At six o’clock they were still working when Jean-Louis dropped by. Liz was looking tense, still shaken by the calamities of the morning, but it was going well.

“Almost done?” he whispered as he came up behind her, and she turned with a start and then smiled.

“About another hour.” She was frozen to the bone but didn’t care. The weather had been awful, but the shoot had been great.

“What did you do about the jewelry you didn’t get?”

“An angel fell out of the sky, carrying a briefcase, and gave me even better stuff.” She grinned at him, still in awe of her good luck.

“What does that mean?” Jean-Louis looked baffled, and he knew what a genius Liz was at problem solving, but that was too much for even her to pull off.

“Just what I said. One of the jewelers we used happened to be in Paris, and walked by. He was taking a briefcase full of incredible pieces to a big Arab client and gave me five of them for the shoot. It’s the best jewelry I’ve ever seen, better than what we had. And bigger.”

“You’re a magician,” he said, giving her a hug, “and you lead a charmed life.” She definitely felt blessed that day. “I’m meeting a friend at the Ritz for a drink,” he told her. “Come in when you’re finished, and we’ll go home.” He disappeared then into the Ritz, and Lizzie went back to work.

As it turned out, it was another two hours before she was finished, and they had shot all the di Giorgio pieces. She returned them to the armed guard who’d been with her all afternoon and wrote a hasty note to Alessandro di Giorgio, thanking him again. She promised to send him tear sheets of the shoot. And then she met Jean-Louis in the bar. He was happily drinking Kir Royale with an old friend. They had gone to school together, and he looked as disreputable and unkempt as Jean-Louis. They almost looked like twins. Jean-Louis explained that he was an artist and had a studio in Montmartre that once belonged to Toulouse-Lautrec. And she had to admit to herself that for once she looked as disheveled as they did. She couldn’t wait to go home, get warm, and take a long hot bath.

They got back to his place at ten o’clock, and Lizzie had to be up at five again for the second day of the shoot. They were using the Place de la Concorde as their location this time, and the Arc de Triomphe the following day. She had a heavy week. Jean-Louis had the following day off and was planning to spend it with friends.

As Liz sank into the tub and closed her eyes, she thought back over the shots they had done, the jewelry they’d used, the models and their clothes. As she ran the film of the day through her head, she was satisfied with the work. And she was still thinking about it, and already worrying about the next day, as she fell asleep in Jean-Louis’s bed. He glanced over at her and smiled as he turned off the light. He had never known anyone who worked as hard as Liz, and he certainly didn’t want that for himself. Few people did.

Annie’s first days back to work after the holidays weren’t much smoother than Liz’s. It seemed like there was chaos at all her construction sites, her most important contractor had quit, and there were delays on all her projects. After the first of the year, all hell had broken loose. She was so stressed that she didn’t have time to stop for lunch all week. It was Thursday afternoon when she got back to her office at a decent hour. She had some plans she needed to change, and she wanted to get her files in order. And she had dozens of calls to return and e-mails to answer. She asked her assistant for a cup of black coffee and got to work. She decided to open the mail on her desk first. The second letter she opened was from Kate’s school, and she suddenly panicked, thinking she had forgotten to pay her tuition. Her accountant usually handled it, but the check could have gotten lost in the mail. Instead, her heart stopped when she saw what the letter said. It confirmed the fact that Kate had dropped out of school for a semester. And Annie’s week had been so stressful so far that she was furious the minute she read it. What the hell was Kate doing? Annie forgot everything else she had to do as she dialed Katie’s cell phone in a fury.

“I want to see you at the apartment tonight,” she barked into the phone, which was unlike her. She rarely lost her temper with her nieces and nephew. She preferred to explain things and be reasonable. But what Kate had done was not reasonable. Annie was not willing to let her drop out of school, and she hadn’t asked Annie’s permission. But at twenty-one, she didn’t have to.

“What’s wrong?” Katie asked, sounding stunned.

“I’ll discuss it with you when I see you,” Annie said tersely. “Not over the phone. I’ll be home by eight o’clock. Be there.” And with that she hung up, without waiting for Katie to answer. Annie was so mad, she was shaking. She hadn’t raised them for sixteen years, and taught them everything she could, and given them all the opportunities their parents would have wanted, in order for them to become dropouts. Katie was a talented artist, and Annie wanted her to go to school and get the degree she’d started.

Annie finished everything on her desk in record time and took the plans she had to change with her when she went home. She’d been so distracted for the rest of the afternoon that she couldn’t think straight. The lights were on when she got home, and Katie was in her room listening to music. She walked out the minute she heard the front door close and stood looking at her aunt. Annie was obviously livid. She took her coat off, hung it up, and walked into the living room, and Katie followed. Annie sat down and looked at her, with a mixture of disappointment and anger. It was the disappointment that shook Katie, more than the anger.

“What the hell are you thinking?” were Annie’s opening words to her. “I got the notice from your school. You didn’t even ask me. How disrespectful is that? And what are you planning to do now, without a degree? Work at McDonald’s?”

Katie fought to keep her voice calm. She wanted to prove to Annie that she was an adult, not a child. She had a right to make her own decisions. “I got offered a job that I want to do for one semester. I thought maybe I could do it as an art project or an internship, but they wouldn’t let me. So I took a semester off to do it. It’s not such a big deal. I’ll go back to school next term.”

“What kind of job is it?” Annie said, still upset by the way Katie had done it. She had said nothing to her aunt over the holidays about wanting to drop out of school, or do an internship. She could at least have discussed it with her.

“It’s a good job,” Katie said, balking at the question. “I want to do it.”

“What is it?” Annie was fierce as she asked her, as only Annie could be when she was angry, which was infinitely rare. And all she wanted was what was best for Katie.

“I’m going to be doing designs at a tattoo parlor,” Katie said quietly, and Annie stared at her in horror.

“Are you crazy? You’re giving up a term at Pratt, one of the best design schools in the country, to work in a tattoo parlor? Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“I’m not kidding. They do some great art. I know I can do some really creative things there. There are some major emerging artists who have gotten their start in tattoo parlors.”

“If I didn’t love you so much, I’d kill you. Katie, you can’t do this. Is it too late to sign up at school for this term?”

“I don’t know. I won’t do it. I’m going to work at the tattoo parlor. I started on Tuesday, and I love it. I’ve already given up my room at the dorm, as of this weekend.”

“Then I expect you to live at home.” Annie’s tone was icy. She was so angry and upset, she could hardly speak.

“I was planning to do that anyway,” Katie said politely. “I told you, I’ll go back to school next semester. I want to do this for a while. It’s very creative.”

“Will you please tell me what you think is creative about tattooing anchors and eagles on people’s asses? This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” Katie had always been different from the others. She was more independent, more artistic, more of an individual, braver, and was never afraid to try out new ideas. But this one was one of the worst she’d ever had, in Annie’s opinion. She had always been supportive of her niece’s creativity, but this time she had gone too far.

“Did Paul have anything to do with this?” Annie asked suspiciously, and Katie shook her head with tears in her eyes.

“No. He’s mad at me too. He thinks it’s stupid, and undignified, and not right for a woman.”

“He got that right.” Annie couldn’t even imagine saying that her niece was a tattoo artist, or what her parents would have thought of it. It didn’t bear thinking. “I’m very disappointed in you, Katie,” Annie said, calming down a little. “I expect you to finish school. Not for me, but for you. You need the degree to do something important with your art, or even to get a good job.”

“I know I do,” she said reasonably, as tears slid down her cheeks. She hated to disappoint the aunt she loved so much and whose respect was so important to her. “I just wanted to do something different and more creative, and I’ve always loved tattoos.”

“I know,” Annie said, as she leaned over and put an arm around her. “But I just want you to finish school, and a tattoo parlor is such an unsavory place to be. The people are awful.”

“You don’t know that, and I don’t care anyway. I just want to do the art. Someone else can do the tattoos.” She didn’t tell her aunt that they were teaching her to do that too.

“Do Ted and Lizzie know about this?” Annie asked, wondering if it was a conspiracy or just one of Kate’s crazy ideas. But Katie shook her head. “They’re not going to be happy either.” And as Annie said it, Katie stuck out her chin in defiance, just as she had when she was five years old. She had always been the toughest of the kids to manage, never afraid to back up her own ideas or take the consequences for it when she did.