“So, in other words, it’s your job. You just haven’t officially been given it yet,” he said with that bright confidence that she loved and so needed.
“I’m not so sure about that,” she said, “but I sure hope so.”
“You’re not broke again, are you?”
“No, not broke yet,” she said, “but that apartment of yours is eating me alive.”
“That’s because you put yourself into a world full of expensive trappings that you have to maintain. If you would just step back a bit and live in a place more reasonably priced, you could save money.”
“Why would I?” she asked, her voice strident, attracting attention from other restaurant customers. “It’s what I’m meant for. You know that.”
He gave her that sad smile and said, “Remember not to keep grasping for what you can’t have.”
“But I can have it,” she said. “You and I both know that. Elena had it, and I can have it.”
“But Elena had money behind her,” he said.
“Maybe. She also made very good money, more than I’m making right now,” she snapped, “and that’s not fair. I should be getting paid more for these huge art pieces.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, if it had been Elena there with me,” she said, “you know she would have been paid more.”
“Maybe,” he said, “maybe not.”
“No,” she said, “there’s no maybe about it. Elena didn’t ever stand still for less than ten thousand dollars.”
He looked at her in surprise.
She shrugged. “You know that she was the favorite. You know that they kept paying her a lot of money, even though she had millions of other jobs.”
“Maybe something else was between them?”
She sneered. “I’d sleep with the bitch too if I thought it would get me that kind of money.”
“Depends if the bitch wants you,” he pointed out with his words, at the same time as he pointed his fork at her.
Her glare fell off his shoulders as he laughed. “You have to remember. A lot of things go on between two people, and it’s not always about what they can get out of the relationship.”
“All relationships are what people can get out of them,” she snapped. “Don’t ever forget that.”
He smiled, picked up another bite, and popped it into his mouth.
Recovering, she asked him with a faint smile, “What are you doing today?”
He nodded, put down his knife and fork, pushed away his half-eaten omelet, and said, “I’ll be gone all day, possibly all night.”
“New boyfriend?”
“No,” he said. “Remember? There’s more to a relationship than what people get out of it.”
“You’re an idiot there,” she said. “You’ve been going strong for a couple years now. Isn’t it time to move it up?”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “If you think about it, we have everything we need.”
“Not really,” she said. “You have each other, and that’s only part-time.”
His face closed down slightly because they’d had this conversation repeatedly. “Maybe,” he said. “It’s good enough for us right now.”
“Unless he gets jealous again,” she said slyly. “When he sees you with a potential lover. Or an old one, … like Kenneth, wasn’t it?”
“Not likely,” he said with the patience that she knew he’d worn out when dealing with her. “It’s not about what you get out of a relationship.”
“The only reason you’re still with Benjamin is for the time that he deigns to give to you,” she snapped, shoving her face across the table. “And don’t you forget that.” She pushed her chair back. “I’m heading home to collapse.”
“You do that. Maybe you’ll wake up a sweeter person.”
“Not likely.” With a wave, she walked out of the restaurant.
The two of them knew each other inside and out. She didn’t understand why they were friends and how that friendship had even remained, and sometimes she wondered if she was just a curiosity for him to study and to ponder. But, at the end of the day, it worked, and he was a necessary part of the fabric of her life.
She didn’t have to be anything special with him, just herself. And if there was one thing she highly valued, it was just being her nasty self. And her friendship with Derek was the place to do that, to be that. Fully. Without condemnation.
When she was a model, she had to be the perfect model. Not only the perfect model, but she had to actually become whatever it was that these people expected of her. Whether she liked it or not, she had to grin and bear it—or stand completely still or tear up or do this or that. She followed instructions and orders, and it chafed at her. It bit at her. It snapped the bounds of what was and was not acceptable. She did it anyway because she needed the money, and she wanted, desperately craved, the fame that went with it.
Now that the damn bitch Elena was gone, she was prepared to take her rightful place at the top of this modeling world. It was still a relatively small world, but it was the path that would lead her on to so much more. And no way anybody else would take that from her.
Chapter 9
Tired after a rough night and a crappy morning at her office in her gallery, Cayce had just packed up her stuff in her cramped office, ready to head out the door to work on an installation, when the detective walked into her gallery. Her feet stopped, and her heart stopped. Her whole body sensed his presence as the main door opened. She knew it was him, even though she couldn’t see him yet. Something about that energy field of his as he moved toward her. The thing was, outside of him, she only saw the energy of her models.
Transfixed at her office door, she waited for him to appear and watched the phenomenon she’d only noticed last time. The closer he came to her, the more his energy leaned eagerly toward her.
He stopped near her office doorway and
