Page 51 of Remembering You
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It was nearing five o’clock and Jim hadn’t shown up at the office yet. Chances were, he wasn’t coming into the office at all today. Perhaps he was hard at work on the job site. Or perhaps he was avoiding me. On one hand, wasn’t that what I wanted? Get through these last two days of work at Tripp Construction with as little interaction as possible? But on the other hand, it hurt. It hurt more than I ever wanted to admit that he was avoiding me.
The phone rang and I answered it immediately. “Tripp Construction, this is Marty.”
“Hey.” It was Elsa and she sounded far more sedate than usual. “On your way home, pop by the diner. There’s a burger here with your name on it.”
A soft smile splayed on my face. “You already gave me a free bagel this morning. I’ll feel bad if you paid for a burger for me, too… and I’ll feel even worse if you didn’t pay for it,” I answered honestly. “Like it’s stealing from the diner or something.”
“It’s not stealing,” Elsa guffawed. “Someone placed an order earlier and didn’t pick it up. So it’s all yours if you want it.”
I slanted my eyes in doubt, even though she couldn’t see me. “Did they really? Or are you just saying that because you know I don’t want to accept charity.”
“Fine, I made that up because I know how stubborn you are. The truth is, Jack’s right here next to me—and it was his idea to make you this burger.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, your first lie was better. There’s no way in hell Jack—”
A deep, male voice came over the phone. “She’s not lying.”
“Jack?” I asked.
“Look,” he clipped. “I have a sister. She likes fries after a break up. But fries are terrible for you, so at least with the burger, you’ll have a mix of junk food and protein, too.”
I laughed, but even with the smile on my face, my heart squeezed. “Jack,” I whispered. “You’re a softie in disguise.”
He snorted. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t spread that around.”
“See?” Elsa said, coming back on the phone. “Just come get the dang burger.”
I cradled the phone closer to my mouth, even though there wasn’t another soul around to hear us. “This was seriously Jack’s idea?”
“I mean, I planted the seeds, but yeah. He said it looked like you had a rough couple of days.”
Tears blurred my vision. Maybe I wasn’t all alone up here. Maybe these friends were the real deal… the kind that I could, in fact, lean on. I chuckled to myself. In two weeks, I’d made a stronger friendship here in Maple Grove than I had a lifetime back home. “Thank you,” I said. “I’m closing up now and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I hung up, grabbed my purse, and shut off the lights in the office, heading to the door to lock up for the night. As I slowly made my way toward the door, I watched through the window as a bike messenger screeched to a halt on the sidewalk in front of me, dropped his bike on the ground and charged into the office. “Tripp Construction?” He panted, his chest heaving with each breath.
“Yes,” I said. “I was just leaving for the day.”
“These are the contracts for the new animal hospital on Main Street,” he said, holding out a manila folder for me to take. “We need Mr. Tripp to have them in hand tonight.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the closed office and gave the guy a regrettable look. “I’m sorry, he’s not at the office right now.”
The guy winced and smacked the envelope against his head. “I’m in so deep,” he said. “My boss will kill me if Jim doesn’t sign these today. It’s a permit issue or something. He has a meeting at town hall for approval and they can’t get that without the contractor signing off—”
“Okay, okay,” I held out my hands to quiet him. “Let me see what I can do.” I took the envelope from him.
“Oh, God.” His head dropped between his shoulders. “Thank you so much. I owe you. I would have been canned for this.”
I gave him a funny look as I lifted the phone to call the job site I knew Jim was at today, crossing my fingers and toes that he was still there working. “It wouldn’t be your fault that we closed before you got here.”
He winced. “Except that I didn’t realize these were on my desk all day until about ten minutes ago.”
Ah. Well, then, yeah… pretty much his fault.
“Ello?” A gruff voice answered the ringing phone.
“Hi, this is Marty over at the Tripp Construction offices. Mr. Tripp has a delivery that’s urgent. Is he still on site?”
