I hurry home. I'm a ball of emotions. Thoughts of my mother and Senator Norwood run through my head. I've tried to avoid anything to do with Norwood. He knows who I am. He tried to get custody of me after my mother died, but luckily she had a will that made it so I went with my aunt and uncle.

I sometimes have nightmares of what would have happened to me if I'd lived with him instead. I probably wouldn't be alive.

I need to eat. Food always makes me feel better. I call Sara, wanting to see her. She always knows how to make me feel better.

“Hello?” I hear a groggy voice on the other end of the phone.

“Sara? Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, yeah, just a little hungover. What's up?”

It isn't like Sara to drink with a client, even on a Saturday night. “Well, I got a crazy story to tell about Delgado, but it sounds like you've got a story to tell also. Want some pie?”

I'm not really hungry, but I want the company.

“Yeah, I could use some food.”

Just like the other day, I beat Sara down to the diner. This time, however, she doesn't make a grand entrance. An average looking girl wearing a pair of sweat pants and pajama top opens the door to the diner. Not a single head turns as she makes her way over to me.

“You look awful,” I say with a disarming smile.

“Yeah, well...” she says, trailing off. As she slumps into the chair across from me, she seems kind of out of it.

“Hey, are you okay?” I ask. She looks a little green around the edges and her hair and skin are dull.

“I feel better today, but Friday... I spent yesterday recovering. I had a little too much to drink trying to forget.”

“Why's that?”

She shudders a little, as if she doesn't want to remember the details. “I got a call from a photographer, night before last. Some girl got sick and had to cancel on him, so he was desperate. The amount he offered was more than I usually get for a modeling gig, so I took it.”

“Doesn't sound so bad,” I say. Sara often did modeling work not through her agency. It was an easy way to get some extra money on free nights.

She laughs, but it's a hollow laugh. “Not yet. I thought the extra money was just because it was last minute. It was an escort job. And not the willing kind.”

“Are you okay?” I ask, worried.

“I called Ethan when things got rough. He rescued me.” She wraps her arms around herself. “He was the only person I could think of.”

“What part of town where you in?” I ask, thinking of my family business. We don't condone this kind of thing.

“North. On the edge of Savio territory. That's why I thought I was safe.” Sara sniffles.

North is Russo territory.

This isn't good for our two families. We are trying to make an alliance, but I won't join with people who force women into sex.

“I'll get to the bottom of this,” I tell Sara.

Sara looks at me with big, scared eyes. The Russos let this happen. I've been thinking all this time of just the normal repercussions of marriage. I haven't stop to consider the political ramifications. There are things that need to be discussed.

If this is business as usual, then I don't know if I can marry him.

“Let's get some food in you,” I say. I know I think better on a full stomach.

Sara nods. We both stare at our menus, not really looking at the food options. I need to find out exactly what the Russos are doing before I sign on the dotted line.

My mind is going a million miles per minute. I can't seem to focus for more than a couple of seconds on anything. Too much anger. Too much anxiety. Too much responsibility.

I sit down at the piano and start to play. As I begin to play the song, I think of how great it sounds. Stick with the plan, the voice in my head says, and everything will turn out just fine.

Then I think of how much better it sounded when Dante was sitting there in the piano bar, playing just a few notes that intersected with mine. I think of when we made love, how our bodies seemed to play off of one another to make beautiful music.

It doesn't match with Sara's experience.

For now, I decide to just wait. When I see him again, I can decide what my feelings actually are. I don't have to decide right this second. I can just live in the moment for a little while and see where things take me. I'll see him soon enough. I'm just meeting him tomorrow. It's not like the wedding is planned yet.

When my intercom buzzes, I think about not answering it, but only for a moment. Almost no one knows where I live. It's probably just a lost visitor for someone else. I sigh and press the button.

“Hello?”

“Vesper.”

Dante's voice sends warm shivers down my spine. I'm suddenly giddy at seeing him again. It's at complete odds with what I was just feeling, but I don't care. “Come up.”

I buzz him in, and find myself nervous the entire time that he's on his way up.

He shows up at my door looking like a rebel without a cause. Leather jacket, sexy jeans, and a windblown look to his hair that screams that he just doesn't care.

My breath catches in my lungs for a moment, but I recover quickly. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you. It's stupid, but...” He shrugs.

My whole body warms as I smile.

“Want to go for a ride?” he asks.

I frown, not understanding.

“Motorcycle.”

It's December and there is no way I'm getting on the back of motorcycle without a helmet with the head of a rival crime lord. That has bad idea written all over it.

“I'll make you a deal, Bond. When you get two helmets, I'll ride with you.”

He smiles. “Deal. So, I did intend to bring you to my favorite diner, but...”

“But we would need to travel there by bike,” I finish for him.

He taps his nose with his finger. “I do know of a great New York pizza place.”

I smile. “If you're buying, I'm in.”

The pizzeria is exactly where I expect a teenager to hang out, not a mobster. Still, some of my favorite first dates had been in places just like this. “Is there anything you don't like?” he asks me.

I shake my head. When you have a job like mine, you learn to like a wide variety of foods and activities that you never thought you would.

That seems to make him happy. “One with everything on it,” he says, then grabs a soda from the counter. We head to a booth.

There's not even an ingredient list on the wall, so it's a real mystery to me what we're getting. “What all is 'everything'?” I ask.

Dante smiles and shakes his head. “You'll see.” I can tell he's enjoying my apprehension.

I decide to test him out. I want to know how he's going to react tomorrow when we officially meet. “Do you like surprises, Bond?”

He looks away from me. “Yeah, sure. I mean nothing really surprises me that much.”

“Oh yeah, Mr. Tough Guy. I'm sure you just expected to talk me into sleeping with you the other night.”

He smiles, looks away again, and shrugs. It's the perfect level of cockiness and just manages to turn me on even more. I slap his arm and he leans over and kisses me. A few moments later I laugh as I realize I'm making out in a pizzeria like a teenager again. If nothing else, Bond will keep me young.

We keep kissing until the guy at the counter calls Dante's name. He jumps out of the booth and grabs the pizza, setting it down in front of me. It's a steaming mess of what seems like a thousand different ingredients.

If nothing else, he's definitely a sadist, I think to myself as I look at the melange of difference meats and vegetables on the pie in front of me. So when I grab a slice out and bite into it, I'm not surprised that his eyes look at me like I did the exact opposite of what he expected.

The taste isn't the worst I've ever had. At least it's all-American. However, I probably won't be able to finish the whole slice. Still, I chew it up and swallow. “Surprised, Bond?” I ask with a smile.

He smiles back. “I do like some surprises,” he says. He digs into the pizza, obviously not one to be outdone. We smile back and forth as we eat, just making small talk. I suspect that we both know that neither one of us is telling the whole truth.

As we walk back to my apartment, we go slow. He puts his jacket on me which warms me against the cold December air. I enjoy his arm around me, and he feels strong underneath me. Still, I can tell what he's going to be angling for already, and I'm not entirely sure if I want that or not.

When we get to the door of my apartment, we both step inside the outer door. “So...” he starts.

“So.”

There's a pause, then he smiles and laughs. “Are you going to invite me up?”

I think of Sara and what happened to her on his turf. Anger flares up in my stomach.

I smile at him. “I don't know. After the gross pizza we just ate, I'm not sure I should.”

He makes an exaggerated pout. “I'll make sure to get you a cheese pizza just for you next time.”

I laugh, but don't respond to the pizza comment.

“I get it, I get it. Thursday night was a one time thing.” He says it so nonchalantly that it makes my chest ache.

“That's not it, I just... I just don't know if we should do this again so fast.”

That, and I won't want to stop. If he comes in, I'm likely to say something I shouldn't. I'll say something about what happened to Sara. I'll mess up the partnership my aunt and uncle have worked so hard on. I don't want to screw this marriage plan up because I couldn't keep my temper under control.

I look up at him and nearly give in. Those dark eyes draw me in. There's danger in them, but they're dark and warm. “I don't know if I'll get to see you again.”

Damn. He's really trying hard to break down my defenses. It takes all the effort I can muster to stop mooning over him and turn toward the inner door to my apartment building. For a moment after I turn my back to him and put the key in the lock, I have the terrifying thought that he'll try to force his way in. He does nothing of the sort, of course, and I feel silly for thinking it.

“Good night, Bond.”

“Good nigh, Vesper.”

I close the door to my apartment and immediately regret turning Dante away. As far as he knows, he's going to meet some bimbo tomorrow and he'll never see me again. Or, he'll have to cheat to see me. I appreciate that he thinks he isn't going to cheat. He seems to feel that this marriage thing is pretty final.

“Just one more day,” I whisper to myself. Then I'll be able to think clearly again.