The Eye of the Beholder (15)

[Edith Glass]

“You look busy,” Tabitha said as she walked into the living room and saw papers and books scattered on the top of Preston’s desk and on the floor around him.

He turned to grin at her. “Three clients, three payments for preliminary work, yeah, I’m busy as a one-armed paperhanger.”

“Hot damn Pres, that’s great.” She headed to the kitchen, pausing momentarily when she realized that for the first time since he’d moved in Preston hadn’t started their day by trying to hide his damaged face from her until he thought she was able to handle seeing it again. Glancing upwards she offered a small prayer of thanks for his having something to do now that would fill his thoughts with work and not what had happened to him.

After filling her travel-cup and his mug with coffee she returned to place the mug where he wouldn’t knock it off the desk. He nodded his thanks, his eyes never leaving the screen. With a laugh she bent to kiss his temple before grabbing her coat and hat and heading off to work.

Two hours later he finally came up for air, reaching for his now cold coffee as he opened the mailbox for his nascent business. The first thing he saw was one with the address of Cary’s company. He opened it quickly, scanning it. “Yes!” he murmured even as he wondered again if he shouldn’t have told them he was too busy to take them on as a client.

Re-reading it slowly he began composing a reply, telling them, telling Cary, that payment had to be done online as he worked from home and preferred not to give out that address. He promised he would have finished mock-ups of the two designs they were interested in sent off within the next three days. Then, in a burst of enthusiasm he debated the premise that their website should only target the thirty and above crowd. ‘These people know what their monetary goals are already,’ he wrote. ‘The younger generation is still debating whether they need to invest their monies in anything other than a house or a car or the latest technological gadget. In my estimation they need to understand that like it or not they should be thinking about their future.’ He paused and then saved his letter as a draft.

Pulling up the design that Cary’s boss had rejected he studied it before setting to work to make changes that would answer the man’s concerns without compromising the basic premise of the idea. Once he was satisfied he brought up the draft of the letter and attached the revised design.

‘In closing,’ he typed, ‘I am quite willing to monitor and maintain your website once it’s up and running.’ He added his pricing for doing that, created off the top of his head as it wasn’t a service he had planned on offering until Cary had asked about it. But it made sense that he should all things considered. After re-reading and spell checking the letter he sent it off.