew about how he’d come to be dead and that they’d found his wife’s remains as well. “Okay, good for them to be away from him. What does this have to do with me?”
“The kids, a girl, and a boy, are living with my wife’s family. They’ve been abused, as I’m sure you could guess, as well as being used to sell drugs for their father, your brother. There won’t be any charges put against them, but they need someone like you to come here and sign the paperwork to let them be adopted by the oldest Tucker. If it comes to that.”
“What do you mean, if it comes to that?” He explained that there was the option of her taking care of them. “I don’t know anything about kids. And it’s doubtful that anyone would give a former crackhead custody of two kids. I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but I didn’t have a great life. I’m just getting back on my feet as it is.”
“I’m aware of that.” She figured that he would know more about her than she did before calling her. “George, I don’t want to pressure you or anything, but the kids don’t need to be put into the system. I think that they’ve had enough bad things happen to them, and a good, stable home is more than they could have gotten staying with their father.”
