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Derrick cleared his throat and swallowed. “Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for clearing your schedules today,” he said to dead silence. Well, that was easy. Now what? He had tried to get his thoughts together before he came out, but it made him too nervous, so he figured he would just rattle something off.
Now he had no idea what to say.
He turned to Taylor, and she patted her chest with her hand. Right, talk from the heart.
Blowing out a breath, Derrick dug deep.
“I miss my dad,” he said because this was the truth. “I was not ready for him to go. He knew how to do everything, talk to everyone, be efficient and compassionate, and get it all done completely cool-headed.” Derrick started pacing a little on the stage. The thoughts were just coming to him, and he was going to just let it all out. “I obviously did not get the ‘cool-headed’ gene,” he said.
There were a few chuckles from the crowd.
Heaving out a breath, he went on. “I was an asshole yesterday,” he admitted, throwing his hands up. “There is no other delicate or better way to say this. I was snappy, irritable, rude, and condescending. I did not try to be. In fact, I did not realize that was how I was behaving until my very beautiful and smart wife pointed this out to me,” he said, smiling. This was met with diffused laughter, like everyone was relaxing as he spilled his guts. “I am quickly learning that she is the smartest person alive, and that I need to listen to her,” he explained. “In fact, she picked out this tie, and it is now my favorite.” Now everyone was laughing. Derrick slid his gaze to Taylor, and she gave him a smile and an eye roll.
“So, this is me apologizing to all of you. To everyone who felt my bad attitude and temper and unease. I may not have spoken to each of you, but I am sure that it rippled into everyone’s day. Again, as my beautiful wife reminded me, I am not the only one missing my dad. You were all an extension of our family, and this isn’t easy for any of us.” Derrick’s voice wavered, and he was tearing up. He took a drink, but it didn’t help. He wanted to finish this strong, not like the puddle of tears he was about to become.
And then his hand was filled with something soft and small: Taylor’s hand. He looked over, and she was there with him on the stage and smiling at him. He could do this. He smiled at her. His Taylor.
“It sucks,” he informed the crowd. “But we are going to move forward and move on. He is with us, all of us, each and every day. And he knows we can do this, we can continue on with the Fletcher Enterprise vision. And we are all here to support each other, and we know that he is in a better place. We are better for having had him in our lives for the time we did.
“Thank you all for all you do. Thank you for still coming to work today despite my behavior yesterday. And thank you for just, yeah, being you.”
Thunderous applause met Derrick as his last words rang out.
“Now get back to work,” he said with a smile, and again everyone laughed.
As the applause continued, Derrick, held tight to Taylor’s hand and walked off the stage. He hugged her just as they were out of sight. How had he done anything when she had not been in his life? Had he even really been alive? How had he functioned, moved forward? He couldn’t think about that now, though, all he could do was melt against her.
“That was perfect, Derrick,” she whispered in his ear.
“Thank you. Thank you for being here, I don’t know if I could have, I just, I—” he was fumbling his words.
“I’m here for you, Derrick,” she told him. “We are a team.”
Derrick kept ahold of her, afraid that she was a dream, that this whole thing was a crazy dream. They were going to move forward together and help each other. He and Taylor.
His life was complete.
* * *
It wasn’tuntil that evening that Derrick realized he had forgotten to ask one very important thing for his meeting: to request no phones or recording devices be used. It was a Fletcher Enterprises policy that they not be at meetings, but as he was reminded by the lawyers and his adviser, Arthur, whom he had inherited from his father, in today’s world you had to remind people.
His company speech had gone viral from some grainy phone video. Every moment had been captured, from his coming on stage, to Taylor watching him, even after when he was hugging Taylor was captured, because of whatever angle the person had videoed it from, they had a side-show view.
Derrick had his team immediately launched injunctions to try and stop the video from being aired, but it was too late. It had been all over the Internet, YouTube, and every media outlet worldwide. Derrick was positive he was going to look like a shmuck, a soft businessman. Arthur had also feared it would look bad.
But they were wrong.
Profit margins and stocks for his and Taylor’s company had soared. Todd and Charlie were like giddy schoolgirls about how Derrick’s apology had benefited the company. Taylor had sent Derrick a video of them in her office practically jumping up and down as they watched the stock market skyrocket in favor of Preston Corp.
But the video had also only caused more media attention, and Henry made Taylor call it an early day to get her out of the office. Both she and Derrick’s security had been working overtime to keep the new paparazzi demand out of their buildings.
“I have stuff to do here,” Taylor had argued with Derrick over the phone. “Why is it so unsafe for me but not for you?”
Derrick rolled his eyes. “Because I am used to it and you aren’t, Taylor,” he reminded her. “We just want—”
“To keep me safe, like a fucking delicate rose!” Taylor shouted back to him.
“Oh yeah, you sound real delicate right now,” Derrick told her.