Waking up to find her in my arms was everything I could have hoped for. Last night had been as perfect as if I had dreamed it. She had wanted me. It had been all her deciding that I was someone she wanted to be with. She gave in to her feelings because she wanted to.

I’d wondered the other night if I should have just kept going, when she was clearly drunk. I mean, she said she wanted me, but I’d bought the champagne. And I admit it, I thought a drink would perhaps loosen her up and improve my odds. But she’d had more than a drink. As I’d looked at her, clearly drunk, I knew I couldn’t. I knew that it was a mistake because if I could only convince her when she wasn’t thinking straight, then it wasn’t right. And for once, doing things right had paid off for me. Not that I had a lifetime of practice. Mostly, I did the wrong things and somehow it worked out for me, usually with someone else coming in and cleaning up my mess.

I loved the way her hair felt on my arm, silky soft. The way her body seemed to fit just perfectly beside mine. She was sound asleep, a steady soft rhythm of her breaths. I looked over at the alarm clock. Shit. It was late. We needed to pack and get ready for our flight. I sighed. I was going to miss being here with her.

But, we could still be together when we got home.

Maybe.

Though I didn’t have tons to offer her. I was in debt to Pauly, though I had six months of breathing room to get hold of my trust fund. Only, my parents had cut me off and I had no place to live once the month ended in five days, and no job.

She stirred in my arms, turning her head, and opening her eyes, to smile at me. Damn, she was gorgeous. Even first thing in the morning. I kissed her forehead. “Mornin’ sunshine,” I said.

She smiled back. “Good morning.”

“You sleep well?”

She yawned. “Like the dead.” Then she frowned, followed by a chuckle. “I guess that’s not a good omen.”

“We don’t need omens,” I told her, hoping to sound reassuring, but right about now, I’d prefer good omens to bad ones.

“I guess not,” she said, then she kissed my shoulder, smiled at me.

That was good. That was a sign that maybe this was the start of something good. “I had a great time, last night,” I told her.

She smiled bigger. “So, did I,” she said, sitting up, stretching her arms. “And I think I’m sore. That’s so awful. I haven’t had a chance to work out. Maybe when it’s just me and Lynx, I’ll work out. He can live vicariously through me.”

“Just you and Lynx?”

She nodded. “Next month, when he does his treatment.”

“Right,” I said. That made sense.

She turned to look at the alarm clock on the night stand. “Holy shit,” she said. “We need to get going, or we’re going to miss our flight.”

She hopped out of bed, ran over to the dresser, grabbed the few outfits she had in it, and took them over to the bed, where she began rolling them to fit in her suit case.

“You want to shower first or second?” she asked.

I smiled. “We could conserve water and go together.”

She shook her head. “No,” she said, though she did smile a little. “If we get in the shower together, one of us won’t have the restraint to get out as quickly as we need.”

“And which one of us would that be?” I asked.

“Me,” she said. Then, she looked at her clothes in neat piles. “Can you get my bag out of the closet? And get yourself together. We need to be ready for the delivery.”

“What delivery?”

“The diamonds,” she told me, perturbed. “We have to get them back to the US.

“And how exactly are we supposed to do that?”

“You’ll see,” she said, then looked over to the bathroom door. “I’m gonna shower first, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure. Go ahead.” I walked over to the closet and grabbed her bag. As she walked by the shower, she gave me a peck on the cheek.

“Thanks,” she said, and in she went.

I went into the closet and grabbed my large suitcase, as well as my carry-on bag. I took them over to the bed, started grabbing my things and tossing them in. That’s when I heard the phone ring. It wasn’t mine. It was Onyx’s, which was sitting atop the dresser. I was going to let it go, but then I worried it might be important, so I answered it.

“Hello,” I said.

There was a pause on the other end, and finally an Indian voice said, “Hallo? Who is this?”

“It’s Ryan,” I said.

“Ah, the American,” the voice said. “Tell Onyx the plan has changed. She has to come to me.”

I paused. “Does she know where you are?”

“Yes,” the man said. “She can call back, but she’ll need to meet me at two o’clock.”

“Our flight leaves at four thirty,” I said.

There was no response. I realized he’d hung up. This wasn’t good. I went into the bathroom and stood outside the glass shower door. It was steamy, so I couldn’t see her naked body clearly, but the silhouette was enough to remind me of just how gorgeous her curvy body was.

“I’m serious,” she said. “As much fun as I had last night, we can’t Ryan.”

“It’s not that,” I said. “A guy called your phone. He said we have to come to him.”

She turned to look at me, wiping a clear spot on the steamed-up glass. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” I said nodding. “He also said, it wouldn’t be ready until 2 o’clock.”

She turned off the water, opened the glass door and stepped out. There she was in all her glory, but the expression on her face made it impossible for me to enjoy it. “Well, this was the last thing we needed. We have to go,” she said. “Get ready.”

She grabbed a towel and stalked past me. It seemed best to just do what she said, so I hopped in the shower, as I saw her go straight to her cell phone and pick it up. I showered quickly and when I got out, she was sitting on the bed, dressed in a pair of black leggings and a white tank top and looking desolate. “So, what’s going on?”

“Diamond cutting is hard and requires time. More time than Pauly allowed,” she said, offering a snort. “They’re literally cutting it close. The diamonds aren’t quite done. They’re finishing the cuts on the last few, and they’ve got to finish getting them ready for me to smuggle out.”

I went and sat next to her, still in my towel. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

She shook her head. “Just get ready and help me move out quickly once we get the diamonds.”

* * *

WE LEFT THE HOTEL THIRTY minutes later, hauling my luggage to a DHL office. There was no way we’d make it to the airport to check a bag, so Onyx suggested just shipping it home. There wasn’t anything I needed in the immediate future. It was just clothes. I kept my passport and visa in the backpack I carried with me.

After we squared my luggage away, we took a cab in intense traffic to another part of town, seedy and run down, part of an industrial area. The signs on the factories showed cloth, rather than the plain buildings in the diamond district. We were let off in front of an old building, and Onyx went straight around to the back, sidled up to a door and knocked.

The door was old metal, with a few bits of rust. After a moment, it swung open and we stepped inside. It was hot in here. The man who let us in was someone I didn’t recognize. He was an older Indian gentleman.

He recognized Onyx, and spoke to her quickly in Hindi. She spoke back, but I had no idea what they were discussing. Inside the factory was a large open space, with many machines that seemed to have people at them weaving together threads. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were making, but the man who led us and spoke to Onyx was moving quickly along the side wall. We passed several rows of workers at machines and reached a door. 

The older man opened the door for us, and inside was a smaller room, with three cutting machines to shape diamonds, as well as a machine to polish.

In the corner, a woman sat there sewing a skirt. Onyx walked straight over to her, and looked at it. She said something to the woman, who responded. Then she frowned. The older gentleman didn’t say anything. He sat down at one of the machines, pulled on a pair of goggles and began working.

“Onyx,” I called, and she walked over to me.

“Yeah,” she said, softly.

“What’s going on? I didn’t learn Hindi while I slept.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “A couple of the diamonds were harder to cut. Sumit was working with two other cutters, but they had to go home, meaning he has to finish by himself.” She looked over. He’s almost done. When he finishes, he’ll give it to Rajita and she’ll affix it to the skirt.”

I looked over at the woman, though I couldn’t see what she was doing from where we were standing. Onyx grabbed my hand and walked me over. The woman, clearly Indian, with long black hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a traditional outfit, was sewing on a wide, colorful skirt. The top layer was a thin sheer fabric, and had jewels embedded into it ever so often. Beneath that sheer layer was a thicker fabric, that was being sewed to the sheer one where the jewels were.

My mouth fell open as it occurred to me what was going on. “Are those the diamonds?”

“On the outside?” Onyx shook her head. “No. They’re fake, little sparkly things. But inside, behind each fake jewel, embedded in the skirt liner is a real diamond, or two or three. The skirt should look like a pretty decorative outfit and shouldn’t draw attention at customs.”

I smiled. That was clever. “So, you just pack that in your bag?”

She shook her head. “No, bags are x-rayed. I have to wear it. Nothing weird will show up on x-rays as there’s no metal. Just fabric. And the airport screeners rarely look too closely at the clothes people are actually wearing.”

“What if one falls out?” I asked. The notion of one dropping out as she walked through the detector scared me.

“Rajita is one of the best seamstresses here,” she said. “They won’t fall out. They’re embedded in the canvas, not the organza crepe.”

Organza crepe? “Umm, I take it organza crepe and canvas are fabrics?”

She nodded.

Rajita was sitting on a stool, hand stitching something. Next to her was a ceramic bowl with diamonds in it. There were at least a dozen of them in the bowl. Onyx reached over and picked one out. She held it up to me. “Sumit did an excellent job,” she said. “I didn’t bring my loupe with me, but even with the naked eye, it looks spectacular.”

She walked back over to Sumit at the machine. Next to him was a magnifying glass used by diamond people. Onyx said something to the man in Hindi and then picked up the magnifier.

“Sumit said I could borrow his,” she said, holding up the little magnifier, I guess a loupe, to the diamond. “See,” she said, handing me the loupe. “Look at the clarity and it’s white, almost colorless.”

Looking through the glass, it just looked like a diamond. I wasn’t seeing the amazing sight she saw. But, of course, I wasn’t an expert in diamonds.

I handed her back the loupe and said, “So what do we do now?”

“Just wait,” she said. “Rajita will finish sewing in the diamonds and then we’ll go to the airport and get our flight.”

I nodded. It seemed all I could do. I looked at my watch. Our flight left in two hours and for international flights, you were supposed to be at the airport two hours early. We were cutting it close. Especially with traffic.

We waited in the room, with me fanning myself because it was so hot. No air conditioning here. I was starting to sweat as I watched the time. Finally, after forty minutes of waiting, Sumit had finished the diamond and Rajita had sewn all of them into the skirt beneath the fake jewels. She handed it to Onyx, who grabbed the skirt and pulled it over her leggings. Just then the door popped open. It was Chandran, Pauly’s inside guy from the diamond factory.

Onyx looked at him, startled.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, afraid they’d start speaking in Hindi and I’d have no idea what was happening.

“You have to go,” Chandran said.

“Why?” Onyx asked.

“The logs were doctored, and everything was fine, but the owner of the factory heard a rumor that one of his cutters had gone rogue. Was working another job for extra cash. He’s on his way here. He can’t find you here, or he’ll figure out that more happened than his employees are doing work on the side.”

I looked around the room. That guy cutting the diamond didn’t look done.

Chandran spoke to him in Hindi, and he stopped what he was doing and walked out of the room. Onyx went over to the machine and looked at it, shaking her head. “Half cut,” she lamented. “It will have to do.”

Onyx asked Chandran something in Hindi, and he responded. She turned to me. “Help him with the machines,” she said. I looked at them, and they looked heavy. “They’re on wheeled carts,” she said. “Chandran will show you where to take them.”

With my guidance received, I followed orders, going with Chandran through the factory, to a back door, where a van was waiting. Large men managed to load the machines into the van. By the time I got back to the room, Onyx was in the skirt, and Rajita was at her hemline, hand stitching something.

“We gonna make it in time?” I asked.

She nodded. With that, Rajita stood and smiled.  I grabbed Onyx’s hand, and we headed out.