Page 10 of Never Kiss the Bad Boy

I bet it takes the promise of presents and cookies to get someone to voluntarily hang out with Kathy and her condescension, entitlement, and cattiness. She’s most definitely on a Worst Mothers-In-Law list somewhere, I bet. And I doubt even a water slide would be enough to bribe the grandkids to willingly come here for a visit. Not that she asked for something as fun as that. That’s not her style, nor the reason I’m here. No, I agreed to do her project because of the large sundeck with green and gold swirl mosaic porcelain tile that’ll be a beautiful addition to my portfolio, which is seeming less important the longer I’m dealing with Kathy.

“A pool seemed perfect,” she says almost wistfully. But she changes directions and tones at whiplash speed, from her supposedly much-beloved grandkids to Dani. “Especially once you put up the eight-foot-high fence to block the view of my annoying neighbor. I’m sure you’ve met her already. She can’t stay out of my business.” She rolls her eyes and waves a hand dismissively before looking at me eagerly, like she thinks I’ll agree with her assessment of Dani and join her in gossiping.

“The fence will provide some privacy,” is all I concede, though I’m thinking it’ll give Dani equal privacy from Kathy’s prying eyes because I don’t think it’s Dani in Kathy’s business, but rather the reverse. If it was just about property lines, the four-foot chain-link fence I hopped the other day would be more than enough, so it’s obviously more than that.

“Good. She’s always bringing all those dirty, unruly men of hers in those big, loud trucks to the neighborhood,” Kathy sneers, as if my crew and I aren’t the exact type of men she’s complaining about. “It’s a safety risk, you know. Especially when I’m outside tending to my garden.”

Kathy presses her lips into a flat line of distaste as she looks toward Dani’s, making it sound like she’s a prostitute bringing Johns to her house for a quick fuck, not a hard-working businesswoman providing a much-needed and appreciated service. I grit my teeth, not liking the way she’s talking about Dani. It might not be my business, but I still want to defend her and tell Kathy where she can stick her judgy bitchiness, and it’s not next to her fucking begonias.

But neighborhood feuds aren’t my job, although I’ve been the cause of a few. Not everyone likes it when their neighbors add loud, messy construction jobs to the local ambiance, and every once in a while, these feuds get vocal. When they’re good, they’re amusing breaks in the middle of the work day. When they’re bad, they interfere with my guys getting the job done.

I’m getting a bad feeling about the battle between Kathy and Dani.

“We are going to need to figure out the parking situation,” I comment, thinking about my truck.

It’s an opening for Kathy, who gleefully says, “It’s not an issue, because as I’ve been repeatedly reminded, curb parking is allowed in this neighborhood, and it’s not assigned by the house. And if it’s causing problems to my… neighbor” —she says it as if she can’t stomach saying Dani’s name—“then it’s not my problem, now is it?”

That was low, and her smile just took her from annoyingly bougee to villainous, and it occurs to me that despite her claim that she wants her grandkids to visit, given that she really doesn’t seem like the grandmotherly type, it’s more likely that her entire reasoning for getting a pool is to fuck with Dani, like some long-term petty revenge situation.

I have to say that it’s a unique situation for me. I’ve been used as a ‘make my boyfriend jealous’ type of guy before, but being used like this is different on so many levels. On one hand, I want to tell Kathy to go fuck herself, have my guys walk off the site, and if she wants the hole filled, she can do it her damn self with her gardening shovel.

On the other hand, a job is a job and she’s a client. The fact is, I put in pools that cost a lot of money. Regular, blue-collar, working-class type people whom I tend to like can’t afford the pools I put in. Which means I’ve dealt with Kathy’s type plenty of times. And in my business, walking off a job is a major blow to my reputation. I hurt my rep, I hurt my guys.

So instead of going with my gut reaction, I swallow down my revulsion at being used this way and decide to use charm to defuse the situation. For my benefit, and Dani’s. Not Kathy’s, though I won’t let her know that. “I can understand your point of view, and you’re right. We also want to cause as little disruption as possible while we’re completing your project. At the end of the day, you’ll have your pool paradise to enjoy with the grandkids, but we don’t want to cause any long-term issues.” I leave off the ‘for you’ because I don’t really care about causing Kathy problems.

But Dani? For some reason I can’t explain, I do give a shit. She seems like ‘good people’, and I’d like to put myself in the class too, so I don’t appreciate being Kathy’s weapon of choice.

“It will be paradise as soon as she stops her nastiness,” Kathy snaps, and I grit my teeth, saying nothing. Even that leaves a sour taste in my mouth because I don’t want to fuck up Dani’s business as much as Kathy seems to want that.

Ignoring her words, I stick to the issue at hand. “Well, it’s currently a risk for my guys, my equipment, and my trucks, so we’re gonna have to figure something out,” I reply matter-of-factly. Ticking off on my fingers, I add, “For safety reasons, to maintain traffic flow for your street, and most importantly, to cause as little disruption to your day as possible.” I pause, reminding her that she claims that’s what she wants. “We need to do something about the parking system. I suggest keeping the heavy machinery in the back yard, and we can pull the trailer to the back of the driveway. That’d save you a lot of headaches.”

She glances out the window, and I can virtually see her forming arguments against my plan. “I don’t want to destroy the side yard.”

I shake my head. “It’s going to be damaged by the equipment, as we knew, and replacement of the sod is already included in the quote.”

“I need to be able to get out of my garage and driveway too,” she continues, gesturing to the driveway. Honestly, it’s a valid excuse, even if it is annoying.

“Okay. But we’re going to have days where that area is blocked off, and you’ll have to move your car early in the morning if you want an opportunity to get out,” I tell her evenly.

She grins, looking self-satisfied at having gotten her way, which is to make my life hell and Dani’s life even worse. “Be sure to let me know ahead of time when those days are coming, and it’ll be fine. Until then, I’m sure you’ll do your best parking somewhere out there.” She waves a hand, not toward the street out front but specifically toward Dani’s curb space.

Somewhere out there? She absolutely means wherever it inconveniences Dani and her customers the most.

I at least handled the dirt situation and keeping Kathy off the jobsite, which are significant wins in my book and for my crew. The parking issue isn’t going to get better.

Hell, I’m surprised at this point that Kathy hasn’t parked her own car in front of her house, forcing us to park Wayne’s truck, the trailer, and my truck elsewhere along the street. She probably didn’t think of that, but now that I have, if we have to move the trailer, I’ll be sure to leave one of our trucks there so Kathy can’t belatedly make things even worse for us.

“We’ll get back to it, then,” I say by way of goodbye. Kathy doesn’t answer, just sips her coffee. Yeah, as I figured, she never offered me one.

Going outside, I find Wayne and pull him aside. “She’s a real piece of work,” I tell him in a low voice. He raises an eyebrow, and I reply, “Not sure I solved anything, but at least today is smoothed over. Dirt stays in the back yard and she’ll stay off the site.” I shrug, knowing it’s not enough.

He grunts, not liking the sound of that, but there’s nothing else to be done about it today.

Moving on, I look over the job site. Zeus is on the trailer-loaded excavator, with Frogger directing him so he doesn’t fall into the hole he’s making. We’re still in the shallow end, so things are relatively simple right now.

“How’s it going?” I ask Wayne, watching Z pull another bucketful of soil out of the ground. “Think this will be enough to handle it, or do we need to bring in the big boy?”

Wayne considers, thinking about the excavators that I have available. “I think we’ll be able to handle it, but maybe have the 306 on standby on Friday,” Wayne says, referencing another piece of equipment. “I won’t be upset if it has to come in, to be honest.”

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