‘Wait a minute, wait a minute,’ I held my hand up to stop the contractor leaving the room. ‘You want what?’
‘The day off,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Tomorrow, for me and the boys. We need to recuperate, recharge the old engines.’
‘Why?’ I asked, flabbergasted. ‘You’ve barely started working!’
‘Hey,’ he frowned at me. ‘We’ve been going for a week straight, Mister. Don’t you tell me what’s too much work for me and my boys.’
‘Uh,’ I put my hands on my hips. ‘That week straight included the weekend and a public holiday. And you didn’t show up until two this afternoon!’
‘We worked late last night,’ he shrugged. ‘In any case, we’ll be back on Thursday.’
‘Thursday is in three days!’ I all-but screamed at the man.
‘Oh, is it?’ he frowned, scratching his head. ‘Huh, whadya know? I’m gonna need another couple days off for my boys.’
I stood in stunned, disbelieving silence. ‘Do I need to hire contractors to remodel my bathroom?’ I asked him. ‘You’re only here because Dave said you’d be able to—’
‘Ah, Dave is a schmuck,’ the contractor waved his hand dismissively. ‘You don’t wanna listen to Dave about anything.’
‘The Dave who said… I should hire you?’
‘Yeah, that guy,’ he nodded. ‘Total loon, if you know what I mean.’
He twirled a finger next to his head, in case I didn’t know what he meant.
‘In that case,’ I said, puffing up my chest. ‘You’re fired. All of you. I want you and your equipment out of my house by tomorrow.’
‘Ah, no can do,’ he shook his head. ‘We have that day off tomorrow. The one that I cleared with you?’
‘Too bad!’ I shouted. ‘Out! All of you!’
‘Good luck then!’ the contractor threw his arms up. ‘You got no chance of finding a company that specialises in laundry renovations near Melbourne, not at this time of year! Come on boys!’
He whistled and his men obediently put their tools down and began to file out.
‘Laundry…’ I frowned. ‘Have you been renovating my laundry?! I asked for my bathroom!’