<div class="floatright">(https://editorial01.shutterstock.com/wm-preview-450/10314876b/2a56531c/marlon-teixeira-out-and-about-milan-fashion-week-mens-italy-shutterstock-editorial-10314876b.jpg)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Things were going, if not entirely smoothly then, like a ride down some fresh water rapid. A few extra turns with the odd spill or two, not unlike the night I tempted Dani into my life. <br/><br/>And I know subtlety dies a million gruesome deaths with my every breath. But I've worked for that luxury. I knew every pressure point in the city, from the cop that's been stretched too thin to the dealer who's always cutting corners. I monetised that skill - the Fontanas taught me that and they did such a good job that even they couldn't stop me when I decided to walk away from the mob. They had it good but it wasn't for me; didn't much care for all the guns aimed at my pretty face. <br/><br/>Becoming my own man remains to this day my biggest accomplishment, especially after growing up hearing that nobody ever gets out. It tickled me even more because not only did I extricate myself I still keep tabs on them and have like a million favours left to cash in. I've blown through a few over the past few weeks putting a neat little bow on a surprise for Dani but it was so totally worth it. The woman's a walking, talking wet dream and I'm not just saying that because she's helping me hook up with a hot mechanic. <br/><br/>"Wow, you're really good." I follow the pictures and each of them bear out a single unmistakable truth. Lizzy - however surly and no-nonsense she was in person - had a knack for being in front of the camera. It was like she became a different person. No, that's not quite right. She gifted physical form to something that had existed only in the imagination. And immediately those gears in my head started whirring away. <br/><br/>Lizzy clearly didn't know how rare she was, or how nearly every artist in the city would trip over themselves to win her approval. My new studio could use a talent like that. "They look so effortless, so classy..." I'm almost musing to myself now, walking the length of the wall half lost in my own world. "A little diamond in the rough."</div>