Richard

I arrived at the office with no fanfare. The incident had been kept out of the papers. As far as the staff was concerned, I had taken an extended vacation. I wasn’t there long before my business partner and best friend made an appearance at my office.

“Why do I have a pair of worn stinky sneakers sitting on my desk?” He looked disgusted, scrunching up his nose.

“Those stinky sneakers were all I had to wear when I on the island. They are woman’s shoes, but they fit great and felt fantastic. I want to turn these into a unisex boat shoe,” I told him.

“Interesting concept. We currently don’t have a unisex line, and we did discuss changing that.” Aleksander ran his hand across his face, contemplating the prospect.

“I want to take your concept and use the one piece shank and polymer for the sole of the shoe for flexibility. We use neutral colors, his and hers matching boat shoes. It’s something totally new for us.”

“Not as high end as we’re used to,” Aleksander commented, pacing the floor. “We have been looking for a common shoe, something to attract a more versatile clientele.”

Impatient to hear Aleksander’s opinion I piped in, “What are you thinking, Aleksander? Can this work?”

“Pure genius, is what I am thinking. Your Florence Nightingale must have really fucked your brains out for you to come back with this,” my partner responded, standing there in my office with a smirk that I wanted to wipe off his face.

There it was, the feeling Aleksander must have felt when I once referred to his personal assistant, now his wife, as every teenage boy’s wet dream. A former Tranquility Falcons cheerleader. As I put it, not a cheerleader, but the cheerleader.

“Oh, Christ, Richard, I know that look.” Aleksander sat in the chair opposite my desk. “You let Florence Nightingale get under your skin.” He then laughed and added, “Feels lousy, doesn’t it? Makes you want to wipe this smirk off my face, I guess.

Ok, no more off color comments about your Florence Nightingale.”

“You can start by calling her Mackenzie,” I threw at him. “Which also happens to be the name of our new design.”

“How soon do you want this rolled out? Spring showing is close. We don’t want to miss out on it.”

“I want to roll it out now, promote it as the new vacation shoe. I don’t want to wait for the next fashion season, I want to introduce it at my thirtieth birthday party. Like a gift to myself.

Can it be done?”

“If you want it done, I can get it done. How soon do you want a prototype?” he asked.

“No prototype, I want to go to production ASAP. I need two pairs, yesterday,” I rambled off impatiently.

“Are you sure? No testing, no premarket, straight to production? Has that ever been done before?”

“Once, with our basic black pump, the ones everyone gets when they come to work for us. The ones inspired by the sexy librarian look.”

“What are they called again?”

“Sindy.”

“With an S or a C?” Aleksander inquired.

“S, what’s it matter?”

“Isn’t our receptionist’s name Sindy with an S?” He looked towards our receptionist.

“Shit, Richard, do you name all your shoes after your…” Aleksander paused, “inspirations?”

“Kind of,” I laughed. “The gold pumps, four inch heels, all flash, very uncomfortable — Amanda.”

“Restraining order Amanda,” Aleksander shook his head. “Incredible.

Your Mackenzie — comfortable, practical — is this what we are going to market with?”

“Too ordinary. I want subtle, sexy, as our tag on these,” I instructed Aleksander with a wicked grin, remembering how sexy my Florence Nightingale was.

“ A sexy boat shoe. Let me see what I can come up with. I’ll get Haley to help.” His wife was the manager of our new men’s boutique. She had a degree in marketing. I had no doubt Aleksander sought her opinion on more than one occasion.

“How long did it take you to realize you were in love with her?” my friend snickered.

“The minute I woke up in that cabin and knew where I was, who I was with.” I sat back in my chair. There was no sense denying it. My lifelong friend would know the tell. “She was the one that got away, the one I let get away. I don’t know how to stop it from happening again.”

“Don’t let it, go get her.”

The answer so simple, so easy, go get her.

What if she didn’t want me?

Was I willing to risk the fall from the rejection? People counted on me. I did not have the luxury of floundering, looking for true love. That was not my destiny.

“I don’t have time to go chasing a dream of a love long lost. I need to get back to business. I want this in production by the end of the week. I want a full inventory to launch the day after my birthday, after we premiered it.”

“Do you want me to send out a company wide email, see who wants to work on this? It could be a great learning experience for some our new interns. Like you said, business as usual.”

“Great idea, thanks for your help on this. I have a lot of catching up to do because of my extended vacation,” I laughed.

Aleksander walked to the door, checked the hallway like a covert spy, closed the door and sat across from me.

“The board was worried about a take over,” he paused, “from Aaron.”

“Aaron,” I laughed. I doubt my half brother would have any interest in taking us over. My father had made it very clear, that if Aaron wanted to be a part of this company, we would take him in with open arms.

“Aaron deals in commodities, not fashion.” My jaw tightened, my eyes narrowed. “How long did it take the board to write me off?”

“Your father made it perfectly clear, every resource at his disposal would be used to find you. Including the press if need be. He didn’t care if the public found out and stockholders bailed. He pulled out his check book and offered to buy back each share. Then and there.

His only concern was getting you back, even if that meant putting the company at risk.

The board on the other hand, all business, worried Aaron might come in and swoop us up under one of his shell companies,” Aleksander said. “Your father made it very clear that Aaron would never take advantage of us like that. He had too much integrity.”

“Good, now get me that shoe,” I responded.

The minute Aleksander left the room, I pulled out my phone and looked through my emails. I couldn’t find the one I was looking for. The picture of Mac and I. I wanted to get it printed and framed for my desk.

I decided against it. That would create too many questions I did not have the answers to.

Also, it wasn’t there.

She would have gone back to town by now. Why hadn’t she made any attempt to contact me? She must have cell reception by now. I would text her, make the first move. When was the last time I made the first move?

Never.

Aleksander was right, this did not have to be hard, go get her.

A simple text to let her know I was thinking of her. Lucky for me I wrote her number down before leaving the Island. Otherwise, I would have no way of contacting her.

Richard: Hey

I sat at my desk combing through my unread emails, marking them in order of priority. I had only missed a couple extra days of work. How many of these mundane opportunities could have been dealt with at a department level?

I would call a meeting of all department heads, explain I should not have to micromanage them. Unless that was what I did, micromanage everything?

It was how my father ran the company, his hand in everything. That was not how I wanted to do things. I had already taken the first step by bringing Aleksander in as my partner. Change did not have to be a bad thing.

If I gave each department more ability to make their own decisions, I would have more free time. Time to take a few days off, spend some time away. Spend some time with her.

I checked my phone; still no response from Mac. Surely, she did not stay longer on the island than she had originally planned. She said she was a veterinary assistant; she would have to go back to work.

I never took the time to ask. I spend two days whining about my past, my pain, my imperfections.

We discussed the loss of her father and husband. Her plans for the future. Plans that did not include me.

I needed to get her out of my head. I knew only one way to take care of that. I would take care of any business that could not wait. Then I would leave early, go into the city and deal with my pain like a man, like Rick would deal with it.

The next day I arrived at work after lunch. I knew there would be hell to pay. I was already behind with suppliers and approving new designs from my extra days away while on the island. I was the boss and I should be able to come and go as I pleased.

Aleksander walked into my office. “You look like shit. I thought you went into the city last night to take care of business?”

“I tried, it didn’t feel right.” Aleksander was one of the few people I could be frank with and not fear judgement.

“You know what you need to do. It’s not rocket science, more like biology,” Aleksander teased. “I took your concept upstairs yesterday, here’s what we got.” He threw the folder on my desk. “I think you are going to love it. I can have a working, wearable pair by Friday.”

“I’m pretty sure I said two,” I reminded Aleksander.

“Don’t I get a ‘great job Aleksander, wow, Friday, that’s fast’?” my business partner slammed. “Don’t worry, you will get the first dozen by early afternoon Friday. The first cut of the batch. I assumed you wanted them this size,” he said and he threw the old worn stinky shoe on my desk.

“Yes, and not funny,” I scolded. “How did you know?”

Aleksander placed his palms on the edge of my desk. “Richard, you took the woman’s shoes. I have two sisters, you don’t mess with their shoes.”

Aleksander backed away from the desk. “Don’t you have a new boat that needs breaking in? Take the weekend, come in late Monday, bring the girl back her shoes,” he encouraged.

“I don’t know where she is, she isn’t responding to my emails.”

“Give me your phone.” I passed him my cell. “Hey, that’s it? Seriously, Richard.”

“What am I supposed to say, 'thanks for the great fuck, want to do it again,” I deadpanned.

“Will that work?” Aleksander laughed.

“Not with her,” I replied, sounding defeated.

“Than tell her you are breaking in your new boat and that you will be arriving on the island Friday afternoon and you have something for her. If she wants to see you, she will be there. If not, you leave her the shoes, spend the night on your boat, come home knowing where you stand.” He handed me back my phone.

“You make it sound so simple.” I shook my head.

“I learned the hard way. Not being honest and trusting my instinct almost cost me Haley. If she’s worth it, like I said, go get her. Now I have a lot of work to get to if I am going to keep my promise and get those shoes in your hand by Friday. Text her, good luck.”

I weighed my options. I would like to break in my new boat. Mackenzie did deserve to get her shoes back. I sent the email.

Friday arrived with no response to my email. Maybe she was still at the island and unable to get them. I would head there as planned, leave her the shoes with the invitation to my birthday party. After all, the shoe was inspired by her. She should be present when they were unveiled. I wouldn’t mind having her there to help me celebrate my birthday.

I both dreaded and looked forward to the journey.

What if she did not want to see me again?

What if she wasn’t there?