CRAVING U (The Rook Café) Read Online Free Page B

once,” she said,
trying to sound funny.
    “All right, then, it’s set.  I’m picking
Dario up at five-thirty, and then we’ll come get you.  Be ready!  Tell Carlotta
about it to, if you want.  There’s room in the car.”  When the ref whistled the
end of halftime, number 10 quickly checked the positions of his teammates, then
added, “Send me a text with your cousin’s full name and birth date on it for
the tickets.”
    Then, with a nod of his head, he was gone,
hurrying back to midfield while Marika stood stock-still, watching him and
wondering about the boy she knew so well but who was able to bring out the most
unexpected emotions in her.
    It seems as though someone other than
Lucrezia had not enjoyed Marika and Matteo’s little tête-à-tête.  Just five
minutes after play had begun, while Matteo was dribbling down field, Marcello
shouldered him hard, leaving him on the ground.  Matteo jumped up quickly and
they began pushing and shouting insults and curses at each other.  The referee
had no choice but to send both of them to the showers.
    The match ended in penalty shots and Bramante won, thereby earning the right to play in the finals.
    Both teams were still in the locker rooms
when Marcello came out of the stadium.  “Hey gorgeous!” he called to Marika,
taking advantage of the fact that she was alone.
    “Hi,” she cheeped.  “Too bad what happened
out there.”
    “Ah it’s nothing, don’t worry about it,
just part of the game,” he purred.  “You got a second?”
    “Now??” His question sounded vaguely
suspicious.  There had never been any great friendship between the two of them,
and this was the first time he had ever asked to speak to her alone.
    “Why not?”  Marcello came closer, a
mischievous look on his face.
    “Sure,” she agreed, skeptical.  “What’s
up?”
    “In private!”  He was flirting with her.  “You
want to go for a ride on my motorcycle?”  He pointed at a naked all-black Honda
CBR 600 RR: a gem of mechanical engineering.
    Marika stalled.  She didn’t actually have
any plans for the evening, but considering the guy, she was nervous about accepting. 
Everyone knew that Marcello never did anything for nothing... and in the spur
of the moment, she wasn’t sure what it was he might want.  “I’d love to, but I
can’t.  I have to go to Carlotta’s to study for math.  We’ve got a test
tomorrow on the entire syllabus from last year!”
    Marika and Carlotta both went to the
Silvio Pellico High School in Lonigo, a fifteen-minute drive from Orgiano. 
They were on the science track and both doing quite well.  Marika, in
particular, was hoping that in a couple of years her hard work would pay off
and she would get into the University of Padua School of Law.  Her favorite
moment in school, in fact, was Mr. Crispi’s law class; a former public defender
in the juvenile court system, Crispi had traded in cross-examinations for a
more tedious but certainly more relaxing job at school.
    Her passion for legal affairs reached
their hedonistic highs in the books of John Grisham, which she devoured.  She
made exception, however, for The Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout
and the hypnotic, world-famous Twilight saga of Stephenie Meyer.
    While she was buying time for her answer
to Marcello, Matteo came out of the locker room and saw them out of the corner
of his eye.  An unexplainable sense of distress rose to his chest, catching him
off guard.  He fought not to give in to it.  He refused to believe that it was
jealousy: he and Marika were just friends!  But then why couldn’t he take his
eyes off them?  Two years had passed since Marika had been bitten by the same
Shakespearean monster.
    Rattled by the unexpected emotion, he
jogged toward the others and tried to shake it off.  “Come on, let’s roll!” he
said to the group, making up an excuse to move out faster.  “The janitor has to
lock up.”  He turned to Carlotta.  “Call your cousin