To Become A Con Artist

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Though I knew I most likely wouldn't be accepted and knew there was no way I could afford it, I still chose to apply to Vassar simply for a sense of closure.

I had no business leaving the Bowery anyway. I was now the poor Bowery girl who was swindling her way through relationships with marks all over New York. It was becoming a second life to me and I was getting so good at it.

"I just love those crabapple trees." Anne said with her eyes cast upward.
"Don't you Claire?"

We'd decided to buy cloche hats at a Dobbs hat shop and we were now taking a longer route to Gramercy Park so that Anne could admire the trees that were in bloom.

"I don't know." I'd never stopped to admire crabapple trees since we didn't have them by the tenement.

"Geez, what did you ever do before us?" She asked, partially joking as we continued down the street.

"Great question." I chuckled, truly considering a response. They'd all given me so much in a couple of months which was more than I'd had in the past eighteen years of my life.

"There are quite a few times when I question all of this, but I'm sure I overthink it often." I confessed, looking at Anne who smiled at me.

She threw an arm over my shoulder and I caught a glimpse of the delicate amber colored earrings in her ears. Were those? No, they couldn't be. Had Miles given Anne-?

"Um, those are beautiful earrings."

"Oh, thank you!" Anne grinned wide.

"Where did you get them?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

Anne looked downward and gave a nervous laugh.
"I-uh-well I don't remember." She stammered, but was able to easily change the topic when we noticed Leo and Tony up ahead leaving the car to enter the house with a wooden crate in each of their arms.

"Ah, look the boys are here! Come along Claire." She tugged me so that we could catch up.

"Top of the evening ladies." Tony greeted with a nod and a grin.

"What's in the crates?"

"Diamonds and pearls that you two can split amongst yourselves." Tony joked, giving Leo a nudge.

I opened the front door for them so that they could enter and place the seemingly heavy crates down.

"You men are so secretive." Anne insisted, taking her silk gloves off and pushing aside Tony to see the crate.

"Or perhaps, not everything is meant for you to see." Leo proposed, pouring a glass of moonshine for himself. Anne scoffed with a roll of her blue eyes.

"Oh, Mr. Bendino, you clearly don't know me very well." She said then sauntered out of the kitchen with a daintiness that made Tony and Leo smirk. She sure was a handful.

"I'll go get the rest out of the car." Tony said and walked out, leaving me with the mystery man himself.

I slowly glided over to him, turning on my best con woman persona.
"Leo, darling, I'm sure you know that you can trust me." I pouted. Leo had the glass at his lips but he looked at me with eyes of confusion and an eyebrow cocked.

"Claire, what are-"

"Darling, you can't bring these in and not inform me of what is inside. What if I accidentally knock them over? Or give them away? We wouldn't want that now would we?" I looked up at him through thick lashes and with the same flirtatious eyes that Anne had taught me during my first week in the unit.