Utopian Day (20 page)

After the introductions and polite banter, J.T.
began his confession.

“
Mrs. Borne, I arranged to come
here today to talk to you for a very specific reason. You see, I am
one of the primary people responsible for the demise of the company
that your husband worked for and…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Theresa Borne
threw the glass of water at J.T. and began cursing at him. The base
of the glass tumbler hit him in the forehead. Blood began trickling
down his forehead from the gash that had been opened. Theresa had
gotten up by this time, stepped over to where J.T. was seated, and
begun hitting him in the face, all the while cursing at him. J.T.
managed to grab her wrists and prevent her from continuing, only to
have her spit in his face and begin kicking his shins.

The racket the woman was making had reached the
front desk, and a security guard made it to the room just in time
to see the enraged Mrs. Borne attempting to bite J.T.’s hands in
order to get him to release her so she could continue to hit him.
The security guard grabbed Mrs. Borne from behind, immobilizing her
arms and pulling her back out into the hall.

J.T. decided that going out into the hall would not
be a good idea and sat down to compose himself and catalog his
injuries. He went to the men’s room and cleaned up a bit before the
next interview, re-applying a slightly sideways fake eyebrow that
had been moved during the altercation. He made it back into the
conference room just minutes before the next person arrived.

All told, J.T. had ten different interviews by the
end of the day. There were a variety of reactions that he
experienced, but the best and the worst had been the very first two
interviews of the day. He caught the plane back to the Cayman
Islands that night, texting Laura when he was able that he was
on-schedule with no mishaps. He was exhausted. He had experienced
just a small portion of both the venom and the forgiveness to be
had from all the people he had wronged in his past, and he quietly
began to weep as the mixed emotions of gratitude and sorrow
overwhelmed him.

Chapter Thirty-One

Over the next several months after Nick had given
Mia the ruby necklace, he began asking her to accompany him to an
increasing number of lunches, dinners, and walks in the park that
had nothing to do with business. It was quickly obvious that he was
moving their relationship towards something more, but Mia was still
unsure how to take all of the attention.

In the past, when Nick had been romantically
involved, it usually ended up in sex with the woman in question on
the second or third date. Gifts and parties, taking the private jet
to various events and exotic locations for romantic weekend
getaways, all followed by the inevitable breakup about six months
later, when Nick became bored with the girl or she became too
demanding. Yet, none of that was happening between Nick and Mia.
Apart from the ruby necklace, no other gifts had been given. He had
not attempted to make sexual advances, and everywhere they had gone
together, outside of business trips, had been in town, within
driving distance of Nick’s house. It was unusual for Nick, but Mia
was enjoying herself and decided to wait it out. She knew that Nick
would tell her whatever he had to say when he was ready. Nick was
nothing if not goal-oriented. She trusted him, and that was all
that mattered.

One evening, Nick was scheduled to attend an art
gallery exhibition. It was a black tie event. Mia always
accompanied him to these events as his bodyguard and followed
behind him as he moved through the crowd in his trademark style,
saying his hellos to friends and making new acquaintances. Mia
usually busied herself looking for signs that someone may intend
bodily harm to Nick, making sure no one with a score to settle
showed up close enough to pose a threat, and going over possible
exit strategies in her mind to keep from getting bored.

In the past, events such as these would be where
Nick would frequently find his next girlfriend. The interested
female would usually wander over into his circle and at some point
make it obvious that she was available and interested. One of two
things would then happen. Nick might ask for her number and call
her to arrange a date at a later time. If he was exceptionally
taken with her and the woman was obviously willing, he would make
his exit and take her back to his house, where they would usually
end up having sex. Mia knew the latter because, on numerous
occasions after dropping the two off at Nick’s house, the women had
still been there the following morning when Mia had come in to
work.

The exhibition was following a predictable pattern.
The champagne was flowing, Nick was working the crowd, and in
between conversations, he was stopping to view the photography
exhibits. This particular artist was focused on trees, specifically
close-up shots of different parts of the trees, like the bark, a
leaf with rain on it, and an exposed root system. Mia personally
preferred performance art rather than photographs or paintings. She
supposed this was most likely due to her background in martial
arts.

A woman whose dress was showing entirely too much
cleavage sauntered up to where Nick was standing and began talking
to him about the photograph he was looking at. He responded
politely and the woman stepped even closer to him, obviously
flirting with him and attempting to get a response. Physically, the
woman was Nick’s type. Young, athletic build, blond, and busty. Mia
felt her face getting hot. Her breathing rate increased and her jaw
muscles started tensing up. She realized with some alarm that she
was jealous.

All the dinners and walks and drives in the
countryside with Nick over these past months had changed their
relationship. She realized for the first time that, during this
time, she had actually begun to develop romantic feelings towards
him. She was falling in love and now this young woman was
threatening that experience. Mia wanted to walk up and push her
away from Nick, perhaps with a well-placed open-hand strike to the
throat. But she kept completely still and watched, her gaze never
leaving Nick and the woman.

Nick took a step back and attempted to extricate
himself from the situation, telling the woman to have a nice
evening and turning his back on her to move on to the next exhibit.
The woman took several steps, going around Nick, positioning
herself in front of him, pressing herself into him again, obviously
not the type to give up easily. When it became clear that she was
not going to take the hint, Nick turned to Mia and gave her the
subtle but practiced sign that he wanted Mia to run interference.
Mia smiled slyly as she gladly stepped forward to handle the
situation.

Nick took a step back from the woman in practiced
fashion just as Mia arrived at his side and slipped between him and
the woman. Nick turned and walked away, leaving the two women
alone.

“
Mr. Bartonovich would like you to
leave him alone now,” Mia said to the woman, smiling as she
did.

The woman, who had obviously had too much to drink,
looked angrily at Mia. “Get out of the way, you slut!” she spat,
and attempted to walk around Mia, in the direction Nick had
walked.

As the woman attempted to walk past, Mia stepped
into her, discreetly grabbed her wrist, and twisted it into a wrist
lock so that the woman could not advance without causing herself
considerable pain. The woman took in a gasp of air and was likely
about to call out for help, but Mia had already begun to whisper in
her ear.

“
Find another man, honey, or I
will break your pretty little hand.”

No sooner had Mia finished her sentence than she had
released the woman and stepped backwards, standing between her and
the path that Nick had taken. The woman was obviously angry and was
rubbing her wrist, but not drunk enough to miss the point. She
turned away in a huff and walked in the opposite direction.

Mia caught up with Nick, who had just said hello to
an old friend of his and was engaged in conversation. He caught
Mia’s eye as she took up her familiar position not too far from
him, and he nodded his approval.

After the party was over, Mia escorted Nick home in
the rented limo. Once she saw Nick had closed the door to his
house, she had the driver drop her off at her own apartment. She
thought back over the evening with some satisfaction, pleased that
Nick had not taken anyone home with him. In fact, she’d noticed he
hadn’t even taken a phone number from any of the many available
women he had talked with during the evening.

The next day, Mia arrived at work as usual and went
to Nick’s office, ready to work on the day’s business. The morning
progressed as it normally did, with Nick working on the laptop,
talking on the phone, and frequently giving Mia items to put on her
task list to be taken care of later in the day. It was a beautiful
day, and when they stopped for lunch, Nick suggested that they take
a walk down to the sandwich shop just down the street and eat in
the park.

As they passed the park on the way to the sandwich
shop, Nick stopped in front of the park’s water fountain and began
staring into the fountain, as if he was lost in thought. Mia stood
beside him as she often did, waiting.

“
Mia, have you enjoyed the changes
in our relationship these past several months?” he said without
looking away from the fountain.

Mia felt her face getting warm. “Yes, I have,” she
replied.

“
Me, too,” Nick replied. He
suddenly turned towards Mia and took her hand. “Mia, since I had
cancer, I’ve changed. What I want has changed. I see things
differently than I ever have before. I see
you
differently
than I ever have before.”

Mia’s face was practically on fire. She could feel a
burning sensation in her chest. She didn’t move.

“
Mia, I haven’t loved anyone for a
very long time; you know that. But I love someone now. And I want
to be with that someone. Mia, I love you, and I want to be with
you. Not like all those other girls, not a one night stand, not a
six month fling. I want to be with you for the rest of my
life.”

Mia felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. She had
never loved a man since her father had betrayed her all those years
before. She had never trusted any man besides Nick. Now, as he
spoke to her, she knew in her soul that she loved him, too.

Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out black
box, holding it out to her. “Mia, will you marry me?”

Mia reached out her hands and cradled Nick’s face,
looking up into his eyes in a way she had never looked into them
before. Then she answered with all of her heart, “Yes. Yes, I
will.”

They embraced in front of the fountain.

Nick and Mia were married a week later in a private
ceremony with a few of their closest friends in attendance. A few
days after that, they took a private jet to Charleston, South
Carolina, where they stayed at the Wentworth Mansion for a week.
Nick had booked the Grand Mansion Suite for their stay, a beautiful
one-thousand square foot luxury suite complete with chandeliers and
two floor-to-ceiling marble fireplaces. It was quintessential
southern charm at its finest.

They toured Charleston and Fort Sumter, rode
bicycles through the historic district, and ate at the finest
restaurants. Mia had never been so happy in all her life. She got
up each morning in the bed next to Nick and pinched herself to be
sure she wasn’t dreaming.

Nick was a changed man. It was as if he had been
reborn. He was no longer solely focused on making money and
achieving his business goals. He was actually enjoying life and was
finding that Mia was so much more interesting and beautiful than he
had ever imagined. He couldn’t believe he had been so blind to the
fact all these years.

On the jet back to New York, they viewed a
slide-show of all the pictures they had taken and reminisced about
the wonderful time they’d had in Charleston. Once they were back in
town, Mia and Nick moved her things into the brownstone. That
night, they sat on the couch and watched one of Mia’s favorite
movies –
Casa Blanca
. Mia was curled up next to Nick, who
had his arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. For
them, time had stopped. They had each other and they were in love.
Nothing could have been better.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Silas stared at the dashboard of his police sedan in
shock. All he had wanted since he was a kid was to be a cop. He had
joined the Army at 18 and gone straight in to the NYPD Police
Academy when he was honorably discharged at the age of 21. He
eventually worked his way up to detective. He had been a good cop.
Emphasis on the word
had
.

Somewhere along the way, Silas had discovered online
gambling and gotten hooked. What started as an innocent pastime
slowly grew to dominate more and more of his income. He started
picking up extra shifts and side jobs as a security guard as his
habit grew and his losses started getting larger. One night, he
thought he was about to win big, enough to pay off the house. He
was on a roll, working up a one thousand dollar stake into over
100K. One more good hand and he promised himself he was going to
cash in and log off for the night. Then he started losing. Before
it was over, he was 10K in debt to the house, and the house
belonged to Nick Bartonovich.

That was when things had started going downhill
fast. He had compromised his integrity to get rid of that debt,
which eventually led him to where he was sitting right now. He had
hoped that somewhere along the way he would find the path to
redemption, to turn back the hands of time and somehow set things
right, but it hadn’t turned out that way.