After Harley and Philip ended their call, and their speedy journey down the interstate abutting LAX finally run into the fabled traffic of LA, Rian turned away from the window. They’d come to a dead stop, even if they were in the middle of the freeway. She saw Harley biting her lower lip, eyes trained forward, but it didn’t seem like the redhead was staring at anything in particular.

Since they were stuck in traffic, Rian thought it would be safe to engage the pensive woman in some conversation. Harley’s anxiety was beginning to make Rian wonder about whether or not she ought to be anxious herself.

“So it looks like you have a good “battle plan” for this meeting, right?”

Harley blew out a breath and flashed a quick smile at Rian, and then faced forward again. She didn’t reply immediately.

“This engagement’s really important to me, Rian,” she said quietly. “It’s the first one I’ve been allowed to handle on my own and take the lead on, even if it is pro bono only. Members of the board of the art institute that asked our firm to handle this have used our firm for their own purposes, business and personal, so the sale of this piece via auction really needs to go smoothly, to ensure future business with key members of that board, bold-faced names here in LA. The fact that this buyer wants to negotiate a sale before the piece is auctioned, as the board had originally planned, has complicated things a bit. So I really need this meeting to go well. I don’t want further complications ….”

Rian waited for Harley to turn to look at her, and casually leaned her head on her hand as she rested her elbow against the spotless window. When the redhead … were those copper highlights in her hair? … finally turned to look at her with an arched eyebrow, she smiled broadly. “Relax, Harley.”

The eyebrows knit quickly into a frown. “Relax? That’s all you have for me?”

“Yeah, relax. R-e-l-a-x.”

The cars up ahead started to move so Harley faced forward again.

“The expert that buyer hired is someone I know well …” Rian continued.

Harley blew out a breath. “But he’s a lot older than you, and they claim is really distinguished. They flew him all the way from Egypt …”