La Serenissima

Miami. July.

"Ally," Trish tugged on her arm, smacking her when she was still staring at the store front. "Ally!" 

"Sorry, Trish," she shook her head, snapping out of her wonderment for the moment. Trish raised an eyebrow, wanting to know why she was staring at some random mattress store in the middle of the street. "It's his family's business."

Trish let out a short 'ah'. "That explains why you've been staring at it for the past ten minutes and we missed the last three traffic walks. When's the last time you talked to him?"

"Three days. He called while I was in the shower, I called back and he was recording. We finally made contact at like eleven."

"And you got to sleep at..."Ally bit her lip, a bit embarrassed and happy all at the same time, 

"Um...five?"

"Five a.m.?!" Trish exclaimed as the two stopped in front of the store. "Who are you? What have you done with the Ally Dawson I grew up with? You know, the one who was a stickler for rules and had to have her lunch, dinner and breakfast at the same time every day and the one who was in bed and asleep by ten every day, no matter if it was summer or not?"

Ally laughed at Trish. That Ally was long gone. This Ally, this Ally was very different...well, kind of. She still took her breakfast, lunch and dinner all at the same time but the staying up late and doing random things because she wanted to and needed to, that was born in college. And the Ally that fell in love? That was the new Ally, and the new Ally definitely stayed up late to talk to her long distance boyfriend, who was on the other side of the country finalizing and mastering his new record for his fans.They'd been talking like that for a while.

Since she returned to the States, he was the first one she called and every week, in reality it was every few days, they'd be on the phone with each other or texting throughout the day and when her dad and his new girlfriend had left for a little getaway to Vero Beach, where her family was from, Ally had utilized Skype to it's fullest. There was breakfast, there was dinner, there was a little strip poker in there for a little fun and then there was Austin telling her that he wished he was there and her telling him the same thing. She missed him and she was counting down the days until she could see him again...whenever that may be.

"We should go in there. You can meet his family, see what you're in for."

"Trish, no!" Ally started to pull her best friend along.

"Why not? Hey, doesn't he have a brother? Is he single?"

Ally rolled her eyes and dragged her along, ignoring all the ridiculous things she was saying about going in the store under false pretenses. Even though she couldn't help but think about what his family was like. After hearing everything about them, Ally almost felt like she knew them. She knew that his dad was old school and the definition of tradition. She knew that his mom, although not a natural blonde, went on and on about how she was. She also knew that his brother, Christopher, was a beach person and also a natural salesperson. She smiled, recalling that Austin told her that Chris could sell a toothpick for an insane amount of money.

She wondered, still staring at the store front as Trish rambled on about what the family could be like, that if Austin were here, would he take her to meet them? She remembered what he said in Venice about July and showing her off, but it had been three months. Three months since she last truly saw him, touched him, kissed him. Who knew if he still felt the same way about wanting her to meet everyone now.Ally glanced at the watch on her wrist and grabbed Trish's hand.

"We have to go. The movie is starting in like ten minutes."

"We're so not going to make it anymore," Trish said.