A/N I'm sorry, I know, another short chapter, but I really had to stop it there. I'll try to make the rest of the chapters longer,but it depends how to story flows. Thank you for all your encouraging reviews, I hope can make the rest of this story interesting. And thank you for reading! Enjoy :)

The following morning Nate Ford entered his office in IYS. He was surprised to see his boss, Ian Blackpoole, already sitting at his desk.

"Did you read the papers?" Ian asked him as soon as he stepped in. He slammed the newspaper he had in his hands on the desk.

"Good morning to you too, Ian" Nate replied sarcastically hanging his jacket on the coat hanger and dropping his briefcase on a chair.

"Nate!"

"Yes, I saw the news. I wasn't on the case, remember?" He told him. "How is Sterling taking it?" he smirked a little. Sterling and Nate were friendly rivals in IYS. Well maybe not so friendly.

"This is not a funny business. Do you know how much that painting was insured for? 4 million! We have to give 4 million because of that stupid museum security."

"Do we know who did it?" he asked curiously. He read the news and he had been fascinated on how the thief got the painting out. He always loved a good mystery.

"No" Blackpoole shook his head resigned. "But we think it's that mysterious grifter- thief that has being going around in Europe."

"So she came here in the US" Nate thought out loud.

Ian raised his eyebrows in question "She? What makes you think it's a female?"

Nate smirked "Oh believe me. It's a woman. A rare one of her kind. Only an expert grifter could have fooled all those rich men in Europe. She is a special one"

"Careful Nate." A voice stopped from the doorway. "One would think you admire this thief, or even have fallen in love with her."

Nate turned around irritated. "Sterling? So, another lost. That makes, what? Three times she has stolen from right under your nose" he smiled evilly.

"And the last one, because when I'll see this thief…" he growled.

"Nate," Ian intervened. "I want you to personally investigate all the clues and testimonies we have got. We need to stop him… or her… or whatever." He pointed a finger at him. "I count on you"

"Sure" Nate nodded.

Ian Blackpoole left the office soon followed by Sterling, who didn't leave without first launching Nate an evil look. Nate could finally sat down on his chair. He dropped down on it with a big sigh. What did he get himself involve with? He started gathering all the papers he had and make calls for further information. He hoped he didn't have to go to Europe. He wanted to stay in L.A. as much as he could to spend his free time with Sam. After a couple of hours of works, he eyes started to feel tired and he had to stop reading the files on his computer. He laid back on his chair and closed his eyes. Then he felt something moving in his trousers pocket. With a frown he took a folding piece of paper. Suddenly he remembered: the beautiful woman at the museum, Sophie Devereaux. He smiled recalling their meeting the day before.

Should he call her? Well, she told him too. Besides, it had been nearly 2 two years since his divorce from Maggie and he hadn't gone out on a date yet, maybe it was time to move on. He really liked that woman. There was something about her that caught his attention. He hadn't felt like that in a very long time. With a big breath, he finally found the courage to dial the number on his phone. After three ring tones, he heard her magnificent voice with her unique accent answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi" his voice came out as a rumble. He cleared his throat nervously. "Hi, my name is Nathan Ford. We met at the museum yesterday"

Sophie smiled. "Yes, Sam's father"

He chuckled. "Yeah, I guess he made quite an impression."

"I think his father was quite impressive too" she flirted with him.

It was a good job that she couldn't see through the phone because Nate's cheeks were now incredibly red. "Hmm… yeah. I don't really know why I called, but I've found the phone number and I just thought…"

"Well, a man usually calls a woman to ask her out" she teased him.

"Yeah, that could be an idea, right?" He paused embarrassed. "So… would you be free one of this evenings to go out somewhere. Dinner, coffee, bowling…"

"Bowling?" she asked amused.

"Or not." He quickly told her. He sighed. "Let me tell you that it's been a long time since I had to do this"

"I couldn't really say" her voice was laughing.

"Are you making fun of me?" He asked slightly irritated but also a bit amused.

"Maybe I am, what are you going to do about it?" she smiled.

"I…." he didn't know how to respond to that.

She finally took pity of him. "I would love to go out to dinner with you, but I'm afraid it will have to wait a few of days. I have to take my niece back to England to my sister."

"Of course" he replied understanding. Actually, he internally sigh in relief. He definitely needed a couple of days to recover from this phone conversation. He could only imagine how an entire conversation in a restaurant would go between them.

"Tell you what? I will text you the name of the restaurant and a date with a time when I get back from England"

"Shouldn't I be… you know… making the reservation?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Nate, it's the 21st century, live a little."

Did she just call him Nate? "Okay."

"I'll see you in a few days."

"I'll be there" and they hung up. He looked down at the phone strangely. That must have been the weirdest conversation for asking someone out. He had a feeling that that Sophie Devereaux was certainly going to keep him on his toes.