The Torres mansion was just as impressive as Arizona had imagined it would be, and yet it had a homey, lived-in quality that surprised her. Even the help was friendly and accommodating, more like family members than servants.
She was nervous, clinging to Callie's arm as she escorted Arizona into her family home. What was she doing here? It was a little hard to say for sure.
The past few days had been like a dream. Everyone thought she was engaged to Callie, and Callie had fulfilled expectations by staying near her most of the time at work.
At first she'd thought the whole thing was ridiculous, but as time went on, Arizona had to admit, she'd grown to like it. A lot. They had coffee together in the morning, looking over the newspaper and schedules for the day. They went out to long lunches, eating in lovely restaurants with views of the lake or of the Magnificent Mile. They held hands and gave each other significant looks and even stole a kiss or two in the hallways.
It was almost as good as being in love. Almost. The dream had an abrupt wake-up every evening. She couldn't allow Callie to visit her apartment and Arizona avoided going out with her, as well. She hadn't found a way to tell Teddy about what was going on, and until she got up the courage to do that, she couldn't risk her sister finding out on her own. And the guilt from that was eating away at her.
Arizona had tried to reconstruct those old conversations with her sister from a few months before. What had Teddy said exactly? She'd been hired as a temporary worker while Callie's administrative assistant was on maternity leave. Arizona remembered how excited Teddy had been, how she'd raved about her new boss. Arizona had been so happy for her because her work history had been spotty at best, filled with disappointments and unfair treatment. It looked as though she'd finally found her niche, and when Teddy began to hint that the boss was doing more than just flirting with her, she'd worried, afraid her sister was falling into the same old trap she'd fallen into before.
Suddenly, the job was out the window and Teddy was in the depths of despair once again, telling Arizona that her heart was broken, that Callie had turned out to be just another rat in a whole long line of rodents in her life.
When Teddy told her about the love letters Callie was keeping as a way to manipulate her, Arizona had been outraged. She'd wanted to confront Callie right then and there. Teddy had taken another job right away but she hated it and she'd been strangely obsessed with the letters, as though she couldn't get her life back on track until she got hold of them and had them destroyed.
So when Arizona had been assigned to do the planning on the day care centre at Torres and Forbes, she'd promised her sister she would get those letters back for her, one way or another.
Callie had told her there was only one letter, which had made her wonder. Still, Callie had shown a propensity to using blackmail to get her way, hadn't she? That seemed to fit with the rest of the story.
She looked up at Callie now as she led her into her family estate and wondered if she could really be the same woman who had treated her sister so badly. Catching her gaze, Callie smiled and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. Arizona's lips tingled, but a small circle of dread began to grow in her chest. She was very much afraid she was, once again, in love with the wrong woman.
Rich people were supposed to be snooty. But someone forgot to tell the Torress. The entire family couldn't have been nicer to Arizona.
She was a bit intimidated at first. There were just so many of them, and she wasn't used to large families. She was introduced to so many people, she quickly lost track of who was who.
But she would never forget Callie's father, who looked like an older, male-ish version of her daughter, though a little thicker, a little gruffer. He'd greeted Arizona with a long look and then a big hug, and when he drew back, she thought she saw tears in his eyes.
When dinner was served, Arizona found herself sitting at a long table that had been set up on an enclosed terrace and looking up and down at all the aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and at Callie and her sister and mother and father.… And felt uncharacteristically tongue-tied.
They were all so noisy! It wasn't at all what she'd expected. There was nothing upper-crust and formal about this bunch. Even Mrs. Torres seemed to have loosened up. The jokes were flying and Callie was the object of more than his share of them.
She looked at Callie, studied her for a moment. Her beautiful face was tanned and lean and her nose classical in profile. Arizona liked the humorous gleam in her dark eyes, liked the way Callie's strong fingers held the stem of her wineglass, liked the way her collar opened to her blossoming chest. A rush of pride filled Arizona. She was proud to be engaged to this woman.
But wait. That wasn't right! They weren't really engaged at all. Grabbing her water glass, Arizona took a deep swallow and cleared her mind. This was just getting too confusing.
"Everyone is being so nice to me," she said to Aria after dinner as they sat watching the younger children performing a very funny lip synch routine.
"Of course they are," Aria said with a laugh. "You're the girl who finally caught Callie and turned her into a human being. The woman has been resisting this for years. Most of us thought it would never happen. We should erect a statue for you in the rose garden." She grinned. "Who knows? Mother may be commissioning one as we speak."
Arizona studied Aria's face, realizing that Callie hadn't confided in her sister any more than she had confided in hers. Were she and Callie the only people in the world who knew that this was all a hoax?
"Everyone has noticed how much happier Callie is since she met you," Aria went on airily.
"Really?"
"Oh, yes. Her old caustic sense of humour has been softened. She and my mother are getting along better. And Callie actually called my father to tell him about you."
"Was that unusual? For him to call your father, I mean."
"Definitely. They've had their moments. And I've always thought that part of Callie's resistance to getting married was because of our parents' relationship. They barely ever see each other, and I know Callie resented that as a kid. She saw how little time a physician had for her family. And once our father got involved in international medicine, he was almost never home again. I'm sure Callie didn't want to end up with a marriage like that."
Arizona turned and looked toward the shadows where Callie was sitting with her father. She had been watching her and their gazes met. Electricity flared between them. She could almost see the arc of sensual fire in the dark. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart began to beat as though a wild bird were trapped in her chest.
Oh, no, she thought. Oh, no!
AN - Oh the heart's are racing. They're falling. But this is all pretence right?
AN - Just one or two chapters of this story left. I hope you guys are enjoying this and will stick with me till the end. This will be the first story among my 3 ventures to end. So expect a update soon. Leave me some love.
xD Rita.
