Jonathon made introductions around the table, and Maria nodded numbly, wondering why it had never occurred to her that he might be here. Bradford Thornton. Partner at one of the most elite law firms in Miami. After all, this was his world, not hers.

Maria managed to maintain her composure as she assured Jonathon she'd be happy to help him decide the best spot to hang his new painting, then she excused herself. Yes, she should have known he might be at an event like this. But seeing him sitting at Jonathon's table was just too much.

Maria stood at the long marble counter in the ladies room, took several deep breaths, opened her small black clutch, and then freshened her lipstick. It was fine. No big deal. She'd just go back out to the table, find Ritchie, and put it out of her mind.

She stepped out of the restroom and felt a hand take her elbow.

"I need to speak with you."

It was him. Of course, he had followed her, waited for her.

"I have nothing to say to you. I had no idea you would be sitting at Jonathon's table."

"Really?" His grip tightened. "I don't believe in coincidences. What kind of a game are you playing?"

"Nothing. I'm not playing games. Just leave me alone."

"No, you leave me alone. It's bad enough you've ingratiated yourself into this event, and the Arts and Business Council project, by sleeping with Ritchie Perez.

"Oh, yes, I know all about that. How he called one of his friends on the council and set up a deal for his little plaything. No one on the council had ever even heard of you. Of course, I had to go along with it. Did you know I was a member when you convinced your lover to call in his favors for you? Or was that just a coincidence too?"

"What are you talking about? Ritchie didn't have anything to do with me getting that position." But even as she said the words, she realized they weren't true. Ritchie just hadn't told her.

"You're such a liar. And I suppose it's just another coincidence that Perez' partner paid a ridiculous amount for that painting of yours."

His gaze swept over her, and suddenly the dress she'd worn so proudly seemed cheap. She felt cheap.

"It's not that I don't know what Perez sees in you. You look exactly the same."

"Don't even go there."

"No, I'll tell you where you don't go. You leave my wife and my family alone. You'd be smart to avoid the kinds of events you could expect us to attend. I won't have you causing embarrassment to her." She just stared at him, and he added. "Oh, yes she knows all about you. You and that degenerate brother of yours. He's still in prison, isn't he?" He shook his head. "Pathetic.

"I told my wife about the...situation...years ago, and she understands that it was an indiscretion on my part. And something that should have been taken care of at the time."

"Taken care of? That's a horrible thing to say."

"It's a fact. A word of advice. Ritchie Perez has made a name for himself in this community. You get yourself pregnant in the hopes of latching onto a wealthy husband, and he'll toss you aside."

"Not everyone is as cruel as you."

"Or as naïve as you, apparently. Listen, you stay out of my life, and I don't care what little games you play with Perez. But you try to play games with me, and you'll be very sorry."

She felt a movement behind her.

"There you are. I thought you were having trouble finding your way back from the restroom." Ritchie looked from Maria to Thornton. "I wasn't aware you two knew each other."

"We've met before," Maria said. "If you'll excuse me." She had to get out of here. She walked toward the door, trying to pull her thoughts together.

In seconds, Ritchie was beside her, but she shrugged him off.

"Maria, what's the matter?"

"I have to leave."

"Maria, I'm sponsoring this event. It would be awkward for me to just leave before the evening is over."

"Well, I wouldn't want you to do anything awkward." She stepped through the doors and into the lobby. If Ritchie wouldn't leave, fine, she'd get a cab. Right now, Ritchie was the last person she wanted to be with anyway.

Bradford Thornton was right. She didn't belong here. She'd just been fooling herself. She thought she'd made this huge breakthrough in her art, seized this wonderful opportunity, but it wasn't real. All of it was just because of Ritchie. And he hadn't even had the decency to tell her. The clock was about to strike midnight and, like Cinderella's carriage, Maria was going to turn back into a pumpkin.

She ran out through the front doors, desperate for a breath of fresh air.

***

Ritchie caught up with her standing on the sidewalk, looking around for a cab. He grabbed her arm and spun her around.

"Would you tell me what's wrong?"

Her eyes were bright. "What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong. You let me think Vivienne arranged the opportunity with the Arts and Business Council. But it was you."

He sighed. Damn that Thornton. The man had always been an ass, but what motivation he would have had for discussing Ritchie's suggestion to his friend on the Arts and Business Council was beyond him. Some people just couldn't keep their nose out of other people's business.

Thornton was one of those old money snobs that Ritchie abhorred. Guys who made their money by inheriting it, and looked down on people who became successful because of honest hard work. His partner Jonathon came from the same kind of old money background. One of the things Ritchie admired about him most, however, was that he'd taken a different path from generations of Berringtons, moved from the exclusive Northeast enclave where he'd been raised, and made a name for himself in Miami on his own merits.

Ritchie knew Thornton considered him inferior because of his own humble beginnings, and resented the influence Ritchie had developed with groups like the Arts and Business Council. He supposed that's why he'd apparently taken this opportunity to get in a few digs at Maria. He cursed himself for not just telling her in the first place, because it really wasn't a big deal.

"Look, I was just trying to – "

"I know what you were trying to do. Did it ever occur to you to ask me first?"

She was livid, and for the first time, Ritchie felt a twinge of fear. When the idea had occurred to him in Vivienne's studio, he'd just acted on it. And when Vivienne had called her in Bimini, Maria had been so thrilled about the whole deal that there was no need to tell her he'd had a hand in it.

"Look, come back inside. Then as soon as we get home tonight, we'll talk this all out."

"Home? You mean, your home. It's not my home. You talked me into quitting my job. For this opportunity that, it turns out, isn't even real."

"Of course it's real. You're being ridiculous."

"You set it up! Did the developer even come out and look at any of my pieces before he agreed? I'm betting not. Now you think I'm being ridiculous? Because I don't just fall in with your plans? Because it wasn't worth bothering to even ask me before you arranged everything? You've arranged Joey's life, and now you're arranging mine. Maybe you ought to try minding your own business."

"It's not like that," he said, but there was no stopping her.

"And another thing. I don't appreciate you getting your partner to pay a ridiculous amount for the painting I donated – that you convinced me to donate, because I didn't even choose the painting, did I? I'm spending the night at my apartment. Mine. You have a problem with that? Too bad. You don't get to arrange everything, Ritchie. You made a fool of me. It's obvious now that everyone here thinks the only reason I'm getting either of these opportunities is because I'm sleeping with you. Well, I've had enough."

Why couldn't she see that there was nothing wrong with using a few connections? No one was going to think less of her for it – except maybe that ass Thornton. Besides, anyone who looked at her paintings and didn't know instantly that they belonged in a gallery was an idiot. Her sheer talent humbled him.

"Maria, I'm sorry. I should have talked to you first. And listen, about the painting – " But he could tell she wasn't hearing anything he said.

She turned back to the street. "Dammit, how hard is it to get a taxi around here!"

She looked like she was about to cry, and it broke his heart. How could he have gone so wrong when he was just trying to help her? What the hell was Thornton doing sticking his nose into Ritchie's private business?

More importantly, how the hell did that guy even know Maria? The conversation he'd interrupted had obviously been personal. It was clear she'd had some kind of relationship with him. She'd been a virgin the first time she slept with Ritchie, so at least Bradford Thornton wasn't an ex-lover. But the idea of any sort of sordid relationship between Maria and a man Ritchie considered a pompous ass turned his stomach. If he found out that asshole had sexually harassed Maria, Ritchie was going to clean his clock. But the first order of business was to get Maria out of here, give her a chance to calm down.

"Take the limo," he said, and signaled the driver.

"I told you, I'm not going back – "

"The driver will take you wherever you want. But Maria," he said, lifting her chin and forcing her to look him in the eye. "This conversation isn't over."

He opened the door and watched her slip into the back of the limo. This was a far cry from how he had expected this evening to end.

He tapped on the window and she rolled it down.

"You still didn't tell me how you know Thornton."

"Didn't I?" The look on her face was one of pure disgust. "He's my father."

Ritchie stared after the limo as it pulled away. For once in his life, he was utterly speechless.

* * *

It was strange walking back into her apartment. She didn't feel like the same person who had left it just a few short months ago. This is your life, Maria, she told herself. Not mansions on the water and charity galas and beach houses in Bimini. She didn't fit in Ritchie's world, and she'd been a fool to think she ever could.

And she didn't want to live in his world. Not when it was populated by people like the father who had never acknowledged her. People who were going to look at her and see just what he saw. On what should have been the most amazing night of her life, instead, she found out it was all an illusion. She'd thought she was donating her talent to support Ritchie's charity. But it turned out she was the charity case.

She walked into the bedroom that didn't feel like hers any more, and rummaged through the few remaining possessions in her drawers to find something to sleep in. At least she hadn't moved everything into Ritchie's house. She slipped out of the sleek black dress and pushed aside thoughts of how she'd imagined Ritchie would be peeling it off her after Joey was asleep in his room. She pulled on a pair of comfy boxers and an oversize t-shirt and texted Joey that she was staying at their old apartment tonight just to check up on things. There would be time enough tomorrow to figure out what to do. Then she crawled under the covers and shut out the world.

* * *

The next morning Maria woke up to sunlight streaming in the window. Her first thought was that this was the day she was supposed to visit Tito. Her second thought was how was she going to get from her apartment to Ritchie's house to pick up her car?

She went to the small kitchen to start the coffee then noticed something shoved under the door. She unfolded the piece of paper and found her car key inside. The note, in Ritchie's handwriting, said: Call me. We have to talk.

He must have dropped her car off sometime during the night. Sure enough, it was sitting right outside the building, in her old parking space. She didn't know what she was going to say to Ritchie. So as hard as it was going to be to put on a happy face and visit Tito, she was glad that commitment at least gave her a little time before she had to deal with a conversation with Ritchie that was probably going to break her heart.

At least, she no longer felt conflicted about her decision to follow Tito when he was released. She knew now that there just wasn't any future for her and Richie. 

Author's Note:

Do you think it's all over for Maria and Ritchie? Or will their love be strong enough to get through Maria's feelings of self-doubt, her feeling that Ritchie betrayed her by secretly pulling strings to help her art career, and the way Bradford Thornton made her feel?

Will she ever just look at Ritchie as see what's in his heart?

What do you think of Bradford Thornton? Were you surprised to find out who he was? 

Music:  Miley cyrus - When I Look At You