An Aria in Venice: A Musical Interlude Novel Read Online Free

your sides until you hurt and cry and snot all over the place
kind of giggling, too. Our temporary relapse doesn’t last long, though.
    My
whistling cell phone slices through our moment, and I think my heart just
dropped into my banged up, ballerina feet. I’m pretty sure it’s Mother calling
to chew me out. She and Ines Barilla are tight and have been friends for years.
Somehow, Ines’s ties to several notable politicians were of some assistance to
Mother the night she planned our escape. I never asked how or why, mainly
because I didn’t care. I was angry and numb from going through something
neither Mother nor Alek, or even Nikolai, bothered to tell me. As usual, my
family was too busy protecting me to see how much leaving my father behind, the
tyrant I knew him to be, had affected everything I held true. I knew it
wouldn’t take long for her to hear of my bad girl behavior.
    However,
the text isn’t from Mother; it’s from Nikolai. This is what he does, sends
messages when he’s too angry to speak his mind. Unlike Alek and me, who
practically grew up living in both Russia and America, Nikolai doesn’t express
himself in English as well as he writes it. And from what I’ve seen of his
temper when one of his dancers arrives late to practice, the text-my-thoughts
option is probably for the best.
     
    N:
What is with you?
    Me:
You’re the one who stormed out.
    N:
You threw me out.
    Me:
Er, you humiliated me.
    N:
I did not.
    Me:
Did too.
    N:
YOU ARE INFURIATING!!!!!
    Me:
Then stop acting like you don’t want me.
     
    There.
I said it. Well, I kind of did, anyway. A long moment passes as I stare at the
screen; my eyes focused on the little pink box, which identifies the voice of
the person I’m texting and stalking with the eagerness of a hawk that’s waiting
for the chubby little field mouse to come out of the tree. No pink bubbles, no
snarky comeback. Nothing. I cannot believe I just said that to my brother’s
best friend.
    Fingers
snap beside my head, jerking my attention back to the room. Lis waves a hand
before my face and says, “I’ll get the car while you two thorny birds are cyber
arguing.”
    “Thorny
birds?” I ask, smirking.
    “Yep,”
Lis answers, smiling as she stuffs her leotard and tutu into her giant black
bag and heads toward the door.
    “I
get the thorny part, but what could possibly be birdlike about all of this?”
    “Because
that’s what you two remind me of, the couple in that book the Thorn Birds .
It’s about a priest who wants to screw the hell outta the girl he’s watched
over all his life, but he’s too damn stubborn to admit it. Great book. A bit
dated and stuffy with the romance, but still pretty damn good. You can borrow
it.”
    “Lis,
did I just hear you confess to reading a romance novel?” A smile slowly forms
on my lips.
    “Nah.
I think you heard me say I’m going to get the car now.”
    “Looks
like Byron is getting to you.” That would be her hunky, Shemar Moore look-alike
boyfriend she met at a Christmas party we attended last year.
    “Yeah,
you would know, Miss Strip Me Bare.”
    Picking
up my tutu, I toss it at her. “Low blow, friend of mine. Payback time.”
    Lis
picks up my mutilated outfits, stuffs them in my giant bag and gives me one
last grin as she heads out the door, creating a chance for me to check my phone
one final time before we leave. Still, no new pink message bubbles.
    Guess
I must’ve pushed my bird’s thorn in too deep, because I’ve obviously crippled
him with my words.
     

     
    Lis
drops me off at Maggiano’s, my brother and mother’s favorite restaurant.
Walking into the eatery frequented by celebrities on a regular basis always
makes me feel as though I’ve entered one of those Roman baths like the Caesars
always used. Marble columns are in every corner and separate the various
sections in the restaurant. The walls are a light bluish-green color that have
white wainscoting running along the bottom, and the marble boards are