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unstrapped the palatalized, steel banded, gray, building blocks. He rolled and stored the thick straps that secured the load.
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Another set of headlights swung into the parking lot. A large black SUV approached. Eddie recognized the license plate.“ 2 COOL” was so obvious as Rodney pulled window to window with Eddie.“ Hungry?” he asked, handing a What-A-Burger bag out the window.“ Couple of breakfast burritos,” he said, as Eddie took the bag.“ Thanks,” Eddie said.“ Coffee?” Rodney asked, reaching for an orange and white striped cup.“ I’ m empty,” Eddie said, shaking his travel mug and taking the full cup from Rodney.“ Tailgate meeting. If yours works?”“ Cool,” Eddie said, poured the contents from the Styrofoam cup into his mug and headed for the back of the truck. Rodney joined him with a bag and a cup of his own as Eddie dropped the tailgate. They sat eating and watching the sun rise over the trees on the far side of the road, illuminating the front of the building and casting long shadows. Rodney pulled a small digital camera from his pocket and snapped a few pictures of the building and trucks being unloaded.“ For posterity ' s sake?” Eddie asked.“ Frank wants to see progress.”“ A picture is worth a thousand words.”“ You are supposed to be a man of few words.”“ I’ ll go buy a camera today,” Eddie said. Rodney nodded.
The clean-up crew arrived as they finished breakfast.“ May I borrow your camera?” Rodney handed over the compact unit. Eddie hurried to the front door, unlocked and pulled the door open. The piercing sound caused everyone to put their hands over their ears. Eddie’ s eyes began to water as he fumbled for the key to turn off the alarm.“ Shit!” he yelled, as he tried to put the key in the hole. He could not hear himself as the sound seemed to travel down his spine and palsied his hand. Finally there was silence as he turned the key. He snapped a few pictures and returned to his vehicle.“ I hope the cops are not on their way,” Eddie said.“ I called and told them we were starting construction. They know to wait a few minutes before sending the cruisers,” Rodney said loudly, with a smile. Eddie was waiting for the ringing in his ears to subside as Rodney asked,“ How was your first day?”
“ Samantha Evans was the only person to say hello,” Eddie’ s voice began to sound almost normal to himself.“ What do you know about her?”“ Sam? Married to a semi-retired oil company executive. He is loaded and works because he still likes the rush of high finance. Oil runs through his veins. But that is more of an observation than a fact.”“ Why does she work if her husband is loaded?”“ Likes having her own money and her husband seems happy that she is not some socialite, spending all his money on parties or charities whose operating costs eat all but the smallest fraction of the dollars they pay forward. At least that is what I’ ve heard.”“ What would she want from me?” Eddie asked.“ Can you be more clear?”
The sun was taking the chill off the day and Eddie motioned for Rodney to join him inside the truck. With the doors closed Eddie explained the whole scene to Rodney’ s obvious amusement.“ Are you asking me if Sam is the office pass around?” Rodney laughed.“ I don’ t know. Maybe.”“ The answer is no. I’ ve never heard anything like that from anyone. Tracy and Beverly know pretty much everything about everyone. I’ m tight with both of them,” Rodney said, and read the look on Eddie’ s face.“ It’ s not like that. Beverly was my secretary when Tracy was hired. They got along great from the start because Beverly had a say in who was hired. Beverly came into my office and I knew she had something on her mind, so I pressed. She told me Tracy had a boyfriend who was starting to get a little rough. Man, I was raised better than that. She slipped me Tracy’ s address. I just happened to be in the neighborhood on a Friday night. I followed Tracy and her boyfriend to a restaurant, waited a few minutes and went in. I acted all surprised to see her and asked in my most charming way, if I could join them. You know I just hate to eat alone.”