Logan checked through the last section of the specifications then sighed. He had been working on the specs for a new ladder truck for the Fire Department for over six months. Logan was always meticulous about such work. He held multiple meetings with the fireman to make sure the specs had everything they wanted. Or at least everything he could manage to get the manufacturer to include.
Sometimes that wasn't possible. Some of the things the fire crews wanted were impossible to include in the package. When that happened Logan would set up a call with the truck manufacturer, himself and the fire crew representative to work it out. Most times it could be included after some modifications. Some times it was just not possible.
Logan was proud of his ability to work through all of the stumbling blocks and get a final bid spec that most liked. He had worked his way up from his hire position as a tire guy by taking night classes at the local community college. He had been promoted to a mechanic position, then lead mechanic, then shop foreman, and finally to his present position. He really enjoyed writing specs and also enjoyed the interaction with the other city employees he encountered.
He was almost done with this set of bid specifications. The next step was to send it to the contract specialist who would review it, then send it on to the legal department for review of the boiler plate legal language, then send it out for bid.
As he set up an email to the Contract Specialist and attached the specs he thought of the new lawyer they had hired. He had only met her once in person. He thought she was a pretty young lady, auburn hair that cascaded to her shoulders, dark brown eyes with long dark lashes. Her skin tone was light brown and smooth. She was 5' 1" or 2" tall and had a classic hour glass figure.
She had reviewed all of the specs he had done over the last 4 months. A few time she had questioned one or two of the line item specs for a piece of equipment and it had taken several back and forth emails to convince her that he had done it right. Her questioning of those line items had usually been so off base and wrong that Logan had a difficult time not telling her to stick to her job, reviewing the legal language of the bid and leave the equipment specs to him. But he had spent way too much time smoothing egos in his job to let it get to him, so he took his time and explained in detail why it was how it was so as not to inflame her anger or ego.
Now the specs were ready to send on. Logan had been extra careful with these specs. A ladder truck was something that was expensive, over a million dollars for most of the models, but that wasn't the only consideration he had to deal with. Like the bucket trucks he spec'ed for the Electric Operations Division this ladder truck would be taking the firemen up to 100' in the air. They would be putting their lives on the line that the equipment was safe. And by extension they put their lives in Logan's hands to make sure the equipment would be safe and keep them safe, so every part of it, every spec for it had to be as perfect as he could make it.
He skimmed through the specs one more time before, with a sigh he sent them off. Legal was known to take their time with things like equipment specs, so he didn't expect to see them back to him in less that a couple of weeks.
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Sharon had been hired by the city 4 months before right after she passed the Law bar exams. She thought going to work for a government entity like the city she would be immediately immersed in high profile legal cases. Instead she had been relegated to the mundane job of reviewing contracts and various documents for the other city departments.
As she walked into her office that morning she was in an extremely foul mood. She and her boyfriend had been having a difficult time for the last couple of months, so difficult they hadn't engaged in sex in weeks and it was showing. The night before they had a huge fight and her boyfriend had slept on the couch. When she woke that morning she had found a note on the kitchen counter telling her she was a bitch and he was done with her. When she tried to text him a message telling him what she thought of him she found he had blocked her number.
Her response had been volcanic, "WHAT THE FUCK!!! You bastard! You slimy bastard!"
On her way to work she had stopped for a coffee. The Barista that served her was new. The young lady got everything about Sharon's order wrong. The drink was tepid rather than hot and it didn't have her requested hazelnut/chocolate flavoring in it. When Sharon had stormed up to the counter and confronted the Barista with the drink, the new employee had broken down in tears, which caused the manager to come to the defense of her employee. The manager and Sharon had spent the next 5 minutes hotly debating (with more then a few expletives on Sharon's part) the incident until the manager handed Sharon her money for the drink and asked her to leave and never frequent her establishment again.
Sharon flopped into her chair and opened her email. She found the normal messages from finance and her boss which she dutifully read, rolling her eyes at the boring content of each. Then she opened the email from Lucy Carmichael the Contract Specialist. She noticed it had an attachment labeled "Ladder Truck Specs'. Because of everything that had happened that morning, that sent her into a tizzy.
"Damn it! Another boring, inconsequential review of legal language that hasn't changed the last 100 times I looked at it!" She muttered.
As she read the message from Lucy her bad mood soured farther. Lucy, by request of Logan the specification writer, had requested that Sharon move the review to the front of the line because he wanted to get them out to bid soonest.
Sharon's anger boiled over, "What? He wants me to make this a priority? To hurry? WHAT...THE...FUCK???"
"Okay, I'll hurry, but he isn't going to like it!" She snarled.
She pulled up the document and began to read through it. She was only suppose to look for and question things that might get them into legal hot water. Instead she began to question many of the actual equipment specifications that Logan had so carefully vetted. When she was done a few hours later there were red markers and comments on almost every line of the document.
Sharon grinned as she sent the document. She didn't follow the usual protocol. Instead of sending it to Lucy she sent it directly to Logan with a terse message that she had taken the request to do her review quickly and had sent it directly to Logan to help speed up the situation.
Logan was off that day and didn't get the message from Sharon until the day after when he got to work and opened his email. As he read her message his brow furrowed, wondering why she sounded so petulant, which was rather difficult to do in an email.
When he opened the bid document and saw all the red markers his first reaction was, "What the hell???"
He began to read through them and within one or two realized that Sharon didn't have a clue about what she was questioning or the impact of the changes she demanded. In frustration Logan got up from his desk and walked out into the shop area. His office was in the equipment repair shop. He liked the location because he could quickly go out into the shop and look at something on a piece of equipment if he needed to. He walked around the shop talking to the crew until he felt calm enough to address the situation. He went back to his office and called Lucy.
When she answered he said, "Good morning Lucy."
There was no need to identify himself because they knew each other very well and could identify each other by the sound of their voices.
"Hey Logan!" Lucy responded with her characteristic happy tone, "What can I do for you this morning?"
Logan laughed and replied, "Lucy you ask me that every time I call and you know what I want to say but if I do I could get hung for harassment!"
"Are you accusing me of teasing you?" She asked playfully.
"You know I am and you know you are!" He shot back.
Lucy chuckled and said, "You're right. I shouldn't, but it's so much fun!"
"Yes it is. But down to business. I got an email back from legal with my ladder truck specs."
"What? She skipped past me? That's not right!"
"Yeah and when I opened them she had gone through everyone of my specs and red marked most of them with some really bizarre comments and suggestions."
"I could talk to the Public Works Director about it. If I do he will go to the City Attorney. It could get messy and spiral out of control and become a turf war between departments."
"Yeah I remember the last time that happened. The Finance Director and the Planning Department Director got into it and nothing got done for weeks until the City Manager put his foot down and threatened to fire them both. Thanks but let's hold off on the nuke option for now."
"So what shall we do?" Lucy asked.
"I think I'll call her and see if I can't figure out why she's so pissy and maybe I can smooth her ruffled feathers."
"Turn on th old charm!" Lucy replied through a giggle.
"Yeah, you know me, Mister Charming!" Logan replied.
"Oh don't try to bullocks me! I've seen that temper of yours when it shows up!"
"Yeah but I can't afford to let it out most of the time. So when can I buy you coffee?" Logan asked.
"Come get me at morning break Wednesday next week." Lucy replied.
"Okay. See you then."
When Logan hung up he stared at the wall for half a minute steeling himself, then picked up the phone and dialed Sharon's number.
When she answered he said, "Hi. This is Logan Brouwer. I need to talk to you about the specifications for the new ladder truck."
Sharon grinned as she replied, "I'm not sure what we need to talk about. There were so many mistakes I couldn't possibly let you send them out."
Internally Logan groaned realizing this wasn't going to be easy.
Using his calmest voice he said, "We really need to talk about your editing of my specs. I think you might be mistaken on many of the suggestions you made."
"I don't think so! You're just a specification writer. I'm a lawyer. I know how those should be done!" Sharon grated.
Logan could feel his anger beginning to build.
To short circuit it he said, "Please, we need to see if we can work this out between us. If you don't want to I'll have to have Lucy send it to the Public Works Director and let him handle it. I do not want to do that."
Sharon was shocked by the implication of what Logan was suggesting and it angered her even more.
"You wouldn't!"
"If we can't work it out I'll have to. The fire Department needs this truck and I'm on a tight time line to get it out to bid. I would really rather see if we can work this out. So please can we work on this together?"
Sharon was really angry by now and wanted him to pay.
