“Just like you thought we had to walk a mile in the opposite direction to get to the gelato shop?”
My eyes went wide. “Would you look at that? Isabella Atkins is teasing me. Hold the presses, ladies and gents. Her Royal Seriousness is capable of joking around.”
“Her Royal Seriousness?” she squealed, reaching up to smack my shoulder. “I’m not that bad.”
“And it wasn’t a mile.” I shrugged. “I thought we were exaggerating, but you kind of are that bad. This is the first time I’ve seen you looking like you’re having fun.”
“You saw me drunk just the other day. Didn’t it look like I was having fun then?”
“Nope,” I fibbed. “It looked like you were trying to prove a point.”
She sighed. “So I was, but it was a point I had a little too much fun proving.”
“You were talking about work all the way through, hence the drunkenness. How is that having fun?”
“It is if you’re me.” Plucking the map out of my hand, she studied it and smirked as she brought her gaze back to mine. “We would’ve gone in the wrong direction again. It’s that way.”
“Know-it-all.”
“Directionally challenged,” she joked right back. “I’m hanging onto the map from now on. Let’s go see this balcony. If it inspired one of the greatest love stories of all time, maybe it will inspire you to read said story from a different perspective. A more romantic one.”
“You want romance? I could romance the hell out of you.”
She blushed a deeper shade of red this time. “Stop joking around, Casanova. We’re still on the clock.”
“Since we’re in Verona, shouldn’t you be calling me Romeo instead of Casanova?”
“Nope.” She jerked her head in the direction she’d pointed before, then took off at a brisk pace. I caught up to her in no time, realizing that she’d been right about me steering us wrong again if she hadn’t taken over.
This place’s layout is confusing as balls.
Isabella seemed to have a better grip on it, though. Leading us right to the most famous spot in town like she’d been there before. Okay, so there were a lot of signs and other indicators showing that we were heading the right way, but we wouldn’t have been if I’d stuck to my guns over being the one with the map.
When we arrived at the balcony, the area around it was jampacked, but even so, I had to admit that the atmosphere around it was undoubtedly romantic. It didn’t look too different from any other balcony, but there was definitely something about this that made even my knees feel a little weak.
Or maybe it was because of all the couples around it, holding each other and sighing. If it was, in fact, the fabled balcony that had inspired the romance, the couples definitely didn’t help. One poor sap nearby was even reciting the play to his girlfriend.
Part of me wanted to roll my eyes and pound my chest over the incredible cheesiness and tourist-trappiness of it all, but I didn’t. Because as I looked around and then felt Isabella sliding her arm through mine, I realized something.
I wanted a relationship with all the cheese and romance these people had, but I wanted it with her. I just didn’t know if she had any time for it.