Page 50 of Night and Day
“Oh my goodness, why is everything so rushy-rushy? You can take your time. You two haven’t been together that long.”
“I love your daughter, Mr. Jones. I know everything I need to know about her.”
Tears of appreciation sprang into Tamika’s eyes, and she threaded her fingers through Anton’s.
“He makes me happy. I’mhappy. And he’s going to be a great father, and a great husband.”
“Husband?” Her father’s eyes widened.
“Tamika and I are getting married.” Anton briefly looked at her, love shining in his eyes. “We’d love to have your blessing.”
Linwood ran his hands over his face. “That’s a hard one.”
“It doesn’t have to be. Tamika told me that you had decided to marry her mother after your first date. The only reason you didn’t ask for her hand is because you didn’t want to scare her off. A good friend of mine told me that you’ll know when you find the right woman, because no one else will do. Tamika is the right woman for me. I love her, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been. ”
Hearing him profess his love to her father was almost her undoing. She didn’t know how she kept the tears at bay.
“You did tell me he’s a lawyer,” Linwood said to Tamika. “He makes a good argument.” He laughed softly in defeat.
“Do we have your blessing?” Tamika asked.
Her father’s eyes softened. “You’re the best of me, you know that? You ask me to do anything, and I’ll do it. I know sometimes I can be overbearing, but it’s only because I love you.”
“I know.”
Linwood stared at her with a wistful expression on his face. “So often I still think of you as my little Tam Tam, putting on your mother’s lipstick and making a mess of her makeup. But you’re not that little girl anymore, are you? You’re Tamika—a grown woman with her own business, and now you’re about to get married and become a mother. Where does the time go?”
He opened his arms, and she moved into them, and they held each other close.
“You have my blessing.”
“Thank you, daddy.”
“You take care of my little girl… I mean, grown woman daughter,” Linwood said. He cleared his throat, eyes looking a bit misty.
“I’ll do my best,” Anton promised. “But the way her business is growing, she’ll be the one taking care of me.”
The three of them had a good laugh.
Then, over the course of lunch, Tamika watched the two men in her life talk and connect.
22
Tamika stood and shook hands with her attorney, as well as the attorneys for SJ Brands. Since the final negotiations had been handled days before, neither Sylvie nor her daughter were in attendance at the signing.
Sylvie hadn’t gone easy on her, but in the end Tamika was satisfied with the terms. They agreed to a 57-43 ownership deal, and Tamika would have an office at the company’s headquarters downtown, a small staff, as well as access to the offsite lab to work on new products.
She was excited and grateful, knowing that the deal could have been worse. She now understood how smaller companies could get taken advantage of by unethical business people. It would have been so easy for Sylvie to use her excitement from the first meeting against Tamika to ensure a more lucrative deal for herself. Instead, she’d given her advice, which in turn made Tamika want to do business with her even more.
Tamika wished her sister and mother could have been alive to see this day and how far she’d come, but she liked to think they knew what she’d accomplished and were proud of her.
She exited the office building, pulling out her phone as she marched with a spring in her step down the sidewalk. At a place around the corner, she was going to treat herself to a bowl of ice cream covered with strawberry and fudge syrup. But first she had to update Anton.
“How did everything go?” he asked upon answering the phone.
It was so good to hear his voice and share this special moment with him.
“You’re talking to the new business partner of SJ Brands Cosmetics, baby!” Tamika squealed.
