Never Again – 27

 

Joseph arrived at the bar with five minutes to spare, parking in the lot beside it then looking for Cal's truck. When he didn't see it, his first thought was Cal had changed his mind. Getting out of his car, he headed toward the bar's front door.

"Took you long enough," Cal said, coming up beside him.

"Hey, ten minutes, and how did you beat me here—and where did you park?"

"I knew where I was going and I parked on the street. Keeps my truck from getting dinged by drunks as they leave the lot." He held the door, waiting for Joseph to go in.

The place was on the small side, which Joseph had figured from the exterior, and it was noisy. A TV blared on the wall above the bar, all the stools were filled with people enjoying the Happy Hour twofers, and most of the tables were as well. Cal spotted on empty one in back, pointed to it, and told Joseph he'd get their beers.

And now what? Joseph wondered as he made his way through the crowd to the table. Is this just a 'let's talk business' thing as far as he's concerned? He looked over to the bar, seeing Cal talking to the bartender. A minute later he had two bottles of beer and was heading over .

Pulling out the other chair, Cal sat down, handing Joseph his drink. "To a successful endeavor," he said, raising his own bottle then taking a deep swallow.

"It will be," Joseph replied. After taking a drink he asked, "Did you have any problems getting all the paperwork done?"

Cal shrugged. "It wasn't as bad as it could have been. The building was still in the original owner's name. He's moved west—to Texas of all places—and was very glad to sell it." He chuckled. "He thought I was crazy for wanting to buy it and said so, several times."

"Even when you told him why?"

"Even more so. But it didn't matter. It's ours now and we've got all the licenses and what have you to do the work."

So all he wanted was to talk about work. Should have figured as much. Well I did actually, Joseph thought ruefully. Aloud, he said, "With luck we might be finished in four to six months."

Cal nodded in agreement. "Or sooner if everyone busts their asses on the houses so they're working with us in a few weeks, not a couple of months."

"Do you have any other places in mind once we're finished with the apartment building?"

Frowning, Cal staring at his bottle while slowly peeling off the label. Then he looked at Joseph again. "Do we have to talk business?"

"Isn't that why we're here?" Joseph replied, a questioning look pasted on his face even as he bit back a sigh of relief that apparently it wasn't.

"No. I just, I wanted some down time that had nothing to do with Rebuild, work, or anything, other than just relaxing."

"With me?"

Cal shrugged. "Yeah, why not? You're a good guy, easy to talk to." His voice petered out and he went back to work on the label.

"I don't think anyone's ever described me like that before."

"You're kidding?"

"Not really. I told you I'm pretty much of a loner so no one's really had any reason to."

"What about the guys you worked with on your website?"

"I was their boss, not their friend. Well—mostly. We'd celebrate holidays together sometimes but it was just an office party more than anything else."

"Sorta like me, only I don't even do the party thing with the guys. Somehow I don't see all of us sitting down to a turkey dinner. Hell, we're usually at one of the shelters serving it at Thanksgiving. That is the next holiday, right?"

Joseph laughed. "Unless they've come up with some other one they haven't told us about. Yeah, it is."

"Sorry. I'm pretty bad about keeping track of stuff like that."

"If it wasn't for Beth and Brian, I'd probably forget them myself," Joseph admitted.

"Nice, having a close family, isn't it." Cal's tone was wistful but he quickly changed it, saying, "On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for not having that sort of responsibility. It's enough having to run Rebuild." He chuckled, finished his beer, then stood. "I'm having another. You want one?"