Personal Blogs

But if he could he would have; playing the role of victim, rather than that of the arch-liar which he was.

"Is anyone available to work this weekend?" A 'tell' as I think they say in poker, he wouldn't have asked unless he knew that he was on shogglie ground. He was the kind of guy who usually gives orders.

I wasn't going to make this easy for him.

I'd brought, just this, possibility up from the first. He, the boss of the cock-up, had to finish by [... a date...] so that I could arrange clean-up. Then he'd laughed, "...of course...". He was confident, even a touch condescending, he beamed at the other stakeholders and shook his napper, as if to say, "get him!".

Of course then I was just the poor sucker who had to let them into the building, now I was a wee bit more than that: I was the poor sucker who had to let them into the building.

Now they were in trouble, this was near school-closing stuff: in the papers, serious fallout.

"No". As I said I was going to milk this.

"This is important you know". He unassumed the limp that he never had, ramped the voice and attempted a loom-over move in.

"To you yes, I couldn't give a fuck, it's your cock-up".

He was much bigger than me but I'd backed our conversation into CCTV territory, and while I doubted that security central was actually watching and would dispatch thugs directly, at least any attack on me would be taped and could be used in court.

He seemed temporarily mute. A man used to getting his way I felt. "I need authorization from someone in the council", I said.

This was a wee bit of a killer, overtime hadn't been written in to the contract, he'd have to admit he'd made a boo-boo, take a loss and more importantly he'd be flagged as unreliable in any future contract negotiations. I knew what was coming next.

"Is there...?" This was a cash-in-hand offer. Which while we aren't being taped for sound, as far as I know, I felt that the offer was best left unspoken. Easy enough to edit that tape to make me look bad.

I turned round and pointed to the CCTV camera, "see that? Well with that and the alarms, everything that we do in this building is monitored. Talk to {REDACTED}. I'll work, but only if he asks me to".

He gave me a look which I didn't understand. It was like some of the looks that dogs gives you, meant for you but something that you don't quite get.

He stomped off, I detected no sign of a limp.

Funnily enough today a lot of workmen arrived at eight and now we no longer require to work the weekend.