“However. . .” She gave me a nervous glance. “Can I ask you something?”
I touched my chest. “Me?”
“Yes.” She let out a nervous chuckle. “I thought I recognized you when you first came in, but I shook it away. Yet. . .I had to go check the newspaper and I think I am right.”
I quirked my brows. “The newspaper?”
Sheit to me.
Shock rocked me.
Right on the front page was a huge picture of me soaring in the air in my Vampire Queen costume.
Oh shit!
The title over it read, “Where did the Vampire Queen go?”
“Oh my God.” I took the newspaper from her, and hadn’t meant to be so rude, but. . .I couldn’t believe it. “That’s me.”
“Oh my. I thought so.” She let out another nervous giggle and handed me a pen. “Evelyn will never believe me. Can you sign this for me?”
“The paper?”
“Yes. If that is okay with you and. . .” She glanced at Gianni, “And of course Don Fortunato.”
This amused look hit his eyes as he nodded. “It is fine.”
I carefully took the pen from her hand, my fingers still trembling with the surprise. I found an empty space on the newspaper near my image and signed my name. My thoughts swirled; each one echoed by the sound of my signature scratching against the rough surface of the paper.
Melanique must be so happy to have her ballet on the front page. Tons of people are going to buy tickets now.
I caught a few sentences here and there where the critic proclaimed this would be the ballet of the year, if the director could only find the original vampire queen.
Holy shit!
Once I finished, I handed the paper back to her. “There you go.”
“Yes, yes.” She took a step back. “Thank you! This is the highlight of my day. I was there, last night, right in the front row. I bought the tickets for Vaslav because that man is the very embodiment of everything that is gorgeous, but then you came on the stage, and I started wondering if I could be bi-sexual.”
Then, she shrieked. “Oh my. That was not what I meant. I mean. . .you were just stunning and so talented.”
“Wow.” I damn near swooned. “Thank you.”
“No. Thank you. I went to buy more tickets this morning and found next week is already sold out. I had to settle for the week after next week. You will be there, right?”
“Yes. Of course.”
And that was when I caught the line of Gianni’s jaw twitch, and a frown appear on his face. “It is time, my queen. We should go. We have a long day.”
“Oh yes, Don Fortunato.” She bobbed her head. “So sorry.”
“Charge my account and have the other furs packaged and delivered to the castle.” He gently grabbed my hand and guided us away.
She called back to us, “Thank you so much.”
But in the back of my mind, I kept seeing Gianni’s reaction to my saying I would be dancing next week.
What is going on in his mind? Does he think he will have some say in my career? Because. . .he won’t.
