“Work out in the evenings instead of the morning?”
“I do that sometimes, maybe with a swim.” He turned almost unconsciously toward his place. “One of these days I might buy a single-family home and have a pool, where I could go out in the evening and rest and relax in the privacy of my own place.”
“You don’t have a pool where you are?” the foreman asked.
“One’s in the building. That’s not the same as having one to yourself.”
The foreman immediately nodded. “I agree with you there. My brother-in-law has this place with a gorgeous pool and a hot tub, but they never go in either. Half the time they’re not even in the country.”
“That’s where most of those people are,” Simon agreed, with a laugh. “That never really appealed to me. If I would leave the country, I would go do something fun and exciting, then come back and relax. It’s still home for me here.”
“I hear you there.” The foreman tapped his clipboard. “But we do have a few hours of shit you need to go over. We should get started.” And, on that note, he led the way back into the building they were rehabbing. “Let’s start here.” And he pointed out some of the structural problems they had discovered. “This is too far off square. We’ll either need to refloor it, or we’ll have to build up some of this support structure on the side,” he noted. “The plumbing won’t be sound enough to rest on here.”
“We were worried about that in the beginning,” Simon muttered to his foreman.
“Yes, and honestly the best answer at this point in time would be to start fresh and to get these supports in.”
“We’ll have to get the flooring and all of this reengineered. Better to do it now than later. You know how I feel about cutting corners.”
“I know that,” the foreman confirmed. “But I also know how you feel about projects taking way too long and losing money.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Simon agreed. “So, talk to the architect and see if we can get some of these flooring joists added in. Get that fixed, and we’ll move on from there.” He groaned as he looked around. “I wasn’t really expecting this project to be done fast by any means, but it’s had more headaches than any others on my plate right now.”
“I’m only dealing with three of yours at the moment,” he added. “And this is my priority right now, mostly because we haven’t been able to get a clear shot at seeing real progress on it.”
“No, and now the engineers need to come back in and take another look,” Simon noted. “That’ll just hold us up even more. But it’s got to be done, and we don’t want to end up with a bigger headache down the road.”
With that settled, and a few other smaller issues dealt with, Simon headed off to his next project. He was still pissed off about the project he had just left, but only so much he could do. He knew it had been a gamble to take on that project, but it had been a building that Simon just couldn’t walk away from.
So, as the rehab price went up, the headaches went up with it. Yet Simon was in, and it was one of those times where he basically had to spend his way back out again.
It would remain to be seen whether he made any profit on that job or not. If it would be an obvioushell noresult, then maybe he would just turn it over to something that warmed his heart instead. Canada didn’t really have orphanages or children’s homes, but there were certainly needs for women’s centers, so maybe he could do something for single mothers, like put in some low-income housing to cater to that select market.
They wouldn’t pay off the building by any means, at least not within fifty years at the rates that those single mothers could pay, but it would be one of projects he did on a regular basis just to give back to the world that had saved his life so long ago. He didn’t want anybody else to end up in the same boat that he knew so many women did, so maybe that’s what this one would have to be. He thought about all the apartments that could be created in a building that size, realizing it wasn’t a bad idea at all. Which made it even more important that the building be structurally sound, so it would go the distance.
The last thing he’d want to do would be to endanger anybody, but to endanger children would be even worse. Simon wasn’t the asshole kind who could turn around and take from the world. For him it was all about giving back and using his resources for good. But he also had to make money in order to keep those projects flowing, which meant it all had to be in balance. And keeping things in balance when it came to construction, well, that was a whole different story.
Heading to his next project, he already wished he’d picked up another coffee. It would be a hell of a long day at this point. His lack of sleep was definitely an issue as well, but it wasn’t something that he would allow to slow him down. As he kept on walking, he heard almost like a knocking on the back of his soul. Maybe like the back door to his mind, although that thought made him feel like an idiot. No way he could have all this energy crap going on and keep it hidden, but he was doing his best to make it look that way.
Again he felt something in the back of his mind. He tried to ignore it but wasn’t very successful. By the time he arrived at the next job, he had stomped on whatever it was pushing at his consciousness, which allowed him to focus on what he needed to do at the jobsite. He found a whole lot less headaches here, and things were actually functioning at a much better rate thankfully, so he headed on to his third one.
He was only a few steps away, heading around the corner to an alleyway, when he heard screams start in the back of his mind. He froze and took a quick glance around. It was early afternoon, probably about two o’clock, but he didn’t have his phone in his hand. People rushed from place to place, and traffic was heavy, even in the alleyway. People were loading, unloading, and shouting up and down. He leaned up against one of the walls and took several slow deep breaths, trying to push back and get out of this psychic vision, so he could function normally.
With the sun beating down on his face, he turned ever-so-slightly, so that he was hidden in the shadows a bit more and took several deeper breaths. When somebody punched him in the shoulder, hard, he almost crumbled to his feet. He’d been stunned, caught by surprise, but he braced himself against the wall and turned to face his attacker. Two homeless guys looked a bit more ready for a fight than Simon would have expected.
“What are you doing in here?” one asked. “This is our place.”
“Just took a moment to stop and rest,” Simon replied in a mild tone. He was dressed in a three-piece suit, and it was obvious that he wasn’t trying to take over the alleyway for himself. These two were just looking for trouble, more trouble than Simon would have been worth.
The one gave him a hard look. “You’re just lying.”
“About what?” Simon muttered in surprise. “I don’t have anything to lie about.”
“You all lie. You’re part of the establishment, and every one of you are liars.”
Simon rolled his eyes at that because there was really no arguing with crazy people. He looked over at the other guy. “Is that what you think?”
“Of course that’s what I think,” he agreed. “If my buddy says so, I believe him.”