La Serenissima

A Love Story

With Rico out of the way, Gianna was finally done with the guys and let him go after taking a few pictures of his face for reference on ball night. Ally could only imagine the disarray this place would be in just a week's time. She took a seat next to Mercede, taking just a moment before starting to adjust and make little tweaks on the dress. "Is it me or has he gotten even more annoying?"

Ally could only laugh at Gianna. It was Rico, he'd always been annoying.

"Have you met Rico before, Gianna?" Paola asked her. "He's always been that way. It's the youngest child syndrome."

"I guess so," Gianna shrugged her shoulders, a pin coming out of the cushion on her wrist as she judged Ally. "Tell us more about your day with Austin. I need to get lost in a love story after that."

"Love story? It's not a love story," Ally told her, lying straight through her teeth. It was such a love story that she could write the book about it right now and it would have just as many chapters as "The Wizard of Oz."

Ally saw Gianna roll her eyes. "You took him to San Giorgio in Alga, an underground party where you almost kissed him and then just spent a full day with him singing to you and almost kissed again. That's not a love story?"

"Sure sounds like one to me," Vittoria muttered, flipping through a magazine on the sofa. "Sounds like a beautiful beginning of one anyhow."

A love story. While Gianna mastered Mercede's gown, Ally let her thoughts drift away and really soak up what Vittoria said, a love story. When Ally thought of love stories, she thought of folk tales and legends and the real fairy tales where they didn't end up happily ever after; the tales where they made true sacrifices and most times died for true love. The stories she read were full of adventure and people who were trying to keep the lovers apart - which seemed to be the opposite of what the women around her were trying to do. Ally remembered her favorite love story well - Soleste and Moroello.

The legend would always have a soft spot in her heart after visiting the Landi Castle at Bardi in Emilia-Romagna during high school. It was sort of a Romeo and Juliet tale, but with much more truth and sacrifice behind it. Soleste was the daughter of the castle Lord and fell so deeply in love with Moroello, a captain of the knights and he with her. No one approved of their love, except a nurse and soon, Soleste was promised to another Lord by her father's doing. But that didn't stop her from loving Moroello. During a long battle for more land, Soleste waited for the captain and when she saw riders approaching the fortress, she noticed they were not wearing the family's colors. Fearing Moroello had perished, she threw herself off the tower and died. In a sad twist, it was Moroello and his men riding towards the castle and they were wearing the enemy's colors to promote their victory. When he heard about her jumping, he did as well.

When Ally was at the castle, she heard even more stories of Moroello haunting the grounds, looking for his lost love and it got her even more hooked on the emotion. She loved love, ever since her mom told her her first fairy tale when she was two. But her own love life had been far from any fairy tale, which was both a blessing and a curse. She had one boyfriend in high school and two in college and all of them were far from the typical Prince Charming moniker. In fact, all of them were far from it. Her high school relationship lasted about a month before he chose to take the homecoming queen to bed and in college, she had dated her R.A. before he graduated and another guy during her senior year, who was actually kind of sweet, but it was more of a friends with benefits situation than anything else.

Now, with Austin, it was different; she was different. They weren't forcing anything and even thinking about the possibilities with him was making her stomach turn into bats. Not butterflies. Bats. Bats with their wings that could cause major damage. She liked the way he paid attention to what she said and remembered what she said at all. She liked that he had learned Italian and even though he insisted it wasn't for her, she still liked to think that it was. She liked that his smile was lopsided and she absolutely loved that he treated Suzetta Santoli like a queen and paid her so many compliments that made her blush. Him having a voice that could make anyone get off on was just a bonus.