Be My One Regret

be my 1 regret / 30

now~

IN LIFE, THERE WILL BE REGRET....lots of it, but then there's hope....and sometimes it's enough....

"Miss Savage, you have a call from the Japan office on line two. Do you want me to take a message?"

My secretary's voice harps from the intercom as I look over at Tanner who's impishly smiling at me from across my atrociously large desk, the one that use to be my dad's. I hesitate in replying as Tanner's green eyes glow too brightly with tease. I tap my fingernails on the marbly desk top tilting my head at him. "What?"

With a flick of his hand, he rakes back some loose auburn locks from his grinning face. "You. This. I'm so proud. My little girl is all grown up and running her own company."

"Shut up." I stick my tongue out at him as he dabs at his non-teary eyes. "Gawd, you really have nothing better to do today but harass me?"

"Oh, sweetie." Crinkling his cute nose, he tsks with a hunch of his 'ode to Hugh Hefner' velvety smoker's jacket shoulder. "You know how I hate to work with the battle ax anymore. He's such a slave driver and this body was not made to be so stressed. You know stress equals wrinkles and honey, I am too young yet for that shit."

That he waves his hand down the length of his finely tuned body like he was Vanna White at a all- male- revue-buffet, jumps a giggle from my throat. "Oh my gawd. You don't have wrinkles, you pansy. And work is not going to kill you. Probably what the battle ax told you too, am I right?"

"Whatever." He flamboyantly rolls his eyes then points at my phone. "You going to answer your secretary? Which, oh my gawd, why did you hire a grandma anyway? There's like no one for me to flirt with around here."

I roll my own eyes even more flamboyantly than him. "Nice deflection, whiny pants. But since when did you have limits? Don't knock grandma till you try it. I hear she's newly divorced."

Eyes wide, a chuckle falls out of his jarring mouth. "Oh dear lord, woman, that was too far."

"If you say so..."  I hunch a shoulder grinning at his gagging face then punch my finger into the phone's intercom. It beeps and before my 'grandma secretary' can respond, I quickly talk. "Karen, just take a message. I'll contact them later today."

There's no reply because 'grandma-secretary Karen' was a good find. The best at her job. Better than the best. Since she learned from my dad, her former boss. Who was and still was the best and would know better than anyone who was worth keeping on as an employee. Which Karen whom I had only met on occasion over the years seemed to fit me, fit my style, or at least, she was amazing at conforming to fit it. And I could't be happier. Even after two  months of my newly appointed life at the helm of Savage E, I was grateful for the easy transition. Because I needed someone in my corner since the past 60 days had not been as kind to me as I planned. Or hoped. 

Totally blindsided, the board members mutinied within the first ten days, and only half remained under my leadership, the other half had to be replaced. Which was not fun. An actual HR nightmare. My dad only laughed a little at me when I consulted him for possible replacements from his leather wing back in our family living room at home. The house I grew up in had become his fortress and he seemed to like reigning over it. And I liked watching him feel at home, it was kinda cool. And hilarious that my rigid uptight dad was so blaise about my inquiries. It was half hilarious and half ironic that it only  took those same ten days to deprogram him from his control over Savage E, but slowly he finally relented when he saw my determination to succeed wasn't hindered by the insolent board members. And it was a stroke to his ego that I still needed his help. But he never rubbed it in. We were at a new crossroads, my dad and I. He was proving that he meant it when he said he wanted to take a step back from business more and more each day by letting go. It was weird though. Watching him be so relaxed. Reading books, playing golf, and taking naps. Taking effing naps! That was the real shocker. Never ever had I thought I'd see the day but that was our new life together. Him resting. Me working. It was a daily shock to the system on our role reversal. One I had yet to have him explain why he wanted it, but until then I wasn't going to complain. He was a help to me thru my corporate frustrations, a guide, a personal adviser, and for that I  was more at ease with my CEO status.  It was a secure feeling to have him in my other corner.