Last Friday after the party wasn’t an exception. But this time an unpleasant surprise awaited Tina when she opened the drawer. The miniature portrait wasn’t there, and after frantic but futile search everywhere in her bedroom, Tina fell onto her bed, crying herself to sleep.

~~~~~~~~

The week passed by and still Tina had no idea what happened to her most treasured possession. If asked, ‘What would you save first if your house would catch fire,’ her immediate answer would be, “My miniature of course, do you even have to ask?”

But Tina was never able to answer one very important question that her friends insistently asked at least once a week, “Why does this old, blackened painting mean so much to you?” She didn’t even know whose image was painted with very meticulous details on that small piece of oak. All she knew that from the moment she had laid her eyes on the mysterious woman’s face, it was all she could think about.

At thirteen, it was all about mystery and adventure. The miniature was inspiring Tina’s imagination to make up stories about beautiful princess, pirates and a handsome lone knight saving her from her misfortunes; at twenty-three, it turned into admiration and inexplicable desire to touch and to hold. But since the person from the painting wasn’t available in the flesh, Tina cherished the miniature as if her life depended on having it close to her heart.

So, the week after that fateful party, Tina was still living in agony and the worst of it was the absence of someone to talk about it. Dana was probably gone on one of her tennis tours since she failed to call since last Friday; Alice was away for a month already on some secretive assignment from LA Magazine that she wouldn’t disclose even to Dana.

Dana was still completely shy about being out of closet, but those two recently began dating. They were taking things slow but Tina was pretty sure that Alice was always open about her life and her work. After all, she had a reputation of a ‘Can’t-shut-my-mouth-for-a-second’ Alice.

Tina hasn’t seen Carmen or Shane since the party either, which was a little weird because Shane lived next door to her and Carmen was hanging out there constantly. Tina was surprised that they hadn’t moved in together yet, but knowing Shane she figured that it will take more than a pretty face and a flirtatious behavior for Shane to admit any kind of feelings. She was such a free-spirited soul with an odd fear of hurting someone else and herself if she will be open about her feelings.

There was also Eric…all-knowing, loving, handsome Eric. He called the day after the party, as promised, but he was in a hurry to get to his client. Tina tried to tell him that she was in distress and needed to talk and Eric was going to call after taking care of his business. Now he disappeared too, just leaving her messages once a day, telling her how busy he was with his new case.

And so she was alone with her misery. Tina was sitting on her patio, staring at the sun reflected in the pool, deeply immersed in her agonizing thoughts. She hated to be so obsessed and addicted to a mere piece of wood but she felt as if some kind of unknown but powerful force was keeping her so attached to the miniature. More so, she gave up on resisting that force long time ago.

Tina didn’t know how long she was sitting there until the sound of high heels approaching the patio startled her. Tina looked up and saw Dana walking towards her with a sheepish smile on her face. She noticed the tears and puffy eyes and rushed to her friend’s side, “Tina, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

It was all Tina needed to burst into more tears as she practically jumped into Dana’s embrace, holding on tight to one of her best friends.

“My…mini…atu…re…is…go…oooone,” was all she was able to manage through her sobs.

Tina felt Dana’s body stiffened for a moment and then her friend uttered surprisingly, “Um, Tina, could you lighten up your embrace please, I can’t even breathe…what are you talking about, your miniature is gone? Haven’t you read my note?”

TBC???