I start to walk after him when Kelsey tugs on my hand. “When he’s done having a word, I’d like to have a word as well.”
“About what?” I ask, noticing the trend already. Middle man. Fucking perfect.
“About what he’s going to complain to you about. I need to know what he’s saying about me.”
“Paranoid much?” I ask.
“You know it’s about me.” Her eyes grow worried. “And if someone’s trying to get me fired, I’d like to know why.”
“I think you know why.” I move away from her and join Regis in the other room.
But when he starts talking—I mean yelling—I know I won’t need a second conversation with Kelsey, because given how thin these old walls are, she’ll hear everything.
“You can’t be fucking serious with this sustainable crap,” Regis starts. “This is a historic building, so you can’t strip it down and make it modern. Activists for the historic buildings in this city will have a field day with this, and I’m telling you right now, if I hadn’t signed an NDA, I’d be headed to one of their meetings to let them know the kind of asinine ideas that woman out there has.”
I put on my “face of the company” pants and gently say, “I understand your concerns about the integrity of the building, Regis. And we’re just as concerned as you are. Preserving the history within these walls is just as vital to us as it is to you. But you need to know something. Kelsey is my colleague, and I will not tolerate you talking about her like that. She deserves just as much respect as the next person you work with. In addition, she’s right. If we’re going to open this building up to the public for the first time in over thirty years, we need to do it right. We need to make sure we meet today’s needs with yesterday’s intricate designs. Compromise, man, okay?”
“There’s no possible way we can do a geothermal heating system. I’ll cave on the windows if they’re being utilized elsewhere, but the heating system can’t physically be done.”
“Okay, then maybe we can come up with another solution. I know this is our first time working together, but this isn’t Kelsey’s first time working with us. We value her opinion and ideas and I need you to do the same, or else we’ll have to find someone else who can see our vision.” I grip Regis on the shoulder. “And you won’t want to miss out on working with us, especially with the kinds of plans we have for the future. Got it?”
Regis’s mustache twitches as he nods. He’s capitulating, but I know it’s only temporary. The next two weeks will be a living nightmare when it comes to managing this man. This is why Huxley is in charge of this shit.
We move back to the living room. Kelsey is standing by herself, while Edison is off in the corner, talking quietly on the phone. When she looks up and makes eye contact with me, there’s relief in her expression. There’s no doubt she heard that entire conversation and it looks as if we’ll need to figure out how to make these walls a lot thicker.
“I think we’ve done enough talking for today,” I say. “We’ve walked the building; we’ve taken notes. How about you both write up your ideas according to Huxley’s plans, how we can get it done, and then we can reconvene sometime in the next couple of days?”
Regis sticks his pencil behind his ear and then shakes my hand. To my surprise, he does the same for Kelsey.
I might hate this goddamn job, but it sure as hell looks like I’m good at it.
The car door shuts behind me and Kelsey quicky swivels in her seat, gratefulness spread all over her face.
“JP, I can’t tell you how thankful I am that you stuck up for me when speaking with Regis.”
I stick my phone in my suit pocket and buckle myself in. “It was no big deal.”
She rests her hand on my thigh, drawing my attention. And because I’m a weak man, my mind goes right back to yesterday. My junk on her face . . .
Her breath . . .
Jesus Christ, man!
“It was a big deal to me, JP,” she says. “I know the last thing you probably wanted was to play the middle man between me and Regis, but I heard what you said to him and it truly meant a lot to me. I’m not sure you know how important it was that you did it.”
“Seriously, Kelsey, it was no big deal.”
“No, you need to hear this.” She pushes her hair behind her ear, exposing the column of her neck. I fight the urge to curl my fingers around her nape and bring her in closer. “You set the tone. Moving forward, hopefully, Regis will know that you honor my ideas. You established this is teamwork and not just a project run by men. I owe you, JP.”