Page 266 of A Lick and A Promise
“I could listen to the audio.”
It was Monday after my shift. I was in the control room with Knox, Moses and Jeff.
Knox and I were the ones backing and forthing about the audio.
The last one to speak was Moses, and I knew why he wanted to listen to the audio.
I’d had a word with Tito.
Tito told me he’d do what he could.
So now he was in the conference room with Shirleen and Marjorie, brokering a peace deal.
We were voyeuring the sitch.
Without audio.
As such, I was dying to hear what was happening.
At first, Shirleen had a lot to say.
Then Marjorie had a lot to say.
Gesticulating started to happen, and that was when Tito started to talk.
Surprisingly, both women piped down and listened to him.
That was what was happening now.
Moses reached to a switch, but as he did, everyone in the conference room stood up.
Marjorie and Shirleen headed to the door, talking to each other, nodding, and then they both started laughing.
Whoa.
“Fucking hell,” Knox muttered.
We heard the laughter in the hall.
I watched as Tito stood.
He looked to where the camera was and gave it an OK sign. He then gave it a hang ten sign.
The man was wearing yellow-framed sunglasses, a blue fedora with glitter on it, a Hawaiian shirt, board shorts, and red Keds.
How had he—I checked the clock on the bottom right of that screen—negotiated peace between those two women in twenty minutes?
Now we heard their laughter outside the door to the control room, then said door opened and Shirleen swung in.
“Gonna get an appletini with Marjorie, hon,” she said to Moses like this was the most natural thing in the world. “She’ll bring me home or I’ll get a Lyft.”
“Gotcha,” Moses choked out. “Let me know when you’re heading home. I’ll start dinner.”
She sent him an air kiss then said, “Hey, kids,” to Knox and me. “If I don’t see you before you go, have fun on vacation.” And with that, she disappeared.
Not so news: we were leaving for Turks and Caicos Saturday morning.
“Should we ask him?” I inquired, watching Marjorie return to the conference room to get Tito. “Or will the magic dissipate if it’s spoken of directly?”
