May 18, 2010 11:36am
“Look John, I’m sorry,” Richard Millhouse said, running his hand through his silver hair. “I only have so much money for advertising.”
Looks like Tim Harrelson strikes again, John mused. Crows restaurant was one of the first accounts that I brought in when I started at 96 Rocks about 5 years ago. Always had a good relationship with him but it didn’t make any difference here.
“I always enjoyed working with you when you were at 96 rocks,” Richard continued, “but the truth is that radio advertising is cheaper than television advertising and I’m just not convinced that you can bring me in more business.”
“We have some good rates on the Seinfeld shows,” John replied desperately.
“It was a great show but who watches reruns,” Richard said.
“I understand.”
“Look, I had WTHE come in asking me to buy some time for the Texas Rangers. That was nearly 5 times the amount that it would cost me to buy radio time. It’s just too much for me.”
John stood up, shook his head. “Can we keep in touch?”
“Sure.”
John turned and left the restaurant. Another lesson learned about relationships, John thought to himself. Just because you had a great relationship with someone doesn’t mean that they’ll always buy from you. In the end, everyone wants the best deal and since 96 Rocks was giving discounts to the clients that I worked with, then there was nothing I could do.
I won’t blame them,” John told himself. I was under a lot of pressure to make sales based on the clients I had at 96 Rocks. I didn’t make any promises or guarantees that I would be successful in converting those clients even though I was fired from the station 8 months ago.
“A job is a job,” John mused. His non-compete didn’t allow him to sell radio time for 3 years at another station unless he moved to California. His lawyer told him it would cost him over $10,000 to fight it and he would probably lose.
Diane broke the news to him that she decided that she was leaving Texas to go to California. She really liked him but her career in radio was more important. He wasn’t sure he felt the same way about her and he wasn’t anxious to move to California in order to find out.
He tried to put the past behind him but when he thought about 96 rocks, his mind turned to Tim Harrelson and Herman Pearson. The rage began again and all he thought about was just beating the hell out of Tim for what he did to him.
He still remembered the phone call he got at the office. “I don’t think you filled out this application but someone filled it out for you.” John had listened as the voice from McDonald’s continued. “Anyway, it said that you wanted to be a janitor and you even wrote down that you will clean toilets.”
John said thanks and hung up. He glared at Tim and said “you’re a real asshole, you know that.”
Tim hung up the phone and smiled. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You filled out that application from McDonald’s in my name.”
The smile grew wider and he was almost laughing. “McDonald’s. I really like their Big Mac’s but I never stay there to eat lunch.”
John debated about punching Tim in the face, lost the debate. He turned, ran upstairs and knocked on Herman’s door.
“Yes.”
John opened the door and screamed “he’s gone too far this time.”
“Don’t you scream at me,” Herman yelled back.
“That bastard filled out an application at McDonald’s and said that I wanted to be a janitor.”
“I’m not running a day care center here,” Pearson yelled again. “If you have a problem with someone, go to Marjorie. Just do it during your lunch hour. Now get back to work.”
John clenched his teeth together and remembered how sympathetic Marjorie was. She said that there was no proof that Tim did this even though she knew that he would do something like that. Later on that day, Herman would come down and told him just to move on and forget about the call.
He walked into his car, shut the door. He hated going into the office after that but he couldn’t just quit his job. If that wasn’t enough, Herman had Tim go out with him on sales calls when his numbers went down. No matter what he did, he did it wrong. Didn’t close enough. Forgot to mention the ratings for morning drive.
He drove 3 blocks to his next call at Alfredo’s restaurant, spotted Tim as he walked towards his red Mustang. He pulled into a spot, turned off the ignition. He opened the door, stepped out of his car, glared at Tim.
“How’s it going?” Tim said.
“Go to hell,” John replied.
“Funny, your ex-girlfriend said that to me also after I kissed her.”
John walked towards the car as Tim stepped inside. “She was worth it.”
“You leave her alone you bastard,” John yelled as Tim started his car, then drove away.
John grabbed his cell phone, dialed Diane’s number, put it to his ear. She answered on the third ring.
“Hi.”
“You okay?” John asked.
“I’ll be all right.”
“I just ran into that son of a bitch.”
“He told you.”
“Yes.”
“Did he also tell you that he did the same thing to me that he did to Mary.”
“No.”
“I’m not gonna let him get away with this. I’m gonna do everything I can to get him fired. I don’t care if I have to sue him. He’s not getting away with this.”
“Herman won’t do anything. You know that.”
“Good. I’ll yell at him also. I’m leaving. I don’t care anymore.”
“You want me to come over tonight?”
He heard her take a deep breath. “Yes.”
“Okay. I’ll come over.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter 5
Herman Pearson
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:35
Herman sat at the front of the table in the conference table, 6 sales people surrounding him. He took in the aroma of 3 boxes of pizza that were off to his left.
“I have a question,”
