Holding On to Silence Until; You Came Along

36 | Fathers

"How's the baby?" I paced in my office as I held the phone close to my right ear.

"You literally asked about it like an hour ago, that too in person," Came Hanna's voice from over the phone, I could imagine the roll of her eyes now.

"I know, still." I chuckled.

I always did this. Though I made sure she's all right before I left the house, I'd reach office and give her a call again. Knowing that it annoyed her, but hey, I love teasing her.

"Resting there, reminding me that I'm due. Happy?" She snorted.

Yeah, she's pregnant again, I'm already a father of three and soon to be four.

"You sure those aren't the symptoms?" I worried.

I know it's not her first time and she knows how to take care of herself, but me being away from her in a moment where she could be giving birth at anytime nags me ever since I reached late when Dearra was born.

"Believe me, those aren't labour pains. I'd know if I'm getting into it," She assured.

"All right, but keep your phone with you all the time." I reminded.

"I will. Now get back to work if you wanna leave early."

"Kiss me before hanging up,"

"Johann! What happened to the gentleman inside of you!?" She just indirectly called me shameless! I laughed.

"How much I wish to see that blushing face right now," It's like I could almost see that tomato red face of hers. I know she must be blushing hard. "Think of it as an energy booster. Now c'mon I'm waiting," I started making smooching sounds.

"Shut up! Focus on your work, bye!" I was still laughing when she hung up.

All right, time to get back to work. I dialled Mr. Frank's number and had him over in my office.

"Has it still not been finalised?" I asked.

There was a client recently who's been giving us a hard time. He wanted us to design a cover for his book and his request for the cover and the title of book seem to be the same poles of two magnets, thus keep repelling apart.

"Mr. Yeoman, the client wants it to be a ___" Mr. Frank began, I interrupted him.

"Mr. Frank, please. I might've taken charge of the company completely, but you addressing me formally is not something I'd appreciate." I firmly stated.

It's been 6 years since I took over the publishing house and Mr. Frank since then stopped calling me by my name and started addressing me as Mr. Yeoman during office hours.

"I'm an employee here, I cannot call you by your given name." He said.

"No matter what post you hold here, you'll always be my senior. After dad, it's you who managed everything here, if you call me Mr. Yeoman for another time, I'll think my father has severed all ties with me and is now calling me like this because of that."

"Your father was older than me!" He exclaimed.

"You know what I mean." I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, let's get to work now. The client wants a blend of warm and primary colours, but the title doesn't go with that, we're unable to explain that to him." He sighed.

I read the title. Two Faces of Moon. And thinking about moon, all that comes to mind is night and starts. How to match it with primary, warm colours?

I asked for the cover options that the department has produced. All cool and secondary colours, I sighed.

"Do one thing, make a blend of these and produce new options. Like blue is a cool colour, but is a primary one. Likewise, orange is a warm colour, but a secondary one. Choose colours from these standards and make a new design, let's see how it turns out." I suggested. He stared at me with wide eyes and blinked after a few seconds. "What?"