While my computer boots, I listen to Harrison and Chase’s conversation. If they intended for it to be private, I guess they’d go into Harrison’s office, right? “How’s Joe’s progress coming along?”
“Slow and steady,” Chase replies. The reason my new roommate was up before the birds was for his early training appointment with Joe Adams. Joe is a local police officer who was in an on-duty car accident this winter. After he completed his physical therapy, Joe felt he was still a little slow and wanted to return to the peak physical performance he had before the accident, so he started training with Chase three times a week.
“Good. I’m glad you’re not overdoing it with him,” Harrison replies, thumbing through the stack of mail from Saturday.
“Nope. He’s trying to push it for quicker results, but I won’t let him. I’m not taking the chance at aggravating old injuries,” Chase states.
When my computer finally fires to life, I pull up today’s schedule. Harrison’s is just how I left it on Friday, with the managers’ meeting this morning and a few other phone calls throughout the day. The rest of the time is blocked out for office work, as well as two midafternoon training appointments.
I click over to the other side of the schedule, the one for the manager. Except, when it pulls up, the schedule is nothing like it was on Friday. I move to the next day, expecting it to say he’ll spend the day at the Porter location, but that’s not what it says at all. It shows him at Fair Lakes. Quickly, I flip over to Wednesday, finding the blocked-out time he’s supposed to be at Lakeview to be cut to a third. In fact, he’s only spending about three hours at the location, instead of all day. The rest of the week is much the same. His schedule is completely wrong.
“What the hell?” I whisper aloud, clicking through the entire week.
“What?” Harrison asks, stopping his conversation with Chase.
“Something’s wrong with the schedule.”
I can sense the tension that sweeps through my boss at the mention of the schedule. Last fall, his assistant, Gina, fucked with his schedule, moving meetings and overlapping appointments. It caused a huge problem, not only for him and the company, but also for him and my sister. He missed doctor appointments, which is something he never would have done without the scheduling errors.
“No, not yours,” I reassure my brother-in-law. I glance up from my computer to his manager. “Yours.”
Only Chase doesn’t seem concerned. Not at all.
“Oh, yeah, I adjusted a few things this morning,” he replies with a shrug.
“A few things? Your entire week is upside down.” I sit back, gaping up at the gorgeous man in front of me. This messes everything up. Everything. The only way I logically agreed to room with Chase was because he was rarely there. His schedule kept him busy, especially in the evenings, between site visits from each of the locations and his client schedule. Now, he’s made adjustments, ensuring he’s home by a reasonable time every evening. He’ll still be out of this office a lot during the day, but not nearly as long as before. In fact, his last appointments of the day are… mine.
“Everything okay?” Harrison asks, pulling my attention back to the matter at hand.
“Fine,” he replies with another shrug. “Everything has been going great at the other locations, so instead of spending most of the days there, micromanaging them, I’m cutting back on the length of my visits and allowing the assistants to do their jobs. I’ll still be off-site a lot, just not as long.”
“And you can still get in your clients there too?” Harrison asks, referring to the fact that Chase sees appointments at all four locations.
Chase nods. “Sure can. Most of them were more than willing to come in earlier in the day. The only one I’ll still need to be available for the later appointments is Liza at Lakeview. She still needs an evening appointment two times a week, but even those are done by seven.”
Harrison continues to watch his friend. “You’re sure the assistants can handle not having you on-site as much?”
“Definitely. We’ve trained them well. Plus, I’m just a phone call away if something comes up,” Chase adds.
I sit here, dumbfounded, by this new revelation. Chase is going to be home more? Chase is going to be home more. Like earlier in the evenings. Most days. Shit.
“I’m good with it if you are,” Harrison says, slapping his friend on the back. “Come on, let’s get this meeting started.” Together, they head into Harrison’s office, closing the door behind them as they go. I’m left shocked and a little uneasy by this piece of information. Sure, living with Chase was going to be difficult, especially in light of the sexual tension that surrounds us, but now? With him home evenings instead of working?