“Whatever you’re talking about, partner,” Aahz frowned, “I’ve missed it.”
“You just said it, Aahz. The magic word is ‘partner.’ Things have been going real well for you and me, but we aren’t the only ones in this household. When we were talking to Chumley and he said that his life wasn’t all beer and skittles, it took me a while to puzzle out what he was talking about, but it finally came clear.”
I looked at the troll.
“Business is off for you, isn’t it, Chumley?”
“Well, I don’t like to complain …”
“I know, but maybe you should once in a while, I had never stopped to think about it before, but you’ve been getting fewer and fewer assignments since you moved in with us, haven’t you?”
“Is that true, Chumley?” Aahz said. “I never noticed …”
“No one’s noticed because the attention has always been on us, Aahz. The Aahz and Skeeve team has been taking priority over everything and everyone else. We’ve been so busy living up to our big-name image that we’ve missed what it’s doing to our colleagues, the ones who have to a large extent been responsible for our success.”
“Oh, come now, Skeeve old boy,” Chumley laughed uneasily. “I think you’re exaggerating a bit there.”
“Am I? Your business is off, and so is Tananda’s. I hate to say it, but she was right when she left, we are stifling her with our current setup. Guido and Nunzio knock themselves out trying to be super-bodyguards because they’re afraid we’ll decide we don’t really need them and send them packing. Even Massha thinks of herself as a non-contributing team member. Bunny’s our newest arrival, and she tried to tell me that the only way she could help us is as an ornament!”