Artful Dream

Chapter 6

It was five o'clock by the time Steve, Janet, Richard and Maggie left her apartment. The journey to Richard's place was slow wading through the rush-hour traffic. Maggie however, was in no hurry. It had been quite an eventful day and was happy just sitting in the back of Steve's car watching the world go by.

She suddenly remembered the parcel that Richard organised to be collected. Taking out her cell, noticed there were six emails waiting for her.

One was from the courier to say the parcel would be with US Customs tomorrow morning. Maggie replied back, coping the client and Mr Logan the Antiquities Officer at LaGuardia Airport, with the Certificate of Authenticity to prove the books value.

The second and third were from customers enquiring why was the shop closed today? Maggie emailed back saying 'Due to unforeseen family issues the shop had to close early but would be open tomorrow as normal.' After she sent the message she quickly put an 'Out of Office' on her email auto-reply.

The fourth one was her insurance brokers informing her she just had an accident. The fifth was a snotty email from her landlord regarding the flood and the last one was from a Signor Rossi organiser of the Florence Book Fair, asking her to call him when it was convenient. Maggie marked that one as unread and threw the cell back into her bag.

Richard too was answering his emails. There was one in particular that got his attention. Eike Schmidt the curator of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence would like to speak to him at his earliest convenience. He too marked that email unread and put the cell back in his jacket pocket.

An hour and a half after leaving Maggie's apartment. Steve's very full Honda Civic pulled up outside Richards two-bed apartment. All four of them quickly unloaded the car. But because Steve didn't have a permit to park on the street, he and Janet had to leave Richard and Maggie to carry the cases up to the apartment by themselves.

"We're sorry to abandoned you like this. But Steve dare not risk getting a parking ticket." Janet said apologetically.

"It's OK" Maggie lied. Then she kissed Janet on the cheek, who then made the sign of the phone and mouthed 'call me', before she and Steve were back in their car and gone.

Unfortunately for Maggie, Richard lived on the second floor and so took their time bumping the cases up the stairs.

"Please tell me you travel light when you go on holiday." puffed Richard.

"I do," said Maggie fighting for breath. "I go naked!"

With that thought, Richard stumbled over the case he was dragging. Maggie looked up at him, exhausted and smiled.

After much pushing and shoving, the cases were eventually in Richards apartment. Closing the door, they both collapsed onto the sofa.

"We are so out of condition," stated Richard.

Maggie said nothing she just lay with her head back against the sofa cushions waiting for her breath to come back.

Richard was the first to move, going through into the kitchen to fetch them both a glass of water. When he came back, Maggie was sending a text.

"Just replying back to Janet, she said sorry again for abandoning us and hoped we managed."

After Maggie pressed the send button she thanked Richard for the glass of water and sat drinking taking in the room around her. "This is bigger than my whole apartment!"