She. She is like mist. Filling the air with a powerful yet exotic aroma. She is like that finest of silk which slips off the skin with grace. She is the blood red lipstick which makes a woman stand out in crowd. She is like the finest of wine which tastes the finest when taken a sip at a time. She is the sound of the saxophone, so harmonious. She can make heads turn with grace and pious. She is a woman.

She sat by the pool in the seven star resort, sipping the blue lagoon the waiter had got her. He looked. She looked. She lingered her sight on him. He smiled as he got inside the pool. She nodded. 

Next day, she rode down the hallway, arms in his arm, drooling on his side, smiling, laughing. They entered his room together, but in the morning, the bell boy saw only one coming out, that too in a bathing gown. 

"Where is she?" He shouted.

"Who... sir?" The bell boy asked. 

"Charmine," he said. Then holding his head in his hands, he knew he had been conned, by the best.

------------------------------

Love sat in the lobby of the hotel, reading a magazine. She saw police enter the hotel, and in the giant mirror in front of her she could see what was happening behind her. A man in his forties, talked to the offices in agitation. Turning on the supernatural hearing she listened to their conversation.

"When did you wake up sir?"

"I don't know, eight...nine, but when I woke up, she was gone and so was the diamond necklace." He said.

"Sir, but you said you presented it to her?" he asked.

"Yes, but I didn't...listen officer I could really use your help to track a criminal down," he said.

"Maybe your girlfriend is out in the mall sir, have you tried calling her?" The officer asked.

"She wasn't my girlfriend," The man in the bathing gown said.

As the officers left his room, Love entered the room before it could get automatically locked. Feather steps where taken down the suite to his room, where he sat with his head in his hands, eyes closed due to exhaustion. 

"You were conned," Love said.

"Who are you?" The guy rose up from his sitting position. 

"I'm here to help,"

"And I should trust you, why?"

"No no no you don't trust anyone after yesterday darling, clearly you'll trust the wrong people," she said.

"Excuse me? I'm calling the guards," he said sounding offended, and took large steps towards the telephone. 
"If I were you I wouldn't do it," Love said as she placed her hand on his before he could rise the phone. Taking her hand back she looked at the tension on his face.

"The necklace, what was it worth?" she asked.

"How'd you know about it?" He asked.

"I'm here to help, remember?" She said.

"A few million," he said.

"And it was new?" She asked.

"No, it was...my wife's," he said.

"So your wife ran away?" Love asked as she remembered hearing the word girlfriend in the lobby before.

"No, my wife's in London,"

Love raised her eyebrows to that.

"She was a friend, a new one, I met her here in the hotel," he said.

"Then my friend you've been a fool," she said.

----------------------------------------

After a week of searching for the woman who'd impressed Love by her neat work, leaving back no traces on the security cameras as well, she asked Zee to do the research. But when he came up with none, Love knew the case is shut. She sat in the open terrace restaurant gliding her way through the spaghetti and tomato sauce topping so smoothly, she hardly noticed anyone there.

But when the woman in off white silk dress, and red lipstick matched with the blood red heels entered the restaurant with the tik-tik sound, all the heads turned to her, even Love's. She was a woman of grace. The way she'd walk in, talked to the waiter, took her seat, everything was mesmerizing. And though the males had their eyes on her, so was Love's.

Finishing a meal she'd relished much, Love fixed her lipstick in the washroom mirror, when the woman in silk dress entered. Love stared at her for a minute not realizing she could see her. She looked back at Love and smiled. 

"Hey, I'm Love," Love introduced herself.

"Kaysi," she replied in her soft harmonic voice and offered her gloved hand. 

Love felt the soft delicate hand under the silk glove, and for the first time she felt intimidated by another woman. 

"Cheerio," the woman said as she went off the door after fixing her make-up. Love realized she'd acted much stupid standing and staring at her the whole time. Fixing her clothes and taking off the intimidation, she stepped outside. As she gathered her keys and jacket she noticed Kaysi was meeting a man. Somewhat in his forties the man who wore a designer three piece suit was drooling like a teenage girl before Love's new acquaintance. She couldn't help but think of the man she had met a week before in the hotel. Shrugging off the case that had much acquired her mind, Love drove to her hotel suite. 

The town was new to her, and so was the case that she had to shut. Shaking her head off for the ninth time today, she pour some wine. Since she had nothing to take care of for the night, she ordered from room service and decided to stay in, relaxing in the personal jacuzzi in her room. 

She wrapped the bathing robe when she heard the bell of the room. As the waiter smiled to her, bringing the trolley of food in, Love noticed the couple going inside the room farther off. Though not clear, she could compare the girl's dress and heels to the one she saw in the restaurant. The only difference being the hat she wore on her head. 

"Have a good night Miss," the waiter said as he bowed before taking a leave.

"Thank you so much Joy," she said reading his name from the nameplate though she'd read his thoughts.

Meal, wine, movie and a perfect night. What wasn't perfect about the night was, her inability to sleep due to the feeling she got when she remembered the couple that went inside the room. Love couldn't push the thought away even though she knew the con artist won't be where she is, and won't be sleeping on the same floor she's sleeping on, to much coincidence.

When she couldn't hold her gut feeling back, she got off the bed, slipped the silk kimono on top of her night satin dress, tied it around her waist as she took hurried steps to the main door, and looked at the hallway in the bird view peeping hole of the door. When she saw no one standing there, she turned around to go back in the warm bed. But the clicking of eels was what stopped her. The faint sound was fading as the elevator dinged on their floor. She opened the door only to see the elevator close with the woman in the silk dress in it. Before she could act on her instinct, the man from the room came running out in a bath robe, looked in the empty hallway and held his head in his hands as he realized he had been made a fool of. 

As the staff of the hotel gathered on the floor, Love's sight was fixed outside her locked suite's window onto the midnight dazzling lights of the city, while her mind drifted off to comparing the two woman she'd met today. Were they the same? Or was she making a mistake?

The next day as Love waited for the valet to bring her car, she couldn't help nut notice the receptionist. He seemed awfully stressed at the moment as he entered the elevator leaving the front desk unattended. The man took the elevator to the security room, and as he collected the little hard disk from the muscular guard. And as he re-entered the elevator he saw a woman in black smiling al him from the left of the elevator. 

"Smart much?" These were the last words he heard before something pricked the side of his arm and he fell unconscious.

---------------------------------

The hard disk contained her image for starters, which was sent to Zee, to use the A.I. systems to identify her image and compare it with the ones in the government records.

After an hour he called, giving her information about a girl named Hayley. The email further contained all his recorded information, like where she lived, and studied. But that didn't matter right now. What mattered was what was she doing and why did she did so?

Entering the same restaurant she had been to a week ago, Love sat on the same table the eighth day, waiting for her woman in silk dress. She ordered Humus and Nachos with a bottle of wine in hope of waiting long for her. As she was about to relax her tensed nerves with the wine, she heard the ticking of the heel. Looking behind her she saw Kaysi coming towards her. She took the opposite seat and helped herself with the nacho and a little humus. 

Love looked at her with wide eyes. 

"What? You've been following me," she said as she smiled before dwelling in the rich taste of chickpeas and olive oil. 

"Yes, I've been following you, Hayley" she said.

The woman with red lipstick stopped chewing when she heard the last word. She looked up to meet Love's face after a few seconds as she gulped the bolus in her mouth. 

"You don't have proof," she said. 

"Well that, I actually do," she said as she placed the hard disk on the table, which had the hotel logo printed on it's side. 

"It's been a week," she said.

"But some people are still looking for you," Love warned.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Hayley said with righteousness in her eyes and voice. 

"That doesn't help, knowing men have been conned," Love said.

"They were men," Hayley defended herself.

"Still not helping, Hayley," Love said. 

"What do you want?" She asked.

"You to stop," Love said.

"Else you'll expose me?" she asked.

"I won't have a choice," Love said with determination in her voice. 

Hayley got off the low level leather couch and wore her satin shrug as she prepare to leave. 

"You won't have to complain from the next moment on," she said as her winged eyelined eyes blinked before she turned around to leave.

"I believe you," Love said.

----------------------------------------------------

"You believe her?" Zee asked on the facetime after hearing the summary of the whole conversation.

"I know I shouldn't, but she looked scared of the hard drive," she said as she tossed it in her hands.

"You might need Hope in this one, she could... you know," Zee said.

"I know, but I think we should give her time," Love said.

"Okay Love, I got to go, need to test the gum remover," he said.

"You made a gum remover?" she asked.

"Cool right?" The old man asked.

"Useless," Love said as she touched the red button on the screen before Zee could say any further about how they took him for granted. 

Love thought of keeping an eye on the newspaper for any further con cases. As she steppe into the shower, she heard the front door click open. Pulling a bath robe she stepped inside the room to see if anyone had entered. 

"Hi, can I talk?" She heard behind her, and as she turned around, she saw Hayley sitting on the bed with smudged eyeline, as the tears rolled down her eyes. 

Before Love could ask how she'd enter a locked suite she looked at the little figure who stood helpless in front of her. 

The two women sat on opposite sides of the dining table in the suite, as room service was ordered. Hayley took a few large dumplings of food like a stress eater would do. After Love was sure, she could talk she smiled at her. 

"Okay, so what?" Love asked.

"What, what?" she asked.

"What did you want to talk about?" Love asked with closed eyes as she tried to control the irritation. 

"Oh, you reminded me of someone today." 

"Who?"

"Who I used to be,"

"Elaborate honey," Love said.

"I was a normal girl, with dreams and hopes and aspirations of being someone, someone everyone would look up to, and he shattered it like some thin fragile glass," she said. And while she was weak, Love read her mind, every bit of it as she started to shed tears.

"No, I don't know, you know why? Because I didn't have it," Love said. "Because of this you ruin other people's lives?" she asked.

"I didn't ruin anything. They are the ones who are ready to ump in my pants the first moment they get, they are the ones who cheat their woman, they are the ones who want a little affair. I just teach them a tinny lesson," she said with hatred in her eyes.

"And ruin your life for that," Love said. "Do you realize, you've spend five years of your life doing this, while you could have gotten back to your feet to who you wanted to be," Love said.

"Nothing's the same now."

"It is, it isn't there though," Love said as she touched Hayley's fore head with her index finger. 

"I can't," Hayley cried as she rubbed the tissue on her nose and eyes next. "I just can't... this is the only thing that keeps me going," she said.

"That's where you're wrong, vengeance won't let you settle, and what after that? You'll be lost Hayley," Love said.    

"What else am I supposed to do?" She asked.

"Go back to your family," she said.

"I don't have one," she said.

"Hayley, I've seen your records, I know your biological family lives in Ohio," Love remined.

Silence was observed after that. The two women ate their food in silence, and sipped the wine as they gave room to the bullet of thoughts that ran through their mind, each one analysing their own lives. While Hayley thought of every moment of her life before she became who she was now, Love thought of her own life, the turning point in her life which made her choose who she is today. 

"I'll do it, I'll go back," Hayley said as she sipped the last of her wine from the glass. 

"Good," Love said in a low voice.

------------------------------------------------

Next Love woke up on the couch, with a blanket wrapped around her. She held her head in her hands as she analysed the room. She stepped on the carpeted floor as she rushed to the open lock in her wardrobe. Everything of hers was missing, the Z-watch, the limited edition Z modified Jimmy Choo Heels and her phone. She couldn't believe herself being conned be Hayley. She Strode to the front door only to see a little pick sticking note stuck on the peeing hole. 

"Love,

You seen who I was, 

But I'm afraid I can't go down that road now, 

Not because it's too late, 

But it's important to teach them to be loyal.

And also look down the window

H"

As she looked outside, she saw the swimming pool with a few men and women in it. Oddly only one woman sat on the beach chair wearing a white bikini. 

Love stepped out in the kimono she'd wore the night before after completing her shower. Taking the chair next to that of Hayley's she stretched the inner of her hand, demanding her things back. Hayley smiled at the swimming pool avoiding the laugh which could prove to be offending. She placed the watch on her hand first. Wearing the watch on her hand, she again demanded. Next came her phone. 

"Jimmy Choo ?" Love asked.

Hayley eyes to the lower side of Love's beach chair. Handing their, she took the heels out. 

"You're broke too," Hayley said.

"What makes you say so?" Love asked feeling offended. 

"You're eyes, they hold hurt, betrayal, and I think you know the pain I felt because of a man, else you wouldn't let me go," she said.

"I'm not letting you go," Love said as she rose from her chair and stood aside Hayley's seat. Right then she heard a bunch of teenagers come towards the pool, shouting and having fun amongst themselves. Then she was picked up into someone's arms and the man jumped inside the pool with her. 

"Hey, let me go, what the hell?" Love shouted as she removed the pair of hands from her waist. Giving him a death glare, the guy increased the distance between them knowing he'll have a bad day else. 

"It was a dare, I apologize Miss," said the blonde with fear in his eyes. 

Looking back at the side of the pool, all Love saw was an empty Beach chair. 

She was gone. She was the mist. The mist which smelled exotic. She was the red lipstick which left a mark where'd it touch. She was the silk which was harmless, but had to turn into the thorns of the rose to protect the little bud that'd left in her heart. She was the wine, which stained several white and never left. She was a girl who was turned into a broke woman. She was Hayley. Hayley Claire.