.

Two days after the Worth Reception, after finally agreeing to the Thailand trip that she had put off for three months now, Marcia had called Jacklyn. Inquiring about getting a hold of James. It had been Marcia's full intentions to take James along with her to Thailand. Even knowing she most likely wouldn't do any of the actual work she was supposed to, she had still wanted him to go, and one day before Marcia was ready to leave, Jacklyn had called her back with James' number.

The conversation with James had been awkward at first. What do you say to someone you fell head over hills for, slept with, and left the next morning before they woke. Marcia hadn't even bothered trying to find James after she met back up with Jacklyn to explain why she had left like a cheating husband trying to make it home before his wife does. She had honestly expected James to ignore the call completely. To just say, fuck that bitch. Played me for a fool, but he didn't. James answered on the second ring, and when she told him who it was that had come calling on him, he didn't run for those words Marcia thought he would. It had been awkward; maybe even a challenge to bring herself to actually ask him along, but in the end, James did come to Thailand with her.

The two of them stayed in a five star hotel called Paradise. Very much like Rustborrow, it had been luxuriant and beautiful. The rooms had been twice the size of the ones at Rustborrow, and what Paradise lacked in spas, it made up for in pools. There were four pools on the property, all of which had been occupied by large crowds the entire three days, but none of that really mattered. None of the work Marcia was supposed to do mattered once she and James were in the room. Once they were alone and able to fall into the holds of passion once more, making love and cuddling was the only thing they did. For three days straight. They didn't go to any clothing factories so Marcia could test fabrics. They didn't see any of the sights. They didn't even cut on the television. The only thing they did that wasn't sex was order food through the room service, and because James had been there, it had all been perfect. Even the battle through TSA and the long flight, it was as glamorous as love is in the movies. It had been wonderful, perhaps even more special than their night at the Old Edwards, and their short time on the Holt Farm, and on the flight back, had been the second time Marcia began to believe she loved James.

After the Worth Reception. James hadn't been able to stop thinking of Marcia. Of the time they spent together, and for three whole days, he had done nothing but wait for her to call. Then he remembered she probably had no idea how to contact him, and like two sisters walking into separate stores under the same name at the same time, close friends knowing when the other is near, he had reached for the phone just as Jacklyn had been calling one of her friends to get his number. Soon, after giving Jacklyn the green light to give Marcia his number, he was in Thailand with Marcia. Loving every second of it, and on the flight back, he truly fell for her. He truly began to say he could love her. Could love being with her, and most of all, love having sex with her. For James, Marcia was the true love he was sent to rescue. A true love that fell for him like he fell for her instead of the king she was supposed to marry. All James needed was a talking donkey, and he would have been fit for the starring role in Shrek, and when they had gotten back to New York, when they were home after a long, yet bountiful three days, they were both exhausted. So much so, that James needed at least two days of sleep to make up for the three of sex, and with a kiss, long and sensual as had their first and every other since had been, they parted ways until the next time.

The walk home was long. Without James, Marcia was dragging her feet across the sidewalk. Her back was hunched slightly, and she had bags under her eyes. Not to mention both her legs and hips were as sore as they would be if she had actually worked in Thailand, and once she had made it home, she was lost delving in the moments she had spent with James. The horse, the Worth Reception, Thailand, and of course, the sex. She loved it just as much as James did, and she was in such a daze, she didn't even realize the door to her apartment wasn't locked. She just turned the knob, stepped in, and stood. Then it hit her.

Something was wrong.

Marcia never forgot to lock the door. New York was a dangerous place, and those who left their doors unlocked usually found themselves burglarized. Something that a locked door wouldn't even stop sometimes, and it appeared Marcia had fallen victim to a robbery. Somebody had been here. While she had been away with James, somebody had come in, and had taken something. Marcia scanned the apartment. Noticing how neat and clean it was as always, and rejoiced. Right away, at least in the living room, and kitchen, she saw nothing missing. Everything was where it was supposed to be, but that still left the bedroom, and of course, the medicine cabinet behind the mirror in the bathroom. After all, it was just as easy for it to be a drug-addict who broke in instead of someone in desperate need of cash.

The bedroom was just as the living room. Neat, and nothing missing. She had even checked the safe in the closet, and everything was there. Everything was where it needed to be, and for the first time in Marcia's life, she was beginning to think she did forget to lock the door. That it was merely exhaustion and stress that caused her mind to leave that detail out of the loop. She had almost believed it too. She had been moving to fall back on the bed, to let sleep come swiftly to her, and then she remembered the bathroom. She remembered the drug-addicts out there in the world, and the medicine cabinet behind the mirror. Marcia was out of the room, and to bathroom in two strides. It hadn't been someone in need of money who broke in, she hadn't forgot to lock the door. It was a drug addict, and when Marcia opened the bathroom door, she was likely to see the entire cabinet had been ripped from the wall. Instead, when she opened the door, she was shocked by the unexpected.

The bathroom was a mess. There was toilet paper in the tub, filled to the brim with water, the toilet was stopped up with an entire roll of toilet paper, and even the magazines she kept on the rack by the commode had been taken from their place and scattered across the floor. It was an absolute wreck, and in the middle of it all, written in a red lipstick Beauty Aquamore had produced, a glistening shade of red, were these words:

You, Me

Daisies in the dream

Like wild birds, We'll fly free

High in the sky

Clouds of white

Come my child, And fly with me

Marcia stared at the words. Wondering what they meant, and even though nothing came to mind, she was certain of one thing. This message, whatever it meant, was planted here for her to find. After all, why was it in Marcia's apartment, on her bathroom mirror? Why else did she get the sudden feeling she had been pulled into a twisted game with sharp turns and hair-pin corners? Because this message, this game, was meant for her, and this, was the first move.