“And before that, we’re doing a pullout magazine spread this weekend of the country’s top designers. Not the fusty old-white-man old-school ones. The ones no one else features and take more work to dig up. I worked so hard on it, and the articles are fresh and the photos are different, and it’s going infull colorevery page. All cleared by the editor, an enormous deal.”
I could feel a huge grin burst on to my face. I was so massively proud of her. One of Tabs’s employees and friends, Isla, who used to be an investigative journalist, often spoke about what a total star Tabs was and how good she was at her job. Although I didn’t know anything about newspapers or good writing, I loved her pages.
I was about to congratulate her when her phone buzzed on the table. She pulled it out and checked it.
“Oh, this is the graphic designer now,” she said. “Hello, Robert? Oh?” She listened. “What? But why… We went through this. Can’t we just— No, but please? Can’t we? All right, so you’re saying three pages won’t have color after all?” She sighed. “Okay, okay.”
She rang off and slumped against the wall.
I waited for a few seconds. “Why do you do that?” I asked. My pride in her was overtaken by concern over how quickly she’d caved to this obnoxious employee.
She looked at me, her face screwed up. “Do what?”
“Let people ride roughshod over you. This was already cleared by the editor, and yet this graphic designer says no, and you just accept it?”
“That’s not how newspapers work, Tim.”
She was right. I didn’t know anything about her business. “I’m not criticizing you, Tabs.”
“Yes, you actually are.”
“Well, I didn’t mean for it to come across like that. Look, Isla says your section pays the salaries for most of thenewspaper’s staff, and you have a lot of power. You should use it to your advantage. I’m just saying, don’t put up with this shit.”
“You make it sound so easy. I have to work with this guy, and he’s a right vindictive tosspot and can make my life very tricky if he chooses to.”
I shrugged. “You’re the boss. Just tell him to do it. And if he objects, say you’ll go over his head.”
“Oh, it’s that easy, is it? Thank you so much for mansplaining how to be a boss to me. Look, you might know something about the building industry, taking a hard line with people, but that doesn’t fly where I work.”
I took an angry breath. She was lashing out at me, being defensive, just when I was trying to help her. But was I? I was making myself sound like I was always uncompromisingly confident and thick-skinned. I used to be, but lately, that wasn’t quite as true. For a start, I should never have employed my best friend’s nephew. I should never have taken on this job.
“Tabitha, it’s not easy for me either. On Monday, I had to fire someone who happens to be a nephew of one of my best friends. And now, I’ll see this kid at all my friend’s barbecues and gatherings and at my games and bear the brunt of my friend’s anger and his brother’s remarks that I’m an arsehole. So, I know actions come with consequences, but sometimes you have to lay a hard line.”
“Well, you’re the one who wanted to stay in this bloody small town,” she mumbled, but her eyes had understanding in them, and I hoped she saw that I hadn’t intended my remarks to be critical. I just didn’t want to see her treated like this.
“Does that mean I should lay a harder line with you too?” She narrowed her eyes at me but with a hint of playfulness.
“You’re already hard enough, but why don’t you call back that graphic designer guy and pretend like you’re talking to me? You have no trouble giving me what for.”
She gave me a long, thoughtful look but didn’t answer. Tapping her teeth, she consulted her plans for what was a ridiculously long time, considering both of us knew them backward. I continued chipping away at the backsplash in the kitchen, pulling off the tiles, checking on her out of the corner of my eye.
Ten minutes later, she wandered very quietly into the library. I moved closer to the closed door, checking she was okay.
“Hi, Robert. I was giving your call some thought, and I’m sorry, but the editor agreed to the full-color pages, so it will be done. And there will be no further discussion.”
I was stunned she’d taken my advice, and then a burst of pride exploded in my chest. She’d done it, even if she needed to picture me at the other end of that tense call. Either she was perpetually annoyed and angry at me, or maybe she felt comfortable enough around me to be confident.
I heard movement from behind the door, so I hurried away, pulled the tape measure from my pocket, and started to measure the wall of the hallway. She emerged through the door, bouncy and smiley.
“Everything okay?” I asked innocently.
“Yep.” She popped the P.
She wrapped her arms behind her back and swayed from side to side with a secret smile on her face. I could sayI told you so, but my chest felt as pumped up as a tight balloon, which felt suspiciously like pure joy that she felt good about herself and was back to happy again.
MAKEOVER YOUR MONEYMAKER,sneak peek.
Four design teams compete to turn a home into a business.
