Christmas Construction

Chapter 3: Falling

Brian

The small desk lamp flickered again, casting spooky shadows across the inventory spreadsheet he was working on. He frowned, pushing his wavy brown back as he slumped in his chair. Too many materials were coming in later than promised. At this rate, he'd have to eat his entire profit. Usually he was generous with his estimates on delivery, but this project had required several rare, luxury materials and pieces, and he was at the mercy of more than one unfamiliar—and unreliable—vendor.

Muffled laughs trickled down to him from the third floor. A Christmas party was in full swing, complete with holiday jazz blaring. The bad kind, not the good kind. His brow furrowed. He understood the desire to have a grand entrance with a lobby that was partially open to the two floors above. It certainly made a statement. However, it made working in his tiny makeshift office set up in the corner incredibly distracting.

Brian made a face at his spreadsheet. He was in for some lean weeks if those construction materials didn't clear customs soon. He would just be able to pay his team, and that was it. When he started his own construction company two years ago, he knew it was risky. Especially since his target market dealt with skyscrapers and large office buildings, not family homes. If he had known up front how much of a pain this job would be, he may not have taken it.

Who was he kidding? Of course, he would have taken it.

Sighing, Brian flipped the binder cover closed and turned the lamp off, effectively obscuring the page full of notes and slashes of red ink. He was wary of the job from the beginning, but he had to take it. Grant Enterprises was a huge company in the city with a lot of prominence. Doing such a public-facing job could only mean good things for him. If he could just get through it.

Brian stood up and slipped past the tarp hanging in front of his desk. It was his nightly ritual to do a walk-through of the job site, to see what was accomplished that day, and how they might need to adjust schedules and plans for the future. But it was more than that. There was something about it, walking through the site alone, between stacks of lumber, pallets of bricks, and cases of tile, hearing the whispering crunch of ever-present construction dust under his boots with every step.

Possibility. That was it.

He noted significant progress on a curved low wall and felt his mood lift a little. Natalie was a hell of a bricklayer. He'd have to thank her tomorrow. It was a prominent part of the design, and he knew the client would be happy to see it coming together. Small wins.

Suddenly, his phone rang, interrupting his reverie. "Hey, sis," Brian said, picking up by the third ring.

"Are you still Grant?" Gwen's voice came through the phone, sounding, as always, like the phone call was one of ten things she was doing at that moment. As if to prove this, she followed her question with a clatter of dishes and a reprimand to her 3-year-old, "Liam! Don't touch that! And be nice to your sister!"

"Almost done," Brian said casually, long used to his sister's chaos. She was three years older than him, fiercely protective, and the multitasker of the century. He'd never admit it, but he loved her worrying over him. It was more than their mother had ever done.

"Swing by before you head home, would you?" Gwen asked, sloshing and scrubbing sounds in the background. "I've got something for you."

"What is it?" Brian asked, a little curious.

"... Just come by," she said.

"That bad, huh?" he said, raising his eyebrows.

"No, but it's—what did I say, Liam? Put that down right now! ... It's a little complicated," Gwen said. Brian waited patiently through the clatter of his sister putting the dishes down and running over to her son. "This is dangerous, Liam. You could hurt Penny, see? We don't want to do that, do we?"

"I'll come by," Brian said quickly before Gwen could get any more distracted. "Maybe half an hour?"

Liam started crying in the background. "Make that an hour if it's not too much trouble," Gwen grumbled. "Best to have the kids in bed."

"I wanna see Unca Brian!" Liam wailed, clearly discernible through the phone. "I wanna!"

Gwen sighed harshly into the phone. "No, Uncle Brian won't be here until well after bedtime. You need your rest to have a good day tomorrow."

"See you later, sis," Brian said.

"Yes. Thanks, talk soon," Gwen said, hanging up abruptly.

Brian chuckled. Liam had so much energy he kept Gwen and her husband Mark on her toes. But he loved the kid with all his heart, along with his baby sister Penny. He made a point to spend time with them at least once a week, no matter how tired he was. Family was important. This year he had made his Christmas gifts for the two of them. For Liam, he made a set of tracks for his toy cars, and Penny would have some stackable wooden rings under the tree. He had spent hours sanding everything to be smooth as silk. He couldn't wait to see their faces.

"s**t," he abruptly swore, having knocked into a bin of empty packaging and debris and sending it toppling over. It was right in the walkway too, near the bottom of the stairs. Though it didn't sound like the Christmas party would end anytime soon, he figured he should still clean it up fast so it didn't get in anybody's way. Mid-job or not, he always made a point to keep the areas open to the public as clean as possible.

Brian quickly set the bin upright and put all the bigger pieces back in within a few minutes. Then he went and grabbed a push broom leaning on the wall near his desk. Then he returned to sweep up the dust and smaller bits of broken tile.

Making his way around the bottom of the stairs, he swept up a few shards that had skittered beneath the floating staircase. "All done," he murmured, emptying the dustpan into the bin that he had dragged behind him.

He had only just pushed the bin back to its original place when he was startled by the sound of someone coming down the stairs. Fast. And in uncomfortable footwear, if the loud tap-smacking sound was any indication. He walked back around to the front of the staircase to warn the person to slow down.

Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough. The woman sped into view, taking the last of the stairs two at a time. "Ow!" she cried after stubbing her toe only a few steps on the main floor, her momentum carrying her too close to the edge of the taped-off walkway. Brian started forward to see if she needed help, trying not to be amused at the sight of a grown woman hopping around on one foot.

Suddenly, he heard a snap and saw the woman sway precariously. "Aaaaahh!" she screamed, losing her balance.

Did he move? He must have. For moments later, Brian found himself in a completely different place, catching the distraught woman in his arms before she could hit the ground.