Facade

still threw tantrums left and right. Only this time, they seemed to hit home with the interior designer and the builders. This was mostly thanks to the fact that Tanna and Jonas were there to pick up the pieces and calm the people down enough that work could get done.

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    Tanna had a flirty, yet professional way about her that seemed to charm Andrea to no end—and he needed charming, because Nicky didn’t seem satisfied with anything.
    “Now, Mister Moretti,” she told him in her velvet voice. “You know Nicky is an artist, just like you. And just like you, he’s temperamental. He wants things to be just right. I’m sure you want things to be just right as well, since you will share the spotlight when this store opens next week. You have a reputation to uphold, just like Nicky.”
    Tanna moved closer to Andrea and Jonas had to stifle a shiver when she touched the collar on the designer’s shirt, a gesture Jonas found intensely intimate.
    “You look stern, Mr. Moretti, but I know that underneath that shield you put up, you’re just a big teddy bear.” Jonas cocked his head, trying to stay focused on the magazine he was reading instead of on the spectacle Tanna was making of herself. She seemed to be getting somewhere though, since Andrea Moretti colored a nice shade of crimson.
    “Mizz Taylor,” Andrea crooned with a heavy Italian accent.
    “How could I resist such a fine woman like you? I understand what you are trying to say, you suffer from Nicky too, but he is a famous designer—”
    “As are you, Mr. Moretti,” Tanna intervened, using her most seductive voice.
    “Yes, I am,” Andrea agreed.
    “So please give Nicky that curved wall, like you agreed beforehand.”
    “I will do my best,” the designer conceded.
    Tanna smiled at him warmly and then turned around.
    Jonas had to keep a straight face when she rolled her eyes at him. She waited for him to get up so she could hook her arm in his.
    “Please get me out of here!” she hissed. “Where’s Nicky? I want to have dinner somewhere nice.” Tanna lowered her voice so Façade
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    only Jonas could hear her. “That man gives me the creeps. Even talking to him is enough to put me in the mood for a nice, long, hot shower.”
    Jonas chuckled as he walked her out to the car. He knew he’d have to go inside again to fetch Nicky, but he also knew that Tanna wanted to put as much space between her and Andrea now, so he didn’t mind. Being the quiet man in the background did have its perks sometimes.

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    JONAS had never counted the days until a certain event. He’d always lived in the moment and felt that looking forward too much meant he’d age that much faster, so he simply didn’t. His resolve was tested in the days leading up to the store opening, though.
    During that last week the inevitable fires arose—from a wall that was curved differently than had been interpreted by the carpenters who’d made the shelf it was going to adorn, to a couch that was too large for the alcove it was supposed to stand in—but Andrea and Tanna settled every matter. Jonas was in awe of the way Tanna could make snap decisions and how she put Nicky in his place every time he lost it. That was usually Jonas’s cue to intervene and pull Nicky into a quiet place to feed him some tea or just to talk to him. Nicky was nothing if not high maintenance, but Jonas didn’t mind being the maintenance man.
    Although they were very much a couple again, anywhere outside of their bedroom Nicky was simply intolerable. Even Tanna would run away from him from time to time, and she was usually the epitome of patience and grace; but like she’d predicted, Nicky’s frayed nerves were making their impact on everyone and everything.
    Three days before the gala opening, after all the plastering and painting was over, they’d taken the temporary protective wood covering off the floor only to discover that the glossy black resin surface that had been laid in there before most of the work had started was scratched in more than a few places. The firm that had Façade
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    laid the floor was called in, since it was their work schedule that had made it necessary to put the floor down before all the construction was finished. They were told there was no other option than to lay the floor again, which, given the time it needed to dry, would take three days, leaving no time to decorate the store, let alone put up all the shelves and hang out the