Page 14 of Mr. Infuriating

“No, I’m not going to have the former Mrs. Wainwright take her wrath out on poor Shelly for your fuckup.Youcall her.”

“I wasn’t the one who suggested she ride my dick,” Rick grumbled under his breath as he opened a toolchest drawer.

“No, but you’re the asshole who doesn’t know how to put a damn call on hold. Speaking of… remind me to have Shelly give you a refresher training on how the phones work around here.”

“Iknowhow the phones work, Gabe. I just fucked up one time and didn’t put the call on hold like I thought I had.”

“Whatever,” I grumbled. “Just get the installation scheduled, and I’llconsiderletting it slide—this time.”

He pulled the tool he was looking for from the drawer, gave me a mock salute, and said, “On it, boss,” before walking out the shop door back toward the showroom.

I turned the table saw back on and got back to work. As I ran a board through the blade, I realized I was pissed that Gretchen Wainwright had refused to accept my apology.

~~

Early morning a week later when I turned the shop’s lights on, the Wainwright’s cabinets sat staring at me. I wondered if Rick had gotten something scheduled with Gretchen. If not, we were going to have to rent a storage space and add that expense to her bill.

She was really going to hate me.

Eh, she won’t be the first woman. She’ll get over it.

Or not, if my track record was any indicator.

Rick walked through the door at eight o’clock on the dot.

I nodded toward the walnut cabinets. “What’s going on with those? We’ve got a lumber shipment coming, and I have no place to put it with these in the way.”

“She’s not answering my calls or texts. I’ve tried her like four times a day all week. I’ve also emailed her every day.”

“Maybe you need to stop by her house on the way home tonight.”

“You don’t think that’d be kind of creepy?”

“Probably. But she needs to know these are going into storage, and she’s paying for it. And that our next step if she doesn’t take possession soon is filing a lawsuit.”

“And you wantmeto tell her all that?”

“No, jackass. What I wanted wasyouto schedule the installation, but you haven’t done that.”

“I can’t make her respond to me, Gabe.”

“You’re a smart guy. Figure something out.” I put my safety goggles on and grinned at my foreman. “You get that refresher phone training done yet?”

He scowled at me then headed into his office—hopefully to try the elusive Ms. Wainwright again.

Chapter Five

Gretchen

I looked around my classroom Friday afternoon once all my students had gone home for the weekend and let my shoulders sag in relief that I’d made it through another week.

I was ready for a few days off, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go out tonight.

No, that wasn’t true. I wasdefinitelysure Ididn’twant to go out tonight. Laura had texted me every night this week though, apologizing for standing me up two weeks ago while saying how excited she was to hang out and promising to buy all our drinks. She’d even offered again to pay for a sitter, but that wasn’t necessary since my parents were picking Jake up from daycare and keeping him until Sunday.

My family had really stepped up to make sure my son knew he was loved and wanted.

I couldn’t cancel now.

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