She took Ravi's hand and pulled him to the limousine that was waiting to take them home. They crawled in the backseat and regarded each other, silent, in the dark.

"Did I just tell the world I'm in love with you?"

"That's what I heard. How's it feel?"

"Outstanding."

"Freeing?"

"Freeing!"

She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.

"Let's go somewhere."

"Anywhere in particular?"

"I have somewhere in mind."

Sensing that he was choosing to be mysterious, she settled in to enjoy the ride, lulled by the nonsense Ravi was tracing on her thigh.

Before long the limo was rolling to a smooth stop.

"We're here."

Ravi opened the door and offered his hand to help her out of the backseat.

It was their place. Where the city met the ocean and lost men found themselves. Where lost people find each other.

"What made you want to come here?"

"This is the place where my life started to change for the better. There was plenty of bad before you. Now there's a lot of good. Coming back here seemed right."

Sora turned her head and blinked in confusion.

"The car's here."

"I had the driver bring it by while we were at dinner."

"You had plans for me."

"When you want to get away, you don't want witnesses. I don't want any; I want you."

He picked her up and spun her in a circle before setting her back on her feet.

"Same here."

Ravi skimmed the planes of her face with his fingertips.

"Dance with me. We got interrupted last time; we gotta make up for that."

Sora looked around at their place. It wasn't much of a dance floor. "Here?"

"Anywhere."

Sora felt silly, all dressed up with no one to impress. "There's no music."

Ravi ducked back into the car to fiddle with his sound system.

Strains of a crooning balladeer filled the cool night air.

Ravi offered Sora his hand and she could only accept.

"I think you're stunning no matter what you're wearing and no matter where we are."

"I don't know what to believe. You want me, not my sister. Hana is really alone and I'm not supposed to care about that, but I do."

"Because it isn't fair?"

"Because this," she gestured between them, "doesn't happen to me."

Ravi nudged her chin up so she'd meet his eyes. "It does now."

"You've been in front of me my whole life. How did I not see you? You're the most beautiful and amazing woman I've ever met. How could I not fall in love with you?"

"This is the first time you've seen me. It feels so good to be seen."

He thumbed tears from under her eyes.

"I feel exactly the same way. I never saw you coming."

They danced around their place in lazy circles until the keep got too windy to bear and they climbed in the car to watch the ocean rage. They talked about the future for hours, and the only one they could see together was bright.

...

...

Sora was on cloud nine for the rest of the month and she didn't care who knew. None had the power to bring her down from this great height, because love when it was good was magnificent. Love doesn't come more magnificent than this.

Sora was weighing the benefits of spending the afternoon in the park reading Donne poems versus staying to read another mind numbing feature proposal. The 'what would $Anthony do' game wasn't much use as a decision maker in this instance.

"I've been trying to get in touch with you for a couple of weeks, but you're almost impossible to catch."

Cristina followed Yelena in, as visibly frustrated as Sora had ever seen her. She's no match for the Gallegos persistence. No mere mortal is.

"It's all right, Cristina. I'll take it from here. Hello, Yelena. Thank you for calling ahead. Knocking. Asking me if I'm busy. Please, have a seat."

The look her niece gave her was pure Hana. Sora settled in for what was sure to be a scintillating screed.

"For your information, I haven't been ignoring you, I've been finalizing the details on the Himura-Misra poetry competition. Since Misra is sponsoring, I've been in nonstop meetings with Legal and Accounting, but everything is working out swimmingly. We're right on target for autumn."

Yelena put her hands in her lap. She was obviously working to rein in her emotions.

"We have to talk about the gala."

"We don't have to do anything."

"That was a fiasco. You have to see that."

"I see an incredible night that I spent with an incredible man. I'm sorry if the night didn't turn out as well for you." Narsi and Hana's contributions notwithstanding, Sora would live that evening over again given the chance.

"You swore to me there was nothing between you and Ravi."

"I was wrong, clearly. I acknowledge that. Can we talk about this some other time? Or, better yet, never talk about it? Hana's a big girl, she can argue with me on her own behalf."

"She's devastated."

"I'm sorry." Sora reconsidered. "You know what, that's a lie. I didn't mean to fall in love with him. That doesn't mean I'm sorry I did."

"What am I supposed to say to that? Aunt Sora, what are you doing?"

"I don't know. Nothing? This is the way things are for right now. Ravi and I are a couple and we're happy."

"I heard, well, saw. The video's up on TMZ. Nyna's been fielding calls for days; they're even trickling over to our offices. I don't know what Sam must be dealing with."

"He hasn't said anything."

"He's covering for you."

"Tell him I can handle it." Sora would tell him as much herself later on.

"How sure are you? This can't be a fling. Too much is riding on what you both do to risk a negative turn in public opinion on lust. I mean, is that what this is or is this the real deal?"

"I'll get back to you as soon as I have that figured out myself."

Yelena gaped.

"I love him, Yelena. He loves me. He's been proving it in a hundred microscopic ways for months and I've been too blinded by what Hana and Anthony did to me to let myself love him back. Once I'd finally given myself permission to feel the way I do, I realized I had been loving him as much as he loved me." Seeing her niece's unwavering skepticism, Sora worked that much harder to put words to this...thing. There aren't always words. "We called it something else, but it's been a love story for a long time."

"Does this so-called love story mean more to you than my mother, your sister's feelings?"

"It has to. If I don't make my own happiness, I won't have any. This is my happiness and it's worth just about anything. You told me to follow my heart."

"This isn't where I wanted it to lead you."

"That was never going to be up to you. Our hearts want what they want. All we can choose, at the end of the day, is how we act on that desire. We can ignore it and go through life that much less fulfilled or we can take the happiness offered to us. I chose to be happy just like you did and just like Hana did. I won't allow anyone, not you, and not your mother, to call that a mistake."

"She isn't going to let this go."

"Giving up isn't the Gallegos way. We get mad, we get even, and we take what we believe we deserve. I expect a fight. I'm not scared anymore, and I have no plans to lose."

...

...

Reading later-breaking articles on that night cemented Sora's resolve:

"The publisher has brought wit to the artist, and the artist has brought soul to the publisher.

It cannot be denied that they were the talk of the evening, business and fashion's newest IT couple, Sora Gallegos Himura, CEO of Himura Media Group, and Ravi Misra, head designer and former CEO of House of Misra. They charmed the viewing public from their first 'green carpet' interview in coordinated Misra Couture originals to their adoring first dance at the Yelena's Truth belated summer 2014 event. But for awkward family ties and chilly family affairs, this couple can do no wrong.

According to several sources close to Misra and Himura, the dynamic duo are set to announce a slew of joint projects which will elevate both industry giants in the public sphere and in their bottom lines. Whether they have what it takes to last, with their joint ventures soaring, there is little doubt that this new Himura-Misra partnership has the potential to make as big an impression on the rest of the corporate world, and the public, as they've obviously made on each other."