Page 107 of Marcello

“Let me know at the end of the night if it works,” I said suavely.

“I’ll let you know right now,” she said in a friendly but firm voice. “It didn’t.”

And she pushed right past me.

Whoa –

THAT never happened before.

“Wait – hold on!” I said as I grabbed her shoulder.

She immediately whirled around and shook me off. “DON’T TOUCH ME!”

I immediately put my hands up in a Don’t shoot! pose. “I’m sorry, I just – I thought you were beautiful and I wanted to talk to you.”

“If you wanted to talk to me, you should have just said ‘hello’ and not used a lame pick-up line.”

“Was it that lame?” I asked in a Come on, be truthful tone of voice.

She tried to be angry, but a half-smile eventually emerged. “It was so-so.”

“Well, let me start from the beginning again – please.” I cleared my throat. “Hi! I think you’re amazing and I wanted to meet you.”

Her brown eyes narrowed behind the mask. “And why exactly am I amazing?”

“Because you’re actually having a good time.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Look… you’re very beautiful. Your hair, your face, your… the rest of you,” I said, trying to keep it PG. “But there are a lot of beautiful women here tonight. And every single one of them is jaded. They’re here to see and be seen. They act bored – like they’re above it all.

“But the very first time I saw you, you were looking around with this delighted smile on your face, like you couldn’t believe how wonderful this place is. And it IS. I mean – all those ice statues – ” I pointed as I talked. “The phoenix, the dolphins, the angel – they’re amazing. And the fog on the ground – the lasers shooting up through it – ”

“It’s cool, right?!” she cried out, like she was overjoyed to be hearing from someone who shared her enthusiasm.

“It’s very cool,” I agreed. “I’ll be honest – I came in here like everybody else, thinking I was above it all, that it was going to be tacky… but I’ve got to say, it’s actually really breathtaking. And then I saw you, and – ”

I stopped.

Not because of theatrics, but because I was choosing my words carefully.

She leaned forward in the silence. “And what?”

“I don’t want to give you another cheesy line,” I said truthfully.

She laughed. “Then don’t.”

“Okay,” I said, and searched for words that would convey what I’d actually felt the instant I saw her. “You were already beautiful… but you looked like you were happy, and enthusiastic, and in love with life – and alive. And that’s what made you even more beautiful – and way more interesting than anybody else here.”

She stood there staring up at me in silence.

I held my breath, waiting for her to answer.

“…okay,” she finally said with a sly smile. “You just bought yourself a second chance.”

35

We went to a quieter place on a lower level of the castle, away from the crowds and the music, somewhere we could hear each other without shouting. But we still had an amazing view of the harbor and the lights.