Page 48 of Executive Decision

He sat across from me and palmed his head, “You’re right, I took it out on you. I should have understood. I should have asked.”

“Then stop blaming me. Let that go. I’m here now, Davey. I may have made poor choices in my personal life, but I am excellent at my job. I was a star. And I want to be again.”

“I was going to offer you the head of Organizational Development. It’s open and?—”

“What is that?” I asked.

“It’s in HR. They lead the training team and?—”

I stood up. “Davey, that’s fucking nuts! I don’t know anything aboutanyof that. I am an attorney?—”

“Not in the U.S.”

“Well, I have serious experience with acquisitions?—”

“We are focusing on our core operations. There’s not much to play with in that space.”

I walked to the corner bookshelf and found the one remaining family photo Davey kept. I stared at my father’s broad smile and my mother’s more subdued grin. I looked at all of us as we proudly stood before our Michigan house, happy and together. I missed those days.

“What do you want, Daphne?” Davey groaned. “I am trying to give you something. I don’t have much on offer.”

I turned, and chuckled. “Make me president.”

“Daphne, Bernie knows what he is doing.”

Picking up the photograph, I turned. “No. He is running this place like a fucking discount store—which is where he came from?—”

“He plans to bring in a wide variety of customers and make the place accessible, Daph.”

“No. He will continue to dilute the brand. Our sales floor is a disaster. We are hemorrhaging money in kidswear. Our overperforming divisions are jewelry, formalwear, beauty, and personal shopping. We have more interest in our concierge services than we can accommodate. I have a plan?—”

“Yes, I am sure you do, and I am open to hearing it.”

“Bernie isn’t. He wants to take this down. I want a job where I candosomething.”

“This team is good. They are on autopilot?—”

“That isn’t what I want, Davey. I want a job that willchallengeme. I don’t want that. Tell me I wouldn’t be good at the job. I know this store—its history, what it can be, and… I can do that if you let me try.”

Davey rubbed his temples and groaned. “Daphne, give me time to think, okay? Yes. There are changes we must make. I am working on them, but I need to know you will be a team player.”

“I’m always a team player. I’m on Team Delphine. I want to see this beautiful place survive?—”

“Well, that’s the offer. Please take it, Daphne. You need the money.”

I shook my head. “I don’t. I do not need money. I will figure it out. What Idoneed is the respect of the people around me. You’re putting me in a ridiculous role so I can fail rather than shine. Dad would never?—”

“Dad may have loved you most of all, Daph, but that’s not my fucking problem,” Davey’s voice vibrated through the room. “This is for your own good. I am protecting you?—”

“You know what? I’m sick of people telling me what is good for me, David!”

“Where are you going?”

I turned to leave, the picture in my hand. Shaking, I opened the door, my body halfway in the hallway.

“Home,” I said. “Because you can take your job and shove it up your ass.”

I said it loud enough for accounting to hear it. I wanted it to sting. I wanted to embarrass our precious CEO as much as he’d embarrassed me.

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