Free Carriage Trade by Stephen Birmingham Page B

president, I want to give you a position of real responsibility, Mandy. Your talents are being completely wasted in that advertising job, as I guess you know.”
    â€œWell, I think so,” she says.
    â€œAnd—you know—I was thinking before you got here, Tarkington’s has always seemed like a kind of mom-and-pop operation, what with your mother and dad living in the apartment upstairs. A kind of cozy, family atmosphere. I think that’s always been a part of Tarkington’s special aura, its special charm.”
    â€œDaddy used to say he liked his clients to feel as though they’d been invited into Buckingham Palace. Or were staying at the Paris Ritz.”
    He laughs softly. “Well, you see? The Queen and Prince Philip live over the store, too. But I was thinking, what if you and I were to run the store as a partnership?”
    â€œPartnership?”
    â€œAs co-presidents, perhaps.”
    â€œCo- presidents ?”
    â€œWhy not? Another mom-and-pop operation.”
    â€œOh, I don’t think I’m quite ready for that,” she says. “I don’t know as much about the business as I need to know. I’ve never even been out into the market, for instance. I’d need—”
    â€œI’d teach you everything you need to know,” he says.
    â€œBut I don’t have your experience, your—”
    â€œYou could be in charge of what I call the creative end of the operation. I could be in charge of the financial end. That’s the way your father and I more or less divided things up for the past half dozen years or so.”
    â€œBut as co-president?”
    â€œFifty-fifty partners. A team. Most of our clients are women, after all. I think they’d like the idea of knowing there was a woman at the top. And I know how much you love the store.”
    â€œThat’s true, but—”
    â€œYou see, I’ve always thought you had great retailing talent, Miranda. You’ve got the innate feel for it, the nose for it. Retailing’s in your blood, and why shouldn’t it be? You’re your father’s daughter.”
    She sips her wine thoughtfully. She would like to say, But in the two years I’ve been with the store, you hardly seemed to notice me. It was never more than a nod or a smile or a wave of your hand in my direction when we encountered each other in the hall. Months would go by, and you never seemed to know I was there. When did you notice this great retailing talent of mine—which, in fact, I do possess? But instead she says, “This is a big responsibility you’re suggesting for me, Tommy.”
    â€œI know you’re up to it. I know you’d do a superb job. You and me, in tandem, at the top.”
    â€œI’m certainly flattered, Tommy, but—why didn’t you ever mention this to me before? That you thought I had some talent.”
    â€œI couldn’t. Your father had some pretty old-fashioned ideas about women in top spots in retailing. And after all, your father was my boss. I’m just telling you now what I’ve always thought, what I’ve noticed about you all along. I’d just like to see you become the great retailing genius that your father was.” He fixes his deep-blue eyes on her intensely. “I’m quite serious, Miranda,” he says.
    â€œWell, let me think about it,” she says. “After all, all I’m doing at the moment is buying the same ad space, for the same ads, in the same publications, week after week.”
    â€œPretty boring, isn’t it?”
    â€œTrue enough.”
    â€œAnd this idea of mine excites you, doesn’t it? I can tell it does.”
    She nods and takes another sip of wine. “You’re right, it does,” she says. She stares deeply into her wineglass. Co-president!
    â€œThen do we have a deal?”
    But at that moment, the maitre d’ approaches them with a white cellular phone in his