Blabbing

"It has come to my attention that some of you are talking to persons outside the department to discuss our day to day security operations..." The words of their boss were still ringing through Ty Hansen's and Adrain Stanford's minds. If Sammy Metz hadn't blabbed it left only Aurelio Stansfield.

There wasn't much discussion needed between Ty and Adrain. They cornered Aurelio and menacingly played with their hulking muscles. "Hey, stop that!" Sammy pushed between Adrain and Ty. "He hasn't talked..." "No, who was it then?" Adrain asked. "I can show you."

Sammy showed them CCTV images from the previous night. At 23.40 hours Rory Rosales, the head of the HR department arrived, parking his car near the entrance. He was followed seventeen minutes later by Ty, who had agreed to meet Rory at the CFO's office.  At midnight the CSO Coldham Fintan Noose III, their boss arrived.
He talked briefly to one of the janitors and headed straight to the CFO Trace Unger's office. Ty blushed furiously, when he realized Mr. Noose had heard everything Rory and he discussed. He was embarrassed.  The CCTV footage showed more. Mr. Noose hid in the office opposite, but kept the door a bit open to see when the other two were leaving, but didn't re-emerge for another twelve minutes. He went into Trace Unger's office for a few minutes. He did the same
 in Rory's and the meeting rooms. Mr. Noose's team was puzzled, because they couldn't make sense of it. What had their boss been up to? He didn't take anything. Sammy had been able to think longer about head of security's behaviour and came to the conclusion he had been looking for something. What would a security guy check out? Sammy believed Mr. Noose had been searching for listening in devices and had wondered why he hadn't been at the security department or the CEO's office. He wrote down what he thought Mr. Noose had found out and confirmed. Aurelio frowned, Ty scowled and Adrain looked still puzzled. They scribbled their agreement to search for bugs in their office, the CEO's and the current auditor's. It confirmed what Sammy thought had happened and they were disgruntled somebody listened in to their conversations.
When Mr. Noose had left for the day they also checked out his office and found one listening in device. They were very unhappy and decided on the spot to support their boss in the future.


©2014

After Dinner

This is the continuation to "Dinner" and describes how Sammy made it up to Fin.

Josefina Hale was furious with her boyfriend Sammy Metz. He had not only embarrassed the whole family, but also endangered his well-paying job as security guard at an import company. "How could you attack your boss?! Are you totally mad? What has gotten into you?!" Sammy cradled his head. He had a hangover. Sammy couldn't explain exactly why he had thought at the time it was such a brilliant idea to pitch Judo against Tai Chi. He had lost. His boss Coldham Fintan Noose III had looked at him as if he wanted to murder him. Instead he had threatened him with being fired and a law suit if Sammy was ever going to do that again. Sammy didn't plan to repeat it. The near fight had spoiled an otherwise very nice dinner. Fin, as his boss wanted to be called, had invited his team to get them to know better. He had just started his job a few days ago.
Josefina shook her head. "You have to get back into Fin's good books at all costs. If you only do one misstep he's going to fire you! Do you understand?" "Yes, I do, Josefina." Sammy's girlfriend was walking up and down, trying to figure out how they could salvage the situation. "Apologize on Monday first thing in the morning." "Alright." Sammy wasn't looking forward to that. "Maybe you could bring something to pacify Fin..." On Sunday Tamika, Sammy's eighteen year old daughter from his first marriage and living with him, had an idea. "Didn't Deante McDonnell ask Fin to get cooking lessons?" Deante was the son of a work colleague and friend Adrain Bennis. "Yes, you are right," Josefina confirmed. Sammy could remember Deante and Fin had agreed to have a lesson the next day, so it had hopefully happened already. If Sammy's behavior hadn't caused a cancellation...
Sammy called Adrain and asked if he could talk to his son. Maybe he knew more about what Fin liked.

Deante McDonnell was an intelligent, shy thirteen year old African American. Unlike his father, who was tall and bulky, he was slight and looked more like his mother Emily with light brown skin, black hair and amber colored eyes. Deante liked Sammy, so he tried to help him. He described what Fin and he had been up to. Fin was interested in locally sourced, organic food and seemed to like pastries, like macaroons. Sammy believed that was a starting point.
Returning home he told Tamika and Josefina what he had learned. Tamika rang a friend, whose mother had a stall at the University District Farmer's Market in Seattle, trying to find out which bakeries had been there. Deante hadn't remembered the name. He hadn't been that interested, because he was excited about the frozen yogurt he just had had and about the impending cooking instructions. Fitting Fin's tastes and profile Josefina and Tamika worked out Belle Epicurean would fit the bill. They were relieved when they found out Belle Epicurean had also a real shop and not just a stall. "Go there tomorrow morning and buy maybe macaroons or something Fin could like. Use your common sense." Josefina advised Sammy. He nodded. "Of course the cost is subtracted from your allowance." Finding out early in their relationship that Sammy wasn't good with money, Josefina took over the finances. Josefina gave Sammy a monthly allowance, which he could generally use as he liked, but if he ran out of money before the month was over she didn't give him more.

Sammy was standing at the counter of Belle Epicurean. He had difficulty to choose and asked for a recommendation. "Why don't you try our Belle's Buns?" The lady behind the counter showed him the brioche and explained the different flavors. Thinking hard, Sammy decided to buy 5 pecan caramel brioche buns. He shuddered when he heard the price. It hurt handing over twenty dollars. For the same amount he could get at least two dozen donuts at his favorite Krispy Kreme.

Sammy hesitated at the entrance of his work place. He really didn't want to go in. Sammy knew exactly what he had to do and he was embarrassed about his behavior. Adrain hadn't treated him differently after the shameful incident. Sammy was relieved his other work colleagues stood by him as well. Fin wasn't there yet, so Sammy had to stew a bit longer. He hoped Fin didn't hold a grudge and forgot about it quickly, if Sammy apologized and bribed him with the pastries. Fin arrived and greeted them all, pretending not to notice the tensions. At Ty Hansen's nudging Sammy knocked on Fin's door. He was invited in. Sammy's boss was cold. Sammy offered a heartfelt apology and promised he would never ever get drunk or try to start a fight. Fin replied icy: "Good." He didn't make the impression as if he was ready to forgive his subordinate. Sammy stammered: "Does... Does it have any implication in regards to my work?" "If there are no future incidents, no. If you excuse me now, I've got to catch up on a few things." Before fleeing the office Sammy gave Fin his peace offering. He felt relieved, but also angry and hurt about Fin's coldness.
Shortly after Sammy had gone back to work, Fin bought coffee for his team and shared the pastries. He thanked Sammy, to make it clear where the treats came from. It pacified Sammy and tasting his bun Sammy realized why they were so expensive.
Sammy found out Fin held a grudge and it took more than a months to be back in Fin's good books. Sammy took his boss serious and made sure he never gave him any reason to distrust him and worked hard. He even started to like Fin and was sad to see him go after a year.

©2014