Page 86 of Niccolo

“And what makes you think I’m so intelligent?”

“Well, for one, I’ve been watching you.”

My heart skipped a beat –

Did I do anything suspicious?!

– but I managed to keep a poker face.

“That’s rather stalker-ish of you,” I said.

He grinned. “All in a good cause.”

“Uh-huh. And what evidence led to your conclusion about my intelligence?”

“Your eyes rove constantly. It’s obvious you pick up on small details. Ordinary people don’t inspect their surroundings like you do. You exhibit great curiosity, and you haven’toncepulled out your cellphone – that new opiate of the masses.”

He was making a joke using Karl Marx’s quote about religion as opiate of the masses.

“But not you,” he continued with a suave smile. “Thus my verdict is ‘incredibly intelligent,’ and that’s just from a cursory inspection. I’m eager to find out justhowintelligent.”

“Be careful. You might not be able to handle me.”

“Oooooh – confident, too! I like it! But you still haven’t answered my original question: first date or not?”

“Do men like you normally ask women to weddings on a first date?”

“Do women likeyounormally say yes?” he retorted playfully. “If so, I have a wedding coming up. Or I could definitely find one. Somewhere.”

“That would start some drama, wouldn’t it? Stealing away your cousin’s date?”

“If it meant Aurelio never spoke to me again, so much the better.” He cocked his head to the side. “We seem to be doing a dance here, you and I.”

“A verbal dance, you mean?” I asked drily.

“No, I’m being quite literal. You were over there by the flowers when I first spoke to you.”

I glanced around and realized he was correct.

We had moved several feet away from where he’d first spoken to me…

And I hadn’t even noticed. I’d been too drawn in by the conversation.

“We’ve been moving around,” he said with a smile. “I advance – you retreat. I advance – you retreat. A regularpas de deux.”

French for a ‘step of two’ – a dance done by two people.

“Or a game of chess,” I said coolly.

I wasn’t willing to admit I’d been doing a dance with him; I didn’t want to encourage his little seduction.

“Ah! You play chess?” he asked in excitement.

“You could say that,” I responded drily.

“We should play sometime,” he suggested, then lowered his voice seductively. “How about now? We have a lovely set of pieces in the library.”

“I’ll say it again: be careful – you might not be able to handle me.”

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