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I glanced at my watch. It was almost three. "You sent them over there this morning? Did you go over all the details or are they just in there ripping shit out randomly?"
"Give me some credit, Ben. I'm not new to this job."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. That's why you sent the crew over without even following one simple line of instruction."
"What instructions?"
"To let me know if she wants to move ahead with it. I wrote it on the bottom of the quote I left for you," I barked as I jumped up out of my seat, grabbing my sandwich, keys, and paint book.
"Ben, you need to calm down. I tried to call but your line was busy."
I didn't want to hear it. Ignoring her, I ran out of the office towards the door.
"What about your call with John?" she yelled after me.
"Reschedule," I yelled back.
The crew was already loading their trucks up by the time I pulled up outside of the Madison Avenue building. I climbed out of my truck and jogged across the street, waving at Glenn.
"Hey, Ben!"
"Hey, man. How did it go today?"
"Great!"
"Please tell me you only ripped out one bathroom?"
"Yeah, Julie already told me, one bathroom at a time. Kitchen last."
I blew out a breath. "Thank God." Jess had requestedthat we wouldn't tear apart her entire apartment at once, and I had promised. "Your guys will be on their best behavior?"
"Of course," Glenn said, slapping me on the back.
"All right, head on home. See you tomorrow." I looked up at the high-rise and started towards the door.
Armed with my binder of paint colors, I knocked on apartment 2501. I felt a funny ping in the pit of my stomach—nerves and excitement at seeing Jess again, I wasn't sure. Finally, the door opened and Jess stood there smiling at me. "Hey, I didn't think you would make it here today."
"Sorry, I had a few things to take care of, and now that they are finished, I figured I would pop by and we could pick some paint colors."
Jess stood off to the side and opened the door for me to enter. I slipped my shoes off and followed her into the kitchen.
"Want something to drink? I have water, pop, beer..."
"I'll have a beer," I said, watching her as she bent into the fridge and grabbed a bottle for me and water for her. I couldn't help but check out her still-perfect ass, my mind going in a direction it probably shouldn't. She was just about to turn around when I directed my focus on opening my paint book and pulling out two sample pages.
"Okay, so color. Let’s see what you got," she said, smiling.
"Okay, so I thought perhaps these colors here would be good for the en suite." I flipped the book over to her so she could look, while I cracked the top off my beer and drank down half the bottle.
* * *
I walkedinto Monterey's and spotted Glenn sitting at the bar. I had called him when I left Jess's place to see if he could meet me there. I needed to unwind.
"Hey, man, I ordered you a beer. Should be here any second," Glenn said as I took a seat next to him.
"Thanks. I sure as hell need it right now."
"What's going on? I haven't seen you so worked up over a job as you were this afternoon. Even Julie mentioned something to me as I walked through the office tonight."
