Flirting with Danger Bk 1

“Well, the Turin Chocolate Fair starts today, along with the Wine in the Springtime festival.” he said.
“What do they do?” asked Sue.
“Well they sell all kinds of chocolate of course, but there’s music and entertainment too. And the Wine in the Springtime festival has parades, music, food, and of course wine tasting. Altogether, a pretty amazing weekend.” he said, smiling at us all.
“Awesome! Let’s do that!” said Dale.
“Yeah, right after the fittings.” Louis agreed.
“I can’t wait to taste some Italian chocolate.” I said.
“Yeah, and wine.” said Aubrey.
“And the food is always divine.” Mira added.
“The music’s great too.” agreed Alister.
“And the parades! The parades are fabulous.” Vincent said with enthusiasm.
“Exactly how many of these have you been to?” asked Diane, looking at the siblings.
They all shared a quick glance, and then Ivan said, “We’ve been coming here for a long time.”
After we finished breakfast, we all got ready to leave. “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to walk to the store. The festivals have clogged up the streets so much that we can’t drive.” Amelia said to us as we walked out the front doors.
“Great!” I said happily and Sue and I pulled out our cameras at the same time. I gasped in awe when I stepped out on the street. Amelia was definitely right.
There were people all in the streets and all over the sidewalk, it was even difficult for all of us to stay together as we turned left and started down the street. Connelly took my hand and brought me closer to him as we pushed our way through the throng of people going in various directions. He smiled at me sweetly and I squeezed his hand.
I looked around at all the tables we were passing, some holding trays of chocolate, some glasses and bottles of wine, and some of other trinkets. There was laughter, tons of talking of course, and happy music all around me. We crossed to the other side of town, passing crowds circled around women and men dancing in brightly colored outfits, and finally entered the shop we wanted.
“Is everyone here?” Amelia asked, counting our heads, and then she smiled and nodded. “Okay, the dressing rooms are over here,” she pointed to the right, “and I’m right here if you need anything.” Then she waved her hands for us to go and we dispersed.
“Kota! Oh Kota, come look at this!” Sue called and I was there in an instant. She’d found a great vintage looking swing dress right off the bat. It was red with white polka dots and a white rose on the right side of the wide band that went around her neck. The skirt splayed out and had a wide white belt around the small waist with three crystals lined up vertically on the clip.
“Sue, that’s great.” I said, feeling the dress.
“I’m getting this one.” she said, taking the dress off the hook.
“Don’t you wanna look around more? There could be a better one just around the corner.” I asked, jabbing my thumb behind me to the rest of the store.
“I’ll go try it on first.” she said and I smiled.
“I’ll look around for you.” I said and she nodded, heading over to the dressing rooms. I went from dress to dress, all of them pretty, but just not what I was looking for. Though I found a few more swing dresses for Sue, and put them outside her dressing room.
“Hey Kota,” Louis said a little while later, suddenly behind me looking at tuxes. “How’s it going?”
“Not so good.” I said, sighing a little. “I haven’t found one that I really like. How about you?”
“I’ve tried on a couple tuxes, but none of them fit right.” he said, pulling out a tux, trying on the jacket, and putting it back when he couldn’t even fit his bicep in it.
“I guess we’re both just out of luck.” I said.
“Well I really should have known better.” he said.
“Why?” I asked, looking back at him.
“I should’ve known not to try and get a tux in Italy. All the guys here are tiny, not to mention skinny as a rail.” he said and raised his hand to his chest, indicating how tall the Italian men were.
I laughed at that and said, “How tall are you?”
“Six, two.” he said. “You should’ve seen the pants I tried on. Even at XXL, my thigh barely fit and I couldn’t get my foot through the ends.” I laughed harder and he did too. “And then on the extra large and long, they were almost Capri’s.” I bent down and covered my mouth because I was laughing so hard and loud.
“You should’ve known. Tall to them is five foot ten.” I said through giggles.
“Yeah, I guess so.” he said.
“Well, I’ll keep my eyes open for a huge tux for you.” I said.
“And I’ll keep my eyes open for the perfect dress.” he said.
“Dresses.” I corrected and he looked at me, confused. “I’m doing two dances, the Tango and the Waltz.”
“When did you decide this?” he asked, pulling out another tux.
“Four weeks ago.” I said.
“Oh.” he said and we were silent for a minute, me shuffling dresses and him putting his tux back. “I guess we’ll finally see who you do better with.” he said.
I stiffened and turned to look at him. He was looking at me seriously. “Why do you always have to do this? Bring this up at times like this?”
“Because I can’t help it. And I know something’s going on between you and Connelly, something’s gonna happen.” he said.
“Like what?” I asked and he just looked at me, the answer in his eyes. I got scared for a second, the things he told me at the snow sculpting contest coming back to me, but then calmed down. Connelly had already told me, last night as a matter of fact, that he would never leave me. He’s just messing with you. I told myself. Just trying to get you to go to him.
“You’re wrong.” I said, turning back around.
“You didn’t look so sure there for a second.” he said.
“He would never leave me.” I said, and just saying the word made my stomach clench.
“He might not want to —”
“Stop it.” I cut him off before he said something horrible. “Just stop. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” I said and walked away, my fists clenched. I went down a few rows and then covered my face and sighed, making myself calm down.
“It’s okay Kota.” I told myself. “He’s just messing with you. I know Connelly and I know what he would and wouldn’t do.” I said and put what Louis said out of my mind, focusing on finding the perfect dresses.
Later on, when I was at the front in a far dark corner I heard my name being called and I ran through the maze of clothes racks to see Aubrey holding a beautiful black halter dress with ruffles in the low plunged V-neck. As soon as my eyes fell on it, I felt an instant click.
“What do you think?” she asked with a smile, wiggling the dress slightly.
“It’s beautiful.” I said, immediately touching the soft fabric. I was picturing myself in the dress already, but just in case she wanted it I said, “It’ll look great on you.”
“Oh, but it’s for you silly.” she said, smiling even wider at my now ecstatic expression.
“Really?” I asked.
“Of course. I’ve already gotten my dresses. I got them months ago in Switzerland. Now hold still.” she said and turned the dress around, showing that it was backless and at the waist was a black bow, underneath which started more ruffles, going from the bow to the floor. The ruffles started off black closer to the other fabric, but then faded to white. Aubrey held the dress to me, looking up and down.