Chapter 5

Annie scrunched up her forehead in confusion.
"What do you mean 'gone'? Come, sit down for a moment, you don't look so good."
She ushered her friend over to the couch and sat down beside her.

Caroline didn't respond to her friend's concern, she was too consumed with everything that was happening to even listen.
"He's gone with the painting and guess who else?" she stated dramatically.

"Who?" Annie asked eagerly.

"Ms. Greenwood."

Annie made a face.
"I don't get it. Why would he go anywhere with her? She conned him!"

Caroline's expression had changed from shock to confusion. She seemed miles away. The wheels in her head were turning almost audibly while she thought about what had happened.
"I'm beginning to doubt that" she murmured, not looking at Annie.
"If Ms. Greenwood was the one who took those other people's money, then she must've known about Richard's conning as well."

"Okay, now you lost me" Annie replied, puzzled.

"Think about it. She sold me the painting but by that time, the price tags had already been swapped, so she must've known. If she hadn't known, she would've told me I'd get all of my money back from the insurance company since she'd be under the impression that it was sold for the original amount, the amount the insurance estimated. But she didn't. She told me it got estimated lower"

Annie skeptically arched an eyebrow.
"So, you're saying they collaborated?"

Caroline finally turned to look at Annie. Her lips pressed together in a thin stripe.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't get why anyone would do such a thing though. Especially Ms. Greenwood, her gallery has a good name, she's been in the business for years."

Annie shrugged.
"Greed, maybe? Or maybe because they figured no one would find out anyway because Richard's new to the art world? Think about it: he's poor, he's got nothing to lose and he got the perfect chance to make loads of money with only one painting!"
She gave the idea some more thought, considering its plausibility.
"You missed your calling, you know that? You're wasting your talents behind this desk."

"So…what do we do now?" Caroline thought out loud.

"I dunno….find Richard and beat him up?" Annie chuckled, trying to lighten the mood a little, "I get to go first!" she jokingly added.

Caroline looked up, ignoring Annie's attempt at a joke.
She couldn't believe that Richard had conned her and lied to her, twice!
This was the man she thought she knew, the man she loved.Tears stung in her eyes but she blinked them back, telling herself that this was all a bad dream and that Richard would walk through her front door any minute with a perfectly reasonable explanation.
But the minutes ticked by and the doorknob didn't turn…
Annie noticed her friend's downcast mood and already regretted her casual approach to the situation. She'd always told Caroline she was too naive but no one deserved it when his or her good-heartedness was taken advantage of like this.
"Now come on, Care, you know none of this is your fault. The guy's obviously a pro. Neither of us noticed anything. Plus, your judgement was a little clouded."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Caroline asked, slightly offended.

"Oh come on, you think I didn't notice? It's been obvious to me since the moment you met him at that gallery that this wasn't 'just' an arrangement to you."

Heat flared through Caroline's cheeks as she realized how obvious her feelings for Richard had been. Her thoughts flashed back to their kiss only a few hours ago and she was unable to stop the whirl of butterflies in her stomach.
"He kissed me" she blurted out.

Annie's head snapped around in surprise.
"What? When?"

"This afternoon, just before you came in. We were having this argument because I accused him of not caring about the strip or me."

"Well, at least you now know why…"

Caroline shrugged disappointedly.
"I guess so. But I blurted out my feelings in the process and then out of the blue he kissed me."

"Wow…" Annie breathed.
"So, what did you do?"

"I slapped him in the face" Caroline confessed, half-chuckling to lighten the gravity of her action. She deliberately left out the details of the kiss and the fact that she hadn't exactly minded at first. It was pretty pointless to go into that now.

"Really?" Annie shrieked in amazement.
"I'm not sure what I would've liked to see more; Richie receiving the slap or you getting angry. But you need to get him out of your head and I know just the thing to make you forget all about him: Girls' weekend out! We'll go somewhere where there are lots of cute, single guys who will make you forget all about this con man. "
She noticed Caroline's reluctance and continued, "C'mon, it'll be good for you!"

Caroline decided not to put up a fight. It was very sweet of her friend to try to take her mind off of things. And she could use some time away from all of this. Annie was probably right, it would be good for her.
She nodded her approval and Annie jumped up.
"Okay, great. I'll start packing straight away. Now, you head upstairs and do the same. I'll be back in half an hour or so."
With that she headed out the door to her own apartment across the hall.

Caroline sighed and dragged herself up from the couch. She slowly climbed the stairs to find the big green suitcase that was stored under her bed. She hauled the heavy thing onto her bed and reluctantly opened her closet to pick out the clothes she wanted to take.

Though she needed some time away, she'd much rather crawl under the covers and sleep for a week. She didn't at all feel like putting on a happy face all weekend and the absolute last thing on her mind were other men.
She started picking out clothes and tossing them into the suitcase. As she was doing this, she got madder and madder. How could he have conned her out of all that money? She threw some towels in the suitcase and reached for her toothbrush. That too landed with force in the suitcase as she thought about his kiss and how he'd made her believe he was sincere. She threw a pile of clothes in the suitcase, causing some of them to fall on the floor.
She let herself drop on her bed, breathing heavily. Her breathing was ragged and she tried to calm down by breathing in through her nose and exhaling slowly.
She listened to the silence, only hearing the sound of her heart that was thumping furiously in her chest. She willed it to slow down, focusing on her breathing. Just then she heard her front door fall in its lock and she jumped up.
"Annie, the half hour is not up yet, I'm not quite done. Maybe you can help me pack?" she called, then started down the stairs.

"Pack? You're not leaving me are you?" Richard queried jokingly.

She looked up to find him standing at the foot of the stairs, smiling up at her. Her mouth dropped open and she slowly descended the last few steps.
Her eyes moved to his hands to see what he was holding. He was clutching a large frame to his chest. When he noticed her interest in it, his smile got broader and he turned it around, revealing the colorful image Caroline had loved from the first time she'd seen it.
"The painting" she breathed, not looking up. She intently studied every color, every curve of paint, trying to convince herself it was the painting she'd bought. But the signature looked real and the colors probably had an even more powerful impact on her than they'd had in the gallery. She looked up at him, his smiling face assuring her that this was his work.
"What are you doing here?" she asked softly.

He chuckled, oblivious to her amazement.
"I am still welcome, aren't I? I thought you'd be really happy to see your painting again after all this time."

"My painting" she echoed softly. He handed it to her and studied her with amusement as she took it over to the couch. She seemed mesmerized as she looked at it, tilting her head to study it from different angles.

Richard was flattered that she was so happy with it but she was also acting a little strangely.
He cleared his throat to get her attention again.
"Caroline, are you okay? You're acting kind of funny."

She looked up and set the painting down against the cedar chest. Amazement made room for anger once more.
"No, I'm not okay, Richard. You just disappeared without saying a word!"

"Well…yes. But I didn't know it was such a big deal. I got the painting back after all" he replied, a little taken aback by her outburst.

"I called the gallery. They said you'd left with Ms. Greenwood. How do you explain that?"
She got up from the couch. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and took a few steps towards him.

He gave a small shrug.
"I went over there to confront her with what she'd tried to do and how she wanted to make me take the rap for it. She didn't have much to say to that, I don't think I got through to her. But I demanded the painting back and she showed me where it was. So that's where we went."
He scrunched up his forehead, for the first time noticing her worried expression.
"Why? What did you think?"

Caroline felt her cheeks grow hot as she realized how quickly she'd jumped to conclusions. She bent her head.
"I um….thought you'd collaborated and that you and Ms. Greenwood took off together, with the painting."

He burst out laughing.
"Where ever did you get that idea?"
He then turned serious.
"I can't believe you thought I'd do that to you."

"Well, what was I supposed to think?" Caroline retorted defensively.
"You and Ms. Greenwood were seen leaving together, the painting was gone and with all that confusing stuff that's been going on lately…."

He nodded.
"I suppose you have a point. I kind of set myself up for it, huh?"

"Kind of, yeah" she agreed meekly.
"After that price tag thing everything just seemed to point in your direction. I mean, the police couldn't find you since you didn't live at the address you'd given Ms. Greenwood…"

"That's because I couldn't pay my rent. So I got evicted from the dump I'd been living in to move into an ever bigger –or should I say smaller- dump."

Caroline nodded.
"I know, Ms. Greenwood did everything she could to make you look guilty. What did she say when you confronted her? Did she explain why she did it?"

Richard sighed.
"No, not really. All she said was that she'd noticed the swapped price tags but didn't feel the need to swap them back. She didn't reply when I asked her why she conned all those people, I guess the profit from the first sale just wasn't enough for her. She wasn't at all impressed when I tried to force her to apologize.
I demanded that she compensate the other victims though. So I guess the Greenwood gallery really is bankrupt now. It's a pity, I always loved that place. I can't understand why she'd risk all that out of greed. I was probably just an easy target since I'm poor and it was my first exhibition."

"My thoughts exactly" Caroline agreed. "But I came up with another theory, do you want to hear it?" When Richard nodded she continued, "I think she had a thing for you and just couldn't stand it that it wasn't mutual, so this was just a petty way to take revenge."

Richard chuckled.
"You really think that? Sounds a bit far-fetched."

"Maybe" she said, taking both his hands in hers.
"We'll never know I guess. But I can certainly understand why it would've frustrated her."

He smiled.
"We just got off on the wrong foot. If I had just been honest with you from the beginning…"

"Maybe we can start with a clean slate?" she suggested.

"Okay" he agreed.
"But promise me you'll never doubt me again, I'm crazy about you, you should know that by now."

She smiled and let go of his hands to wrap her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.
"Promise. And I guess I have another thing to apologize for. Our kiss this afternoon didn't exactly end the way it was supposed to."

"Not exactly, no."
He feigned pain at the memory of the slap she'd given him.

"Sorry" she said softly, pressing a kiss to the cheek she'd slapped.
"How about we give it another go?"
She moved her kisses from his cheek to his mouth and kissed him again.
When they pulled away, she grinned deviously at him.

"What?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I was just thinking… Even though I have the painting back, I still haven't been fully reimbursed. And since you arranged for those other people to get their money back…"

He sighed, wondering when they could finally put all of this behind them.
"I know, but I don't know what to do about it anymore."

"I do" she smiled, "I guess you'll be working here for a long, long time."

He returned her smile, wrapping his arms more tightly around her.
"That sounds just perfect."

"Okay Care, I'm ready to go" Annie announced as she kicked open the door, dragging a large suitcase and a small bag with her.
She turned around and dropped the suitcases in shock when she saw Richard.
"Whoa! What's going on? Where did he come from all of a sudden?"

Caroline freed herself from Richard's embrace and turned to Annie. She placed an arm around her friend's shoulders. She had quite a few things to explain.
"Annie about that girls' weekend out….."

The End