*Four*

"Everything will make sense soon, very soon, I promise... Everything is about to change for us... They'll be sorry..." These were the kinds of things Max kept saying. They were cryptic and brought with them a feeling of uneasiness. Paulina had no idea what this meant - what he wasn't saying.

The next day following her morning shift at the makeup counter, Paulina headed to the Black Gold office building. Raquel was chatting rapidly on the phone when she entered the lobby but waved to her on her way by. Raquel waved back and pointed upwards, meaning Max was upstairs. Paulina mouthed 'thank you' in return and headed up the stairs.

When she reached the top floor, she was surprised to find a group of unfamiliar people bustling about the usually empty and quiet office space, hurriedly answering phone calls, which seemed to be ringing off the hook.

"Good morning," they called to her.

"Morning." Max's office door was closed when she reached it, and she could hear his voice from within, loud and excited. It sounded like he was on the phone himself.

"Oh, thank you! And it was absolutely my pleasure! Good day!"

She tapped on the door as soon as she heard the phone being set down. "Max?"

"Paulina! Darling!" When she slid open the door Max hopped up from his desk and practically skipped his way over to her, embracing her.

"Oh!" She gave a cry of surprise - which was quickly drowned out by the long and intense smooth which he placed on her lips.

She drew back, blushed and breathless. "Well, you're certainly in a good mood. The whole place is bustling! What's going on?"

"Oh am I ever! And is it ever! The wells have struck pay! All of them! And the investors are pouring in! Upping their buys and drawing new investors in!"

Her jaw fell open. "How? What happened?" It seemed Black Gold was a sudden overnight success.

"All my hard work has finally come through! It's happening! It's finally happening!" He was radiating excitement.

"I'm so happy for you!" She threw her arms around him. "Who were you on the phone with? The new investors?"

"No-" He had a twinkle in his eye. "Wall Street Journal."

Her jaw dropped further. "No way!"

"Yes way! It's happening! It's finally happening!" he repeated, embracing her again, this time twirling her around in a hug, making her laugh. "Oh my love-" He set her back down so that she was facing him and cupped her face in both hands, staring at her, suddenly serious. "This is going to be the start of a new life for us."

"It sounds like it. I'm so proud of you for always persevering and pushing through. We knew you'd make it here someday."

"Yes, and now that day is here!"

"Yes it is! We should celebrate."

"Yes, I like the way you think, we should. We will! This certainly calls for a celebration, a big one! A romantic dinner, just you and me. You don't have to do a thing, I'll arrange it all - but do wear that blue dress and new necklace from last night, I do so love seeing you in my signature colour."

"Well Mr. Lord, that can be arranged." She ran her finger along the collar of his royal blue suit. "And it seems you're rocking that colour yourself."

"We'll match then." He kissed her again, just as deeply as before. "See you tonight - I have a lot of work to do."

Unfortunately, the thrill didn't last long. At least not for her.

Oh how quickly, how suddenly, all could turn.

Paulina was beaming when she entered the Black Gold building the next afternoon. They had had a perfectly romantic celebration date last night, which had only continued once they had gotten home. They had really needed an evening to themselves - had it really been so long since they had had that?

That morning Paulina had to literally drag herself out of bed and out of Max's embrace to get ready for work - just making it on time. Just. And not a moment too soon. And it didn't go unnoticed by those around her.

"Paulina, you're usually a lot earlier than this," her colleague Bonnie remarked when Paulina rushed into the break room in a flurry.

"Oh, I know, late start. My fault." Paulina checked her reflection in the mirror, finding that her appearance didn't look as rushed as it could have. She did have to adjust her blouse to cover the hickey forming on her neck though. But this only made her smile and recall the events of last night. But no time to get distracted now, she had a job to do.

Following her shift she picked up some takeout on her way to Black Gold. The building was even busier today, more new hires, and the once empty office spaces upstairs were looking more like usual offices now, complete with chairs and machines and office supplies. The sight made her smile. Black Gold was thriving.

"Max, I brought lunch-" Max could get so busy with work that he would forget to eat and this happened way too often.

But it wasn't her man she found in the office, as she was expecting - and hoping - but two unfamiliar people.

"Oh - hello. Are you two of the new employees here? I still haven't met everyone - there seems to be more and more new people every day."

"Um, no," said the woman. "I'm Diana Prince and this is Steve Trevor. We work at the Smithsonian." She withdrew her museum ID card.

"Oh, hello. Paulina Quintana. Nice to meet you." She shook their hands.

"Do you work here?"

"No, actually Max is my boyfriend."

The two exchanged a glance.

"Is something wrong?"

"We're here about Mr. Lord's donation to the museum," Ms. Prince explained.

"Oh yeah. I didn't even know about that-"

"Ms. Quintana, there was no donation," Ms. Prince told her.

"What?"

"We believe he used it as a front to access our collection and gain hold of a certain artifact."

Paulina gawked back. "He stole it?"

"More like 'unofficially borrowed'."

So he stole it. "What kind of artifact was it?" Was her voice really shaking that much?

"A citrine stone. By the looks of it, he's been researching it for a long time." Ms. Prince handed her a drawing from Max's desk.

"I've never seen that stone in my life."

"Do you know where he is?"

"I'm sorry, I don't. I just assumed he was here."

"Wait a second, got a flight schedule-" Mr. Trevor was digging through the trash bin. "For this morning to Cairo."

Paulina gawked again. "Cairo?" What was he doing all the way in Egypt?

"Do you know when he left or how long he'll be gone for?"

"I didn't even know that he left." So while she had gotten up and gone to work after their night of passion, he had gotten up and gone to the airport?

"You have a plane that can fly from here to Cairo in one shot? That's amazing!" cried Mr. Trevor. "I want to fly this plane!"

Paulina didn't even register the strangeness of his comments.

"I'm sorry to lay this all on you. Thank you for your time," Ms. Prince told her. "We must be going."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help. Here, this is my phone number. Call if you need anything."

"Thank you." Ms. Prince took the number and then she and Mr. Trevor were gone.

Paulina collapsed into the desk chair, dazed.

Well, if there was anything the last twenty-four hours had taught her it was how quickly things could change.

If only Lina had known she was standing face-to-face with her heroine!

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)