As Jacobi sat waiting in front of the grand teak door of the CEO office, his undershirt starts to get sweatier in this cooly air-conditioned room. Will, his current boss and mentor, also the son of the CEO, said nothing else but to follow him to the room, and Barbara, the CEO's usually friendly secretary, kept avoiding his eyes from her desk by the door.
That's it
, he thought
, I'm about to get fired. Was it because of the Templeton job? It can't be, right? Even though the branch went under, He managed it so well in that circumstance. Maybe the big boss didn't think so? How the fuck can I support Mama, now?
His thoughts got interrupted by the sound of the big door opening. Will's head poke out, and he just said "he's ready for you now. C'mon in."
Jacobi stood up, adjusted his suits, and walked confidently in.
Whatever happens, happens
, He thought,
Fuck it, let's get this show on.
Sitting there waiting for him in this lightly furnished room for a CEO's office was Dusty Crane. Well Dusty is not his real name, but nobody called him anything but Dusty. While his entire head was white and balding, his face was that of someone younger for his age of early sixty. As Jacobi approached the table, Dusty got up and shot his hand toward him. "Mr. Smith," said Dusty with his thick Southern accent "Good to meet you." Jacobi shake the older man's hand, surprised by the tight, strong grip.
Damn
, thought Jacobi,
did Will's old man play college ball just like him back in the day?
. Jacobi eyed the older man briefly. Dusty's overall body under his dress shirt still looked like someone who has been taking care of themselves in both diet and exercises.
"Sit, y'all," said Dusty as all three men sitting down, Will sat beside Jacobi opposite of his father, "Will has been filling me in a lot about you. Graduated from State like him in Civil Engineer. Pretty big brain major for a scholarship athlete. Will even said you gonna go pro if not for a terrible knee injury, so he hooked you up with our company after you graduated."
"Don't make it sound like a charity case, Pa," Will interrupted "My juniors and people from the alumni associate from State said that they never seen a guy worked so hard like Jacobi here. Good grades, too, so I have to get him set up here before other companies can get their hands on him."
Dusty side-eyed his son. Jacobi got a feeling like the old man didn't like to be interrupted. "Never said such thing, boy," Continued the big boss "though I heard you're also supporting your Ma, is that right?"
"Yes, sir," uttered Jacobi, finding his throat dryer then expected "My mama worked so hard alone after my father left us. I get to where I am because of her. She deserves to rest."
"A good man, ain't you?" Said Dusty "and drop the sir crap this instant. Nobody called me sir around here." There was a chuckle from Will.
Guess this happened before huh?
, thought Jacobi "Worked yourself up the ladder fast then got sent to help out at Templeton while we're setting up shop there until whathisface..." Dusty stopped, his face twisted in anger.
"Gary, Pa," said Will "the guy's name is Gary Sewell."
"Until that Fucking snake Sewell bailed on us to suckle on our competitor's teats" spat Dusty "our Templeton was left without a head. Then the pandemic hit. What a craptastic timing that was. Should've closed up shop right away."
Jacobi tensed up at the mention of Templeton.
Here it comes
, he thought.
"I told you, Pa," said Will "If we did that, the lost would be tremendous. We put too much in that branch already."
"Yeah, I know, boy, but it hurt me deep about what happened," said Dusty while glancing back to Jacobi "Oh relax, Mr. Smith. Ah hell, can I just call you Jacobi," before Jacobi said yes. Dusty continued on "Well, you did good managing the branch in place of the snake. Keeping it afloat. Limiting our losses. Fulfilling our contracts properly before closing up. Hell, I heard you put a mandate for our folks to work as safe as possible during the pandemic even Grace complemented you. That girl hardly ever said good things about management, too you know?"
Jacobi was surprised. Grace Larson the safety inspector from the main branch put in good words about him? The fiery redhead looked stern and serious whenever she came to inspect the branch.
Would never bet on that
, thought Jacobi feeling himself relaxing.
"Our partners from Wellspring Financials calculated the estimated losses from that branch to cripple us for a long time, but you my man," Will pointed at Jacobi "you saved us, so we're here to discuss the proper compensation for your heroics."
Jacobi was incredulous "I only did what anyone would do in that situation, sir, I mean Dusty," Will let out a snicker "Crane and co. Construction has been good to me. I only hope to continue to do my best to provide for me and my Mama."
"And humble, too eh?" Said Dusty "the point is not anyone was there, but ya were there and did that, so today we've come to discuss about bringing you in our inner circle."
Now it was Will who looked surprised "Wow, Pa. That fast, huh? Not that I'm against it, but does everyone agrees to it? Especially grandpa?"
Dusty waved his son off, "It's a done deal, boy. I said so," Then he hit the button on his phone. "Barb, honey. Can you bring me the contract for young Mr. Smith here? Oh, and while you're at it," Dusty paused and gave a smile to Jacobi "what would you like drink Jacobi? We got whiskeys or beers if you like."
***
"You should've seen the look on your face," shouted Will "This guy thought he's going to get fired."
The Gravel bar down the road from the main office were in full swing. Most patrons here were from Crane & Co. Construction anyway, and the especially rowdy crowd were in Jacobi's table tonight. Will led the charge to empty out the bar's beer tap as a lot of people from the company flowing in and out to congratulate Jacobi on his promotion.
"It was hard to keep a straight face the whole time you're waiting, Jacobi," said Barbara "almost couldn't hold my laugh in."
"You're in on it, too?" cried Jacobi.
"For such a smart guy, you're pretty oblivious," Said Arnold, another colleague working under Will. "What's next for you then? Are you going to be my boss now as Will moved up to take his old man's place."
"My Pa's not retiring anytime soon, and I need much more experience for the top job," Said Will, then he lowered his voice. "Don't say that shit out loud, man. I'm accused of benefitting from nepotism so much as it is, and My Pa's probably gonna kick your ass for suggesting that he's old." Arnold shot back an apologetic smile.
"Jacobi here," continued Will "will do the same thing as what got him here in the first place. He'll run a branch office in Wellspring after he gets his affairs settled here."
People around the table gave a shock look. "Whoa, Wellspring? What a jackpot." Said Arnold as other chimed in.
Jacobi only sat and gave out a dumb smile. This past half a day was such a rush. Wellspring might have a smaller market than Templeton, but it was the Crane family hometown and main branch before Dusty moved it to a bigger current city. Lots of goodwill from the fact that Crane & Co. practically built almost half the town and virtually no competitors in the town made this a very cushy job.
"What about Barry?" questioned Arnold about the current Wellspring branch manager. "Can't imagine that old coot quitting the job anytime soon."
"Barry will stay on to help Jacobi as an advisor," said Will "it's actually a win-win. Barry needs less workload because of family reason, and we need a fresh, handsome face to connect with Wellspring Financials."
"Enough about work now. Another round on me!" yelled Will as the cheers erupted all around.
***
"Out for a smoke?"
Jacobi turned to the voice's owner. It's Grace, the Safety inspector coming out of the bar.
"Nah just trying to get some air. I don't smoke." said Jacobi, eyeing the redhead.
Something felt different. Grace didn't have her usual serious attitude like when she visited the Templeton branch office and worksite where she's watchful like a hawk. Maybe it's the alcohol in him, but Jacobi found her quite attractive in her jacket and jeans casual wear with her long, slight curly hair tied up at the back.
"Good for you. Congratulation, by the way," said Grace "I guess that means we're going to be seeing each other more often now."
Jacobi gave her a quizzical look.
"Oh, Wellspring is my hometown, too. I usually drive back almost everyday to see my mom and others. Actually, you don't know about that yet huh?" Grace moved closer to Jacobi, leaned in a bit and lowered her voice. "I'm actually Dusty's niece."
Jacobi's eyes widened. Today was certainly full of surprise. "Whoa!" he exclaimed now that he knew he certainly saw some resemblance. "I bet not many people know that."
Grace giggled. "I try to keep it that way. The attitude people give knowing that I'm the CEO's niece is quite different when they only see me as a female safety inspector. That can be advantageous for me to see what's hiding under the rug lots of time."
"I wouldn't care if you're Dusty's niece or not. I knew the minute you walked in the worksite that you take your job seriously." said Jacobi.
"I'll take that as a complement. Hope I didn't make your life too difficult on your stay at Templeton especially when I chewed out that big guy handling the tower crane."
"Oh Dougie Miller? Actually, you did me a lot of good. We kinda suspected that he subtly sabotage the project with him used to be Gary Sewell's guy and all. Finding proof for that would be a lot of time and manpower putting in, and we kinda needed him. You giving out the safety strike was the nudge to get him fired properly. It was a pain for me to fill in for him and teach the next foreman, but it was worth it, and the guys kinda came together to finish the job on time," Jacobi stopped himself. "Sorry to go on and on like that."
"No, it's fine," said Grace with a smile. "A branch manager who's not afraid to get his hands dirty gets my interest."
Jacobi looked away. In Templeton, he didn't recall ever see Grace smile at all.
What a smile
, he thought,
she's kinda cute
.
"It's nice to talk to you off the clock," Grace said "I gotta bail. Got an early meeting tomorrow."