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“We’re not here to make dramatic changes. Just the little ones that have dramatic results.” That’s right. I go there. I happily make clichéd sayings. “I’m not looking to upset an entire workplace. We always try to make the time of transition as easy as possible. Again, there isn’t any reason for anyone to be afraid they’re going to get fired or ousted in a reshuffling. Any changes we do make will be months down the road, and it would be more of a steady re-tooling with training and advancement opportunities. Would you please make sure your staff knows this?”
Mike squirms in his seat, though I’m not sure why. I looked into his position before I acquired the company, and he’s a competent manager and a good leader. He’s the kind of person other people look up to.
I try to put him at ease when I turn to him and say, “I’d like to get started immediately. I know you have to get your staff prepped for a meeting about the acquisition since it just officially happened this morning, so I imagine you’re going to be incredibly busy. I think I can handle things from here.”
“Oh,” Mike says as he glances at Rea. She looks back at him, silently pleading with him to stay. When his eyes flick back to me, I smile reassuringly and nod, which is all it takes.
“I’ll have an email draft to you shortly,” Mike adds as he pushes back from the table. “I’d like you to approve it, just to make sure I have everything covered. I was planning a meeting this afternoon with the senior staff. They’ll meet with their teams independently after if that’s alright?”
“Sounds perfect. Thanks, Mike,” I say, trying to be as unthreatening as possible. I really don’t want to come in here and start making demands because I’m not a tyrant. Also, I couldn’t give a shit about asswipe. This place is already profitable, and even if it went down the tubes, I wouldn’t care. Again, this is just about Rea.
Well, Rea and me.
After Mike leaves, Rea transforms back into the fire breathing dragon of old. The Rea I remember. The Rea who refuses to take shit lying down. Or standing up. Or sitting. The Rea who demands justice when justice is due. The Rea who speaks her mind. The Rea who could give a speech to an entire auditorium of people. The fearless Rea.
I can see she’s nervous as her bottom lip trembles. Her fingers drum against the tabletop without her realizing she’s doing it, but she doesn’t tear her eyes from mine when they finally land on my face. Those blues are straight-up ice, ice so cold they’d burn you—dry ice, but smokey, alluring, and mystical.
Jesus, I’ve missed those eyes.
“Since we’re going to be working together now,” I start smoothly, “I think we should let bygones be bygones. We’re here now. The past is the past.”
“Right.” Rea’s nostrils flare, and her eyes get even colder. She looks like she wants to drive a stake through my heart—vampire slayer mode. That’s actually an inside joke between us, and it’s meant as a sort of compliment. “Because you just happened to take over the place I work at by accident. You just happened to have Mike pick me to work with you by accident. It was all just a happy freaking cosmic misunderstanding.”
I nod slowly in affirmation, but it pisses Rea off more, and she stiffens. Her words are slightly slurred from whatever is going on with her face, and I can’t help but point it out because I’m just trying to be nice, not an asshole. I would never do that to the woman who callously broke my heart. I point to my own jaw. “Bad day at the dentist?”
Rea’s porcelain complexion goes redder than an overripe tomato—the kind that gets forgotten and left in the fridge until it starts liquefying at the bottom of some crisper drawer under a bunch of other, more fortunate vegetables.
“Just a regular day at the dentist,” she huffs. “And this was no accident. You did this on purpose.”
“I’ve always wanted to be in the toilet paper business, so I convinced my dad it was a smart move. This company is one of the best in the industry, and it’s leading with great ideas like cute patterns on the rolls and extra softness.”
“We don’t do any of that. Our toilet paper is a budget product that’s rougher than actual sandpaper. We’re leading the industry because we charge the least amount for a twenty-four pack, and people like that. It doesn’t matter that the one-ply has some serious wrath to it.”
“Hmm, I’ll have to write down my ideas for softer paper and cute designs and submit it to the development team.”
“Why are you really here?” Rea hisses. Forget the stake through the heart. She kind of gave me one of those already. She now looks like she’d like to grab one of the boardroom chairs and go into full-on brawl mode. I wonder at the odds of her picking one up and hurling it at me. Even in towering heels, her anger would probably give her extra strength.
