The Storm Before the Calm: Chapter 16

One of my golden rules in life is to always arrive 15 minutes early. Punctuality and time management are typically my strengths, albeit more challenging with kids (especially when you completely forget an appointment altogether). I wish I wouldn’t obsess so much about it though. Most people are so relaxed about arriving a few minutes late. Especially when they have nothing to lose.

 

I had already gone through my coffee when he arrived. No niceties were exchanged; that ship had sailed halfway across the universe by then.

 

He started off with an unimpressive monologue about how he had studied law, knew his rights, etc. Nothing material so I zoned out until he decided to get to the point. In hindsight, he would have made a great politician with his skillset. Smooth talker? Check. Ongoing rambling about his accomplishments? Check. Lying in your face? Incoming.

 

What started as an agreement the evening before to receive full reimbursement for all associated costs turned into paying nothing more than what was directly associated with the selling price. No notary fees, no architect fees, nothing. A complete denial of agreeing to that. Despite showing him the message to his face. Continuous rebuttal.

 

I had walked into that meeting ready to cut all ties civilly and have him disappear into the horizon forever. Now I was caught off guard and frantically checking the time to see if there was still a chance to take the offensive and call our lawyer so he could make his way to the courts. In the midst of that he went into some other monologue, but this time a vital piece of information came up.

 

Last extension we did was at the end of September. 30^th September. For six months. That’s up to March. The end of March. The end of it? Wait, March has 31 days, today’s the 31^st.

 

 

Oh no. Oh no.

 

 

If there ever was an opportunity for someone to smile as smugly as Tim Curry did in Home Alone 2 when the credit card was listed as stolen (followed by the Grinch giving off the same smile), now was it. And we were on the receiving end.

 

I felt the colour drain from my face. How did I overlook this? This small, teeny tiny, miniscule, very RELEVANT detail, which made it so much easier for him than he could have even hoped for. In the end, that’s all it took. Him to ignore our calls for an afternoon the day before – the actual deadline day – and it would be too late for us to do anything. I walked right into it. For almost 24 hours I was missing the queen on the chessboard without even knowing. Checkmate.

 

Very calmly he wrote us a cheque for whatever we had given him. “Here, as you can see I didn’t spend any of your money. If there are 10 decent developers on the island I’m one of them!”

 

The parting words that followed were futile. Nothing we could say could change the outcome, and yet the victim act continued until the very end, until he was no longer in view, no longer audible, as I walked away, dejected, defeated, completely shattered.