Flowing

"Sorry No."

Harvey immediately shut down his agent as he placed a small bag in front of her and spoke ,"Uh-huh. You are not meeting her. Or anytime soon anyway. And before you get into a huff, I got this present for you since you are always complaining about other agents receiving gifts from their writers while I only gift you with headaches and ulcers. So, see it."

Aira opened her mouth to protest. She wanted to meet that woman but she knew there would be no point in trying to convince him.

However, what soon caught her attention was the package that was sitting in front in her!

"Oh My God! You got me something from Rapid Hookers! You are a dumb** Harvey but I am going to forgive you for everything from the past!"

Harvey raised an eyebrow at that. Well. He had not expected this level of enthusiasm from her over a present.

The key ring had been packaged in a box and Harvey could only shake his head as Aira looked at the box as if he had gifted her a diamond necklace. After a considerable amount of oohing and aahing over the small piece, Harvey could not help but wonder what was so special.

And then his manager let out the most un-Aira like squeal making his wonder if the woman in front of him was an imposter. The reaction to a small keychain was too extreme...

Aira Swan cradled the skeleton shaped head and spoke," You actually got me a gift made by Flowing? And it is even handmade by herself! Did you get a chance to meet Flowing herself? How did you even discover the shop? I have been wanting to go there for so long but they have erratic hours. One can only depend on luck to go there and see if it's open."

"Flowing?"

Harvey watched as she continued to caress the tassels of the keyring reminding him of the way Niana caressed the cat and shook his head. First he needed to figure out his manager's reaction.. Though he had indeed noticed that the teenage girl who Niana employed did not open the shop regularly but he had not known it was like this.

Aira stopped caressing the little gift and her happy expression changed into a frown. "You don't know Flowing? Then how did you get this? You did get the from Rapid Hookers right and not some pawn shop?"

Why would anyone make a pawn of that? Harvey wondered but said nothing and explained, "I got it from a shop with that name, yes. It is near to where I am living these days. Now, mind telling me what has put stars in your eyes? You are making me uncomfortable."

Aira sighed and carefully placed the keyring back in the box and explained, "Flowing is an artist. She debuted in Milan when she was not even a teenager. She is an expert at embroidery of all forms, knitting, crocheting. Name it and she can do it with a needle. Anyway, once she debuted the designers and luxurious brands went crazy for her patented designs and tried to hire her for collaborations. But that did not work out. Flowing's father refused to have his child work with anyone other than himself. He was a weaver himself. Anyway, since no one could hire her, they could imitate her. And soon the market was filled with copies of Flowing's work.

But the copy cats could not do much, because the very next season, Flowing made something so different that they could not keep up even as it became a rage. Every season it was a different design, different pattern and different style. This continued to happen until Flowing's father passed away three years ago in France. Everyone thought that now it would be easier to get her work with them. But instead they could only shake their heads. Because instead of announcing a collaboration, Flowing announced her retirement and opened a boutique here. Even though it has been three years since she retired, all her patented designs are still in fashion. Everyone who loved her designs goes there to buy her things. And everything is unique. She has other artists stuff mixed in there in her shop and usually gives a handwritten note after you have bought the product to help the artist. Many artists that she has displayed there have gone on to become famous for their work as well. The most recent one being the Hollywood designer- Caprica.. But look at this- this gift card that I have here says that the keychain was designed and knitted by Flowing herself! A skull in these colors! Only Flowing could make it look dark and light at the same time!" Aira finished in excitement, failing to notice the complicated expression on the man's face.

Packing up her stuff, Aira snatched the manuscript and gift bag and stood up. "I'll leave you to your work now since you have gotten me such a good present. Goodbye!"

"Hey hey! Stop! Tell me something. Why did this Flowing exit the Fashion industry?"

"Because she wanted to flow. And not stop. The thing is Flowing is mute.. So she cannot speak or at least has speech problems from what we fans know about her. Thus, she used her designs to talk. It is why they are all so unique. It was said that they carried her words. And it seems so true."

"Anyways, she retired because she wanted to do whatever designs that came to her and not be restricted. There are designers who buy odd things from Rapid Hookers and team it up with their latest designs... And now bye! An keep working hard and bring me the next part on time!"

With Aira leaving, Harvey continued to sit there and think. Flowing... rivers. Rapid hookers. Speech problems...The celebrated but retired fashion designer was Niana Rivers?

Wow. She was not mute but is that she did not like to speak? Because she has speech problems? But it hadn't seemed like it when she had been fighting with him over his novel. But that would explain why she rarely spoke.

Taking out his phone, he typed up, "Flowing."

There were pictures of her work but as he scanned through the images, he could only find models and not herself. But just as he would have given up on confirming this, he spotted a young woman in the audience who looked a lot like his witch...

So, Niana Rivers was an eccentric fashion designer who had put away all her fame to run a small boutique shop. And no wonder she had stayed in London. It was not that far from France after all. And she spoke French...

Today turned out to be an unexpected revelation about his witch... once again he felt his fingers itching to write more. But he would need to ask her more questions... but for that he would need to talk to her... something that she seemed to be avoiding even more after the fiasco from that night...Sigh... He really did not want to apologize for something that was not his fault. But that seemed to be the only way he would be able to get her to talk to him again...maybe.

Almost sure that he had found Niana River's hidden identity, he then started to read through the biography of her work as well as whatever snippets were available...She had been dating as well?

His eyebrows rose higher as he looked at the man who she was rumored to be dating.. Noel Jones?

Well well.. Sidney Brennan.. Sidney... this name had also been in the fiction book that had caused the current rift between them. Earlier, he had not noticed that the book had been a gift from a man but now that name seemed to be flashing in front of him.

Suddenly, Harvey had a premonition... "There was a chance that this man was the reason for the way she was now sulking and ignoring him."

He was handsome, Harvey had to grudgingly accept. And it was probably because of this man that she was immune to him as well. And she was angry at him... Maybe he would make this Sidney Jones her boyfriend who had hurt her and made a serial killer. But first he needed for her to open up about it.

Leaning back in his chair, he sighed and thought back to that night.