Page 109 of Marcello

“You know. ‘They.’”

“Ohhhh. They,” she replied, nodding somberly.

“Mm-hm,” I murmured as I leaned down to kiss her –

But she side-stepped me and walked several feet away. “Well, Mr. Montague, I came here to dance, not consort with my family’s enemy.”

I laughed. I liked a challenge, and she was certainly proving to be that. “Let’s dance, then.”

She winced. “To be honest, I don’t really know how. I mostly just dance around in my bedroom. Which sounds totally cringe, but it’s true, unfortunately.”

“That’s okay,” I reassured her. “I don’t dance at all.”

She frowned playfully. “Then how are we supposed to dance?”

“I say we just do what feels good.”

She gave me some side-eye like she wasn’t quite sure about me… then decided I was probably alright. “Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, then – let’s do it.”

I took her hand in mine and led her back to the top of the castle.

One thing about the dance floor: not a lot of people were out there. The ones who were dancing were either grinding on each other or looking around like they were searching for somebody better to hit on. Everybody else was standing on the sidelines, drinking and talking.

I didn’t give a damn. That was at least one good thing about my day job: I’d stopped caring what other people thought about me years ago.

But Giulietta seemed concerned as she glanced around us.

“What if we look dumb?” she yelled in my ear over the music.

“Why don’t we not give a fuck what anybody else thinks, and just have fun?”

She grinned up at me. “Okay. Deal.”

And we danced.

At first we were self-conscious…

But after a minute or so, Giulietta started dancing the exact same way she’d walked into the party: like a little kid who was just happy to be alive, hopping up and down to the music.

It was infectious.

I started dancing like a fool with nothing to lose.

Then we started doing stupid moves to make each other laugh.

She did the Robot.

I copied John Travolta’s dance from Pulp Fiction, with two fingers waving in front of my face.

She channeled Uma Thurman and started doing the twist.

I grabbed Giulietta’s waist and one of her hands and started doing an improvised tango – even though I had no idea how the fuck to tango.