Page 29 of The Estate
“Rachel. Hey, I’m… I’m sorry. About the golf comment. It was out of line,” he apologized. “I know you’re just here doing your job.” He hesitated. “I don’t mean to add to the problem.”
Rachel was more moved by his apology than she wanted to admit. When he was an ass, it kind of made it easier to assign him into one personality box. But this? Recognizing his bad behavior and apologizing for it left her feeling unsettled.
“I appreciate you saying that,” she responded. “Now, what color and amount do you want?”
“You seriously want to help me out even after…” At her nod, he sighed. “Thank you, Rachel. That’s deeply appreciated.” He looked in the folder, flipping a few pages and then said, “A medium blue like a robin’s egg blue.” He glanced up at her, before he continued, “And we’d need twenty-five 120-inch rounds, and four, no, make it five, 90x132-inch rectangles.”
Rachel had taken out her phone when he started dictating sizes. She was typing rapidly. Thankfully, he waited until she’d caught up with him. “Did you want me to repeat anything? And honestly, if they don’t have the sizes, I can work some magic and make other sizes work.”
“I just want to give my sister an idea of the color and range of sizing you need.”
“Your sister?”
Just as she was about to answer, Marshal came into the foyer, “Hey Cal. I’ve been looking for you. Brendan from Copper Rentals is on the main line. He said he’s been trying to get a hold of you.”
“Damn,” Cal swore.
“Go,” Rachel said. “If Jess has any names, I’ll get them to you.”
She could see he had a million questions, but he merely dipped his head in thanks and walked away with Marshal.
The whole situation with Cal was too complicated to contemplate, but hopefully, helping him out wouldn’t bite her in the ass later. Fortunately she could reach out to Jess for her opinion. It was an easy enough ask without dragging her into this nightmare, but it felt important to reach out.She could still build bridges while keeping her sister safe, couldn’t she?
Mind made up, she found her sister’s name in her phone. After a few rings, Jess answered.
“Hey Rachel. Hold on. I’m just going to step outside.”
“If I called at a bad time, this can wait,” Rachel said. While Cal wouldn’t agree with that, her sister’s job came first.
“No. Now’s good. I was due for a break.”
“Well, this shouldn’t take long,” Rachel assured her. “I’m at the estate, and I wanted to ask you a question.”
“Sure thing,” Jess replied cheerfully.
“So… it looks like the event planner here ordered the wrong color linens for an event and now they’re struggling to find a rental company that can get them the color and the quantity they need. Do you know anyone they could try?”
“Is this the same event planner that gave you heart failure at Alex’s wedding by saying the meal couldn’t be served?”
“One and the same.”
“Man, I don’t like to judge, but she’s having some real job performance issues. I know it’s nice to provide grace, but there’s a line there.”
“While I don’t know the complete story, I have to agree with you, Jess. But maybe it’s just a stressful season or something’s going on with her? Either way, I doubt Cal is really that open to my suggestions right now.”
“Oh,Mr. Grumpygot his knickers in a twist?”
Rachel laughed. Her sister’s imagery was too good. “You could say that.”
“He’s being dumb. But let’s start with solving the problem. I do have a name, but they probably already tried it. What color are they looking for? Some obscure hazelnut mocha foam color or something along those lines?”
“Cal said it was robin’s egg blue, you know, that medium blue vicinity. He needs twenty-five 120-inch rounds…”
“Hold up,” Jess interrupted. “Can you text me the quantity?”
“Absolutely.”
“So luckily he’s not looking for a totally obscure color,” Jess said before falling silent to puzzle through the issue.
