He hated how much of a slob Ricky was. Hated it. But it wasn’t like Beau could say anything about the pigsty he had to work near. Ricky was Ralph’s younger brother, who happened to be Dillinger Automotive’s other mechanic. If he could actually be considered a mechanic. The guy mainly stuck to oil changes when he bothered to come in to work at all.
Skirting around the tools that were strewn across the concrete floor, Beau made his way to Ralph’s office.
“Yeah?” He didn’t bother going inside the little room. Most of the time, Ralph got a kick out of calling Beau over for no reason other than to give him a hard time. Being that it was first thing Monday morning, he had hoped to be spared for at least a few hours.
“We need to talk.”
That didn’t sound good. Usually Ralph greeted him with some sort of barb, or a bad joke. This sounded serious.
“What’s up?”
“Take a seat,” Ralph said, blindly signaling toward one of the chairs on the opposite side of his desk. Apparently, Ralph didn’t notice that both chairs were piled high with either boxes or papers or both. Figuring he wouldn’t need to sit down anyway, Beau gave him enough respect to move into the room, standing opposite him.
“Son,” Ralph began.
Son? Ralph wasn’t much older than Beau, but he seemed to be under the impression he was some sort of father figure. Beau had no idea where the guy came up with half of what he said, or why he acted the way he did, but being the non-confrontational sort, Beau had never let on that Ralph’s condescending attitude bothered him. And being referred to as son, made him want to both laugh and punch the guy in the face.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed how slow things are around here.”
Yeah, Beau had noticed. He also noticed that Ricky wasn’t even bothering to come into work these days, so Beau was picking up all the slack. Made for at least a full day’s work, but not much past that. If Ricky went through the trouble of coming in, one of them would likely be sitting on their ass. Beau didn’t figure it would be him because, of the two of them, Ricky wasn’t all that interested in doing much more than downing a six pack.
Beau nodded his head, waiting for whatever Ralph had to say so he could get back to work.
When Ralph made the effort to look up from his computer screen, Beau knew he wasn’t going to like what his boss was about to tell him.
“It’s not a secret that things are slowing down,” Ralph explained, repeating his point, his expression seemingly glum.
Beau wanted to remind Ralph that he also noticed that Ricky wasn’t bothering to even come into work these days. Instead, he kept his mouth shut.
“I just don’t have enough work to warrant two mechanics right now.”
Beau would agree. And he knew where this was going. But because he could see Ralph’s discomfort level was the equivalent to walking on hot coals barefoot, he decided to let the other man spell it out for him.
“Look, Beau,” Ralph finally said after a minute of painful silence. “I’m gonna have to let you go. When things pick back up, I’ll give you a shout. Until then, I think Ricky can handle what little work we do have.”
Beau glanced out into the shop, pretending to be looking for Ricky, and then back to Ralph. Yeah, he’d like to see how well that was going to work out for them.
“I know what you’re thinkin’,” Ralph went on to say.
Doubtful. “Is that right?” Beau asked, the words breaking free before he could stop them. Damn it.
Ralph’s eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair, propping his hands on his protruding belly, obviously gearing up for a confrontation. When Ralph cleared his throat, Beau took a deep breath.
It wasn’t like he didn’t know this day would come. When business was slow, there wasn’t much anyone could do. And even if Beau had enough work to put in forty or more hours a week, that didn’t mean a thing when it came down to family loyalty.
“I need Ricky to come in to work. He’s not coming in because he says there isn’t enough for him to do. He mentioned that you take all the work, and he doesn’t want to cause a scene.”
Beau grinned to himself. That was such fucking bullshit, but it didn’t surprise him that Ralph believed it. Or was pretending to at least. Ricky didn’t come in to work because he spent his nights at Moonshiners getting drunk. Hell, half the time when he did come into work the next day, he’d still be drunk.
“Sorry, Beau,” Ralph finally said with a sigh.
Beau wanted to believe that Ralph really was sorry, but something felt off about this whole thing. He had been working for Dillinger Automotive since he graduated from high school. Granted, Dillinger’s was a family owned business, and their loyalties were clearly to family. He understood that. But, they’d been slow for a while now. And business always seemed to pick back up. So why were they doing this now?