He simply looked at her.
Then he looked around the room.
He studied the cabinets he had spent countless hours building.
He looked at the shelves.
Then the window bench.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
And then he smiled.
“Okay.”
That’s it.
Just one word.
Grant actually laughed.
Apparently, he thought Frank had surrendered.
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Frank calmly packed his tools.
He swept the area where he had been working.
He made sure everything was clean.
Then he told Melissa and Grant there was just one final piece of paperwork he needed them to sign.
It was a completion acknowledgment confirming that the work had been inspected, accepted and completed—but that the remaining balance was still unpaid.
They signed it.
Neither of them bothered to read the entire document carefully.
Melissa even smiled afterward.
“See?” she said. “That was much easier than making this ugly.”
Frank simply nodded.
Then he went home.
When he walked through the door that evening, I expected him to be furious.
Instead, he looked strangely cheerful.
I asked him what had happened.
He opened the refrigerator, grabbed a beer and sat down.
“Aren’t you angry?” I asked.
He took a sip.
