Well, dear reader, I fired him. Yes, that’s right, K, the carpenter is gone.
Well not yet, I just went by the LaLa with my friend L on the phone (who by the way found out today she has one bun in the oven, not twins) and K was still there so I didn’t go in because L worried he might kill me.
I had an ever loving fit earlier – thought I was going to have a heart attack. I not only called Steve my contractor, I called Steve my ex, because I thought I was going to walk right off the planet. And I called my friend L cause I wasn’t sure if I might need a male presence to help me out.
I showed up at the LaLa late this afternoon to figure out how many dimmers I needed to get for the electrician. K was working on the threshold of the front door having arrived on the job at 4 in the afternoon. He gave me a dismissive hello and I just walked in past him.
As I went through the house turning switches on and off to see what went where he barked at me that he needed the lights on – I just blew it off and made my way to the back.
He followed me back there and said, “What is with all the sadness? You are bringing sadness into the house.”
I just shot him a look and said, “What are you talking about, this is anger, not sadness.”
“You know,” he said, smiling the big toothy smile of his, “I was going to compliment you last Friday when you were sitting in the truck and you had that little half smile on your face. You know smiling produces endorphins, Rachel.”
“Don’t talk shit to me,” I said. “I told you this is a critical week and you call and say you are not coming for the next two days because it is not profitable, what the hell does that mean, and then you say you will show up but you arrive at 4, after you made a commitment.”
“I’m not talking about this morning. I am talking about Friday and your smile, well, your half smile. It is a compliment Rachel.”
Fuck off.”
“Rachel, I’m not one of the men from your past.”
GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW!
“Calm down Rachel. You are under stress.”
GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE [a little slower] NOW!
So I called Steve, my contractor, and told him to get this idiot off of my job right now. And Steve proceeded to talk me off the ledge. He tried to change the subject by telling me that L&M are going ahead with their renovation now that they got good news today. And I said, you changing the subject on me? And Steve said, yeah. And I said, I heard, only one baby, which is good news. He said, you know they are blaming you for that baby. And I sighed and said, yeah I know. Now get this idiot off my job.
So now the front doors are off, the new threshold is too high to put them back on and K says he is going to leave this gaping hole and so I called Steve back and said to tell K to get those doors back on and get out of my house.
Then I left and went to Lowe’s. And couldn’t breathe for about an hour.
I called Steve D and told him I couldn’t even articulate how this guy makes me feel but it is like he thinks he is familiar with me, and he thinks he has some power over me, and he uses the work to hold me hostage on things and, well I can’t describe the and……. Steve said K is on a power trip, he feels emasculated by having to work for a woman so he is doing everything he can to put me under his thumb.
G says he should be arrested.
I’m done – tomorrow I smudge the house again.