Page 84 of Mr. Infuriating

Chapter Thirty-Three

Gabe

I didn’t stop at the pharmacy for sleeping pills, but I did make an effort to be nicer to the staff.

Well, at least to Shelly.

I may be the guy who made the furniture, but she was the one who really ran things, and we’d be lost without her. I was under no illusion to the contrary.

So, when she came into the shop holding a file folder, I shut down the saw and offered a smile.

“Hey, what brings you back here?”

“Well, I have a question about what you want to do about the Wainwright account.” She opened the file and leafed through some papers. “The cabinets were delivered over two weeks ago, and I’m getting ready to send her an invoice. But I’m not seeing where they were installed.”

“That’s because they haven’t been yet.”

“Oookay. Are we planning on installing them?”

“Yeah, we just need to get something scheduled. But as far as the invoice, we’re going to setup a payment plan for her.”

“A payment plan?”

“Yeah.”

“Do we have a contract for that?”

“Not yet. Maybe you could look into drawing something up?”

“I’m sure I could. What kind of terms?”

I did some quick math in my head and threw out some numbers.

“Three years, no interest, with equal monthly payments.”

I hadn’t talked to Mav about any of that, but I was making an ownership decision. He could be pissed at me; I was willing to take the heat.

“And what about the install?”

“I don’t know. Let me talk to Rick about scheduling something, and I’ll get back to you with a figure.”

****

Gretchen

I called around to a few handymen about getting a quote to install the cabinets. But the one guy who actually showed up gave me an estimate that made me choke.

Although Gabe had never told me an exact number, I was certain it’d be cheaper to just have his company do it.

“We could do it,” Laura suggested one night when she came over for dinner.

That was an idea. I’d taught myself to do a lot of things, thanks to YouTube.

But after watching a few videos, it didn’t take long for me to realize we were not equipped to handle a job that big. Not just physically, but I didn’t have the tools necessary.

Laura observed, “I mean, don’t we just need a sledgehammer to do the demo work?”

“Okay, so we rip out all the existing cabinets, then what? I don’t want to destroy my kitchen only to then realize I have no idea how to put it back together.”

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