Secrets of the Don Chap 2
#2 of Secrets of the Don
The next few days dragged on. For most of it, I buried myself in paperwork, making sure all of my revenues were accounted for so I didn't attract the attention of the taxman. On Tuesday, Eric, one of the mechanics at the shop, accidentally scratched the door of some rich kid's Maserati.
"You can see it from here, you blockhead! How did you manage to scrap it so deep?"
"It's not that bad, you can just buff it out."
The kid held his hand to his face. "I just got a paint job too... what if this is too deep to just buff out? I want a refund so I can get this fixed by a real professional!"
"I'll take care of it myself for free, you big baby. Calm down."
I placed myself in between Eric and the customer. "I heard some commotion. What seems to be the issue here?"
The rich kid gestured towards Eric. "Your employee here was rude to me after I made a complaint about a huge scratch he left on my car. I want my money back."
"He got so worked up about it." Eric butted in. "I tried to explain to him that it's an easy fix but he wouldn't listen."
"I'll handle this. Eric, go sort the tools, we'll talk about this later." The mechanic sulked away as I turned to the car to inspect the damage. As Eric had said, the scratch was long, but nothing that couldn't be fixed up with a buff. Regardless, there was an ego that required stroking.
In a calm voice, I said "I'm sorry for that, sir, you deserve better. We can offer you a half-refund, and I'll give you a ticket. If you come in tomorrow or the day after, we'll fix up the scratch for you for free, or if you want us to do it now, I'll have one of my other guys make it look beautiful. How does that sound?"
"I can accept that as long as you talk to your mechanic about good customer service." Eric flashed an evil eye at the kid from his blind spot. "Can we work out an appointment for tomorrow to fix it up?"
"Of course. I'll make sure to write you down for noon. Have a nice day, sir."
As the customer left the building, Eric dropped what he was doing and approached me. "'Talk to him about good customer service' my ass. What was his problem?"
"His problem was that you screwed up, and you tried to shrug it off like it was nothing. And he was right about the customer service thing, Eric, clearly you need to learn a thing or two."
"You saw the scratch, boss, it was so shallow. You or I could have buffed it out in 5 minutes."
I shook my head. "That isn't the point. You're in the business of fixing cars, not starting arguments. An angry customer becomes someone else's customer. Next time somebody has a complaint, send them right to me."
His face burned red with embarrassment, and he opened his mouth to say something, but held back. I put a hand on his shoulder. "You're a good kid, Eric, but you need to calm down with our clients. Put yourself in his shoes. What if you were wearing a nice suit that you just got dry-cleaned for a date, and some bozo bumps into you and spills coffee all over your jacket, and then has the balls to tell you it's an easy fix?"
"I'd be pretty pissed off, boss."
I flashed a reassuring smile. "It's not the best analogy, but now you understand how that kid felt in the moment."
Eric's attitude didn't lose us any other customers that day, and he took more care in preventing any incidents. Hopefully he learned a thing or two from all of the trouble, the last thing I wanted to deal with was a repeat.
Wednesday didn't see much of interest happen, and the day crawled on with more tire swaps and oil changes. The only saving grace was lunch break, when we all got to sit down and I got to listen to stories of the dumb nonsense my employees get up to when I'm not watching them. Today one of the younger guys, a rat-man named Pete, was telling a story about a bad date he had gone on to the amusement and disbelief of the rest of the crew.
"...And she wouldn't shut up during the entire screening! It was so embarrassing that I excused myself to go to the bathroom and left her there."
"Smooth moves, Casanova," piped in Jerry. "Why didn't you just tell her to quit blabbin' and get to watchin'?"
"Cut him some slack, Jerry," I cut in. "He just doesn't know the proper etiquette. You think he goes on a lot of dates?"
Pete plastered on a fake smirk, face red with embarrassment. He fired back "More dates than you, old man! When's the last time you've had any action?"
I ran my hands through my hair, slicking it back. "A few gray hairs don't make me an old man, I'm only 35. Besides, I might not be much to look at now, but I was a lady killer 10 years ago. Girls would line up to get a piece of this." I gestured up and down my torso. "The only woman I really need in my life right now is a good car, and I already have that. I'm not going to get any hook-ups in this shape, and I don't have the time for anything serious."
Jerry frowned. "Christ, Boss, that's just sad. If you want to come out for beers some time to pick up some girls, you can call me, alright? I'm a pretty good wingman, I've heard."
"Don't worry about my love life for me, especially when I'm not concerned about it. I'll definitely take you up on the drinks though. Saturday work for you?"
"Works for me!"
"Are you even old enough to drink, Pete?"
After some more cheerful banter, the mechanics got back to work. Before closing time, I took Jerry aside to remind him that I wouldn't be here tomorrow, so he had to come in early to open the shop.
"No problem, Boss, but if you don't mind me askin', why did you need me covering for you on such short notice?"
Damnit. I couldn't spill the truth about it, and he knows I'm not the kind of guy who takes off from work to visit friends. He also knows I'm not the kind of guy who has friends to take off work for. Thinking quickly, I excused myself with a medical concern. "I'm just getting something looked at by the doctor, kinda embarrassing to talk about."
"Say no more. Take care of yourself, big man." Jerry patted me on the shoulder as he left the garage with the two other mechanics working that shift. I closed up shop and drove back home.
After my usual careful routine of inspecting my house for bugs or traps, I took a beer out of the fridge and watched a football game. Angelo was a massive Dragons fan, so I made sure to tune into their home game so I could catch him up on the scores.
When it finished, I left to check my closet for something to wear. Several hangers of blue shirts and khaki pants were neatly lined up. It seemed a little disrespectful to show up in my plain old work uniform to visit Angelo. Especially after we haven't seen each other in such a long time.
I moved to the next item that caught my eye. The tuxedo I wore while I was a made man. It was a nice black suit with a matching bow tie. The don himself purchased it for me after my initiation as a gift. Which is why I ultimately decided that I couldn't wear it. The tuxedo wasn't who I was anymore, and it probably didn't fit me anyway.
A good compromise choice was a dress shirt and black pants I kept for formal occasions. I grabbed that from the closet, ironed out the wrinkled, and hung it on the door knob. Tomorrow was the day I'd set things right.