She managed to get through the rest of the dinner, the football game on TV, and all the hugs and farewells with a smile on her face. But as soon as they were in the car she turned to him.

"So explain to me why you told everyone we're going to Bimini for Christmas, and this is the first I've heard about it."

"I'm sorry. They were asking about your family and your plans, and I knew the second you said it was just you and Joey for the holidays, my mom would have insisted you join in the whole Perez family Christmas. My family can be a little overwhelming. And actually, the idea just occurred to me while we were at the table."

He glanced over with an apologetic smile. "If I'd thought of it earlier, I'd have mentioned it."

What kind of person decided on the spur of the moment to take off for the Bahamas in a few weeks? A person who owned his own business and had enough wealth and power to do whatever he wanted, she supposed.

"I just don't like people just assuming they can make plans for me." She had this lump in her throat that was making it hard to swallow. Was there anything in her life that she had control over anymore?

"Come on, Maria," Joey piped up from the back seat. "It sounds cool."

"I know it sounds cool." And if she refused to go, she'd be the bad guy with Joey.

"Look," Ritchie said, as he merged into traffic. "If you don't want to go, it's no big deal. But if you do, you'd be doing me a favor. We have some rental property there."

"We?"

"Jonathon, Sam, and I. It's an investment. We rent it out most of the year, but we left it open for two weeks over Christmas this year. Jon and I were planning on going down there, taking care of some repairs from the last tropical storm that went through there, and having some downtime."

"Oh, so Jonathon's going too?" Now it was beginning to make sense. He was leaving town for the holidays anyway and was feeling guilty about just leaving her and Joey here. Or maybe he was worried what kind of trouble Joey might get into while he was off school and Maria was pulling double shifts at the restaurant. Anyway, with Jonathon there, it would be more business.

"No, Jonathon has a trial coming up and can't take the time. It would have been the first vacation I've had in a long time. I was planning to just cancel it and deal with the repairs long distance." He looked over at Maria. "But then when everyone was talking about Christmas plans, I thought, why not just take you and Joey down there and make it a fun trip? How long has it been since you had a vacation?"

Had she ever had a vacation? Not since she studied that summer in Italy, when her future seemed full of nothing but good things.

Joey piped up from the back seat. "We took that trip to Disney, remember Maria?"

It had been Joey's 10th birthday, and it had taken her almost a year to save up enough money for the three-day park hopper passes, even with her Florida resident's discount. She'd chosen one of the economy family hotels on the property. She could have gotten a cheaper place to stay a few miles out, but figured the convenience of the free shuttle busses from the hotel to the parks, plus the huge kid-friendly pool and food court and refillable drink mugs was worth the price. But it made her heart ache now to think that a three-day trip to Orlando almost four years ago was the only vacation Joey had ever known.

"All right, let's do it," she said and heard Joey's whoop of delight. She just hoped she didn't regret it. If managing her conflicted feelings about Ritchie was difficult now in the day-to-day routine they'd established, she could only imagine how much harder it would be at a vacation paradise in the Bahamas.

"I have to talk to my boss at the restaurant. And Vivienne." She looked back at Joey. "So don't get too excited yet." Futile words, she knew. Joey was already way past excited at the prospect of a real vacation, and a Christmas spent somewhere he'd never been before. With Ritchie, whom he already regarded with something close to hero worship.

"I'm glad you decided to go," Ritchie said, reaching over and touching her hand, sending a charge of energy shooting through her that had her already second-guessing her decision.

But really, what other choice did she have?

* * *

Ritchie climbed up the narrow circular staircase to the artist's workroom above Vivienne's gallery. The view out the floor to ceiling windows was amazing. But the view inside the studio took his breath away. An immense sculpture dominated the center of the room. Twisted metal wires partially covered with plaster and intersecting through Plexiglas were visible in the clearly unfinished work, but already it seemed like a living, breathing thing. To his left, a large canvas stretched across ten feet of wall space, and Vivienne was using her hands to create wild swirls of paint in sweeping arcs. Finger painting on steroids, he thought, and took a startled step back when she then balled a paint rag into her hand and slammed it repeatedly into the canvas.

But what really captivated his attention was a group of paintings casually arrayed on the other side of the room, against the wall. He never would have recognized them as Vivienne's – she was apparently taking part of her work in an entirely different direction, and it was fresh and exciting, with something he would think of as almost naiveté running through it, if  he didn't know that Vivienne was the artist.

He stepped over for a closer look. There were street scenes he recognized from Florence, countrysides with flowers that seemed to weep in the falling rain, a view of Biscayne Bay showcasing a sleek sailboat. He leaned closer and grinned. If he could talk Vivienne into including that one in the donation she was making to his charity auction, he'd bet Jonathon would ensure the betting went into high numbers, and likely end up taking it home himself at the end of the evening.

He heard Vivienne step up behind him and turned.

"I had no idea you were taking your work in this direction. Is there any chance you'd consider donating one of these for the auction in addition to the sculpture we discussed. The sailboat in particular..."

Vivienne smiled. "You'd have to discuss that with the artist."

"I don't understand."

She laughed. "This isn't my work, darling. We had them out yesterday to review. I'm trying to convince Maria she has enough for a small showing. But the girl is stubborn."

"These are...Maria's?"

"You are surprised? Didn't she tell you I give her studio space as part of her compensation for helping me in the gallery?"

"Yes, but...I had no idea she was this good."

"Neither does she." Her eyes narrowed. "I would almost be jealous of such raw talent but, after all, I am Vivienne."

"And incomparable," he said, and was rewarded with the smile that had been photographed almost as often as her art.

He turned back and studied a scene from South Beach that completely captured the mood of the area. He could almost feel the heat of the sun on his shoulders as he stared into the painting. He felt an odd sort of anger bubbling up in him.

"I can't believe she's wasting her time waiting tables in a restaurant when she can create something like this. What is she thinking?"

"I imagine she's thinking she has to pay the bills. That she has a younger brother to raise and educate. And that art is a fickle lover at best."

"She could sell a single one of these for more money that she makes waiting tables for a year."

"Perhaps."

"You don't think the quality is there?"

"Her work needs to be shown. Not just these pieces. All of it."

"There's more?"

She gestured through a doorway for a smaller studio, and he walked in. The pieces here were bolder, less refined. They seemed to draw their power from raw emotion. He stared at a half-finished canvas on an easel that took his breath away. And was instantly transported back to an afternoon he'd once spent in Florence.

"She needs to show them," Vivienne repeated. "Simply having the talent, creating the work, is not enough."

"Well, what's stopping her?"

Vivienne shrugged, pulled off her paint splattered gloves, and deposited them in a basket already littered with gloves and rags, just outside the door.

"Insecurity. About her talent and about her future. And time. She doesn't have enough of it."

"How can you allow her to let this talent go to waste?"

Vivienne laughed. "Allow her? Believe me, I have offered to support her – a loan – if she would quit her job and devote real time to pursuing this, her life." She gestured expansively. "Our Maria, she is not one for having her hand out."

Vivienne paused, her eyes narrowing. "What she needs is a patron of the arts to take an interest in her work."

"She's living with me, I'm paying the bills. I'll tell her to quit the damn job and pursue this."

"I can imagine how well that would go over," Vivienne said dryly.

"You're right. She'd never accept it." He paced across the room, considering. There had to be away to help Maria move forward with her art without her balking because she thought it was some kind of charity. The woman could be so damn prickly sometimes. But an idea was forming in the back of his mind. What good was it to have connections, if you couldn't use them?

"There might just be a way to get around all that."

Vivienne smiled. "I thought there might. Now, let's go into my office, and we can discuss the sculpture I'm donating to your charity auction."

"Would you consider doing one of those events where you create a piece of art during the party and at the end of the evening we auction it off?" He'd gotten the idea when he saw her working on the large abstract canvas. It reminded him of a performance he'd once seen in New York by a master Japanese artist. A man, once a contemporary of Andy Warhol, who continued painting – and performing– into his 80's.

She gave him a cold stare. "No, I will not." She paused. "And the fact that I use a large canvas and punch it with my hands does not mean I imitate Ushio Shinohara."

Ouch. How did she know what he'd been thinking? But then, Vivienne had a reputation for her uncanny ability to read people. It was in part what gave her the ability to create art that felt so personal to so many people. It was the reason she was the perfect artist to showcase at his fundraiser.

"I wasn't suggesting –"

"Well, see that you don't."

"Vivienne, you compare to no one. A sculpture by the one and only Vivienne will ensure the event is a success, and that it will raise the funds to make a real difference.

"Hmm," she said, giving him a narrow glance. But she slipped her arm through his and they walked together to a small office on the other side of the studio. He walked out of the gallery twenty minutes later and pulled out his phone. And wondered if it was any accident that Maria's paintings had happened to be fully in view on the very day Vivienne agreed to meet with him at her studio.

Author's Note:

Do you think Ritchie's up to something? 

Music:  Calvin Harris, Dua Lupa - One Kiss

I chose this song just thinking about how Maria has felt each time she and Ritchie kissed. And what might happen when they are in Bimini . . .