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Chapter Two

"Do I have a date-from-hell story?" Mia Dolan set her tea on the cafe table. "Vanessa, any woman who's ever fallen in love has been stupid in love."

"Impossible." Vanessa Sharpton stirred a straw through the whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles of her mocha smoothie. "You have all the luck with men."

"Are we remembering the same past five years, here? My ex?"

"Philip was a lovely fellow. He just needed a keeper, not a wife."

As Mia had quickly discovered. Adorably absentminded men made poor husbands. "You're also forgetting that guy from the BBC. And Jonathan."

Vanessa laughed. "All right, Jonathan was quite awful. But that's still only a few failures out of many, many more successes. My track record with men is far worse than yours."

Vanessa did have an unerring talent for choosing losers and deadbeats. It had even led to a big argument a few months back that resulted in Vanessa getting her own apartment and living with the boyfriend Mia had bluntly accused of sponging off her friend.

"You and Kos have been together for nine months now, so maybe your luck has changed since Hugh dragged us to Boston," Mia said. "You all but glow these days."

Vanessa's blush deepened, bright pink against her fair, blue-eyed coloring. In contrast, Mia had inherited all of her mother's exotic Maltese darkness and none of her American father's fairness.

"I think you're trying to distract me." Vanessa's eyes were bright. "Could it be you really are embarrassed to tell me this story?"

"What else are friends for, if we can't reveal our deepest, darkest secrets?" Mia leaned forward, elbows resting on the table, and cupped her chin in her hands. As the memory drifted back, a smile curved her mouth. "My worst date was my very first date with Will."

"Ah. The Ohio boy."

"Are you sure I haven't told you this one already?"

"Positive. I remember you telling me he was a big, strapping lad who liked short skirts and sex in the woods, but that's about it."

Oh, God. She'd forgotten about the sex in the woods.

"I met Will barely a week after classes began. He was the cutest boy in the entire dorm, and when he asked me out, I almost died on the spot. I might have even squealed."

No matter how hard she tried to keep the big, sappy smile away, it kept slipping back. "He picked me up from work, and he was driving this ugly yellow car he'd borrowed from a friend. I almost didn't want to be seen getting inside it, but he was the perfect gentleman and ran around to open the door. At that point, what else could I do?"

"The male ego must be carefully nurtured," Vanessa agreed.

"It was hot and the car had no air conditioner, so we had the windows rolled down as we drove to the restaurant. I was nervous, talking so fast I was almost hyperventilating. I don't even remember what I said; I just remember how much I wanted him to like me, to think I was pretty and clever and sophisticated. Everything I wasn't feeling at the time."

Smiling, Vanessa toyed with her whipped cream topping. "When do we get to the horror?"

"That would be when the cutest guy at Ohio State pulled up to the restaurant, and I told him it was the nineties and women could open their own car doors. I got out, and when I locked the door, I realized I hadn't rolled up the window."

Strange, how she could close her eyes and still remember the bright blue sky, the smell of traffic and hot asphalt mingled with a mouth-watering charbroiled burger scent, and the warmth of the car leaking through her little black dress. "So I stuck my hand inside the window and started rolling it up."

Vanessa blinked. "From the outside?"

"Uh-huh...and the window was almost at my armpit before I realized the flaw in my plan. I can't even begin to describe how stupid I felt."

Vanessa laughed. "Did Will say anything?"

Mia took a sip of her tea. "He never let me live it down, the bastard."

Vanessa pointed her straw at Mia. "You're smiling as you say that."

"Oh, I know. He was such a sweet guy. Too nice for me, as it turned out, and we had nothing in common. He was a total philistine when it came to art, but I loved him like crazy anyway." The smile slipped a little. "He was my first...my first everything."

Until the offer to study in Venice had arrived, and Will had pressured her to accept. Long-distance relationships rarely worked out -- especially when the girl was immature, selfish, and puffed full of unrealistic dreams. She'd betrayed Will's trust in the most painful way possible and he'd never forgiven her for it. Regret still ached, even after all this time.

"And then there was Lorenz," she added. "And Mathieu, and Philip, and now I'm sitting here with you in a Boston caf�, totally man-free."

Why did that make the last twelve years sound so underwhelming?

Mia stood, brushing the thought away. "We should get back before Hugh calls. I swear, that man will give himself a heart attack before he turns fifty."

After paying their checks, they headed back to the workshop. It was only three blocks away, but the April day's warmth had faded with the setting sun, and Mia regretted not taking her coat.

Vanessa touched Mia's arm. "You did the right thing."

"I never regretted going to Venice. It's just..." She trailed off, trying to put those nebulous little tugs of emotion into words. "We were talking about getting married. We were much too young, but it doesn't excuse what I did, and I wish... Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Sometimes we get a chance to make up for mistakes; sometimes we just have to learn to live with them."

"I know," Vanessa murmured.

"I wonder how differently my life would've turned out if Will and I had gotten married." Mia let out a long sigh. "Good thing we didn't, though. I was always chasing after some grand fantasy, and Will was Mr. Solid and Steady. I'm sure he's got a nice middle-management job, is happily married to a nice woman and raising a crop of nice kids in a nice town in Ohio."

"Nice is...nice. It's something I wanted for a long time, to find someone I could be with for the rest of my life." Vanessa smiled wistfully. "It doesn't seem too much to ask for, and I don't understand why it's so hard to find."

"It's not too much to ask for. Don't ever think otherwise."

"Does anyone's life ever turn out the way they expected? Even people who don't come from a family of mad bastards like mine?" Vanessa shrugged. "I think most of us make do with whatever comes our way. That's as good as it ever gets."

A man in a suit bumped into Vanessa as he passed, knocking her off balance. She would've fallen had Mia not grabbed her, but the man never even slowed down, let alone apologized.

Mia scowled and spun on her heel. "Hey! You could've at least said 'Excuse me,' asshole!"

"Mia, don't," Vanessa said as the businessman flipped the finger in their direction. "It's okay. Come on."

Still scowling, Mia stalked down the sidewalk, hardly noticing others giving her a wide berth. "Why the hell don't you ever stick up for yourself?"

"Why should I? That's what I've got you for."

Startled, Mia wasn't sure how to interpret that cool statement until she saw Vanessa's smile. "Well, you should've at least glared at him."

They reached the unassuming single-story brick building that housed Haddington Reproductions. Security grids covered the windows, and the front door and back doors were protected by a very expensive alarm system, as was the door that led from the reception area to the workshop. Sometimes, like now, there was even a guard on duty.

Mia sighed. "Home sweet home. You almost done with the reliquary?"

"Getting there. I'm having trouble with the inlay; the colors keep coming out too bright." Vanessa grinned. "It's the Curse of the Eudoxia Reliquary. Woe and misfortune unto those who touch it. Even a fake."

"The curse doesn't seem to have done Mal Toller any harm," Mia pointed out wryly. "If you want, I can give you a hand when I'm done with the earrings."

Jewelry constituted the bulk of the Eudoxia collection, and since that was her area of expertise, Mia had been working on a steady stream of varying items while Vanessa struggled over the little reliquary.

"I don't know why Hugh's been such a pain in the ass," Mia added. "We're on schedule, and -- Hey, it looks like we have a visitor."

"That's not Mr. Toller's Benz."

Thank God. Toller was a lecherous prick who always found an opportunity to brush up against her backside when he visited the workshop.

"It must be that journalist Hugh said would be visiting this week. I didn't think we'd see him until tomorrow." Mia punched in the security code for the back door, then entered, Vanessa at her heels. "Maybe this will improve Hugh's mood. He loves being the center of attention."

As the door shut behind them with a solid thump, Mia saw Hugh by the vault with a tall, dark-haired man who stood with his back to them. She admired what she could see of him, as well as the fine cut of his suit. She hoped the front looked as good as the back. If she had to be pestered while on deadline, it would help if the pest was attractive.

Hugh wore his standard baggy black pants, black shirt, and ever-present black fedora. He caught Mia's eye and smiled.

"Ah, there you are," his deep voice boomed cheerfully. "It's about time you two got back. This is Mr. William Tiernay, the freelance journalist who's doing a piece for Antiquities Review Magazine. He's here to write a feature about our work on the Eudoxia collection."

Mia's breath stopped in her throat before the man even turned around. Heat rolled over her, and her heart beat so loudly she could hardly hear Hugh. The entire room spun down to a narrow, focused point that included only the man's face.

No matter how many years passed, she'd never forgotten the strong jaw and cheekbones, the firm, full mouth, or those dark eyes beneath impossibly long lashes.

"Mr. Tiernay, these are my two assistants, Mia Dolan and --"

"Will?" Mia interrupted, her voice an octave higher. "Oh, my God...it is you!"

GO TO: Chapter 1 | Chapter 3

Michele Albert · inkalicious.com

Tough Enough

Chapter Two