Just One Kiss

Just One Kiss Ch 12

Present Day

Tia snapped out of her journey down memory lane by the ringing of her doorbell. Tia picked herself up off the floor where she'd been slumped over her sketchpad for who knew how long to see who was at the door and found only her milk. Carrying the milk inside she went back to her studio. When had she moved from her wheel back to her sketchpad? Why had she been sitting on the floor and not in the chair she kept in there for those purposes? Had she even created anything worth being proud over? What had she created anyway? She bent down and retrieved her pad before going over to her potter's table. To her relief she had cleaned up after herself and her new piece-a wolf had been set to dry.

Sighing Tia sat in her chair now and remembered what had happened after she'd gotten off that first Greyhound bus. The rest of the trip had gone just as smoothly and she'd gotten to airport where her aunt was waiting for her without any mishap. It had taken all of an hour which was the time it took to get through customs and baggage claim to realise the full magnitude of what she had done. She had travelled thousands of miles away from home- while this wasn't new the fact that she wouldn't be returning at the end of some holiday hit her real hard. She had met her aunt with a glum look on her face.

Aunt Tere had taken one look at her face and had known instantly what was wrong but had not known how to fix it. Had it not been for Gabriella Angelini- Princess Gabriella Angelini who not only knew her aunt but was staying next door to her for the holidays Tia would probably still be in the depression she suffered from for the first two weeks of her stay with her aunt. Gabby had seen her at the airport and had decided then and there to cheer her up. She came over every day and bothered, bugged and bullied Tia until she had came out of the funk she was in and she was still there Tia almost became depressed again when Wade phoned her to say that they were back home and that her mother had called missing persons to try and find her. During the month that they looked for her Tia really questioned whether she had done the right thing. After hearing the whole story Gabby assured her she did. In fact Gabby had told her that had it been her she would have left long before. To know that someone else who at the time was almost a stranger believed that she had done the right thing stopped Tia from packing up her things and heading back home.

Tia smiled Gabby had truly been a lifesaver along with Aunt Tere. It was because of Gabby that Tia was the renowned designer she was today. She'd come over moaning that she had to attend the Wisterchére gala and had nothing to wear. She'd been to Paris, London, New York and Milan and nothing had peaked her interest and of course she couldn't wear the same thing twice! She'd sat dejectedly on the bed and began leafing through Tia's sketchpad. Her eyes hit on the Tears collection and suddenly she jumped up and shoved the book under Tia's nose and said that she had to have it for the gala which was luckily two months away. No amount of protest saying that she couldn't possible sew it was heard Gabby just waved it away saying in reply that she drew it so only she would know exactly how to sew it. Gabby then leaped off the bed and dragged Tia along with the book to the sitting room to where Aunt Tere was to get her opinion. Once Aunt Tere had seen them Tia's fate had been sealed she had to sew the outfit. Her Aunt had in fact berated her for keeping this talent from her and had demanded that she reveal the rest of her talents immediately. When Tia told her that she didn't have any more all the others were already known. Her aunt had been satisfied for the time being. It had taken almost a month to find the perfect clothe and two weeks to paint the design onto it. This hadn't left her with much time to sew. She'd ended up burning the candle at both ends to get the dress finished the day before the gala which gave Anton, a guy her aunt knew, who made labels just enough time to put a tag less label at the back of the dress. Deciding what to put on the label hadn't been easy. After the tone her mother and Rahul had used when calling her she hadn't wanted to hear it spoken or see it on anything for awhile but she still wanted something that wasn't so far away from her name besides which she hadn't wanted any one from home to hear her name and come looking for her. After much debate in Anton's shop the three of them decided on Tanya, the Russian nickname for her name. Something that no one except her father had ever called her and that had been when her mother was still married to him. He'd stopped since. So no one should be able to connect her with the name.