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¨No, see…I don’t want to work with someone who’s working for my brothers.¨
¨Of course, Alex got to you.” I hear him sigh on the other end.
¨Listen, Micola. I wasn’t going todoanything for youand your kids until you returned the donation you got from that Matani! This is what I’ve arranged with Mateo.¨
I gasped, not a bit surprised by the fact but definitely surprised by his delivery.
¨Do you even care about art for kids?¨
“I’m an art collector. That is absolutely true, but what is also absolutely true is that I work for your family, the Costas. I don’t work for you. I work for your brother.¨ I can hear his voice trembling, which concludes he doesn’t know the best way to tell me this.
¨So, you don’t care about the kids?¨
¨Listen, I get plenty–¨
¨You saw my brother, Ciro, in London this summer, right?¨
¨Um, I possibly did.¨ His voice lowers on the other end.
¨Right. You did.¨
¨I pretty much told you everything, Micola. There’s nothing else to—¨
¨And you intentionally bought that boulder to screw up Alexander’s plan.¨
¨Well, that was kind of funny. He’s walking through the auction hall with you having no idea I was planning on swiping his desires. All paid by your brothers, by the way. They have the boulder in storage in London. It was never for me.¨
¨I love how honest you are on the phone. Something tells me your balls aren’t big enough to say any of this stuff to me in person.¨
¨You should be happy because you’re not even my type. I had to pretend you were Margot Robbie to press my lips on you. Never fancy Sicilian girls or Italians. That was probably the hardest thing about this assignment, to be quite frank.¨
¨Oh, please. If that was intended to insult me, it didnotwork. Come harder next time you have to drag someone through the dirt with the evil jobs you are given. Good riddance.¨
I hang up the phone. I can’t anymore. This is where I am, literally packing to hit the streets of Acapulco for three weeks before I come crawling back to New York. With the help of Teresa, I took my advice, but I have to be honest, I ´m not even sure if I ´ll be back in three weeks. At this point, I may simply stay for a year. With Alex’s donated funds, I have plenty to maintain my studio from a distance, all while giving Teresa a much-needed raise and taking the time to paint my little heart out. I’ll pick up a random cafe job while there or something to hold me down. The last thing I’ll do is take any of Alexander’s donations into my own pockets.
It’s not even five minutes later when Mateo interrupts my packing with a Facetime call. I really don’t want to accept, but it’s best he hears what I have to say instead of relying on Simon’s half.
¨Yes?¨ I answer, as I see my brother in his infamous sunglasses driving.
¨ You’re a smart cookie, huh?¨
¨Oh, please. Simon had it written all over him for the most part. I was only hoping it was my fear of him being fake rather than it being a reality. But…there you have it.¨
¨See, Micola. Quick question, doyouhave a studio? Don’t you own a studio?¨
¨I bought a studio, but it belongs to the students, not me.¨
¨Oh…is that what it is? Is it in your name or your students’ names?¨
¨Well, I’m about to sign it over to Teresa if you really want to know.¨
That’s actually not the plan, but the way it rolls off my tongue is almost as honest as all the wild-loving things Alexander was saying to me last night. Honest, fitting, in the moment, and for the most part, it makes sense. My god. I can’t reminisce about this right now.
¨If that’s the case, I would like to see proof. Ciro and I will back off. Easy. Done. You can do whatever you want in your life, but if we find out that you are being sourced from Matanis, you will have to pay the price. That’s when we get involved, so we’re not in your panty drawer for the hell of it, but once again, if it involves a Matani, we are there.¨
¨Mateo?¨
¨Yes?¨
