Page 30 of One Week To Claim It All
Esme shook her head at that. “Except he put me and Rodrigo at odds, and how fair was that for either of us?”
“It forced you to be together,” Ivelisse quipped, and Esmeralda had to take a moment to think that bit through. “Patricio could be a real jerk, cruel even. But he rarely ever made missteps with his business.”
“I don’t know how this is going to end, Mami,” Esmeralda confessed.
“You already belong in that boardroom. You’re a Sambrano. Whether they agree or not. You have the means now to forge your own way, mija. If you don’t want the shares, sell them. Start your own company. But if you want to stay, don’t let anyone take that from you.”
Her mother’s words buoyed her, but still there was Rodrigo. Her pushing for what she wanted would hurt him, and she hated that her father had put them in this situation. “Me getting the CEO position will oust Rodrigo.” That didn’t mean he couldn’t stay on, but she didn’t think he’d want to if it wasn’t as CEO.
“That’s something you both need to figure out together, how to forge forward.”
“I told him it was over.”
“Then go back in there and tell him you were wrong,” her mother said as she brought her in for a hug. “Tell him you were scared. Tell him you want to try again. Rodrigo’s not your father, baby. He’s not perfect,” Ivelisse conceded. “But that boy is loyal and he doesn’t give up on the people he loves. Maybe what he needs to hear is that you’ll be there for him, too. But first, breakfast.”
Esme sat down with her bowl of oats fragrant with the cinnamon and lime zest her mother put in the milk and decided to maybe take her advice.
Nineteen
“Ineed to talk to you,” they both said in unison when Rodrigo rushed into Esmeralda’s office. He’d been waiting for her to get in for almost an hour, practically bursting with anticipation. The meeting with the board was set for noon and since his conversation with Jimena and Marquito he’d done nothing but work out the details of how to keep his jobandthe woman he loved. It was now 11:00 a.m., an hour before both their fates would be decided, and he was pretty certain he’d found the solution.
But of course, the moment he walked into her office, Esme had yanked them off script. He’d expected her to send him packing, so he’d prepared to beg. To his surprise, she seemed as eager to see him as he was her. And it appeared she also had something to say.
“I don’t want one of us to lose in this, Rodrigo.” She sounded conflicted but determined, and that only increased his hopes that things could work out. He was convinced that what he had in mind was the answer. And if she agreed with him, they could walk into the boardroom as a united front.
“Me, either.” He ached to touch her, had to put his hands in his trouser pockets to keep from doing it. “We deserve this chance, both of us do, and I think I have a way to make it work, but first I need to say something.” His voice almost gave out with those last words.
“You don’t have to, Rodrigo, I—”
“Please, Joya. Let me say this to you,” he pleaded. This felt like the most important moment of his life, the weight on his chest cementing that this conversation was the one that hemustget right. He’d lost too much time by keeping what he felt locked inside. He’d let this woman who meant everything to him think he didn’t care for her out of misguided loyalty. At the time he hadn’t had many choices, but he had them now. He needed to make sure Esmeralda understood she’d never been anything less than essential. That he’d felt her absence in his life every single day of the past ten years.
“There is something I should’ve said about what happened at that meeting with Global Networks. What I did, I didn’t do that for me, for Sambrano or even just for you. I did it for us. Mi amor.”
Those two words,my love. They fell from his lips so naturally, as if they had been on the tip of his tongue for years and were now rushing to be spoken. To her.
“In these past few years I lost my passion for the work. I have doggedly stayed on at Sambrano because I couldn’t think of what else to do. But in the few days you’ve been here...” he said, taking her hands in his. Unable to hold back, he clutched them to his chest. “You’ve reminded me of the reasons I fell in love with this business. Of how even during those times when I wondered if I could continue dealing with the intrigue and the scheming, I couldn’t walk away. And now I know why.”
“Why?” Esmeralda asked breathlessly, as she pressed herself to him. If she was seeking his closeness then things could not be too far gone. Maybe there really was a chance for them. For a future together.
“I needed a partner. I needed someone who shared my vision of where we can take your father’s legacy. Someone who understands what this company can be. I was waiting foryou.” He saw her eyes fill with tears, but there was a smile on her lips and a small ember of hope lit up in his chest. “I think we should both get to run Sambrano Studios.” He watched as his words registered, and her smile grew a little bit wider.
“Both of us? But the board said they would pick. That only one person could have the job. How?”
He nodded at her questions, and with every passing second he was further convinced this was the path forward. That this was the only way they could have it all. The only way to ensure that the company was run in a way that honored Patricio’s vision while giving their relationship a fighting chance.
“We split the position.”
“Split it?” she asked, leaning back but never letting go of his hands.
“Yes.” He nodded, hoping she’d agree. “President and CEO could very well be done by two people. The CEO is the person who manages operations, who has a handle on the business. I can do that. I’vebeendoing that. But the president is all about vision, about keeping us looking at the bigger picture. That’s you, Esmeralda.”
Her brows furrowed in concentration, head tilted to the side as she considered his proposal. He knew this would mean asking her to trust him, and he hoped he hadn’t shattered that completely. She hummed, and he smiled knowing this was the sound she made when she was lost in thought. She let go of his hands, but her expression wasn’t forbidding—she was analyzing.
He felt the urgency under his skin. That electric feeling he only got when he knew he had a winner in his hands. In television these days it seemed like everything had been done. So many networks focusing on reboots and revivals of past hits. But every once in a while, something came across his desk that he knew could change the game. He had that feeling now.
When she finally looked up at him, there was a glint in those beautiful whiskey-colored eyes he hadn’t seen in what felt like an eternity. Today she’d forgone the suit for something that was more Esmeralda. A dark green knee-length dress that managed to look professional and also highlight every luscious curve of her body. Her honey curls cascaded over her shoulders and when he looked closely he smiled at the sight of her lucky hoops dangling from her ears.
She stepped up, her eyes boring into him. “Before I agree to anything there are a few things I need to be very clear on, Rodrigo Almanzar. One...” She held up a finger, her other hand on her hip. “I will not be a silent partner. I want us to both have the same authority.”
