“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Edna said, although Charles knew her type. She not only didn’t agree with Jenay, she couldn’t stand the sight of Jenay.
“When you give an order to take care of a situation, especially a health hazard like mold and mildew,” Jenay pointed out, “you make careful note of it.”
“I do,” Edna said. Charles knew she was lying.
“And then,” Jenay continued, “you go back and check yourself. To make sure it’s been done.”
“But she told me she had taken care of it.”
“She lied,” Jenay said. “It’s obviously not taken care of.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Edna said. “I can see that. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be able to see that.”
Charles looked at Jenay. Was she going to take that kind of lip?
But Jenay moved on. “How regularly do you check your staff’s work?”
“Apparently not regular enough,” Edna responded.
“How often?” Jenay asked again.
“Once every few days or so, I don’t know. There’s no set time.”
“There needs to be a set time. Not every few days or so, but every single day.”
Edna glanced at Charles. Charles remained non-committal.
Edna looked back at Jenay. “I don’t think you understand my duties. I have to do their timesheets. I have to find coverage when somebody’s out. I have to answer complaints by guests all the time. I have to---”
“Every day, Edna,” Jenay said. “You check the rooms every day. That’s your number one job from here on out. If you need additional help to---”
“I don’t need help. No thank-you.”
Jenay could cut the tension between her and her subordinate with a knife. But she wasn’t going down that road with this woman. “And just as you check their work daily, I will be checking your work daily. I will do constant spot checks myself, to ensure that there are no hiding places for spots and burns, and there are no corners cut. If a burn occurs, for whatever reason, the carpet must be mended in that spot. If it can’t be mended, it will have to be replaced. But we will not have rugs covering anything. We will not be that kind of establishment.”
“We?” Edna asked.
Jenay and Charles both looked at her. “Yes, we,” Charles responded. “You have a problem with that?”
“Oh, no, sir,” Edna quickly responded. She even smiled. “No problem here at all.”
“If the situation regarding the cleanliness of these rooms persists,” Jenay went on, “I will not only fire the maid responsible for cleaning the room, but I will have to fire you as well.”
Edna was surprised. “Me?”
“That’s correct. Do you now understand the importance of your first responsibility?”
Edna nodded, although it was obvious she didn’t like it. “Yes, ma’am,” she said.
Jenay almost told the older woman that she didn’t have to call her ma’am like that, but she caught herself. Because she did have to call her ma’am. Because Edna and all of these long-timers like her had to understand that this Bed and Breakfast didn’t belong to her, or anybody else on staff. This establishment belonged to Charles. And Charles made the decision to put her in charge.
“I’ll be checking every vacant room today, and I’ll be noting all of the problems. Tomorrow when I check, and I will check, I’d better not see any of those problems unresolved. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am,” Edna said, tight-lipped and firm. Jenay wasn’t sure if she was determined to get her job right, or just angry that she was being forced to get it right. Charles was sure it was the latter.
“That’ll be all,” Jenay said to Edna. And Edna left.
Jenay looked at Charles, certain he approved of the way she handled the situation. But she was wrong.
“You should have fired her ass,” he said as he stood up.
“Fired her?” Jenay asked, stunned.
“Yes,” he said, as certain as she was stunned.
“But she hadn’t been warned yet. She’s a middle-aged lady with responsibilities I’m sure. I can’t fire her without warning her first. If she doesn’t abide by what we discussed today, then yes, she’ll deserve to be fired. But after working here for nearly twenty years, I feel she deserves to be warned first.”
“Stop feeling,” Charles warned Jenay. “I didn’t hire you to feel a damn thing. I like your judgment, and I’ll go with it in this case, but you need to keep your feelings out of it.”
“So you would have fired her?”
“On the spot,” Charles responded. “I should have hired a GM when I first took over this place, I understand that. But since I acquired this place, she and the rest of these people were paid every single week, with my name on every single one of those checks. And they cashed every single one of those checks. They were paid to do a job regardless of what I did or didn’t do. She wasn’t doing her job. I would have fired her on the spot.”
“With no warning?”
“When you don’t do your job, you get fired. That’s your warning. She didn’t do her job and she knew she wasn’t doing it. She’d rather sit behind some desk playing around with timesheets than to walk the plank and find out what level of work her staff is really doing. I paid her to do that, she didn’t do it. As soon as I found out she wasn’t up to the task, it would have been over as far as I was concerned. She would have been out. Because I’m going to tell you something, my dear. Kill problems as soon as they arise or they will fester and become bigger and bigger problems until they become a disaster. People destroy businesses. Not the other way around. Let’s go,” Charles said as he headed for the exit.
Jenay wasn’t accustomed to this side of Charles, and it was a little disheartening to see that he could be so heartless. She followed him out of the room, and she still wanted to see where their relationship would lead, but she also realized now she needed to pump the brakes a little and ease up a bit. After last night, she was ready to give it her all and fully commit to this man. But now, after the way he so easily fired Beatrice, and after the way he would have so easily fired Edna, and that whole Big Daddy nickname, she knew she had to slow her roll. To wait and see. To watch and learn.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The front door of the small brown home was opened by a tall, lanky teenage boy, and Paige Springer hurried in. “Where is she?” she asked the boy.
“In the kitchen,” the boy said.
Paige hurried in that direction.
Beatrice was seated at her small kitchen table, nursing a cup of tea, when Paige hurried in.
“Tell me it is not true,” she said as she sat at the table across from Beatrice.
“Wish I could tell you that,” Beatrice said.
“It’s true?”
“It’s true.”
“She fired you?”
“He did. In front of her.”
“Why that bastard!” Paige roared.
“It was the most humiliating experience of my entire life, Paige,” Beatrice said. “I will never forgive that man for how he treated me this morning. Never!”
Paige shook her head. “No,” she said.
Beatrice looked at her. “No what?”
“No, we will not do it. We will not let that . . . that woman come to our town and take over. She just got here and she’s firing you?”
“Charles was the one who fired me, just so we’re clear. But he did it right in front of her.”
“Which makes it worse,” Paige said. “It was as if he was attempting to impress her at the expense of your livelihood.”
“That’s how I feel about it too,” Beatrice agreed. “He was impressing her. As if she was the only one who matters now. Where did he dredge her up anyway?”
“I don’t know. I’ve asked everybody, and no-one has ever heard of her before. It’s strange in the extreme, in my view. And I tell you we will not sit idly by and let this take root.”
“But what can we do about it?” Bea
trice asked.
“Root her out,” Paige responded as if it was obvious. “It’s going to take time, and a lot of planning, but we are going to do it. We are going to root that heifer out!”
Abigail Ridge sat on the patio of her beautiful home and looked at her tiresome pool boy. He was one of her playmates when Charles wasn’t around, and he hadn’t been around in over two months. But the beauty of their relationship was her invisibility. He allowed her to live in this home for free, he paid all of her bills, and all she had to do was be available whenever he needed her. She just had to keep her mouth shut about their relationship, and be available. She did both exceedingly well.
And now, with this new news that she hadn’t even shared with Charles, she felt she had placed herself in a stronger position. But breaking it to him was the problem. The timing had to be perfect. She was hiding it well, but wouldn’t be able to hide it completely for too many more months. But timing was everything with Charles. If she picked the wrong time to tell him her news, everything could backfire. And nothing was going to backfire in her life.
But she certainly needed a change in her life. She was pushing forty now. Surfer-dude pool boy wasn’t cutting it anymore. She wanted real dick. She wanted Charles’s dick, which was what she privately called her Big Daddy. But it had been two months and nearly two weeks exactly, since she had a taste.
She never questioned it. They’d had dry spells before. But then pool boy made a little offhand comment that was no different than all of the other offhand comments he enjoyed making while he cleaned the pool. Except that it rocked her world.
She was leaned back on the lounge chair in her oversized bathrobe, with her shades covering her eyes. She was taking in what little sun there was, and actually enjoying herself, when her boy toy stopped gossiping about the local librarian being caught with the local, married principal, and mentioned Beatrice Moynihan. “It’s a shame what happened to her,” he said.
Abby opened her eyes and looked at him. She knew Beatrice worked for Charles. “What happened to her?”
He looked at her. “Didn’t you hear? Big Daddy Sinatra fired her today.”
She had to play it cool. Even pool boy didn’t know just how deeply her relationship with Charles actually ran. She lifted her shades on top of her red hair. “He fired her?”
“Yes! And he didn’t do it in a nice way, either. At least that’s what I heard.”
“But why would he fire Beatrice? She’s worked at the Inn for ages. She worked there before he even thought about taking over that establishment.”
“That’s why it’s such an outrage,” the pool boy agreed.
“But why did he do it?” Abby wanted to know.
“From what I’ve heard, he had to make room. He fired Beatrice to make room for his new girlfriend.”
Abby’s heart immediately began to pound. “His new girlfriend? What new girlfriend?”
“Haven’t you heard? She came to town yesterday. She’s now the general manager at the Inn. And get this: she’s African-American.”
This really intrigued Abby. “Oh, really?”
“Yes, ma’am. She’s a black bombshell from what I’ve heard. If you go to your country club tonight, you may see her. A friend of mine who works there told me that Big Daddy made a reservation for two for dinner tonight. It was the first time, according to my friend, that Big Daddy has ever made a reservation for two. It was always for one, for himself. He always ate alone. Never would take any of his ladies to the club for dinner. Until now.”
Abby could hardly believe it.
“And from what I hear she’s hot,” her pool man added.
Abby looked at him. “Hot? What do you mean she’s hot?”
“Very nicely packed, according to what I’ve heard. Some guys are saying she could give you a run for your money, Miss Abby.”
Abby smiled her one-second smile and then frowned, and pool boy, who knew when he had hit the wrong nerve, quickly reversed course and began talking about other matters. He, like everybody else in town, knew that she and Big Daddy Sinatra had an understanding going on, and that he paid her bills. She seemed to be the only one who didn’t know that everybody knew.
Abby didn’t even know about this new girlfriend Charles had brought to town. He had other women. That was his nature to always have a slew of them. But he’d never brought any of his outside women into Jericho. That would be a first. She would be discreet. She wasn’t as obnoxious as Paige Springer and a few others who loved to broadcast their affiliation with Charles. But she was going to ask around. And see for herself if Charles showed up at their club tonight with that woman on his arm. Because if he did parade her out so publicly, she would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this lady was different. She would know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this lady was not going to be just another bed warmer for Charles. She was going to be competition for Abby.
It was such a picturesque small town situated against a gorgeous mountainous view, Jenay thought, as she drove slowly into town toward Charles’s downtown office. It reminded her of all of those beautiful postcards, and of places like Mayberry RFD. Any moment she expected Andy Griffin, or Barney Fife, or little Opie and Aunt Bee to come out onto the pristine sidewalks with smiles and good cheer all around. But as she drove by, in Charles’s car, instead of smiles, she got stares. Instead of good cheer, she got a lot of whispers and sidelong looks. She was a stranger here. And they wanted her to know it.
The turn-by-turn navigation system in the car took Jenay straight to Charles’s office. And his office was a surprise too, as she unbuckled her seatbelt and took a good look. Not that she expected a Donald Trump-type office building in a place like Jericho, but she did not expect this small, understated storefront of an office either.
She stepped out of the car, grabbed her purse, and walked across the sideway to the entrance. Sinatra, Inc. was written on the plate-glass window, and was in semi-circled letterings as if it was a pawnshop or a bakery or some other type of small-scale business.
It was surprising, given Charles’s obvious wealth, but Jenay was learning that Charles was in many ways very surprising. He never seemed to be what people wanted him to be. Even she had been disappointed in him already, when he didn’t like the fact that she chose not to fire Edna. But he didn’t seem to care that he didn’t live up to people’s expectations. He was his own man and he lived his life his own way. His style was going to take some getting used to for Jenay, but she could see where she could someday really understand him. Someday.
“May I help you?” an older woman asked as Jenay entered the office. She was seated behind a big, glass-enclosed reception area not unlike the kind you find at a doctor’s office.
“Yes ma’am. My name is Jenay Franklin, and I’m here to see---”
“Yes, Miss Franklin,” the woman said as she stood up and came from out of the enclosed area. “He’s expecting you. Right this way, please.” She began walking down a narrow hallway. Jenay followed her.
“He has a visitor at the moment,” the woman said, “but he instructed me to bring you straight back when you arrived.” She opened the door and stepped aside.
When Jenay entered the office, Charles looked up from behind his desk. “Jenay, come in!” he said cheerfully, and rose to his feet.
“Thank-you,” Jenay said to the receptionist and walked further into the office. The receptionist closed the door behind Jenay, and went back to her desk.
Jenay entered slowly. Another man was seated in front of the desk, and he stood up and buttoned his suit coat on her arrival. And just like the front of the office, Charles’s office itself was just as understated and small.
“Come on in, sweetheart, I want you to meet Buzz Hadley.”
Buzz extended his hand. “Hello, there,” he said as they shook hands. He was an older man, in his fifties seemingly, with a nice smile.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Hadley,” Jenay said.
“Call me Buzz, please. We aren’t form
al type people here. All of that Mr. and Mrs. doesn’t work in Jericho. We’re good, hard-working, simple folk here.”
“Don’t believe a word of it,” Charles said as he reached out his hand for Jenay to come around his desk. “He’s the president of my bank and there’s nothing simple about him.”
When Jenay made her way behind the desk, Charles surprised her by giving her a big kiss on the lips in front of his bank president. She would have thought he wouldn’t want the gossip just yet. But again, Charles surprised her. She was not going to be his secret. In no way, shape, or form apparently.
“He doesn’t believe I can settle down with one woman, Jenay. He says they’ve heard the news that you were in town and some at the bank are already laying odds on how long our relationship will last.”
“Laying odds?” Jenay asked.
“They’re betting you’ll leave me within the month. They’re giving us one month only.”
“Actually three weeks,” Buzz said with a smile, “but who’s counting? I am, actually. I bet big bucks.”
“On our breakup?” Jenay asked with a smile.
“Unfortunately, yes ma’am,” Buzz responded. “That’s how we do it in Jericho too.”
“Because of Charlie’s past?”
“Unfortunately, yes ma’am.”
Jenay laughed. “You’re basing it on the odds, I understand that.”
Buzz was surprised. “You don’t mind?”
“Why should I? Charlie’s got a past. I’ve got a past. Every one of God’s children has a past. The key, for all of us, is not repeating it.”
Buzz nodded. “That’s the key, you’re right about that. That’s the truth.”
“Anyway, Buzz,” Charles said as he grabbed his jacket off of the back of his chair, “I’ll pay her a visit.” He began putting on his jacket.
“Make it clear to her, Charles, please make it clear to her. She won’t listen to anybody else. She has to get out today, or the sheriff is going to get her out of there tomorrow. And that will not be pretty. We’ve all forewarned her. Maybe coming from Big Daddy Sinatra, she’ll get the message.”
Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) Page 13
