“No reason sweetie, I told you.”
“Oh, I’m so stupid,” Elijah said and looked at the ceiling and laughed humourlessly. “You were trying to date me because you couldn’t date him. How could I be so stupid? For fuck’s sake Elaine, you spent time with me for you to get close to Jack?”
“Well it didn’t work, did it? So let’s move on. You both fell for weak women, neither of you could handle a woman like me.”
Elijah stared into space but Elaine thought Elijah was looking at her.
“Get over it Elijah, we’re history, so what’s theproblem?”
“No problem Elaine. I’m not going to discuss business with you today, make an appointment for later in the week,” Elijah said.
Elijah walked away from an open-mouthed Elaine. He was beyond angry and well on his way to livid, he needed to get away from her contrite face. Elaine was not giving up so easily.
“Oh come on Elijah, I didn’t think you were ever going to come out of that office of yours. You should get out more and not immerse yourself in your job. You might stand some chance of finding a girlfriend.” She sat down on the stool and beckoned him to sit next to her.
She was still bitter and there was nothing Elijah could do about it. If she needed to vent that way, he could take it. He’d heard far worse and probably deserved it. Elaine was right, he did immerse himself in his work, it was the only thing he found he could rely on. With Lilly being more than his lunch break fix, he planned on changing his ways. He decided to remove the anger from his mind and play her at her own game. The quicker he had this conversation the quicker he could be rid of her.
“It’s lovely to see you Elaine, please forgive my quick temper, you look ravishing as always.” he said as a reply to her acidity.
Noticing the faint blush form on her cheeks and she combed her fingers through her hair, preening. He smiled. She still wanted him, which could work in his favour, she might be reasonable to what he was going to say.
“Thank you Elijah but I’m not here for your compliments, I need you to sign off on the final painting and give me adate when I can finish the damn thing. Obviously it’s going to take longer now that the fire has damaged the base coat.”
Her tone had softened slightly, but she was still all business. She wouldn’t take this next bit well.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to cancel the rest of it Elaine and not go any further ahead.”
“You can’t do that Elijah, you signed the contract for me to do the painting. You gave me the job, you can’t just dismiss me halfway through.”
“I did give you the job and I can take the job away too. I cannot meet your criteria so the deal is off.”
“What criteria?” she asked hesitantly.
“The health and safety part of your terms and conditions. The area that you are painting in, isn’t cordoned off enough for it to be safe. For you to safely do the painting, I’ll have to shut the place for a week and I cannot afford to do that. You’ve taken a lot longer than originally discussed. Now that the damage has been done, you will take even longer than you said you would to complete it. So as it says in your agreement, I have to ensure complete fire safety while you’re here. I can’t do that so the deal is off,” Elijah concluded.
“I don’t believe you, you’ll have to pay for my time and loss of earnings Elijah, and you can’t just walk away. I have turned other work away to take this project on,” Elaine said.
“That was your choice Elaine, not my fault. You can ask any independent but I have asked an ex-Fire Chief his opinion. He is very familiar with this property, he oversaw the fire safety here when I first opened and he said that it wouldn’t be safe to my customers to have you here at the same time. Your contract says that I will not suffer anyloss of earnings while you are here. So I have to walk away from your services,” Elijah said.
“You can’t do this Elijah, you will regret it if you do this,” Elaine said.
“Are you threatening me?”
“I’ll make you pay for breaking the contract, one way or another.”
Elaine hopped off the stool, grabbed her handbag from the bar top and walked out of Blue’s. He sat there in silence until Pete came over.
“What did you say to her? She looked angry.”
“I told her I couldn’t carry on with her here, she was taking too long and I was losing money. She threatened to make me pay. I thought it went better than expected. She didn’t slap me which was a bonus.”
“You only get slapped when you’re breaking their hearts not their bank balance. I’d keep a close eye on her, she looks like spiteful one.”
“Maybe, but I think she’s all bark and no bite, she’ll realise that she hasn’t a leg to stand on and we won’t see her again.”
Pete grunted and walked back up the galley to the other end of the bar and served a customer. Pete made a good point, she wouldn’t let this go, but he had to find a new painter. His mind instantly flew to Lilly, but he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Mixing business with pleasure always backfired.
Elijah needed to speak with Lilly’s brother about his drug dealing and see what he had to say for himself. When he saw him again, he would give him a good talking to, with his fists preferably. He was vehemently anti drug and distanced himself from anyone taking drugs let alonedealing them. The Police came to Blue’s during their time off and it surprised him that any dealer would come within fifty feet of the place. From what he understood about Lilly’s brother, he was intelligent but not very smart. Not the best combination.
