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She grinned at him and held up her wine glass to finish their toast. “Let’s start with this…”
***
Naomi walked into the office the next morning, and Keisha smiled at her, handing the mail to Naomi as she stopped at Keisha’s desk.
“I made coffee, and here’s the mail from yesterday afternoon. Also…” she paused and looked a little anxiously at Naomi, “Reggie Davis is coming in around noon to talk about what he’s going to do with the building and our lease. That’s Mr. Davis’ son.”
Naomi stopped almost mid-step and turned to look at Keisha. “Reggie Davis is coming here? Today?” She made herself take a deep breath. “Okay. Well, we’ll get some answers, and that’s the best that we can hope for right now.”
She looked away from Keisha as her heart began to pound against her chest, and she headed to her desk. There was a lot going on in her mind, about all the things that were going on in her world, and all of it was overwhel
ming her.
She sat and made herself go through the mail, made herself focus as hard as she could on every word before her, and not on the thousand things that were going crazy in her mind.
Every time she looked at the clock that morning, it seemed to be rushing toward the noon hour, and she felt as if she was freefalling toward a definite end that could not be avoided. It made everything in her even tenser.
At two minutes to noon, she was tapping her fingernail against her desk and staring at a letter on her desk. She hadn’t read the letter, though she had been staring at it for almost ten minutes.
“Naomi,” Malaika said calmly. “Please stop tapping.”
Naomi blinked and looked over at her hand on the desk. She hadn’t even realized that she was doing it. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
Malaika rose up from her desk and gave Naomi a smile. “I know things are difficult right now, but look at this as an opportunity to build a new and good relationship with Reggie, just like you did with his father. This is just the first step, and the first step is usually the most difficult. You can do this.”
Naomi gave her a half-hearted smile and just then the front door opened, and a tall, well built, stocky looking man walked in. He was dressed in a polo shirt and tailored pants. The curls of his black hair were trimmed short on his head, and he was undeniably handsome at first glance.
His brown eyes scanned the room quickly, and they stopped on Malaika, who was watching him from where she stood at her desk.
“Miss Peters?” he asked, looking at her.
“I’m Naomi Peters,” Naomi said, standing up and making herself walk toward him with a good deal more confidence than she felt.
He tore his gaze away from Malaika and looked at Naomi. A polite smile came over his face and he held his hand out to take hers.
“I’m Reginald Davis. My friends call me Reggie. Thank you for meeting with me today.” He gave her a nod as they shook hands.
“I’m so sorry about your father. He was one of the best men I’ve ever known.” Naomi spoke gently.
“Thank you. His loss was tough to take. He was the best man I ever knew. I hope to live up to his standard.” Reggie smiled at her.
“Well, shall we have a seat? It seems there is business to discuss.” She invited him over to the sofa at the center of the room, and he followed her and sat down. Keisha and Malaika sat down in chairs beside them.
“This is Keisha; she’s my assistant and receptionist.” Naomi introduced Keisha, who smiled brightly at him and shook his hand. “And this is Malaika, who is a designer here at the firm.”
Malaika reached her hand to him to shake it, and he held her hand a bit longer, smiling genuinely at her. “It’s quite a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he answered, holding her eyes with his. She smiled at him and withdrew her hand from his slowly.
He turned toward Naomi then. “You have a lovely place here.”
“Thank you, Reggie. We’ve worked hard on it. I’m glad you like it.” Naomi smiled at him and told herself to be certain to start off on the right foot with him.
“My father mentioned your business more than a few times when he was alive. He had nothing but good to say about you and the ladies here,” Reggie began, looking at her more seriously as he spoke
. “I understand that he wanted you to be able to stay here, and he kept you here all of this time. I’m glad that he did that, but because he’s gone, things may change. We’ll have to talk about it. I’d first like to know what your plans are, and then I will be glad to fill you in on what changes I have coming up in the future.”
Naomi felt her heart begin to pound, and she tried to keep as calm a face on as she could manage. “Well, we love being here, and as you said, we’ve been here a while. We’re established here. I’d like to keep the business here, if I could. We want to keep it exactly as we have it now.” She kept her tone friendly while making her intent very clear.
He nodded. “I thought that might be the case.” He pursed his lips a moment and his smile faded somewhat. “I’m sorry if this causes you any kind of trouble, but for myself, I can’t keep this building. It’s more work than I have time to handle, and I’ll be frank with you; it’s the smallest property that I own. It’s not worth my while to keep it; to be honest.”
