He was reminding me that when I forced him into crisis mode, the cost of doing business with him rose significantly.
On that note, I chuckled and hung up on him.
◊◊◊
I debated skipping lunch when I saw it was ham loaf, the much worse cafeteria version of meatloaf. I pulled out some money and flashed it to the lunch ladies.
“You got anything else?” I asked.
“Spaghetti and meatballs.”
“Sold,” I said, handing my money over.
One of them walked into the back and came out with a heaping plate of food.
“What the hell, David?” Phil called out behind me.
I’d learned my lesson from Ty about feeding little brothers and just shrugged, which earned me a finger in response.
When I arrived at the lunch table, I found Lisa had saved me a seat.
“I’m just saying if a child has a toy box with a hundred grenades in it, does that make it right to hand them one more?” Gina asked.
I knew I would regret this.
“What are you talking about?”
“Gina was making a flawed analogy about you being nominated for Best Kiss by MTV,” Dare explained.
“Flawed?” Gina asked Dare and then turned on me. “How many awards do you need?”
“My publicist just said that I was every woman’s wet dream,” I embellished.
“That’s EXACTLY what I’m talking about. It’s an embarrassment of riches,” Gina crowed.
The guys all looked confused but elected to leave me to fight my own battles. I was about to make a retort when Phil sat down.
“How come you get a better lunch than the rest of us?” he asked.
“See! Another example,” Gina pointed out.
“Just because I was smart enough to ask …”
“More like, pay for,” Phil said to cut me off.
“What? We can pay for better lunches?” Cassidy asked.
I didn’t like where this was going, as everyone turned on me. I was about to stand my ground when I realized that the optics of what I’d done were all wrong. David, the privileged one, had gotten special treatment. The flip side was I’d worked for what I’d done to gain that privilege.
In the end, it was the sight of everyone not eating their lunch that swayed me. Ham loaf really was terrible. I just handed Cassidy money and made her take Phil, the loudmouth, to help her get enough for everyone.
Next time, I would take my ‘upgraded’ lunch and eat elsewhere.
◊◊◊
Once I had completed my gauntlet of tests, I checked my email before baseball practice. I’d completed the assignment Brook’s grandmother had given me to find and summarize four articles that showed the differences between leadership and management. I’d written a brief report and sent it to her.
She had responded this afternoon, and I was interested to see what she thought.
I opened up the attached document and saw she’d redlined through everything I’d had to say about what managers do, leaving only my summary lines about leaders.
