The Con

Zoe Chicarino

She was nervous walking beside him as the warm sunlight was peeking through the tall trees surrounding them. Olivia and Sam were on their first date, they skipped all the generic boring first date questions and were having conversations about things that they’ve never talked about with anyone else. They were hiking through a big forest with trees as tall as skyscrapers for as far as you could see. It was cold but the warm sun was peeking through making patterns across the ground. Everything was perfect. Except for who Olivia really was.

Olivia and Sam had met a few months before in New York at a museum. Sam was a wealthy business owner. He owned a very successful museum in the Upper East Side of New York. The museum featured paintings and artwork from Picasso, Warhol, Van Goh, and more. Most of the artwork in the museum was worth millions of dollars. Olivia was from the South Bronx. She was working in a retail store a few hours a week, more as a cover. Olivia was a con artist. Olivia grew up very poor, barely getting by and doing whatever she had to do to make it. Was it just by chance that her and Sam met? Not exactly. Olivia had been watching Sam ever since she stumbled in the museum looking for her next victim to con. Olivia knew how expensive the paintings were and that if she could steal one, she would be set for life. The museum was having a special opening one night for a local New York artist and Olivia knew Sam would be there, so she went. After a few minutes of looking at the paintings Olivia went up to Sam, complementing the museum, “the artwork is amazing, the owner must be very proud.” Sam smiled and said, “I am the owner, and yes I’m proud.” Olivia pretended to be surprised, following up with  flirting and more questions she already knew the answer to. After over an hour of talking Olivia said she had to leave, when Sam asked her for coffee.

After a few weeks Olivia and Sam had grown close. Getting dinner almost every night, talking about art, Sam had shown Olivia every inch of the museum and how it worked, she had him right where she needed him. Except that Olivia started to have strong feelings for Sam, which was rare. Olivia had conned hundreds of men before, never feeling a thing, but this time was different. Now that Olivia discovered she loves Sam she had a decision to make, whether she wanted to con him and leave, or be honest with him and risk ending up with nothing.

Olivia told Sam she couldn’t see him anymore. Her plan was to stop talking to him and sneak into the museum and rob a $50 million dollar Van Goh painting. She would then move to another state and start a new life without having to con anymore. Sam was devastated. He kept calling her not understanding why she was leaving when they had an amazing connection. Sam was planning to propose to Olivia in a few weeks.

One night about two weeks after Olivia broke things off, she snuck into the museum, and she punched in the code to get in, the one Sam showed her. She took the painting within 2 minutes and left without a trace. Except one. The next morning Sam went to the museum, turned the lights on, and saw the spot where the painting used to be, now empty, except for a note that read

“Thank You Sam,

     Olivia.”