for the job.
“Uh-huh,” he said. He didn’t say anything else for a minute or so as he inspected the deck, looking under the railing and grabbing hold of it to test its sturdiness.
“We didn’t build it,” Brody said. “We just stained it.”
He nodded. “Ahh, okay.” He pointed to the painter’s tape we had laid out on the floor. “This is for the bar, I’m assuming. You guys planning to build that yourselves?”
Brody answered, “Yeah, probably” right as I said, “No, we’ll get a contractor to do it.”
Well, this is off to a great start.
“We’re discussing it,” I said. “Brody thinks we can save some money by doing it ourselves.”
It wasn’t true, but it sounded good.
“And what do you think?” Mr. Mason asked me.
“I think since neither of us has built a commercial bar before, it’d be best to have a professional do it, especially when it’ll be the focal point of the entire place.”
I thought I sounded confident in my answer, and I figured it was because I was. Brody and I would do a shit job trying to build a bar of that scale, and it would take us way too long. As it stood, a Memorial Day opening was an ambitious goal.
“Probably a good decision,” Mr. Mason said, and I felt my body relax. “The cost of materials and the amount of time it would take you won’t be worth the hassle.”
“Yeah, that’s how I was starting to feel too,” Brody said.
I resisted rolling my eyes, though barely.
“You get any estimates yet?” Mr. Mason asked.
“Four,” Brody answered, which was at least the truth.
“Any of them in your budget?”
Brody had obviously filled his dad in on my agreement with Sean, but I didn’t know if he’d actually provided his dad with any financial specifics.
“All of them.”
“You leaning toward any particular one yet?” Mr. Mason walked over to the back railing that looked over a small yard.
I was beginning to feel like I was the focus of a criminal investigation with the speed at which Mr. Mason was firing questions at us, but I also understood why he was doing it.
“Not really. Three of them were in the same ballpark, and the other one was a good bit cheaper. So maybe we’ll go with him,” Brody said.
“If it’s noticeably cheaper, there’s a reason for that,” Mr. Mason said, turning back to us and taking a seat in one of the white plastic chairs nearby. There was another one a few feet away from it, but neither of us made a move to sit in it. “Never go with the most inexpensive option.”
“That makes sense,” I said. “I never thought of it like that.”
“Me neither,” Brody added. “Got any other business advice for us?”
Mr. Mason shook his head at his son, but a small laugh escaped him. “I’m beginning to think I’m somewhat to blame for your cluelessness. At least when it comes to financial matters,” he added. “I don’t take any responsibility for all the other bullshit you’ve done.”
Brody’s mouth opened immediately, but it took him a moment to find his words. When he did, all he said was “Um, I don’t know how to respond to that.”
“Then don’t,” Mr. Mason said. Then he leaned his forearms on his thighs and folded his hands together. “Look, you want my opinion?”
“Yes?” Brody said, sounding unsure.
“Good, because I was going to give it to you either way.”
I didn’t think Mr. Mason meant it as a joke, but I laughed anyway.
“A few things you should know about business,” he started. “The first is that you can get something fast, cheap, or good. You’ll never get all three, so you need to decide which two are most important.” He gave that a few moments to sink in before continuing. “In this case, it seems like you need the bar done pretty quickly. You’re aiming to get this up and running in a few weeks?”
“Yeah,” Brody said. He seemed just as captivated as I was with Mr. Mason’s lesson. At some point we’d both walked closer to him like two kids preparing to hear a story read to us.
“I’m guessing you don’t want a shitty job?”
“Definitely not,” I answered.
“Then don’t go with the cheap guy. He’s either gonna do a half-assed job or he’s gonna drag his feet. But you have to pick someone soon, or it won’t get done in time either way.”
“So how do we decide?” Brody asked.
Mr. Mason sighed like the question bothered him more than it probably did. Since he’d arrived,