As usual, Bobby went first. “Let's hire him. Now.”

Neither Jeff nor Clare responded.

“Come on.” Bobby pushed. “Isn't he exactly what we're looking for?”

“Probably,” Jeff agreed. “He would help us in so many ways, it's crazy. His experience alone is unbelievable. And he'd have a pipeline of other people we could hire, I'm sure.”

Jeff didn't sound as confident as the words should have warranted.

“So is there a problem?” Bobby asked.

“Let's just make sure he's a cultural fit,” Clare explained. “How does he match up with our values?”

“Quality and safety are slam dunks,” Bobby responded. “North Bay is fanatical about both.”

Now Jeff weighed in. “So it all comes down to whether or not he's a team player.”

“I think it's pretty obvious that he is,” Bobby declared. “Did you see something I didn't?”

“I don't know,” Clare shrugged. “What exactly are we looking for?”

Now Jeff was enjoying the conversation.

“Well,” Bobby answered, “he's certainly not a jackass.”

Clare shrugged again, a little exasperated. “So we're back to that. What exactly is a jackass?”

Bobby took a deep breath. “Well, what about those words we came up with last week? Selfish. Rude. Irresponsible. We can start there.”

Jeff starting taking notes.

Clare pushed. “Okay, but what exactly do you mean by rude?”

“Come on, Clare. Rude. A jerk. Makes people uncomfortable. Says stupid and mean things. Rude.”

“Give me an example of a real person who is rude. Someone we know,” she asked.

Bobby only needed a second. “Okay, how about Terry Pascal?”

He looked at Jeff to explain. “He was one of our vendors. Sold us supplies. Everything from buckets and ladders to work clothes and gear.”

Clare went further. “Not a bad guy. Just has no idea when he's gone too far. Overbearing. Inappropriate. Clueless.”

“You said he was one of our vendors?” Jeff asked.

“Yeah, we told his company that we wanted someone new. The next guy was better.”

Jeff had another question. “So do we have any people who fit the Terry description at VB?”

They thought about it.

“Well,” Clare said, looking around to make sure that no one sitting near them could hear, “you'd have to say that Nancy falls into that category, right?”

Jeff and Bobby nodded.

“Do you think people like Nancy and Terry do it on purpose?” Jeff asked.

“No,” Clare was emphatic. “I honestly think that when it comes to dealing with people, they just,” she hesitated and seemed apologetic about what she was about to say, “they're just dumb. They're not socially smart.”

Jeff wrote something in his notebook and then added, “So, Ted is definitely not stupid when it comes to people. In fact, I'd say he's extremely smart.”

“I think so too,” Bobby declared. “That's why we should hire him.”

“Hold on a second.” Jeff chuckled at his excitable colleague. “That's not the only thing that makes someone a good team player.”

“What are the others?” Clare wanted to know.

Jeff hesitated, flipping through his notebook. “I don't know. Everything I've written here is so obvious.”

“Like what?” Bobby asked.

“I mean,” Jeff shook his head. “I'm almost embarrassed to tell you guys.”

Laughing, Bobby tried to take the notebook from him. “I'll just look for myself.”

Jeff pulled it away. “Okay. So far, after all of our conversations and the analysis of the twenty-three people we let go or maybe should have let go, it seems to me that there are two qualities, maybe three, if we include what we just talked about.”

He took his pen and wrote three phrases on the paper placemat so that everyone could see them: ego, hard work, and people.

“They have to do with having no ego, working really hard, and knowing how to deal with people.”

Clare frowned. “Don't use the word ego. Find a positive word.”

Jeff was puzzled, then saw the problem. “Oh, right.” He scratched out ego and wrote unpretentious in its place.”

The three teammates sat looking at the words Jeff had written. If it had been a cartoon, smoke would have been coming out of their ears because they were studying the words so intently.

“Again, this seems too simple,” Jeff apologized.

Clare jumped in. “No, I think we may be on to something here, even if it's obvious. Let's go back to our list of difficult people and see if it explains their issues.”

As they started to think about the question, Jeff looked down at his watch. “Oh crap. It's almost two-thirty.” He looked at Bobby. “You and I have a meeting with the hospital architects.”

“Let's pick up this conversation tomorrow,” Clare proposed.

They agreed, and Jeff and Bobby asked Clare to pay the bill so they could go.