Free Crimson Footprints by Shewanda Pugh Page B

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