I woke up as early as I could the next day, made breakfast and served Dante's and put it in the microwave for him. I needed to get to work early, there was a board meeting and I was supposed to attend. I left a note on the kitchen counter which was the most obvious place he wouldn't miss when he first gets into the kitchen.
" Goodmorning, Your breakfast is in the microwave" it read.
I hurriedly rushed to the office and I was informed the meeting was rescheduled to hold later in the afternoon. It wasn't a big deal, I needed to leave the house anyways, knowing I was in the same place with Dante suffocated me a lot and it was a Friday, he always slept in late on Fridays, that made sense why the meeting time was moved.
The day went by swiftly and Missy came in to remind me it was time for the meeting. I took a deep breath before walking into the conference room. Everyone was already seated by the time I got in, I scanned the room to see where I would sit but the only empty seat was beside Dante, it seemed like that was specifically reserved for me. I took a seat and the meeting commenced.
I sat silently paying attention to all that was being said, different people chipped in their opinions here and there and the main discussion which was on company promotion strategy began.
Mr Chris, a Latina man in his late 50s stood up to present the pitch, we all watched as he fed us the details and led us through all the illustrations. I noticed a few loopholes in the presentation and after he was done, I thought it fair to air my observations as it would be for the benefit of the company.
"Does anyone have anything to say regarding the pitch Mr Chris has just given before we proceed?" Dante asked.
I was sure everyone in that room must have made the same observations just as I did, but to my surprise no one attempted to speak up. I had heard no one question the judgments of Mr Chris as he was the oldest member of the company but that level of ignorance would only jeopardize the company.
"I do have something to say" I blurted out just in time before Dante continued to speak.
Everyone's attention turned to me and I became slightly nervous. I got up from my seat and went over to the projector screen to aid me to vividly explain my point.
"This is a problem" I said pointing at the displayed list of proposed partnerships.
"We can't just go about partnering with unlicensed TV and radio stations to air songs from our artists just because they have a large stream base," I said. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I spoke.
"What do you mean?" Someone asked from behind.
"What I mean is that, a large number of the TV and radio stations listed here are unlicensed and illegal, promoting our artistes through these channels would attract legal consequences. The only reason why the viewing and streaming ratings from these platforms are extremely high is because they are illegal and people pay almost 99% less than the usual fee to stream there"
Everyone was surprised at my audacity, even Dante. He seemed clueless, I guess he had always just gone with whatever was proposed by Mr Chris.
"What do you know about company promotion young lady? Are you trying to question my twenty years of experience?" Mr Chris shot at me.
"Are you trying to go through illegal channels so you can have an opportunity to embezzle company funds for yourself sir?" I shot back at him.
"You must be insane, do you know who you're talking to?" He yelled.
"Enough. That's enough. You may be the superior here, but she still remains My wife and you have to respect her" Dante yelled at Mr Chris.
I was in shock, I didn't expect he would stand up for me like that.
"Take your time and restructure this and when you have it appropriately figured out, you call us for another meeting. If you can't do your job right, maybe I'll find someone else to do it for you. This meeting is dismissed" Dante said to Mr Chris and everyone waited until he left the room before they followed suit.
I sat back in my office giving Missy the details of the meeting and she was intrigued by how courageous I was. We heard a Knock on the door and Missy went to check who it was.
"Good afternoon sir," I heard her say and she immediately walked out of the office.
I was surprised to see Dante coming in, he was the last person I expected to see in my office.
"Can I have a seat?" He asked, standing at the opposite side of my table.
"You already let yourself in without asking, so asking if you can have a seat is rather pointless" I replied, with a huge fake smile on my face.
He pulled out the seat and sat down and for a few seconds, awkward silence swept through the atmosphere.
"I just wanted to say thank you for speaking up at the meeting, going by Mr Chris' decision would have caused the company significant damage, I wouldn't have known myself if you hadn't said something about it. Thank you very much,"he said.
"You're welcome," I simply responded.
I stayed focused on my computer not doing anything relevant but just because I didn't want to pay attention to him, if he had anything to say he'd speak up rather than stare unnecessarily in silence.
I felt his gaze on my face. Slow and a little bit flirtatious as if trying to take in all of my facial features and engrave them in his memories.
I found it hard to look at him and kept staring down. My fingers tapping loudly on my keyboard in nervousness.
"I'm sorry for how things have been lately, my head hasn't been in the right space but it doesn't justify me being a jerk towards you"
His words made my heart skip a beat. I know I said I didn't care about him anymore but hearing him say those words melted my heart and I recognized the fact that I had been dying to hear him say he's sorry so we can put it all behind us.
I took a glance at him and the way he looked whenever he was sober and trying to make amends was a huge turn on for me. He looked so calm, ethereal, his eyes laid gentle and the expression on his face always backed up his apology.
"I'm really sorry Sienna, I hope you don't hate me? You have every right to though but I promise I'll try to do better" He said, reaching out for my hand across the table.
His hands were warm and shaking, I could tell his anxiety was taking the best of him. I had no idea what he was dealing with, but I was sure it was a lot on him.
"It's alright, I don't hate you. Let's just move past all of it. In a few months this will be over and we can both move on with our lives and you'll have no more trouble from me anymore" I said to him. And saying this made me realize that I was actually not looking forward to it. The part where we both move on with our lives, but I had to remind myself that was the deal all along, even though a part of me hoped it would change.