Crimson Footprints (10 page)

Tak waved a hand. “Dad’s in
Prague. He left yesterday. From there it’s Tokyo for two weeks,
then London for another two. Gives you at least a month until he
comes looking for you, probably more.” He paused. “I could get an
estimated start date if it’ll make you feel better.”

“
But I’ve got other stuff…”
Deena said lamely, glancing at her desk.

Tak sighed. “You’ve got a
wheelchair ramp for K-Mart. I know you, Deena. You can have the
concrete specs out for that in fifteen minutes.”

Deena smiled. It was her
misfortune to find a man whose mind didn’t wander when she yammered
about her work. “Well, there are channels. It takes forever to get
approved for time off here. If I put in now I might get cleared in
six months.”

“
Let me worry about that.
Being the boss’ son must come with some perks. You just make plans
to leave tomorrow.”

“
Tomorrow?”

He smiled slyly.

“
Tomorrow, Deena Hammond.
Handle the concrete specs today. And tomorrow,” he winked. “Belongs
to me.”

He left with a bounce in his
step, oblivious to her sharp intake of breath.

Tak bounded the stairs two
at a time, always keen for exercise, as he ascended to the top
floor, his father’s. Broad and winding, the staircase gleamed with
white marble and wrought iron banisters. At each landing was the
Tanaka logo, his father’s pompously grand signature etched in gold,
with a transparent globe of the same color in the background. The
earth signified his global approach to architecture and the
signature, which omitted his first name, stemmed from his
conviction that a Tanaka would always be at the helm of his
firm.

The thirteenth floor
belonged to Daichi and his secretary of fifteen years, Angela.
Heavy glass doors etched with the company logo glided open to meet
Tak when he reached the floor. He conjured up his most charming
grin and crossed the bright white lobby to Angela’s
desk.

She looked up and smiled at
the sight of the boy she’d watched become a man over the
years.

“
You must want something,
Takumi. That smile is far too big.”

Tak leaned on her desk, a
hand on several of his father’s files.

“
You’ve done something new
with your hair, Angela. Looks great. Glamorous, even.”

She grinned. “Now I know
you want something. Out with it,
por
favor
.”

Though she’d worked for
Daichi Tanaka for fifteen years, and knew that he and his sons were
fluent in Spanish, she wouldn’t have dared used it with her
boss.

Tak shook his head. “I’m so
disappointed. I came to see you. I just…needed a little sunshine in
my day.”

Casually, he picked up a
manila folder, only to have it snatched away.

“
¿
Que
? You want me on the unemployment
line?”

Tak rolled his
eyes.

“
Right. My dad would sooner
get rid of me than you.”

He watched her organize the
files he’d skewed.

“
Listen,” he said finally.
“I need a favor.”

She didn’t look up. “A
favor?”

“
Yeah.”

He glanced behind him, as if
worried his father would show up.

“
Su padres en
Prague
,” she reminded him.

“
Yeah, I know.” He leaned
forward.

“
There’s a girl who works
here. I need you to clear her for vacation.”

Angela’s mouth dropped. “I
knew it!”

Tak tried not to
smile.

“
You knew what?”

“
You and your ‘oh I just
had to see you. You just brighten my day.”

She came around the desk and
folded bronzed arms, a lock of auburn hair slipping into her
eyes.

“
Who is it?”

Tak grinned. “Deena
Hammond.”

“
Deena Hammond.
You say her name like that in front of your
father?”

“
You kidding me? He doesn’t
even know I know her.”

Her face went serious.
Angela returned to her desk, hands trembling as she sorted
paperwork for filing.

Tak watched her.

“
What? What did I
do?”

“
Go away,
Takumi.”

“
Go away? Why?”

She shook her head. “Because
I said so.”

Angela went to work filing
her stacks. When she looked up, she found him still standing
there.

“
I can’t get between you
and your father. The job market isn’t good, and anyway, I’m too old
to start over.”

“
I’m just asking for a few
days off, days that she’s already earned. Paid.”

“
Paid!”

“
Come on! You can do it.
You can do anything. Dad says so all the time.”

“
You went too far,
Takumi.”

“
Sorry.”

Angela dashed the hair from
her eyes and sighed at the hopeful expression on his young face. As
a boy, he’d worn that same expression sitting outside his father’s
office as he begged for pizza instead of sushi for lunch. And as a
teen, he wore it when he needed help getting a dent out of his new
Mustang before his father was any the wiser. And now, as he needed
her to bend company rules for a girl, he wore it one more
time.

Angela sighed. “How many
days?”

Tak lowered his gaze. “A
month.”

“
A month!”

“
Angela, come on. She has
two. Go ahead and put it through.”

“
No one’s ever been
approved for a month at a time. No one.”

“
Please,” he clasped hands
in desperation.

With a groan, Angela turned
to her pc, usurping the human resources department as she went to
Deena’s file.

“
Well, she’s never taken a
sick day. Just bereavement.”

Tak came around her desk
for a closer look and Angela jabbed the monitor’s off button.
“Jesus! ¿
Estás loco
?”

“
Well you’re sitting here
reading it to me! What’s the difference?”

“
I’m not reading it to you,
Takumi, I’m thinking out loud.”

She scowled at him until he
retreated, then turned the monitor back on.

“
I’ll give you two
days.”

“
Two days! I need a
month.”

This was why he didn’t
belong in corporate America. He needed to be free to roam, at
will.

“
Well you’re in here at the
last minute. There are people who have been waiting for
months—”

“
Come on. We don’t care
about them. It’s me. Why’re you going on about a bunch of
strangers, anyway?” He gave her his most doleful
expression.

“
I’ll owe you,” he
promised.

“
You have nothing I
want!”

“
Well when I get something
it’s yours.” Tak leaned against a desk. “Please, Angela? I’m crazy
about her.”

That was the other thing.
She was a sucker for love. Married for thirty-two years, the mother
of four children, the daughter of a couple together for sixty. She
devoured romance novels and soap operas and thrived on the love
affairs of celebrities. She was always, always disappointed when
love didn’t work out.

Tak smiled, knowing he’d
baited his fish.

“
The first time I touched
her there was this, this awareness I’ve never felt.” He exhaled
nosily.

Her eyes widened. “And you
met her here? At the office?”

Tak shook his head. He knew
this next part would send her over the top. He had to be careful
though, as the truth was sensational enough. Any embellishment
would make it implausible.

“
She saved my life. We were
strangers and she saved my life.”

Angela gasped. “Someone
tried to kill you?”

He nodded.

“
Father in heaven!” She
made the sign of the cross. “Pull up a chair and tell me
everything. I’ll put in for her vacation time.”

“
Well, I think you should
go, Deena.”

Rhonda shifted to adjust the
slim black phone wedged between her shoulder and ear and waited for
her niece’s protests.

“
You can’t be serious. I’d
be gone a month. I don’t even know where I’m going. What if Grandma
needs me? What if Lizzie needs me?”

Rhonda thought about her
niece Lizzie, the lost and promiscuous soul who would be unwilling
to accept help from her sister even if she did need it.

“
They’ll just have to
manage.”

“
Grandma doesn’t want me to
go. She says she might need me for something.”

Rhonda sighed. “And what
about what you need?”

Deena laughed. “I don’t even
know what I need.”

“
No? Well, I’d start with
this vacation.” Rhonda gave a tired sigh. “Sweetheart, listen.
You’re twenty-five and you live like a nun. You work, come home and
spend all your free time trying to please everyone else. There’s
got to be more to your life.”

Rhonda stood, folded her
arms, and crossed the length of her spacious master bedroom. With a
lean on the windowsill, she gave her lover, stretched out on the
broad and accommodating platform bed a wink. Black lace on soft
curves made her irresistible.

She turned her attention
back to Deena.

“
You need a life of your
own, sweetheart. An adventure. Wind in your hair and laughter in
your heart. You need to feel alive, to do more than just be. And
you have the right to happiness. But you have to take it and own
it.”

“
And what? You think I’ll
find it? On this trip with him?”

Rhonda shook her head. “It
doesn’t matter if I think you’ll find it with him. The question is,
do you?”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Deena stared at the pile of
clothes on her bed. She had no idea what to pack. She had a few
sweaters, relics from her days at M.I.T., but wasn’t sure if they’d
be traveling far enough north to need them. It was March, and
already the unrelenting Florida heat was upon them like summer in a
desert wasteland. He’d warned her not to pack much, that they would
go where the wind took them, but she found the idea of being
unprepared frightening. So she threw in the sweaters, jammed in the
jeans, and frowned at the stack of short and long sleeve shirts on
her bed. Not everything would fit and for the first time in her
life, planning alone couldn’t give her comfort. For the first time
in her life, she would have to trust someone else.

A year ago, the only Tanaka
Deena knew was Daichi. Back then, she was an older sister who
practiced a life of piety, determined to be the shining example her
siblings so desperately needed. Every decision was a conscious
choice, painstakingly determined after weighing all options and
ascertaining every possible outcome. From obsessing over course
material to ensure that her grades remained stellar to skipping
parties and dating because they were unproductive distractions, all
of it had been for Anthony and Lizzie. Anthony, who lived and died
by the sword, and Lizzie, who lived and might die like a whore. For
once, there was no great and noble purpose behind Deena’s actions.
She was responding to a voice thought long dead, bullied and
smothered by her grandparents and a file on her hard drive boldly
named ‘Expectations.’ It was a file whose dense itinerary bared no
mention of a month long vacation or a schoolgirl infatuation. But
the junior Tanaka had done the impossible. He’d resurrected that
voice, weak though it was, and gave it reason to shout.

It was a drab and damp
Friday morning when they left for destinations unknown. Deena
ventured out with a stone gray duffle bag in hand—large, but
singular. On her face was the uncertainty that plagued her. But it
was coupled with something else, something wholly
unfamiliar—excitement. Tak spotted her and smiled. He saw the
apprehension, but he saw past it to the single bag and the
simmering anticipation in her smile. He needn’t be told that she’d
spent half the night packing and unpacking in an effort to meet
every need, only to realize it was impossible. And he needn’t be
told what this large, lone bag meant to her, or meant to them. In
her own way, she was giving herself to him. She trusted
him.

There was something about
the patter of rain on a windshield, the mundane nothingness of an
overcast sky, and the gentle hum of a car on the interstate that
could lull even those with the heartiest resolve to sleep. Tak
glanced at Deena, with her knees drawn to her chest, head against
the door, and a few unruly wisps of hair in her face as she slept,
and he smiled.

He could recall a
conversation they’d had last year, shared over two lattes in
Brickell. In particular, it was the wide-eyed wonderment with which
she looked at him as he confessed that he’d seen most of the
country.