Chapter Six
Darrell, the man in charge of installing the outdoor shower, came inside the human resources office of Stevenson. Brock knew that he had somewhat of a clear mandate from his boss: To get some of the money owed by Stevenson for the work done on the shower.
"We don't have the money right now, this amount wasn't in the budget this month," said Brock.
"We did the work," said Darrell, "the shower is there."
"Are there any other possible arrangements?" Darrell looked at Brock like he was from another country, or planet.
"No, there is no other possible arrangement, there's work, my work, and there's money paid for that work. People are using the shower right now, we provided a shower."
That gave Brock an idea, anything to stall this guy. Fact of the matter was that those five thousand dollars had been allocated to marketing, and it didn't look good on him that recruitment of a new marketing manager would be delayed as a result of an unauthorized expense.
"Precisely, let me call one of our users of this shower, she'll explain part of the reason why we can't pay you right at this very moment."
Brock dialed Clarity's number and called her to his office. Clarity mentioned to Darrell that the shower wasn't working, but Darrell said that was a separate issue which didn't involve him, it involved Flake, who was the one in charge of water supply keys, and Packwood. She suggested breaking the five thousand dollar payment of the shower into five installments of one thousand dollars, one each month, starting the following month.
"Yeah, that might work," said Darrell.
Heather came into the office, unexpectedly, as she often did, startling Brock. Clarity smiled, thinking that Brock was losing any kind of authority he might have had at Stevenson.
"The mayor answered our letter of apology, they want Stevenson to cancel their clothing optional policy, and they are questioning whether you are the right person for human resources here."
"That is a problem, I am the right person," said Brock. He looked at Clarity, and then at Heather, then at Darrell. And then at his computer screen showing financial information, pressing on the green buy rectangular icon. One more share of google, he needed that to get a sense of comfort. He led Darrell outside his office and asked Heather to lead him to the accounting department to put in place the installment payments for the shower.
"I mean, that is a problem," he insisted, holding the letter from the mayor answering Stevenson's letter of apology.
He pushed off his feet from the ground, and his chair swiveled unexpectedly. He found himself facing the window and the outdoors. His father had recommended to him that he become a park ranger as a professional career, something he considered, until he saw that park rangers had to deal with forest fires, and that a forest fire was more difficult to handle than understanding why the price of google went up or down. He opted for a job in human resources, a safe place to study the nebulous area of investments. He knew he had to engage in a new round of negotiations. Brock grabbed the phone and spoke briefly with the mayor's son, before turning to Clarity.
"We're meeting Atkins in twenty minutes, you're coming with me."
Clarity nodded, this was getting more fun than working as teleoperator. She liked it when Brock took these decisions without letting anyone else know. She knew the mayor's complaint put him on the spot and she was enjoying how he managed to duck the various threats to his cushy job. A cushy job, he had, she thought, walking with him down Stevenson's elevator. Brock walked with Clarity towards the bench that Atkins had chosen for their meeting, a bench two blocks away from Stevenson's office building. Atkins sat down to the right of Brock, with Clarity seating to the left of the human resources manager.
"Glad you came," said Brock. The mayor's son looked beyond Brock at Clarity.
"Is she with you?" asked Atkins.
"Yeah," she is, he said, dismissively.
"I'd like to sit over there," said Atkins, pointing to a spot in the bench beside Clarity.
"No," said Brock, "you're sitting in the right spot, you're fine where you are. All right, we brought you here because we'd like you to write an article in the local paper about Stevenson, sort of endorsing it you know."
"Endorsing, you mean saying this clothing optional thing you put in place in your company is a good thing?"
Clarity could see Atkins was looking at her with new ideas in his mind.
"Precisely, yes, and then tell your father that you're all right, sort of tell him to drop the complaint."
Atkins scratched his ear without saying anything for a few seconds.
"I'll do it, I can do that, but I want something in exchange," he said.
Clarity saw that Brock was beginning to sweat, becoming somewhat uncomfortable. She saw him comb his perfect hair with his hand.
"Wh... what exactly, what would you like?"
"I want to go to your next clothing optional day, I just want to walk around the office that day, you know, being the customer that walks around, just ensuring I like the place."
"That can be arranged," said Brock, "I'll talk to our boss, Mr. Stevenson, I'm sure he wouldn't mind that. He wouldn't mind that at all."
Clarity noticed a thin, tall human-like shadow cover her features. She glanced to her left and saw the sleek uniform of Avery, carrying a Malibu city constabulary custodian bowler style helmet on his head, showing a shiny metal badge on the front.
"Everything all right here?" asked Avery, stopping in front of Brock and turning ninety degrees to face him. Brock crossed his arms, and then his legs, lifting his eyebrows matter of factly.
"Quite all right, just resting here a few minutes," he said.
Atkins nodded, thinking the helmet Avery was wearing reminded him of the British 'bobby' police officer helmet.
"All right," said Avery, "just don't make any sleek negotiations behind my back, you're not doing a settlement or anything like that, right?"
"No, not at all," said Brock, "just letting Atkins know that Stevenson is a nice company, a very nice company, that's all."
Avery nodded several times, walking past the mayor's son, unconvinced. Packwood's nephew turned around unexpectedly and spoke again, thinking his authority had to be more definite. His uncle Clifford had ordered for him a brand new helmet made in England thanks to his connections at the Metropolitan police service, and it made a difference in how he viewed himself, the helmet made all the difference with his own sense of authority.
"Just don't think you're going to be smarter than me," said Avery, lifting his index finger towards Brock.
"That thought never entered my mind," said Brock.
"No, we don't do that," said Clarity. Unless there is a moronic officer in front of us, she thought. They sat on the bench for a few minutes, until Avery disappeared from their view. Atkins threw one last glance at Clarity and walked away, agreeing to write something in the local paper in the next few days, something that would make his father drop the complaint. Clarity and Brock walked back to Brock's office.
"This is a mess," said Brock.
"The complaint issue is moving in the right direction," said Clarity, "Atkins is being cooperative. People are going to hear of Stevenson."
"Yeah, then there's clothing optional Friday, I have to think what else can go wrong on that day, Atkins won't make it very easy precisely, he spells trouble. The owner of the city diner doesn't let him in anymore, ever since he spilled a container of milk on the cook because his burger wasn't cooked correctly. He sneaked inside a professor's office to change his grades and was thrown off two city colleges already for copying homeworks, essays, and exams, all in the same day. He's crashed his father's car against the neighbor's car, simply because he wanted a new car, and then he just likes to mess with people in general, because no one pays attention to him."
"Don't worry," said Clarity, "just get naked with me next casual Friday." Her disarming smile threw him off for a few seconds. Brock knew that was coming, he just knew it. Clarity wanted a s
ense of support from him, so that he would finally accept in public that working naked was good for Stevenson's morale and for all of the employees. He didn't share that view, he just wanted to work in a normal place with a normal group of workers. Still, Clarity was nice, very nice, he just liked her because she was a nice girl who could become a serious girlfriend, even if she preferred to have dinner with her boss and his wife, rather than go out with him. The other option was to go out with Cynthia, he knew she liked him, but he had to be more careful, because she was the owner's daughter. He lifted a round ball made of glass showing the name of Stevenson's auditors. He became confused with the idea of going out with two women at the same time, he was more comfortable with the idea of considering one woman at a time sentimentally. Clarity had a nice body, and he wanted additional dates with her, she was comfortable with him, and he was comfortable with her. He couldn't bring himself to say no.
"I'll think about it," said Brock.
Sun on the Rocks - The Outdoor Shower Page 7
