Everything You Want: Everything For You Trilogy 2 (27 page)

It takes a steadying breath and an unclenching of teeth to walk past Brent Tapper’s Range Rover continuing to take up residence in my parking space. But I square my shoulders to face my problems here.

Head on.

Chapter Twelve

I march straight inside before I change my mind.

A few startled faces stare at me on my way through and I hear a murmured greeting or two. There’s more surprise, than welcome, in some voices. Has Brent Tapper already led them to believe I’m done around here?

“Welcome back, Tabitha. How was your break?” Libby, my best friend and PA, sounds genuinely pleased to see me. I expect she’s pretty relieved too. I can imagine the sort of culture Brent has been creating in my absence. He’s not an easy man to work with, that I know.

“Interesting,” I tell her. “It’s good to see you too and I’ll catch up with you in a minute.” Things need to change and I daren’t even pause long enough to notice if she’s taken aback by my new resolve.

I enter my office. The CEO’s office. The one that used to be Harry’s and is now mine. Brent is at my desk where I fully expect to find him. It annoys me nonetheless.

Four o’clock in the afternoon and Brent is lounging back with his feet up, idly flicking through the newspapers. A look of instant irritation floods his features but he schools his face into an amused, careless expression in its stead.

“This is not your office. It’s mine.” No mixed messages there. I can almost see Jack smiling approvingly at me. “Did you hope I wouldn’t be returning any time soon?”

He offers a sly, cool smile but makes no attempt to move. I recognise posturing when I see it.

“Get your feet off my desk.” I’m done being civil.

He doesn’t move and I don’t ask a second time. I sweep round the furniture, knocking his hefty feet down with my hand as I go.

He doesn’t expect that and draws himself up to his full height. As he’s seated I glare downwards, daring him to object. “Now I have your attention, you can get out of my chair and out of my office.”

“You take off without a word leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces after your little road crash, then you expect to come waltzing back in, throwing your weight around.”

“Weren’t you up to the job then, Brent? Never mind. I’m Chief Executive Officer. I’m here to deal with whatever you can’t handle.”

He looks stunned. I’ve always deferred to his age and length of service with Harry but those days are over. “You’re not out of my chair yet.”

“I’m not having any girl telling me how to run this company. I ran this company when you were in your soggy little diapers.”

And that is the crux of our problem.

“I’ll still be running it when you return to wearing them, a few years from now, in your care home.”

Brent Tapper is too old and too set in his ways to change. He does not accept me as CEO or believe he should defer to me. Ever. He still sees me as the intern and the fact that I hold authority over him has made him bitter and resentful. Either he must go or I must and this is my company. I’m going nowhere.

His colour deepens to a worrying shade of purple. Brent Tapper is one of those men who thinks he’s untouchable. Yet I’ve just probed a nerve, I suspect. He’s past it. He should have retired years ago. He stands up. At the very least my vitriol has got his fat backside out of my chair. I whip it away from behind him and send it reeling across the room before he changes his mind and sits back down again. Round one to me, I think.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” he fumes.

“Head of the Caid dynasty and CEO of CaidCo. If you can’t work
for
me, I can work out a very favourable retirement package for you. What’s it to be?”

“You’ll never be able to run this place. When Harry died, the business died with him.”

“And it will never evolve all the time a dinosaur like you stomps around flattening its progress. I’m your boss. If you don’t like it, leave. Now get out of my office and do what I pay you to do.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I know he’s staggered by this strange woman standing with her hands on her couture-covered hips in front of him, because he marches towards the door and I gather up his newspaper to throw in the rubbish bin.

“Still looking to get by making headlines while we’re here meeting deadlines?” he shouts back. It’s a pretty cheap shot reminding me of the petty harassment he engineered over those unfortunate pictures of me at the ball and I’m not naïve enough to believe he won’t try to cause more trouble.

My hand freezes on the newspaper. Brent knows our engagement has been announced as Jack did that very thing last Monday, but he won’t have seen the official photographs yet. They’ve only just been taken.

“Is that your clumsy way of offering your congratulations? My personal life has no bearing on CaidCo, any more than yours does.”

“Screwing your way to a contract with Zee-Com shows a whole lot of class. Harry would be ashamed of you.”

Now it’s Brent who prods at my raw nerves. “Harry put the company in my hands because he knew there was no one who would handle it better than me. I’m the best person to take it into the future.”

“Harry was an old fool with a blind spot.”

Any sentimental desire to retain Brent’s services for Harry’s sake dissolves like salt in water at that crass comment.

“Consider yourself issued with a verbal warning. I’ll make sure you have that fact in writing by the end of the day so we’re clear.”

“You can’t warn me about anything.”

“I just have. You’re rude to your colleagues, argumentative and impossible to work with and you refuse to follow reasonable instructions from your boss. Now go and tell all staff there will be a board meeting in thirty minutes. That’s an order. If I don’t see you there, I’ll consider that a sign that you have no intention of improving your attitude or your employment prospects despite your initial warning.”

“You can bloody well go and take a running jump, you little bitch. When I leave I’ll take all my clients with me.”

“You can try, Brent Tapper and if they go, I reckon it will be worth it to be shot of your dead weight. CaidCo won’t sink without them and it won’t sink without you. I’ll make sure of that. Close my door behind you.”

Of course he doesn’t so I stand firm puffing like a steam train until he’s out of sight and out of earshot. He’s cursing and muttering as he thunders through the building, no doubt looking for support. He slams his own office door. I seem to be making a lot of enemies lately. I retrieve my chair and sink into it. My legs tremble and my heart bangs in my chest like a pile-driver. But I’m ecstatic. And I didn’t have a panic attack either.

I’ve done what I should have done months ago and I know who has given me the courage to do it. It’s a revelation. Jack hasn’t diminished me, he’s made me stronger just as he promised he would.

The doorway widens slowly and Libby peeks cautiously round. “Is it safe to come in?”

I laugh. “It’s always safe for you to come in. Close the door behind you, please.”

She enters and sits opposite. “Half the building heard that row.”

“Good. It will give them a chance to decide whose side they’re on. If I have to lose half the workforce, I think a more streamlined agency with a few new, younger members will be a positive change. One thing’s for sure, matters can’t stay as they are.”

“They haven’t,” she says giving me a small grin. “I believe congratulations may be in order.”

“I presume you’re referring to my engagement rather than my bad temper.” I don’t like lying to anyone and especially not to Libby.

“Of course I am. Come here.” Libby shuffles round the desk and hugs me tight.

“Thank you.” I settle for a bland response.

She searches for my hand under the desk. “Let’s see the ring then. Not that I could miss one like that at twenty paces.”

I hold out my hand and she grabs my fingers and whistles. “Huge. Pink. Huge and pink. All huge, sparkly and pink.” She tears her eyes away from the object in question and glances up at me for a second. “Did I mention huge?”

Her enthusiasm makes me laugh despite my reservations. “You did. It is pretty.”

“And pink.”

“Definitely pink.”

“It’s so romantic. Why doesn’t anyone give me a romantic huge pink diamond?”

“One day you’ll get yours,” I assure her. One day I might get my own for real too. I feel such a fraud. There’s absolutely nothing romantic about the circumstances that have me temporarily wearing this ring. It’s brash deception, pure and simple. False advertising.

She hugs me tight. “I’m so happy for you, honey. Now what are we going to do to make this company all pink and sparkly too? Not to mention huge.”

“What aren’t we going to do?”

Libby and I grin at each other. We’re the two youngest members of staff here and at times it’s been like wading through quicksand trying to get people to accept new ways of working and thinking. Senior managers have held such clout up until now, change seemed impossible.

My mind flies off in a million new directions. Innovation is where my strength lies, not in trying to stay faithful to Harry’s traditional ways. The company has to change; I can see that now.

“If we’re more youthful and dynamic and less conventional, I believe we could attract a whole raft of new clientele that won’t mean we’re held to ransom by retaining the loyalty of older clients or staff.”

“Perhaps there’s room for both,” Libby suggests diplomatically.

My creative energy is in overdrive. I think about all the companies whose business we’ve handled for a long time.

“Since Zee-Com pulled out, some of our older clients have been threatening to move on too.” I always thought it was because of me but now I’m not so sure. “It’s the way this business is currently structured. The way we’ve always operated.”

“This sounds exciting. I haven’t been excited about CaidCo for a long time,” Libby admits, looking a tad guilty.

“Me neither,” I reassure her. “No wonder we’re failing. We’ve been clinging to the old-school operation that Harry established years ago, but that’s not playing to our current strengths. How many young, trendy businesses are out there, Libby, needing representation?”

“Thousands. Hundreds of thousands.”

“A whole new potential market for us. Perhaps we should create two distinct teams. Traditionalists at CaidCo can continue to work with existing clients or ones that prefer the more conservative approach but we could create a younger more dynamic division to hunt and handle hip new business.”

Libby’s smile is huge and I can’t help but feel thrilled to think things are turning for the better already.

“The concept sounds amazing, Tabitha. I hate to say this but I’ve considered leaving before now.” She looks at me apologetically.

“I know the feeling. I’ve been so busy trying to live up to Harry’s ideals and keep old farts like Brent Tapper happy, that I’ve lost sight of what
we
bring to the table.”

“A whole new beginning for CaidCo.”

“And that’s exactly what we need. We’re young. We understand the new world better than any of the older guys here. Don’t get me wrong, I know I can still learn from their years of experience, but they can learn something from us too. It’s about time they realised that.”

“How will you restructure things?”

“I’ll have to think a bit about the details but I want to put my decision to the staff straightaway. If they prefer to move on, I’ll give them time to secure other jobs. If they’re feeling like us and crave a new challenge, they can work with existing clients in the more traditional manner if that suits their business model.”

“And…?”

I laugh at her encouragement and think I’ve just got my first member of staff on board. “We’ll hire lively, go-ahead young graduates who’ll regenerate this place with new ideas and bring new, young business on board. I think we should start a new internship programme too.” People who will fully accept me as their boss.

It isn’t so very different to what Harry did all those years ago. He took on new enterprise when he agreed to represent the young Jack Keogh and his new company, Zee-Com, and look what amazing things that did for both of them. We need to revitalise ourselves in a similar way again.

I feel so good I have a sudden spirit of generosity come upon me. “I might offer Brent the role of heading up the trad division. It would satisfy his need to be boss and sweeten him a little.”

Libby looks dubious. “Are you sure about that?”

“Not at all.” I give her a look that says I hope I know what I’m doing. “But I’m prepared to give him one last chance to work with me. For Harry and old times’ sake.”

“Are you still making his verbal warning official? I heard you, you know.”

“Too right.” We both laugh. “He either does this my way or I want him out.”

“He isn’t going to like it.”

“Frankly, I’m counting on it.”

“So what do you need me to do?”

“Type a letter to advise Brent of his verbal warning and invite him to meet with me to discuss the improvements I expect from him. Outline how he can raise a grievance in writing, if he wishes to. Give it to me to sign when you’re done.”