The truth was that I refused to leave Miami until Ginger started speaking with me again.
I sent her another text message that morning, and when she didn’t reply, I tried calling her. She wasn’t answering her cell or office phone, either. I started pacing back and forth in my office, causing several of my employees to watch me from the other side of the glass door.
Just send one of them to Africa, dammit!
I looked out the window, and sure enough, the clouds were starting to darken. If my pilot was right, this wasn’t going to be a quick storm either. We were officially heading into hurricane season, and that meant that flying anywhere needed to be done right away. I sent one last text message to Ginger, waited five minutes for a reply, and then shoved my phone back into my pocket.
I couldn’t postpone my trip any longer.
I practically peeled out of the parking lot and headed to the Lavender Dreams Spa. Confronting anyone at their place of work was something I never did, but this was an emergency. To me, anyway.
The smell of lavender hit me as soon as I walked inside, and I was surprised at how calm it instantly made me feel. That was until Eva came out to greet me.
“Jorge, it’s so good to see you!”
“Yes, I need to speak with Ginger, please. Is she in her office?”
She looked confused. “No, she’s been working from home all week. I haven’t been able to get a hold of her, though. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you.”
“Wait, did you just say that you can’t get a hold of her either?”
Eva shook her head, and it hit me just how bad I’d hurt Ginger by having to leave the country.
“I don’t believe this,” I said while pacing back and forth in front of the front desk.
Yuslan came out a few minutes later. “Is everything all right out here? Jorge, why do you look so stressed?”
If there were anyone who could give me some much-needed advice, it was Yuslan. He pulled me into his office.
“I had no idea that Ginger was working from home all week, Yuslan.”
He nodded while handing me a cup of Cuban coffee.
“Did something happen between the two of you? And be honest, Jorge. You should know by now that I can tell when people are lying.”
“Well, kind of, Yuslan. There’s a miner’s strike in Africa. I have to go down there for a while to fix everything and try to get the miners back on the job. Normally I’d send Ria, but she’s out of the picture. Anyway, when I told Ginger, it upset her, and she hasn’t spoken to me since. And I can’t say that I blame her either.”
“Why don’t you have someone else that can go instead of you? If you fired Ria and that was her job, it seems to me that you have to fill that position.”
“That’s the thing, Yuslan. Ria screwed me so badly that I don’t think I can ever trust anyone ever again.”
He shook his head while folding his hands across his lap. “Jorge, only a foolish business owner would try to juggle everything at once. You can't handle every aspect of your business!”
“I know, Yuslan, but what else can I do? That woman robbed me of nearly a million dollars!”
He looked me up and down while smiling. “Something tells me that you’re doing just fine without that, Jorge. A million dollars to you is probably fifty or a hundred bucks to the average working American.” His cheesy words of wisdom made me chuckle, and I realized he was right.
I felt my face flush at bit. “Well, I suppose that’s true. But I can’t think of anyone to take Ria's position right now. I need someone with a strong work ethic that I can trust. Knowledge of the diamond industry would be a plus, but not necessary. It’s really just basic human resources and accounting.”
“That’s what Ginger does here, Jorge. She’s our accountant and takes care of human resources.”
“Yes, and she loves her job here. I could never ask her to quit just to work with me, especially after the hell I’ve put her through these past few weeks.”
Yuslan leaned forward and put both of his hands on my shoulders. “Jorge, arrangements can easily be made. There are ways around this, you know. Maybe she can work part-time for the salon remotely while taking care of the miner’s strike. Or perhaps we’ll give her a temporary leave of absence.”
“No,” I said while defiantly shaking my head. “It’s not just having her switch jobs, Yuslan. She loves it here. You should see her face light up when she talks about the Lavender Dreams Spa. This is her family. I would never take that away from her.”
“As part of her family, I am ordering you to offer Ginger the job until you find a suitable replacement. You know you want to offer it to her. The second I heard that Ria quit, I knew that you’d want Ginger in that position. And the fact that you don’t want her to leave her family here, at the salon, proves to me that you are a man now, Jorge.”
