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Taylor raised her brows at him. “Preston-Fletcher,” she corrected him.
Derrick felt immediately better about his entire day. His subconscious plastered a stupid grin across his face, and it stayed there all the way to their car.
* * *
Derrick had chosentwo for the meeting because he thought it would allow everyone to adjust their schedules and reschedule whatever they had to. He had not considered how torn up he would be for the entire day.
At noon he called Taylor, but she was headed out to a lunch meeting. “It will be fine, Derrick. Just clear the air, and then you can move on,” she said, and he knew she spoke from experience.
“Okay, you’re right. I love you,” he said.
“Um, yup. Good luck,” she said and then quickly hung up.
Derrick puffed his lips out as he tried to release some of his tension and stared at the phone. She would say it when she was ready, when she felt it for certain, he assured himself. Derrick was confident that she loved him when they got married. He knew she had to have felt something, or she wouldn’t have gone through with it. But the longer it went with the one-sided I love you’s, the more it made him wonder if perhaps he was wrong.
He busied himself with paperwork that needed reviewing. He had purposefully avoided everyone all day, afraid he would beg for forgiveness from every person. Though he gave off the bad-boy persona, he really didn’t want to let anyone down or make them think he didn’t care, because he did. It was never about just money for him. Before he knew it, his assistant, Claire, was getting him for the meeting.
“Mr. Fletcher,” his phone buzzed, “time for your meeting.”
He nodded to the phone.
“Mr. Fletcher?” she asked, and Derrick realized that she couldn’t see him.
“Uh, okay. Thanks, Claire,”
She was the only person he had apologized to so far, but she had just patted his arm and said, “I get it, Mr. Fletcher, you are under a lot.” He appreciated her understanding, but she had known him better than most of the company because she had worked with him the last two years.
Derrick rose and made his way out of his inner office. The meeting was being held in the amphitheater, a ridiculously large room that took up an entire floor of Fletcher Enterprises and was used for large meetings. It had been put in by his dad, but Derrick was sure he had never had to use it for this sort of reason.
He made his way to the elevators and focused on his cufflinks, making sure they hadn’t come undone, and of course they hadn’t. It seemed like something silly that men did, like women checked their hair to distract themselves from what was really going on. He just wanted to busy himself and not think about what he needed to do.
When the doors closed, Derrick saw himself in the shiny elevator doors. It was just him, manning up to what he needed to do. Some of the board members had called and talked to Claire, trying to figure out what this was about and then to ask if Derrick wanted them to go with him. But he wanted to face this alone.
He looked at his reflection and met his own eyes.You can do this, he coached himself silently, but deep down he wasn’t sure he could. This was something bigger than he had ever handled. What if he failed? He saw his confidence waiver in his eyes, and suddenly when the doors opened to the sixteenth floor, he was locked into a bright-blue stare.
Taylor.
She stood before Derrick and smiled at him. Derrick suddenly felt ten feet tall, like he could take on the world. He wanted to sag with relief at the sight of her, but instead he grabbed Taylor’s outstretched hand, confidently walked out of the elevator, and took her into a tight hug.
“I am so glad you are here,” he whispered in her ear and kissed her just below it.
“Where else would I be?” she asked, laughing a little.
Derrick leaned back and just took in her face, feeling the tension leave him. Taylor was here, and all was right in the world.
“Come on, boss man,” Taylor whispered, and together they walked to the door that led behind a stage area to face the amphitheater.
An IT guy came over with a microphone to clip onto Derrick, and he looked wary about it. Geez, it appeared his temper tantrum had been made known to every department. “Thanks, man,” Derrick said, and he saw the guy relax and look up with a small smile.
“No problem, Mr. Fletcher,” he said and quickly patted his arm.
Time to face the fire. With one last deep breath, Derrick messaged his feet to move him forward.
The noise of a general assembly surrounded Derrick as he walked out onto the stage in front of the milling crowds, and it quickly grew silent as he came into view.
He felt like an improv actor, with just a table and some water on the stage before him. His heart hammered, and he took a swig from the glass there, wishing for something stronger but was also grateful for the distraction.
Derrick turned to the direction he had come from and caught sight of Taylor, who stuck her tongue out at him. It made him smile and gave him the oomph he needed to actually speak to the waiting masses.