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

covered
in painted on vines and cherries that look real enough to pluck right out of
the design. An arched doorway leads to the V.I.P. section, the place Mother
always reserves whenever we eat here. Boxes of flowers line the edges of the
walls that separate each table. Real flowers. Tons of them. A peppery fragrance
fills the air in here, making me want to sneeze. The Italians don’t believe in
skimping on anything, and my mother couldn’t have picked a place that’s more
representative of her personality than a restaurant where each plate costs more
than my Gucci bag.
    As
soon as I walk under the arched entry, I see him ... Nikolai, and he’s texting
someone on his golden Blackberry my mother had custom made for him. A stab of
jealousy hits me, but I refuse to let him see how much his ignoring my last
text bothers me.
    You
can do this thing, Adriana. You will not let him see how much he affects you.
You will not turn into one of those women.
    Yeah,
sure. I slide through the restaurant, walking around a hundred or so round
tables covered in silky red cloth and make my way over to where Mother, Alek,
and Nikolai sit in back.
    Both
my brother and Nikolai stand and greet me as I approach the table. I slide into
survival mode, the part of me that knows how to be positive even when I’m
screaming on the inside. “I think I got the lead role in Seraphine,” I lie,
sitting down and ignoring Nikolai’s cutesy remark about my outfit—stretch
leggings, an oversized tunic, and a fancy brown jacket to make it all look
acceptable, but hardly classy—the clothing I wore just to prove a point to
Mother, as though she’ll even notice. I play along, smiling wide and doing my
bubbly thing, even though I’m fuming inside.
    “That’s
fantastic, darling,” Mother says to me as she downs another glass of peach
schnapps and turns her attention back to Alek.
    “I
was kind of thinking you’d show up for this one,” I say, ignoring the way
Nikolai is staring at my profile.
    “You
got the role. There was no need for me to be there to make you nervous. You’ve
always done much better on your own.” So she hasn’t heard about my moment of
insanity. Right now, I’m barely an afterthought. She and Alek are passing
annoyed glances at one another. Seems all they ever do lately is argue. This
time the subject of my dysfunctional family’s conversation is my brother’s
girlfriend. That would be his ex-girlfriend, Nadya, a fashion victim and money
piranha whom I couldn’t stand the moment I first laid eyes on her. I agree with
my brother’s decision, and I wish Nikolai would quit staring at me that way
when he thinks Mother and Alek aren’t paying us any mind.
    At
once Alek perks up, his gaze focused on a group of people all decked out in
black who are walking through the main area. At first, I think someone must’ve
died and that he’s about to head over to their table and offer his condolences.
Nope. These must be the designers Mother hired, the group that’ll be working to
create an entire line of ballerina costumes based on all things Gothic. That
sounds so freaking awesome! I must meet them. I have to. In a past life, I’m
pretty sure I was either a designer or a journalist.
    “Excuse
me,” Alek says to no one in particular at the table, his gaze locked on the
really pretty female with the dark hair and expressive eyes walking among them.
I’m assuming she must be the new designer, Erin Angelo. He stands and heads
over in their direction. The temptation is too much. Why does my brother get to
have all the fun? So, I stand and trail behind him. Turning around at the
halfway point, my brother harasses me for a minute just before we reach their
group, but even his alpha-brother type ‘A’ personality can’t keep me away from
that table. And specifically, he can’t stop the gorgeous site filling my
eyeballs, caressing them with sweetness as I drink in the man candy sitting at
the head of the only rectangular shaped table