Chapter 2

“That’s all you have to say to me? After all this time?”

He winced. “It’s just…the years I’ve spent trying…and to end up back here, then see you…it’s hard to…” At the sight of his discomposure, I felt a twinge.

I needed to set old feelings aside. They were definitely bygones, and I really needed a manager. “You know what? Forget it. It’s your life, your business. What matters is right now. Let’s move on, shall we? Follow me.”

I grabbed the folder I’d made ready for our meeting and walked around the desk toward the smaller one at the other end of the office. I heard the sound of footsteps as he walked behind me.

“Charlie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. You sounded so different on the phone, and—”

I waved his apology aside. “Don’t worry about it. Sit down, all right?” I placed the folder on my desk and sat as he did the same. I placed my elbows on the edge and began. “We have an almost full facility, since mine is the only storage place for twenty miles. I need a seasonal manager for the night shift. I usually check credentials and call for references, but right now, I’m desperate. I need someone to help with security, watch the cameras, do a few walk-arounds. I like to give our customers an extra sense of protection at this time of year.

“We’re close to the highway, and sometimes things get a little crazy between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, even with all the cameras and the high fence that surrounds the units. I’m getting too little sleep, and I need backup.”

I named a wage and the hours required. “I fired the previous manager two weeks ago for negligence. I caught him sleeping on shift too many times for my piece of mind. If you take this job, you’ll have access to everything here, so it requires a massive amount of trust on my part, in you. It lasts until the new year, and then we’ll re-evaluate everything. Are you interested?”

Mack’s answer was immediate. “Definitely.” He smiled tentatively, his face registering something like relief. I didn’t have time to think about why that was at the moment.

I leaned back and stared at him. “I’m going to rely on what I used to know of you, Lonnie”—I felt it would be safer for my psyche if I stayed away from nicknames—”our past relationship notwithstanding. I hope I won’t be proved wrong.”

He sat up straight. “You won’t regret this, Charlie. I promise.”

I’d wait and see on that one. I also needed to remember to keep him at arm’s length. I couldn’t let my heart start beating for things that weren’t remotely possible in this lifetime. Our relationship would be all business, nothing else.

“Charles will do. No one calls me Charlie anymore.”

He nodded and looked away, taking the hint. He’d been the only one who’d ever used that moniker. Those days were over.

* * * *

The December wind was brisk as I gave Mack—Lonnie—a tour around the facility so he could get to know the layout. It was already in the forties, and the sun hadn’t even gone down. The gravel shifted a bit under our feet with each step we took. We stopped to help two customers struggling to load a couch into the back of a truck. They thanked us before we moved on.

“This is an old school setup,” I explained. “More modern facilities are climate controlled, and what-have-you. But we’re a small town, as you know, so we work with what we have. I bought this place and made a few upgrades. As you saw, the renters use a keypad to get in at the gate, and there’s a security camera recording it at all times. Everyone has twenty-four hour access. Our biggest units are ten by twenty, and these also have their own keypad. All the other units, the smallest of which is a five by five, need a personal lock. All the units have rollup doors. Rent is month to month, six months, or annually, by the way.”

I pointed out the security cameras, all ten of which were strategically placed on each row and around the fence, before we headed back to the office. I showed him the little storage supplies shop we had, with boxes, tape, and so on available for renters who needed it.

I setup a password on the computer behind the front desk so he could have employee access. I had already placed a file folder on the desktop with the necessary manuals, tutorials, and anything else to help him become more familiar with the way things worked. Then I pointed his attention to the camera setup and explained how it all functioned.