Ron was all ears as Jake, the foreman, told the crew that he didn’t want to beat around the bush, but Bevo was lucky to have escaped by the skin of his teeth. “Every dog has its day,” he said, “and today, Mr. Bevoni had his.”
There’d been rumors going around that the foreman was just looking to fire someone, so everyone had been working really hard. Bevo was one of the hardest working guys on the crew. Jake really had it in for him though. He’d heard through the grapevine that Bevo had gone out with Patty the office girl, on a date.
Jake, although a married man, was known as a guy who liked to fool around, and all the guys on the crew knew that he had the hots for Patty. It was clear to everyone that Jake was using his position as foreman, to try and convince them that Bevo was lazy and didn’t do a good job, when actually, Bevo’d fit the exact opposite of that description.
There was nothing that anyone could do however, so Bevo did get fired, but to Jake’s chagrin, as a month later, Bevo was still dating Patty even though he no longer worked at the plant. He’d arrive there daily to pick Patty up after work.
A rival construction firm hired Bevo to fill a foreman position they had which was open - when one door closes, another door opens. In this case, Bevo essentially got a promotion and more money due to Jake’s act of malice, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Jake.
Instead of admitting to himself he’d bitten off more than he could chew, Jake decided it was time to swallow yet another bitter pill. He walked into the office and confronted Patty, demanding she tell Bevo that if he drove onto company property, he’d have him locked up. Patty knew Jake didn’t have that kind of power as a crew foreman, but she played along, picking up her phone.
“Wait… what are you doing?” Jake asked her. “I’m texting Bevo what you said because he planned to pick me up here as usual,” Patty replied. Jake didn’t seem to like that at all, as he stood there, fuming. Seconds later, Patty held up the phone so Jake could see Bevo’s reply text, and said, “Here it is Jake, right from the horse’s mouth.”
In the text, Bevo called his bluff. “You don’t have a leg to stand on with your silly threat Jake, and I will be picking Patty up at the office as usual. I suggest you crawl into your hole before I get there.”
Jake became enraged and then made a very big mistake – he grabbed Patty’s arm.
Poor Jake had no idea that Patty was a seventh dan Tae Kwon Do black belt, as a split-second after touching her, he “hit the pavement” so to speak, and quite hard. Patty reported his assault on her to HR and with corroboration from the other office girls who’d witnessed the whole thing, Jake was terminated on the spot.
When she heard about the altercation Patty had with Jake, the company CEO, Loretta Baldwin, called Patty and asked her if Bevo was still looking for work. When Patty told her he had a job with another construction firm, she asked her if she’d have him come in and speak to her when he arrived.
“We’re going to need a new foreman, and I think we can kill two birds with one stone here. I’m sure we can easily beat whatever Bevo’s being paid now.”
Thanks for reading!
Sources for images used in this post:
(Public Domain photos are from Wikimedia Commons)
