(On the phone) Did I work for you before?
You fixed my hot water heater, yes.
Bernie came. Bernie worked hard. Bernie cut roots. Bernie opened up that sewer line and he had us flush the toilets a bunch of times, and then again, to prove things were as they should be now. But Bernie did not have time right now to look at that dripping tap because he had four solid days’ worth of customers waiting on him and some had Christmas guests coming–he needed to git.
He did not make a point of saying, but I squeezed you in because you couldn’t use any water and that stinks and the weekend is coming right at you. It was true, but he is not a man who needs to fish for compliments.
And in the time it took me to go across the house after he left, the laundry and the dishwasher were starting to catch up on their jobs.
I was never so happy to pay a plumber bill.