Brad, page 7
Cutting through the sea of cubicles, Brad walked from his corner office to the back door of the conference room. “Bro,” he heard. Looking up, he spotted Jon coming from another direction. “Morning.”
“Hey. Glad you got my note.”
“Nashville, huh? Why do I feel like you’re always trying to get rid of me?”
“Not this time. This one goes to a different team. We just haven’t assigned it yet. Don’t worry. You’re stuck here for a little bit at least.”
Jon snorted. “Right. Maybe I should start doing residential houses like Ken. Then I could just keep building Atlanta. I hear it hasn’t sprawled out enough yet.”
“Working on something less than twenty million dollars? You’d be bored out of your mind in a week.” Brad opened the back door of the conference room and they entered to find the rest of the team present.
He walked straight to Owen and held out his hand. “Good morning.”
“Morning.” They shook hands and Brad took a seat in the center of the table. Owen would run this meeting. Along with him and Jon, Brad saw Ian Jones, the mechanical engineer, and Al Carpenter, the electrical engineer. The door opened and Valerie walked in, wearing a lilac-colored pantsuit with a lime green and lilac scarf around her neck. He noticed a very slight limp in her step, but only because he knew to look for it.
He said good morning to her, then turned to Ian. “How’s the restaurant opening going?”
Ian grinned. “Been lots of fun so far. Never seen my wife so stressed. I’ll be glad when the opening night is a smashing success so she can relax a little bit.”
Brad smiled. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. You gonna make it?”
“Definitely. I’ve had your wife’s cooking.”
Owen stood at the head of the table. “Okay, welcome to everyone. Obviously, if you’re here, you know we won the design-build for this mall. The process for competition for the contract started eighteen months ago, so it’s nice to finally start rolling up our sleeves and getting down to it. Remember. This entire area was flooded and under up to twenty feet of water not too long ago.”
He pressed a button on the table in front of him. The screen behind him lowered and the lights dimmed. To emphasize his point, Owen started his presentation with a few aerial shots of the flood on the overhead.
“What we’re looking at is an eight hundred thousand square feet shopping experience in a suburb of Nashville. This project is worth almost $400 million, so we’re also planning on adding personnel to our Nashville office, which right now is just staffed with a couple project managers and a secretary who works remotely part-time.”
The computer model of the mall appeared on the screen. “Everything we’ve done to this point is a shell of a preliminary concept designed to give us something from which to pull bids and give the owners an idea of what our conception of the project looks like. We’re going to use that as the base to truly design it. Senior Mr. Dixon handpicked this team, so I know what we’re looking at is the best team our company can put forward.”
Ian spoke up. “Is the environmental cleanup on the site complete yet?”
Owen nodded. “Right. For those of you coming in new, this mall is being built on the site of an old steel mill. The mill never recovered after the flood. It has been a massive cleanup for another company on another contract and has taken three years. Their projected completion date is in six months, which gives us time to finalize all of our plans and specifications and solicit bids from subcontractors.”
Valerie raised her hand slightly. “How much input is the owner going to have on the interior design?”
Owen tapped a thin folder in front of him. “They’ve given us some input and asked us to give them three different approaches. They’ll look those over and choose one of the three.” He slid the folder toward her. “I know you did some preliminary stuff a year ago. I also know they really liked what you came up with. I’d definitely stick with that as the base for all three.”
He pushed a button and the image on the screen changed to an overhead view of the site. “I want to talk about access now.”
Nearly two hours later, the meeting broke up. Brad sat at the table for another minute, making notes in his tablet while the thoughts were fresh in his mind. When he shut the cover, he looked up and saw Owen stacking notebooks. “Phenomenal job, Owen. You’ve clearly made this project your own.”
“Thank you, Brad. I will admit that I wanted it.” He laughed. “A lot. I have ideas on top of ideas, and these owners are so open to new and innovative.”
“I know that’s up your alley.” He shook his hand. “I have a thing. I’ll see you next meeting.”
“Sir.”
Brad slowly walked out of the conference room, going through the back door, which brought him out into a cubicle aisle. He tried to concentrate on the information handed out in the two-hour-long meeting, but he could only remember what Valerie had talked about, the questions she asked. He wondered now if he should have given her that promotion. Maybe he needed more distance from her in order to function properly.
“Brad!” He turned and saw Al Carpenter, who’d had to leave the meeting to see to an issue on a jobsite. “Hey. Sorry about that.”
“No problem. Current projects need to take precedence. Everything okay?”
“Oh, yes. It’s resolved.”
“Good.” He looked at his watch. “I have a Chamber meeting in forty-five minutes.”
“Your dad relinquishing the hobnobbing, too?”
“Apparently.” He laughed. “I remember the first time he invited me to go with him. I was so excited. I think I was sixteen.”
“Would be nice if we could find some of that young excitement again occasionally, eh?” He paused outside Jon’s office door. “I’m heading into Jon’s office. See you later.”
“Bye, Al.”
Back in his own office, he pulled up his email program, but paused and said out loud, “I hear you, God. Being thankful, finding excitement, not dragging my feet and wishing I was doing something else. Thanks for the confirmation from last night’s revelation.”
He glanced at the clock in the corner of his laptop screen. He could spend about thirty minutes catching up on emails before he absolutely had to leave to make it to the Chamber lunch on time.
While Valerie stood and shifted a stack of paint samples off her desk, Buddy set the two cardboard containers on top of the desk. She could smell tangy barbecue sauce and her mouth started watering.
“Is this Mama Robinson’s brisket?” she asked, setting the samples on the floor and grabbing one of the boxes.
“Surprised you had to ask. I wouldn’t get barbecue from anywhere else in Atlanta.” Buddy laughed.
“How’d you get it?”
“I was on that side of town this morning and placed my order an hour ahead of time.”
She opened the lid and put her nose close to the meat, breathing in through her nose and inhaling the spices. “Oh, heaven.”
“Speaking of,” Buddy said, holding out his hand.
Reluctantly, Valerie placed her fingers in his and bowed her head. As soon as he finished the declaration of thankfulness for the food and the company, he said, “Amen,” giving her the opening to pick up her plastic fork.
After taking a bite of creamy potato salad, she picked up a pepper packet and sprinkled black pepper over the potato salad and coleslaw. “I had dinner with the Dixons last night. I missed you there.”
“Rosaline invited me, but I had a working dinner with some people wanting us to build their house.”
Valerie raised an eyebrow. “Since when are you working residential?”
He pulled a bottle of hot sauce out of his backpack and sprinkled his beef liberally with it. “Oh, ‘bout a year now. Philip and I reworked a few things a couple years ago. I’m VP of residential now, directly under Ken. I pretty much handle the front part of the high-end houses.”
She dipped a slice of meat into the tangy barbecue sauce and took a bite. Her taste buds exploded in delight with the burst of flavor. After chewing and swallowing, she said, “Why? Are you okay?”
“Val, my lovely niece, I’m simply almost sixty-five years old. Your mama was my baby sister. I don’t want to be out there in the Georgia sun, breathing red clay and listening to the clutter of the jobsite. I want to sit in my air-conditioned office and appease millionaires who are building showcase homes.”
How did she not know this? As she pondered that thought for a minute, it occurred to her that she simply hadn’t asked. Looking at Buddy with narrowed eyes, she realized he wore khaki pants and a black golf shirt with the red Dixon Brothers logo emblazoned on the chest. Throughout her young life, he wore blue jeans and Dixon Brothers T-shirts. She hadn’t even noticed his clothing difference.
Now she examined him closely. He’d had salt-and-pepper gray hair for as long as she could remember but had white temples now. His chocolate skin looked smooth and healthy, but his fingers had a slight curve instead of straightening all the way, and his left hand had a faint tremor.
“I’ve not been a very doting niece, have I?” She picked up her drink and took a long pull of the syrupy sweet iced tea.
“Never have been. You was always closer to Rosaline. I think, looking back, taking you away from there for your high school years wasn’t the right decision.” He shoved meat into his mouth and chewed.
While he savored his meal, she thought about his words, knowing he spoke the truth but feeling like she needed to defend his actions at the time. When she opened her mouth, he held his hand up to stop her. “Ain’t no arguing it, girl. You knew it then, but I was so concerned about you growing up so sheltered and wanted you to have some diversity in your life. Putting you into a different school and taking you away from your family, no matter what color they were, that was wrong. But I think maybe I was a little jealous of your relationship with Rosaline. Decided to remove you from her so I could have that love and attention you gave her.”
Sharp tears stung her eyes. She reached out and gripped Buddy’s wrist. “I love you. I’m sorry if I didn’t properly show it. You’re my blood. She’s just….”
“… your Auntie Rose. I know. I know that now. Took me facing myself after what happened to you to realize what I’d done and why. Wasn’t nothing against them. Just was for me. Wrong decisions all around. God worked it out in me.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Valerie replied, “My last couple years of high school were great, and I made friends and had experiences I never would have had. Don’t feel like it was all wrong, even if you wish you’d done something different. We, uh, all make bad decisions.”
“We do, girl. Life is full of ‘em. Thank God there is redemption, or I’d be a hurting soul.”
She took a few more bites, trying to word what she wanted to say. “Uncle Buddy, I’m thankful for everything you’ve ever done for me. I feel like you gave up your life for me, and that is not anything I’ll ever forget.”
He barked a loud laugh. “Gave up my life? What are you talking about?”
“You never married. I don’t even remember you ever dating.”
“Bah, dating ain’t for me. Never was. Never met a woman I’d want to marry. I was content in my bachelorhood before I got you, and I’m content in it now.” He pointed at her with his fork. “What your mama and daddy did leaving you to me, that saved my life. You gave me a purpose, something to work for, someone to provide for. Who knows what would have happened without you. You didn’t make me give up my life; you gave me a life.”
Feeling overwhelmed with sentimental emotion, tears stung Valerie’s eyes—tears she would not let fall. She blinked them back and shut the lid on her empty container, her mouth still singing with spices and flavor, her stomach full of good barbecue. “Alright, then,” she laughed, “that’s enough seriousness for one lunch. You still got Braves season tickets?”
“Yup.” He shoveled potato salad into his mouth and talked around it. “Same seats I always had. Right next to Philip and Rosaline’s. You want to go to the opening game?”
Her eyes widened. “Of course!”
“Been too long since we sat in the stadium together. Will do us both good.” He tossed his fork into the empty container and shut the lid. “I enjoyed this, girl. Want to make it a habit?”
“More than you know.” She grinned as she gathered their food containers and put them into the bag in which he’d brought them. “I’ll toss these in the break room trash so the smell of barbecue doesn’t haunt me all day.”
They started out of her office, but Buddy stopped with his hand on the door. “By the way, Sweetwater Church is dedicating its new library building to your parents. The memorial service is next month. I expect you can come.”
Her stomach clenched in response, but she didn’t immediately tell him no. Instead, she smiled and leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Shoot me the information. I’ll look at my calendar.”
“Do that.” He stared at her for several seconds. “Opening game for the Braves is the last Thursday of next month.”
“I’ll check my schedule for that, too.” She opened the door and stepped out onto the main floor. “We doing this next Tuesday?”
“That’s a great idea.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and swiped to his calendar. “It’s going in firmly. Tuesday lunches with Val. Perfect.” He put a hand on her upper arm. “I love you, girl. I’ve missed you for years. Glad you’re home.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” He left her to go in one direction, and she went in the other to throw the garbage away. After stopping in the restroom to wash her hands, she went back to her office. For several minutes after she returned to her desk, she stared at the empty screen of the Smartboard.
She had no desire to go to her parents’ church to let them dedicate a building in honor of their going on a mission trip and getting killed. She harbored a lot of anger at her parents for leaving her when she was just three years old. She felt like they should have waited a few more years before getting back into inner-city missions. But they just handed her to Buddy, a bachelor who had never had kids, and used their vacation to go on a mission trip in South Central Los Angeles, as if they couldn’t have found something charitable to do in the inner city of Atlanta. A gang shooting left both her parents dead on the street in California and left her and Buddy with just each other.
No, she would not go see them honored. They deserved no honor. They put an imaginary deity ahead of her well-being, and she would not let go of that.
The question remained, though, how to convey that to Buddy? All her life, he took her to church, prayed with her, prayed for her. He and Philip Dixon met weekly to discuss Bible studies over breakfast, and until the day she left for college, he required her regular attendance at youth group events. His relationship with his god consumed his entire life, as it had her parents’. Simply telling him she stopped believing in what he believed sometime during her college freshman Philosophy class would do no good. He wouldn’t hear it.
Taking a deep breath through her nose and slowly releasing it, she let it go. She’d just have to take one day at a time with Buddy and let him see her, really see her, so he understood.
Valerie stood in front of the Smartboard and rolled the remote control around in her hand while she looked at the interior of the main entrance of the proposed shopping mall. Several catalogs showing fountain designs lay open on the floor in front of her and swatches of fabric samples draped over every available surface. Frowning, she stepped forward and double-tapped the screen, allowing her to access the object on the screen so she could select a different color for the tile accent lining the fountain.
Not liking that one, either, she finally hit the button and turned off the board. She had reached the point of overthinking it. Time to step away for a few minutes.
She grabbed her empty water bottle and stepped out of her office. The hum of conversation and work-related noise from all the cubicles and open office doors made her thankful for good sound dampening in the design of the interior offices. She’d realized the first week here that with her door shut, she could forget anyone else even worked in the same building with her. In Savannah, she’d heard every telephone chirp, every text message notification and, unfortunately, most conversations. Here, though, she only heard other people when she had her door was open. At first, she had a hard time concentrating in silence. But after a couple days, she realized how much better she could think and how much more efficiently she worked without constant interruptions.
She walked through the cubicles to the other side of the floor and into the break room. She saw Sami Jones sitting at one of the round tables with two women she recognized from the staff meeting Monday morning, a receptionist from the top floor, and a mechanical engineer.
Sami hopped up from the table. “Valerie! Just in time. We’re talking about our meeting that’s during lunch today. We’d love for you to join us.”
Valerie unscrewed the lid to her water bottle and leaned down over the water cooler to fill it. “Lunch today?”
The mechanical engineer spoke. Valerie recognized a slight northern tone to her voice. “National Association of Women in Construction. We meet the third Thursday of every month.”
The smile crossed her face before she could stop it. “NAWIC? Oh, my goodness, I used to be a member in Savannah.” Used to, meaning, until she started dating Tyrone and he took that away from her like everything else. How had she forgotten about it? The time spent with other women in her city who worked in the construction industry had, frequently, been the highlight of her week. She’d started to forge some close friendships; at least, until they went away. “I’d love to come. When and where?”
Sami clapped. “Awesome. Eleven-thirty today. I’ll email you an invite. It will have all the details.”
Valerie slipped her phone out of her pocket and checked her schedule. “I can do that. Thank you so much!”
