Nodding, I whispered, “Well, then it’s an absolute must.”
Isabella started to relax into me, and we continued our imaginary list of things to visit when we went to New York. After about thirty minutes I felt our trip here had served its purpose. We put the book back on the shelf, and Isabella trailed her fingers over the spines of some of the other books. Looking at me, she smiled.
“Next time, let’s go to Monaco.”
I laughed.
“I’m pretty sure Charles Leclerc’s address won’t be in there.”
She smiled.
“Of course not, but then when I meet him, I’ll know things about his hometown. It couldn’t hurt.”
We returned to the car. I was smiling at her.
“Fine. Monaco it is, but just so you know, I’d probably have to get into a brawl with him if he tries to steal you from me.”
A small smile came to her face and, after we both settled into the Ferrari, Isabella reached out to me.
“Thank you. That really was painful, but it did help.”
I kissed her hand and started to drive her home as Taylor Swift blasted from my radio. She laughed again and let the breeze wash over her. A few minutes later she started to sing along and I found myself hoping that maybe this actually would work. When we pulled up to her house, I opened the trunk for her book bag but held on to her notebook. Scanning the new list, I questioned her.
“What’s the Italian Festival?”
Her eyes grew bright and she was almost glowing.
“On the first Saturday of November, the whole neighborhood basically throws a huge party on the streets. Everything is shut down. All the local food places set up stands in the roads, and there is music, and they hang all these Christmas lights up. There are like… those carnival games set up so you can win prizes. It’s my favorite day out of the whole year.”
The first week of November was not that far away.
“Do you have to be Italian to go?”
She laughed and shook her head.
“You are my official date for it.”
“Oh?”
Isabella blushed.
“Um… if that’s okay. I think we’d have so much fun. And it doesn’t have to be a real date. Like, depending on our spark level, of course. It can just be…”
“Fake?”
She shook her head.
“No. Let’s just call all our date-like activities somewhere in between right now.”
Laughing, I nodded.
“Well, I will happily be your somewhere in-between date.”
Leaning over, she kissed me on the cheek.
“Thank you for today. For everything. For being my friend.”
“Thank you for being you, Bella.”
