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“Did he say that?”
“No. I did.”
“You know Jane Austen and you know the quote? You don’t strike me as an Austen fan.” Lisa reaches for her laptop bag and begins loading her work inside.
“I’m not. I’m not much of a reader, to tell the truth.” I smile. “But my mother likes Jane Austen and has quoted her on more than one occasion. I’ve heard it said that the most successful people are readers, so I’m sure they find the rest of us pretty mundane.”
Lisa’s hands still on the clasp. “Do I give that impression?” She furrows her brow.
“Not at all,” I assure her, and she visibly relaxes. “But I think you probably enjoy books so much it’s hard to believe other people wouldn’t find at least some pleasure in them.”
That brings out a smile. “True enough, but I’ll try not to hold that against you. Spying on me I might have to object to, though.”
“I wasn’t spying.”
“No?” She glances up, and I catch her in my gaze.
“No. Just waiting for you to reach a good stopping point.”
“For ten minutes?”
“I might have exaggerated that a bit,” I confess, never breaking our stare. “But no rush. I'm happy to wait until you're done.”
“Why are you waiting?”
I glance toward the front door. “The lock.” I shrug.
“What lock?”
“I’m installing new locks on the doors.”
“What’s wrong with the old locks?”
“Well, for one, you have to lock them. Manually,” I add at her confused look. “These lock automatically.”
“Why do we need that?” she asks, closing her laptop bag.
“Security,” I tell her. “I know it’s pretty sparse right now, but there’s still some equipment we want to keep safe. And we want to make sure only employees have access, so no one is in an unlocked building all alone.” I wink.
She freezes. “This is because of me, isn’t it? I forgot to lock the door the other night, so Charlie decided to make sure I didn’t have the chance to forget. I’m costing him money he doesn’t have.”
“It would cost him more not to have the extra security,” I assure her. “I’ve been telling him to upgrade the locks for weeks. Your being here alone helped him see where he was vulnerable. Besides, the landlord takes care of expenses like these, not Charlie.”
“It was your idea to change the locks?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Charlie’s got a lot on his plate right now. Things like safety hazards aren’t on his radar, but they can’t be ignored. I like to try to find the things that need doing but might not need his attention.”
“So you’re the handyman?” she asks.
I try not to wince. “I do like working with my hands, yes. But security was just an example. There’s lots of things he can’t focus on right now, like getting the phones set up, making sure the office has enough bandwidth to get work done, office furniture.”
“Aren’t those all things the landlord would take care of?”
“When there’s no office manager, yeah.”
