The various clients and writings for the morning moved quickly along. And thankfully Beau’s editor Neila didn’t find too much to cut out or fix and was ready for the additional two chapters he had written up. As the meeting slowly came to an end, They looked to Beau on the video call. “Ok so, do we need to set up payments again?"
“Actually if you can delay the invoice day I can pay you in full this time.” Beau grinned a bit. “I got some good business today.”
“Really? How good?” Neila seemed to be making a few notes on their computer as Beau started to pack up himself.
“Consultation with a 250 dollar tip.”
Neila suddenly stopped and looked at the screen. “I’m sorry… did you say you got tipped 5 times the fee? Is this an old client?”
“I um. No. It’s someone I don’t know. They heard about me in town and wanted to pay me well even if I didn’t take the job.”
Neila pushed up their glasses and sighed. “Beau… my dude.” Oh god, the ‘my dude’. Nothing good came after ‘my dude’. “You are going to end up with missing kidneys.”
“I… what? No. I mean… it’s weird but… you keep saying I should charge more.” Beau had been trying to focus on the good the money could do. Paying some bills. Making a car payment.
That romantic date in Dallas.
“Ok yes. You do deserve 300 dollars. But no one just tips like that. Please tell me your wife is going with you.”
“Well no she’s at work.” He fidgeted a bit. This was not how he expected it to go at all. He was, foolishly he knew, hoping Neila would be a bit more supportive. But the dose of reality was probably needed.
Neila seemed to be trying to find just the right words for a moment. “Ok, I have another client I cannot rebook. So I am going to make this quick. This better be public and you need to grab SOMEONE you trust to sit nearby and keep an eye just in case.”
“It is in public, it’s by the comic shop I visit.”
“Great grab a nerd there you trust. The chance to be a spy in real life will be enough to get them to help. Especially if you can bribe them with a comic book.”
Beau had to admit, there was no lie there. He let out a breath. “Ok I’ll head over early then. I promise I’ll let you know if I lose my kidneys.”
“You won’t tell me, your wife will.”
“...yeah probably. Bye Boss.”
As the call closed out Beau took a deep breath. Ok. So maybe he shouldn’t have accepted the job. Well, it was a bit late now. If we went early though, he could get someone at the shop to lend a hand. After all, he had been there for years. They were at the store when August was still pregnant with the girls. He still remembered how they just ‘happened’ to leave a wood crate she could sit on those last few weeks when she’d visit with him. While lost in the memories, his body took the car straight to the comic shop.Beau unlocked it and handed over the smartphone. It was a bit beat up but worked well enough. And it was paid off.
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