“And other news making headlines this evening… An inquiry has been ordered by state officials into the death of wealthy entrepreneur Antonio Rivera, who died earlier this week from as, of yet, unknown causes. Sources close to the family have expressed shock over the idea that foul play could have been involved. Though Police Chief Tony Bates has yet to comment publicly, no arrests have been made. John, you are at the South Beach Empire as we speak, tell us what you can about–"
The blonde nurse made a disgruntled noise as she turned to see Mateo Rivera standing in the bathroom doorway, extending a remote control at the television set. He was wearing a towel around his waist and fingering styling gel through freshly showered locks of dark hair with his free hand.
“How long of a vacation are we talking about?” Michelle Bradley had been reclining comfortably in the spacious bed that had previously been used for their latest hotel-room romp. Had been, past tense, as she was at that moment sitting straight up on the edge of the bed, her body language doing nothing to hide her surprise and anger at what Mateo had said to her moments before.
The handsome man brushed his fingers on the towel and retreated back into the bathroom to avoid the glare of the younger woman. “Not long… a few weeks maybe?”
“Weeks?!” Michelle all but shrieked at him, standing immediately to follow him. “I have a life, you know? I have a job I need to show up at!”
Mateo sighed, having known the conversation was going to be rough before he’d even brought it up. “Actually,” he turned to face her, doing his best to look at ease and confident, hoping to calm her down with his suave demeanour. “As far as your job is concerned, you’re going out of town for a while to take care of a very ill relative.”
Dumbfounded shock replaced the anger... momentarily. “I beg your pardon?” the woman seethed.
“It’s been arranged. A few weeks of carefree fun in the sun… or snow, if you’d rather go somewhere cold.”
Michelle didn’t know which irate sentence was about to fly out of her mouth first. The audacity of someone to simply interfere with her life like this. It was unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
“You’re unbelievable!” was all she could say.
“Why, thank you,” Mateo answered charmingly, knowing full well it hadn’t been a compliment.
Michelle stood with her hand on her cocked hip, the other hand making useless motions in the air. “You just decided to… just went ahead and… UGH!!” She stormed out of the tiny bathroom. Pacing back and forth in front of the bed, she suddenly stopped and looked over at the black television screen, her eyes narrowing as she began piecing things together. “You’re getting rid of me,” she said in a quiet statement, her eyes closing. She felt Mateo slide into her personal space, and though wanting nothing more than to push him through the window behind him, she allowed him to circle her with strong arms and hold her close to him.
“Nonsense,” he said, reassuringly. “I’m going to be catching up with you eventually. I mean, it’s not as if I can just skip town in the middle of a family crisis, and especially not before burying my father, now can I?” Mateo placed a chaste kiss on the temple of the distraught woman.
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“Anywhere you want, darling. The world is at your beck and call.“ The wealthy heir was doing his best to make the whole ordeal sound like an adventure.
The younger woman couldn’t believe it. Pushing him away from her slowly, she looked straight into his eyes. “How much trouble am I in?” she asked, resigning herself to the knowledge that she had brought this upon herself.
“What makes you think–” Mateo was cut off by a wave of a hand.
“I’m not naïve,” Michelle answered, and then flashed a contemplative look. “Though I’m sure that’s why you picked me, isn’t it?” She asked, accusingly. “What trouble could the dumb blonde pose to your grand schemes?” She snorted and moved to sit on the bed.
Realizing he wasn’t going to win the woman over with his words and good looks any longer, Mateo went over to lean against a dresser and folded his arms. Clearly it was time to drop the act. “The police have received information. Of course they’re going to discover that this information was falsified, and they may decide to start looking for whoever it was that lied to them.”
The woman on the bed covered her face with her hands.
“There’s no way to trace the calls back to you, so don’t start getting over-dramatic about it.”
The glare that Michelle shot at the arrogant man was nothing short of piercing. “Again…” she said. “Unbelievable.”
“Yes, you hate me right now. Understandable, I suppose,“ he said with an annoying smoothness in his voice. “But as you yourself just said, you aren’t naïve. Are you, my Sweet?”
“Asshole!”
Mateo raised a pointed finger into the air. “A filthy rich asshole, who holds the key to a very lavish lifestyle, if you`re willing to go along for the ride.” He pushed himself away from the dresser drawers and walked over to the bed, sitting slowly down beside her. He brushed strands of long blonde hair away from her face as she stared at her feet. “You see… I’m going to be just fine. I have a very large safety net, Querida.” His words were threatening, even as they dripped from his mouth like warm honey. “You may want to consider staying on my side with this.”
Michelle closed her eyes and let out a long, anguished sigh.
“I hate you,” she whispered.
Mateo reached out a finger under her chin to draw her face towards him. Leaning forward, he placed a patronizingly sweet kiss on the defeated woman’s lips. When he pulled away slowly he gave her a flippant smile and winked.
“I’m used to it.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Olivia unlocked the door to the suite shortly after alerting the woman across the hall that Emma had gone to bed. She looked around the grand living-room, unconsciously checking to make sure it was clutter free. Satisfied that the place looked decent, she quickly went to her purse in search of her mirrored compact. As she arranged her hair and checked her makeup, Olivia looked herself in the eyes and hesitated.
“What the hell is the matter with you? You aren’t going on a date!” She tossed the compact back in the purse with a disgusted sigh.
“If you were, the only thing you’d need to rethink are the shoes. The rest is… well, sufficient.”
The startled older woman spun around, not having heard the door open. Natalia quietly closed the door, smiling at having caught Olivia lecturing herself.
“Sufficient, huh?” Olivia asked with a crooked grin.
Natalia chuckled. “Well, unless the date involved taking me out paint-balling followed by a Big Mac at McDonalds. In that case you’d be spectacularly overdressed.” Natalia moved to where Olivia was standing and lightly tossed her purse over the back of the couch to land in the corner of a cushion, next to Olivia’s.
“Hi,” Olivia said softly, letting the embarrassment of the moment pass with the meaningful look in the other woman’s eyes.
“Hello,” Natalia smiled.
Both women seemed to want to say more, but neither knew the words. Finally, in an attempt to avoid an awkward moment, Olivia pointed to the couch. “Have a seat, I’ll be right with you,” she said as she walked to the kitchen. “If you’re hungry I could order something from the kitchen.” She called over her shoulder as she procured two wine glasses from a cupboard above the sink and reached with the other hand to grab a bottle of rosé wine from the counter. “Though, if you were, I’m sure you would have done that… considering you own the kitchen.” She shook her head and turned to walk back into the living room. “You’ll have to excuse me, I sometimes go into Mommy-Mode: a place where no one on earth can take care of themselves without my smothering care.” She rolled her eyes at herself and placed the glasses on the coffee-table.
Natalia watched as Olivia poured the wine and smiled when a glass was handed to her. She waited until Olivia had sat down on the chair, diagonal to the couch. “You don’t have to apologize for being caring and nurturing; those are amazing qualities to have.”
“Mmph,” Olivia disagreed semi-verbally while sipping her wine, then swallowed and laughed lightly. “Amazing for a mother of a small child, yes. For a self-made millionaire who is desperately trying to keep her sovereign position above the boys of the Gentleman’s Club? Not so much.”
The brunette smirked and nodded. “I see your point.” She shifted to draw one leg over the other and arranged her body until it was angled to face Olivia directly. “You don’t have to be afraid of me,” she said, her eyes dropping to her wine glass.
“Afraid of you?” Olivia asked, completely confused. “Why on earth would you think I’m–” Before she could finish she noticed Natalia point at the chair she was in, and then move her head to motion to the large expanse of free space next to herself on the couch.
“I promise I won’t make another pass at you or anything,” Natalia added, her cheeks glowing a faint red as she spoke.
Olivia sighed, jokingly. “Now where’s the fun in making promises like that?” she quipped and then slowly moved to the couch.
“I’m sorry I kissed you earlier,” Natalia confessed. “I don’t know what came over me.”
Olivia took another sip of her wine and reached forward to place her glass on the table. She sat back and took a long breath. “Okay… I’m going to give you a lesson on how to deal with women.” She waited as Natalia laughed. “Because you are obviously a bit clueless as to how the female mind works. But the last thing a girl wants to hear from someone they’re interested in, is ‘I’m sorry I kissed you.’”
Natalia tried to stop smiling. “You know what I meant, smartass.”
Olivia chuckled and mimicked the position of Natalia’s body. “Of course I do,” she replied. “Besides, no one can kiss these lips and then proclaim to be ‘sorry’ about it… come on,” she said triumphantly with an added wink.
Natalia shook her head and smiled, then took a sip of her wine. She was silently grateful that Olivia was willing to let the earlier event slide in such a light-hearted manner.
“Listen,” Olivia started, her tone sounding much more serious. “I know where we stand on the whole… you know… us thing.” She held out her hand when she saw that Natalia was about to interject. “And it’s okay, really. This is about you right now. I want to help, no strings attached.” She reached again for her wine. “It’s actually a good thing that I let go of the merger… saves me having to fight as hard to prove that.”
Natalia blinked in confusion, wondering if she had heard the blonde correctly.
When no words were forthcoming, Olivia lowered her glass. “What’s the matter?”
“What do mean you let go of the merger? When did that happen?” Natalia’s brows were furrowed in both inquiry and contemplation.
“I think it was shortly after you told me to leave the hotel… and your life,” Olivia stated. “You didn’t know?” She saw the dumbfounded expression on the other woman’s face as the answer to her question. She then closed her eyes, remembering that Natalia’s life was in complete disarray at the moment. “Shit, of course you didn’t know. Hell, I’d even forgotten until a few minutes ago. I’m sorry, I–”
“You didn’t say anything…”
“Well, you’ve sort of had some far more urgent issues to deal with.”
True.
“So you don’t want the merger?” Natalia was confused. She knew how much the merger had meant to Olivia’s business. Even though she had always made a point of denouncing it as a possible reality, the other hotelier had never backed down. She didn’t know whether to be shocked or relieved. Perhaps both?
“I didn’t say that.”
Olivia watched the wheels turning in Natalia’s mind. She had given up on the idea of a merger being possible when she saw that Natalia truly couldn’t handle having to deal with such a decision at the present time. She also knew that if the Empire was going to merge with another company, there were probably a handful of other hotel chains that would have been a better fit to the new mould than her smaller Beacon enterprise. Not to mention that her heart was becoming involved in the whole deal, and she saw a rejection of the merger as being much more personal than the rejection of a regular business transaction. Yet, the fact that there was no longer a deal on the table did not mean that there were no more feelings involved. Olivia was hoping that she had just proven that to Natalia in a rather significant way.
“If you still want it, why are you–” Natalia stopped when Olivia looked down at her fingers as they fidgeted with stem of her glass.
She’s doing this for me, the younger woman realized silently.
“What can I say? You gotta know when to hold ‘em…” Olivia didn’t finish the rest of the song lyrics, knowing she didn’t need to.
“I don’t know what to say.”
Olivia shrugged her shoulders. “There’s nothing to say,” she said, and then quickly amended, “I mean, of course there’s stuff that probably needs to be said, but I’m very okay with leaving that for another day. We’re here to deal with the things that really matter. So…”
Natalia continued to stare. “Right, yeah, okay,” was all she could say.
“So, I’ve been doing some thinking,” Olivia started, hoping they could shift the topic of conversation. “The only thing that could get the local authorities involved would be if something out of the ordinary showed up in the medical reports, right?”
“I’m presuming it did, since that agent all but called me a murderer.” Natalia lamented, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips.
“I don’t really think that’s what he was doing here, Natalia. He irrefutably lacked any resemblance of tact, sure, but you haven’t been accused of anything.” She saw Natalia roll her eyes and open her mouth to speak, but Olivia quickly cut her off with a sharp look and a pointed finger. “And don’t you dare say anything about having killed your father with your words, or I’m going to reach across this couch and smack some sense into you. Got it?”
Natalia raised her hand in compliance.
“Since no one is offering you any information as to what is going on down at the coroner’s office, I suggest we grab one of your ‘boatload’ of lawyers, and go pay a visit to the office ourselves. There has to be some sort of ‘freedom of information’ speech we can spew at them.”
“Information is one thing… clearing my name from suspicion and being able to peacefully bury my father would be great too.” Natalia’s cell began to vibrate in her purse. “One sec, sorry.” She set her glass down and opened the purse to retrieve her cell phone. Reading the name on the caller ID, she huffed and immediately threw the phone back into the handbag.
“Dare I ask?” Olivia inquired.
“The hotel’s Media Liaison,” Natalia answered, and sat back, placing both hands over her eyes. “No doubt she’s calling me to tell me that my photo has just aired on America’s Most Wanted.”
“She probably needs to go over whatever public statement your lawyers have deemed suitable for print.”
Natalia dropped her hands and gave the other woman a sideways glance. “Been in the Springfield news a lot, have you?”
Olivia sighed. “You have no idea.”
“Nor do I think I want one.” Natalia reclaimed her wine and sat back further into the couch.
The blonde pointed to the window. “All of that out there is just hype. You know that, right?”
“Sure,” Natalia answered. “But it is hype that could potentially get me fired from my own company.”
Olivia looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well okay, ‘demoted’ would be the better term, but regardless – declared innocent or not – I stand to lose a hell of a lot if the stockholders believe for a second that I’m unfit to run the Empire brand. All I’d have control over would be the non-stock properties.”
There was more than one thing that didn’t sit right with that revelation, but Olivia couldn’t quite put her finger on it. That the woman who lived and breathed the welfare of her family’s company could lose it all based on hearsay was truly upsetting. Who could be better for the position? “Surely the stockholders can’t all be narrow-minded idiots,” Olivia offered in Natalia’s defense.
“Scandals damage the public’s confidence in a company, which in turn damages the flow of income that company generates. Stockholders are money driven. They don’t give a damn whether it’s hearsay or not, just that it’s been said.”
“So if there is anything behind the M.E.’s decision to investigate further, we need to find out exactly what it is – and more importantly, who is actually responsible.”
“We’re going to go full on Cagney and Lacey then?” Natalia smirked.
“More like Emily and J.J. from Criminal Minds. They’re much hotter.” Olivia winked when Natalia laughed, then let her smile fade when the worried expression crept back over the other woman’s face. “Hey.” She reached over to place a hand over Natalia’s. “We are going to figure this out.” She tried for a reassuring smile, which Natalia managed to mimic though her mood didn’t match.
“Well, if we don’t, you can go ahead and put in a resume to the stockholders.” Natalia sighed.
“Never.” Olivia shook her head. “I’d feel too bad about it all and I’d have to force myself to pretend that I couldn’t run your company better than you.”
“Now see, that is the perfect way to insure that I don’t hit on you again,” she said, folding her arms in defiance. “False bravado. Couldn’t be less sexy.”
“I will have you know, Rivera, there ain’t nothing ‘false’ about my ‘bravado’.” Olivia countered with the air-quotes and a devilish grin. She purposefully ignored the voice in her head that told her to stop flirting. As long as they stayed on their own sides of the couch she was determined to keep the mood as light as possible.
“Is there more wine?” Natalia asked.
Yes, and that’s so not going to help with the 'staying on our own side' rule, Olivia thought to herself as she reached for Natalia’s empty glass. “Sure, as long as you call for a designated driver to get you home safely.” She left the couch and walked towards the kitchen to top up both cups.
“I’m wanted for murder, not drinking and hallway-crossing,” Natalia called over the back of the couch. “Just promise me you won’t drug me again, and we’ll be fine.”
“Dammit, you should’ve spoken up before I spiked your wine.”
The two women laughed and Olivia re-joined Natalia on the couch, handing her a full glass of wine and settling down with her own.
“Now, we’ve established that we are going to kick some Medical Examiner's ass tomorrow. Why don’t we talk about something else for a while?”
“What did you have in mind?” Natalia asked, eager to steer the conversation into any other direction than that of her current life crisis.
“Whatever you’d like. Fashion, film… anything else that begins with the letter F that I can use for some skilful alliteration.”
Natalia raised an eyebrow. “You knew that saying ‘the letter F’ was going to get my mind wandering.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” Olivia proclaimed with a sparkle in her eyes.
“Mmhm. Nice try.”
Olivia sighed. “Fine. Fashion it is.”
“Okay, well, we could start by talking about how you have zero taste in it,” the brunette said, jestingly.
Olivia gasped. “Fine. Fashion it isn’t!” She tapped her manicured fingernail against her glass. “I suppose I could tell you all about myself, but we’d be here for days.”
“Why? Because you’re nearly half a century old?” Natalia hid her grin behind the guise of taking another sip of wine.
Olivia grabbed the pillow that was behind her elbow and tossed it at the younger woman’s legs. “I am NOT!” She huffed indignantly. “I meant because there are so many luxurious layers to my perfect personality, thank you very much!”
Natalia took a large sip of her wine, letting luscious liquid warm her from the inside out, helping her become more relaxed with each passing minute. She reached out a hand and patted the other woman on the thigh several times. “Well, Spence, we’re in luck, because I’ve got allll night.”
The blonde nurse made a disgruntled noise as she turned to see Mateo Rivera standing in the bathroom doorway, extending a remote control at the television set. He was wearing a towel around his waist and fingering styling gel through freshly showered locks of dark hair with his free hand.
“How long of a vacation are we talking about?” Michelle Bradley had been reclining comfortably in the spacious bed that had previously been used for their latest hotel-room romp. Had been, past tense, as she was at that moment sitting straight up on the edge of the bed, her body language doing nothing to hide her surprise and anger at what Mateo had said to her moments before.
The handsome man brushed his fingers on the towel and retreated back into the bathroom to avoid the glare of the younger woman. “Not long… a few weeks maybe?”
“Weeks?!” Michelle all but shrieked at him, standing immediately to follow him. “I have a life, you know? I have a job I need to show up at!”
Mateo sighed, having known the conversation was going to be rough before he’d even brought it up. “Actually,” he turned to face her, doing his best to look at ease and confident, hoping to calm her down with his suave demeanour. “As far as your job is concerned, you’re going out of town for a while to take care of a very ill relative.”
Dumbfounded shock replaced the anger... momentarily. “I beg your pardon?” the woman seethed.
“It’s been arranged. A few weeks of carefree fun in the sun… or snow, if you’d rather go somewhere cold.”
Michelle didn’t know which irate sentence was about to fly out of her mouth first. The audacity of someone to simply interfere with her life like this. It was unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
“You’re unbelievable!” was all she could say.
“Why, thank you,” Mateo answered charmingly, knowing full well it hadn’t been a compliment.
Michelle stood with her hand on her cocked hip, the other hand making useless motions in the air. “You just decided to… just went ahead and… UGH!!” She stormed out of the tiny bathroom. Pacing back and forth in front of the bed, she suddenly stopped and looked over at the black television screen, her eyes narrowing as she began piecing things together. “You’re getting rid of me,” she said in a quiet statement, her eyes closing. She felt Mateo slide into her personal space, and though wanting nothing more than to push him through the window behind him, she allowed him to circle her with strong arms and hold her close to him.
“Nonsense,” he said, reassuringly. “I’m going to be catching up with you eventually. I mean, it’s not as if I can just skip town in the middle of a family crisis, and especially not before burying my father, now can I?” Mateo placed a chaste kiss on the temple of the distraught woman.
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“Anywhere you want, darling. The world is at your beck and call.“ The wealthy heir was doing his best to make the whole ordeal sound like an adventure.
The younger woman couldn’t believe it. Pushing him away from her slowly, she looked straight into his eyes. “How much trouble am I in?” she asked, resigning herself to the knowledge that she had brought this upon herself.
“What makes you think–” Mateo was cut off by a wave of a hand.
“I’m not naïve,” Michelle answered, and then flashed a contemplative look. “Though I’m sure that’s why you picked me, isn’t it?” She asked, accusingly. “What trouble could the dumb blonde pose to your grand schemes?” She snorted and moved to sit on the bed.
Realizing he wasn’t going to win the woman over with his words and good looks any longer, Mateo went over to lean against a dresser and folded his arms. Clearly it was time to drop the act. “The police have received information. Of course they’re going to discover that this information was falsified, and they may decide to start looking for whoever it was that lied to them.”
The woman on the bed covered her face with her hands.
“There’s no way to trace the calls back to you, so don’t start getting over-dramatic about it.”
The glare that Michelle shot at the arrogant man was nothing short of piercing. “Again…” she said. “Unbelievable.”
“Yes, you hate me right now. Understandable, I suppose,“ he said with an annoying smoothness in his voice. “But as you yourself just said, you aren’t naïve. Are you, my Sweet?”
“Asshole!”
Mateo raised a pointed finger into the air. “A filthy rich asshole, who holds the key to a very lavish lifestyle, if you`re willing to go along for the ride.” He pushed himself away from the dresser drawers and walked over to the bed, sitting slowly down beside her. He brushed strands of long blonde hair away from her face as she stared at her feet. “You see… I’m going to be just fine. I have a very large safety net, Querida.” His words were threatening, even as they dripped from his mouth like warm honey. “You may want to consider staying on my side with this.”
Michelle closed her eyes and let out a long, anguished sigh.
“I hate you,” she whispered.
Mateo reached out a finger under her chin to draw her face towards him. Leaning forward, he placed a patronizingly sweet kiss on the defeated woman’s lips. When he pulled away slowly he gave her a flippant smile and winked.
“I’m used to it.”
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Olivia unlocked the door to the suite shortly after alerting the woman across the hall that Emma had gone to bed. She looked around the grand living-room, unconsciously checking to make sure it was clutter free. Satisfied that the place looked decent, she quickly went to her purse in search of her mirrored compact. As she arranged her hair and checked her makeup, Olivia looked herself in the eyes and hesitated.
“What the hell is the matter with you? You aren’t going on a date!” She tossed the compact back in the purse with a disgusted sigh.
“If you were, the only thing you’d need to rethink are the shoes. The rest is… well, sufficient.”
The startled older woman spun around, not having heard the door open. Natalia quietly closed the door, smiling at having caught Olivia lecturing herself.
“Sufficient, huh?” Olivia asked with a crooked grin.
Natalia chuckled. “Well, unless the date involved taking me out paint-balling followed by a Big Mac at McDonalds. In that case you’d be spectacularly overdressed.” Natalia moved to where Olivia was standing and lightly tossed her purse over the back of the couch to land in the corner of a cushion, next to Olivia’s.
“Hi,” Olivia said softly, letting the embarrassment of the moment pass with the meaningful look in the other woman’s eyes.
“Hello,” Natalia smiled.
Both women seemed to want to say more, but neither knew the words. Finally, in an attempt to avoid an awkward moment, Olivia pointed to the couch. “Have a seat, I’ll be right with you,” she said as she walked to the kitchen. “If you’re hungry I could order something from the kitchen.” She called over her shoulder as she procured two wine glasses from a cupboard above the sink and reached with the other hand to grab a bottle of rosé wine from the counter. “Though, if you were, I’m sure you would have done that… considering you own the kitchen.” She shook her head and turned to walk back into the living room. “You’ll have to excuse me, I sometimes go into Mommy-Mode: a place where no one on earth can take care of themselves without my smothering care.” She rolled her eyes at herself and placed the glasses on the coffee-table.
Natalia watched as Olivia poured the wine and smiled when a glass was handed to her. She waited until Olivia had sat down on the chair, diagonal to the couch. “You don’t have to apologize for being caring and nurturing; those are amazing qualities to have.”
“Mmph,” Olivia disagreed semi-verbally while sipping her wine, then swallowed and laughed lightly. “Amazing for a mother of a small child, yes. For a self-made millionaire who is desperately trying to keep her sovereign position above the boys of the Gentleman’s Club? Not so much.”
The brunette smirked and nodded. “I see your point.” She shifted to draw one leg over the other and arranged her body until it was angled to face Olivia directly. “You don’t have to be afraid of me,” she said, her eyes dropping to her wine glass.
“Afraid of you?” Olivia asked, completely confused. “Why on earth would you think I’m–” Before she could finish she noticed Natalia point at the chair she was in, and then move her head to motion to the large expanse of free space next to herself on the couch.
“I promise I won’t make another pass at you or anything,” Natalia added, her cheeks glowing a faint red as she spoke.
Olivia sighed, jokingly. “Now where’s the fun in making promises like that?” she quipped and then slowly moved to the couch.
“I’m sorry I kissed you earlier,” Natalia confessed. “I don’t know what came over me.”
Olivia took another sip of her wine and reached forward to place her glass on the table. She sat back and took a long breath. “Okay… I’m going to give you a lesson on how to deal with women.” She waited as Natalia laughed. “Because you are obviously a bit clueless as to how the female mind works. But the last thing a girl wants to hear from someone they’re interested in, is ‘I’m sorry I kissed you.’”
Natalia tried to stop smiling. “You know what I meant, smartass.”
Olivia chuckled and mimicked the position of Natalia’s body. “Of course I do,” she replied. “Besides, no one can kiss these lips and then proclaim to be ‘sorry’ about it… come on,” she said triumphantly with an added wink.
Natalia shook her head and smiled, then took a sip of her wine. She was silently grateful that Olivia was willing to let the earlier event slide in such a light-hearted manner.
“Listen,” Olivia started, her tone sounding much more serious. “I know where we stand on the whole… you know… us thing.” She held out her hand when she saw that Natalia was about to interject. “And it’s okay, really. This is about you right now. I want to help, no strings attached.” She reached again for her wine. “It’s actually a good thing that I let go of the merger… saves me having to fight as hard to prove that.”
Natalia blinked in confusion, wondering if she had heard the blonde correctly.
When no words were forthcoming, Olivia lowered her glass. “What’s the matter?”
“What do mean you let go of the merger? When did that happen?” Natalia’s brows were furrowed in both inquiry and contemplation.
“I think it was shortly after you told me to leave the hotel… and your life,” Olivia stated. “You didn’t know?” She saw the dumbfounded expression on the other woman’s face as the answer to her question. She then closed her eyes, remembering that Natalia’s life was in complete disarray at the moment. “Shit, of course you didn’t know. Hell, I’d even forgotten until a few minutes ago. I’m sorry, I–”
“You didn’t say anything…”
“Well, you’ve sort of had some far more urgent issues to deal with.”
True.
“So you don’t want the merger?” Natalia was confused. She knew how much the merger had meant to Olivia’s business. Even though she had always made a point of denouncing it as a possible reality, the other hotelier had never backed down. She didn’t know whether to be shocked or relieved. Perhaps both?
“I didn’t say that.”
Olivia watched the wheels turning in Natalia’s mind. She had given up on the idea of a merger being possible when she saw that Natalia truly couldn’t handle having to deal with such a decision at the present time. She also knew that if the Empire was going to merge with another company, there were probably a handful of other hotel chains that would have been a better fit to the new mould than her smaller Beacon enterprise. Not to mention that her heart was becoming involved in the whole deal, and she saw a rejection of the merger as being much more personal than the rejection of a regular business transaction. Yet, the fact that there was no longer a deal on the table did not mean that there were no more feelings involved. Olivia was hoping that she had just proven that to Natalia in a rather significant way.
“If you still want it, why are you–” Natalia stopped when Olivia looked down at her fingers as they fidgeted with stem of her glass.
She’s doing this for me, the younger woman realized silently.
“What can I say? You gotta know when to hold ‘em…” Olivia didn’t finish the rest of the song lyrics, knowing she didn’t need to.
“I don’t know what to say.”
Olivia shrugged her shoulders. “There’s nothing to say,” she said, and then quickly amended, “I mean, of course there’s stuff that probably needs to be said, but I’m very okay with leaving that for another day. We’re here to deal with the things that really matter. So…”
Natalia continued to stare. “Right, yeah, okay,” was all she could say.
“So, I’ve been doing some thinking,” Olivia started, hoping they could shift the topic of conversation. “The only thing that could get the local authorities involved would be if something out of the ordinary showed up in the medical reports, right?”
“I’m presuming it did, since that agent all but called me a murderer.” Natalia lamented, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips.
“I don’t really think that’s what he was doing here, Natalia. He irrefutably lacked any resemblance of tact, sure, but you haven’t been accused of anything.” She saw Natalia roll her eyes and open her mouth to speak, but Olivia quickly cut her off with a sharp look and a pointed finger. “And don’t you dare say anything about having killed your father with your words, or I’m going to reach across this couch and smack some sense into you. Got it?”
Natalia raised her hand in compliance.
“Since no one is offering you any information as to what is going on down at the coroner’s office, I suggest we grab one of your ‘boatload’ of lawyers, and go pay a visit to the office ourselves. There has to be some sort of ‘freedom of information’ speech we can spew at them.”
“Information is one thing… clearing my name from suspicion and being able to peacefully bury my father would be great too.” Natalia’s cell began to vibrate in her purse. “One sec, sorry.” She set her glass down and opened the purse to retrieve her cell phone. Reading the name on the caller ID, she huffed and immediately threw the phone back into the handbag.
“Dare I ask?” Olivia inquired.
“The hotel’s Media Liaison,” Natalia answered, and sat back, placing both hands over her eyes. “No doubt she’s calling me to tell me that my photo has just aired on America’s Most Wanted.”
“She probably needs to go over whatever public statement your lawyers have deemed suitable for print.”
Natalia dropped her hands and gave the other woman a sideways glance. “Been in the Springfield news a lot, have you?”
Olivia sighed. “You have no idea.”
“Nor do I think I want one.” Natalia reclaimed her wine and sat back further into the couch.
The blonde pointed to the window. “All of that out there is just hype. You know that, right?”
“Sure,” Natalia answered. “But it is hype that could potentially get me fired from my own company.”
Olivia looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well okay, ‘demoted’ would be the better term, but regardless – declared innocent or not – I stand to lose a hell of a lot if the stockholders believe for a second that I’m unfit to run the Empire brand. All I’d have control over would be the non-stock properties.”
There was more than one thing that didn’t sit right with that revelation, but Olivia couldn’t quite put her finger on it. That the woman who lived and breathed the welfare of her family’s company could lose it all based on hearsay was truly upsetting. Who could be better for the position? “Surely the stockholders can’t all be narrow-minded idiots,” Olivia offered in Natalia’s defense.
“Scandals damage the public’s confidence in a company, which in turn damages the flow of income that company generates. Stockholders are money driven. They don’t give a damn whether it’s hearsay or not, just that it’s been said.”
“So if there is anything behind the M.E.’s decision to investigate further, we need to find out exactly what it is – and more importantly, who is actually responsible.”
“We’re going to go full on Cagney and Lacey then?” Natalia smirked.
“More like Emily and J.J. from Criminal Minds. They’re much hotter.” Olivia winked when Natalia laughed, then let her smile fade when the worried expression crept back over the other woman’s face. “Hey.” She reached over to place a hand over Natalia’s. “We are going to figure this out.” She tried for a reassuring smile, which Natalia managed to mimic though her mood didn’t match.
“Well, if we don’t, you can go ahead and put in a resume to the stockholders.” Natalia sighed.
“Never.” Olivia shook her head. “I’d feel too bad about it all and I’d have to force myself to pretend that I couldn’t run your company better than you.”
“Now see, that is the perfect way to insure that I don’t hit on you again,” she said, folding her arms in defiance. “False bravado. Couldn’t be less sexy.”
“I will have you know, Rivera, there ain’t nothing ‘false’ about my ‘bravado’.” Olivia countered with the air-quotes and a devilish grin. She purposefully ignored the voice in her head that told her to stop flirting. As long as they stayed on their own sides of the couch she was determined to keep the mood as light as possible.
“Is there more wine?” Natalia asked.
Yes, and that’s so not going to help with the 'staying on our own side' rule, Olivia thought to herself as she reached for Natalia’s empty glass. “Sure, as long as you call for a designated driver to get you home safely.” She left the couch and walked towards the kitchen to top up both cups.
“I’m wanted for murder, not drinking and hallway-crossing,” Natalia called over the back of the couch. “Just promise me you won’t drug me again, and we’ll be fine.”
“Dammit, you should’ve spoken up before I spiked your wine.”
The two women laughed and Olivia re-joined Natalia on the couch, handing her a full glass of wine and settling down with her own.
“Now, we’ve established that we are going to kick some Medical Examiner's ass tomorrow. Why don’t we talk about something else for a while?”
“What did you have in mind?” Natalia asked, eager to steer the conversation into any other direction than that of her current life crisis.
“Whatever you’d like. Fashion, film… anything else that begins with the letter F that I can use for some skilful alliteration.”
Natalia raised an eyebrow. “You knew that saying ‘the letter F’ was going to get my mind wandering.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” Olivia proclaimed with a sparkle in her eyes.
“Mmhm. Nice try.”
Olivia sighed. “Fine. Fashion it is.”
“Okay, well, we could start by talking about how you have zero taste in it,” the brunette said, jestingly.
Olivia gasped. “Fine. Fashion it isn’t!” She tapped her manicured fingernail against her glass. “I suppose I could tell you all about myself, but we’d be here for days.”
“Why? Because you’re nearly half a century old?” Natalia hid her grin behind the guise of taking another sip of wine.
Olivia grabbed the pillow that was behind her elbow and tossed it at the younger woman’s legs. “I am NOT!” She huffed indignantly. “I meant because there are so many luxurious layers to my perfect personality, thank you very much!”
Natalia took a large sip of her wine, letting luscious liquid warm her from the inside out, helping her become more relaxed with each passing minute. She reached out a hand and patted the other woman on the thigh several times. “Well, Spence, we’re in luck, because I’ve got allll night.”
When the younger woman withdrew her hand Olivia couldn’t be sure if Natalia had meant for those words to be as double-edged as they had sounded.
She also took a large sip of wine, suddenly feeling the need to be as equally relaxed.
All night, she pondered, secretly hating that the same voice of reason that had pulled her away from Natalia earlier that afternoon was trying to shake her from the ensuing tantalizing daydreams.
Fabulous!
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