“Oh, Boo,” she sighed. “I think I’ve made a big mess.”
Aggie nodded into her shoulder.
“What should I do?”
“We should both get on the first plane out tomorrow morning.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I promised Jimmy I’d come back tomorrow night.”
Aggie lifted her head and looked at Angela.
“After all you’ve, we’ve done, you feel bound by a simple promise?”
“He’s hurting, Aggie. Besides, if we leave now, we walk out with nothing.”
“Nothing but a little self-respect.”
“Mine’s not real high anyway, Boo. I need to stay and fix things if I can.”
Angela pulled her sister’s head back onto her shoulder so she wouldn’t have to look into her eyes. She did want to fix things somehow. She also wanted the Giacometti.
The next morning Angela awakened fully dressed, her sister’s head still resting on her shoulder. Someone was pounding on the door to the suite.
“Aggie,” she shook her twin. “Wake up.”
“Wha…?”
“There’s someone at the door.” Angela shook her again. “You have to wake up.”
“Why would anyone knock on our door?” Aggie asked as she sat up and stretched.
“Maybe Jimmy found us.”
“Oh, God.”
“I’m going to go answer the door.”
“We’ll go together.”
“No,” Angela contrived. “You wait in here, in case it’s Jimmy or the lawyer.”
She smoothed her hair back from sleep encrusted eyes and walked down the hall. When she opened the door, she was momentarily speechless.
“Hi, Blossom,” her father greeted her. Mary smiled nervously behind his shoulder. “You are Blossom, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’m Angela,” she agreed and walked into her father’s embrace. “What on earth are you doing here? How did you find us?”
“I called him last Saturday.” Aggie’s voice drifted down the hall from the bedroom door. “Hi, Dad.”
Angela’s father released her and walked to his other daughter.
“Peach Fuzz.” He pulled her into his arms.
“Hi, Mary,” Angela greeted her father’s friend. “Come in out of the hall.”
She noted the older woman’s hesitation and reached out to pull her in. The grab turned into an tentative hug that quickly melted into a genuine embrace.
“It’s good to see you, Angela,” Mary said softly. “I warned your father not to come by so early.”
“Like trying to stop a steam engine,” Angela laughed. “Where are you staying?”
“Right down the hall. We have a lovely suite with a view of the water.”
By now, the four had moved into the living room and stood awkwardly silent.
“Sit down,” Angela motioned. “I’ll put on some coffee.”
Her comment broke the tension and the three sat, their Dad and Mary on the sofa and Aggie in an armchair. When Angela came back from the kitchen, she dropped into the other armchair and spoke.
“What are you doing in Vancouver, Dad?” she asked then appended, “and Mary.”
“You two are on my twelve steps,” their father explained.
The import of his words reached Angela slowly. Her twin caught on faster and jumped from her chair to her father’s arms.
“Twelve steps?” Angela echoed.
“He’s joined AA,” her sister explained.
Angela sat rooted to her chair though tears misted her eyes. She looked at Mary, who nodded.
“Wow,” Angela sighed.
Her father lifted Aggie from his lap and sat her back down in the armchair. He stood looking nervous and yet dignified in the center of the room.
“I have to apologize to you two,” he began.
“You don’t have to,” Aggie protested.
“Yes, I do.” He held up his hand to stop further argument. “I haven’t always been a good father, especially since your mother died. I know you’ve both been worried about me for a long time.”
“We’ve been worried, Dad,” Angela admitted. “But you are a good father. Aggie and I always knew you loved us.”
“I could have done a lot more,” he insisted.
“Dad,” Aggie interrupted, this time successfully. “Do you have a certain number of sentences you have to get out to make it to the next step?”
Her teasing worked. Their father chuckled and sat down.
“No,” he admitted. “But you know me.”
“A steam engine,” the three women chorused.
“I have some more news,” he announced. “Mary and I are married.”
Angela jumped up and hugged first her father and then Mary.
“That’s great news, you guys!”
Aggie followed her sister into their embrace.
“I just wish you’d waited so we could be there,” she protested.
“I wasn’t sure you approved,” Mary commented, her eyes intent on Angela’s.
“I’ve grown up a little,” Angela explained. “I’m sorry if I was a brat before.”
“You were a young woman who had just lost her mother, Angela,” Mary smiled. “I never blamed you for resenting me.”
“Well, I don’t now.”
“Let’s all go out for breakfast,” her father offered. “I’ll take my three women to that fancy place downtown, the Vancouver Hotel.”
Angela looked at Aggie. They couldn’t possibly go out for breakfast together, especially not to the Vancouver Hotel.
“I have a headache, Dad,” Aggie said. “I’m going to take a aspirin and lie down for awhile. You and Angela and Mary go ahead.”
It was a solution, if not perfect. Their father and Mary’s arrival intensified an already complicated situation. Angela thought about the coming evening. How on earth could she pull it off? Leave the hotel at 5:30, have sex or whatever with Jimmy, steal the statue, get back to the hotel and leave town. All without tipping off her observant parent that anything was going on. Well, she would go enjoy breakfast somewhere other than the Vancouver Hotel. She would figure out a way to make it all work later.
In the end, the evening began more easily than she had expected. She had spent the morning and early afternoon with her father and Mary, then Aggie had taken over for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Angela had explained that she had a dinner date and they had accepted the explanation without comment. She was the flirty twin, after all. Her going on a date was hardly a shock.
She dressed carefully for the evening in black stirrup pants, a black cashmere sweater, flat shoes and a large black leather shoulder bag. If she succeeded in getting the Giacometti, she wanted to be able to fade into the darkness of the waterfront, just in case. She checked herself one last time in the mirror and decided this was a good look for her, arty and a bit European. She smiled at her reflection. Maybe she could pull it all off after all.
When she arrived at the apartment building, Jimmy wasn’t in the lobby. She almost brushed by the strange man who stood silently by the window but she recognized him at the last moment from Aggie’s description. Mr. Urbano. The lawyer. She turned and held out her hand with a smile.
“Mr. Urbano.”
His hand wrapped around hers in a grip that was almost a caress. Her breath caught in her throat as she felt each individual finger press into her giving flesh.
“Where’s Jimmy?” The words emerged softly, the impetus stolen by their still joined hands.
“He asked me to meet you tonight,” the man explained. “Please call me Richard.”
He looked as awestruck as she felt.
“I don’t understand.” Angela finally withdrew her hand from the lawyer’s grasp.
“He’s still suspicious,” he explained.
Angela tried to remember the details Aggie had told her of her two meetings with the lawyer.