Matteo gritted his teeth. "I am that narrow-minded actually. Don’t the both of you have sowhere else to be?"
Aiden cracked up as if Matteo had told a good joke. "See, Mom, he’s perfectly fine with it! Don’t worry, we won’t intrude on their date, right Emline? We just want to spend so ti getting to know the newest mber of our family. One lunch date definitely wasn’t enough ti to spend with Alia."
Matteo scowled. In his opinion, one lunch date was simply one lunch date too many. anwhile, Alia did not believe Aiden’s intentions were innocent, and she stepped even closer to Matteo for protection.
"Exactly," Emline added sweetly. "Besides, there’s safety in numbers! It’s not safe for to sightsee alone, and Aiden might want to slip away and visit a club or two. I might as well hang out with the both of you in the anti."
With that pronouncent, their fate was sealed. Alia’s eyebrow twitched, but she could not in good conscience leave Emline alone to wander in a foreign land, annoying as she was, even though she knew Emline would not extend her the sa grace.
But if a catastrophe were to befall Emline, she and Matteo would never hear the end of it.
"Fine, let’s go," Matteo growled out, irritated that he would have two hang-ons for his date with Alia.
The four of them made their way out and followed the main road to the nearby town. Matteo kept his hand wrapped around Alia’s as he quickened his pace, trying to shake them off.
Unfortunately, they kept up with his hurried footsteps. But then Matteo caught sight of the multiple shining lights, twinkling brightly under the slowly darkening sky, and smiled. It would be easier to lose them in the crowd of the carnival.
"Sweet, there’s a carnival happening now!" Aiden exclaid excitedly. "Alia, do you want to win you sothing? Or get you sothing to drink? You have to try out their special wines!"
"No, thank you," Alia said instinctively.
Her eyes were drawn to the variety of different stalls, each boasting a different carnival ga. There were also stalls selling food and drink, and Alia’s mouth began to water the longer she observed them.
"Are you hungry?" Matteo asked, noticing Alia’s distraction. "I could get sothing for you. You didn’t eat much on the plane."
"You can go eat at a restaurant then! It’s not safe to eat food from carnival stalls. What if you catch a nasty stomach bug?" Emline cut in quickly. She needed to hang onto Matteo at all costs. "Besides, you can’t possibly expect Matteo to queue for you, right?"
Emline’s voice was loud, and her disdainful comnts drew more than a few unhappy glances in their direction. While Lesterat was a pri tourist destination, the town they were in was run by locals who took great pride in the festivals and food and didn’t like uppity tourists giving snide comnts.
"I would like a kebab and a waffle," Alia said instead. Her stomach gave a loud gurgle, ready to be fed. "I can queue by myself. Don’t wait around on my account."
"I’ll accompany you," Matteo said, almost jumping to attention. He imdiately dragged Alia to the nearest stall, despite the overwhelmingly long queue, in the hopes that Emline and Aiden would find sothing else to occupy their ti.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long for Aiden to take the bait. Matteo knew that his younger brother, with his natural impatience, despised slow queues and long wait tis. After shuffling his feet for a minute, Aiden realized the queue wasn’t moving as fast as he hoped.
"Hey, I’m going to go buy a pint first. Can you help buy a portion? I want a kebab with sriracha sauce! Do you guys want anything?" Aiden asked, hoping they would say no. He didn’t want to lug purchases back.
"No, thank you," Alia said, and Matteo shook his head.
anwhile, Emline shot him a venomous look from under her lashes― Aiden was so unreliable, he couldn’t even accompany her in a queue?
Fine, she could handle them on her own.
"See you!" Aiden gave a cheery wave and then vanished into the crowd.
It was too much to hope that Emline would follow his example. Now that they were stuck in the queue, there was no way to avoid her relentless chatter.
"Matteo, do you rember how everything looked like before?" Emline gushed out, her eyes shining like stars under the twinkling lights, the blonde of her hair a halo around her angelic face. More than one passer-by gave her an interested glance, captivated by her looks.
Unfortunately, Matteo was unmoved. He rely let out a noncommittal grunt, trying not to encourage any conversation. But Emline continued to talk.
"Back then, we were only this tall, and we ran around the place trying to pelt snowballs at each other," Emline said, her tone turning wistful. "I rember you trying so hard to win a stuffed toy at one of the ga stalls. I still have the stuffed rabbit you won for back then. Do you think you can get another, so I can give her a companion?"
Matteo simply replied, "No."
Emline’s face fell, crestfallen. "But... surely cousin Alia isn’t so petty that she would take offense if you were to help win another bunny! Right, Alia?"
Matteo frowned. "Whether Alia is willing to let do so is not the issue. I am unwilling to help you win a stuffed toy." Then, as if to add salt to the wound, he turned to Alia and asked tenderly, "My dear, do you want a stuffed toy? I’ll do my best at the gas to net you sothing."
Alia’s lips rose, and she decided to just be a little petty, for her own sake.
"Of course! I’ve only been on one carnival date," Alia sighed as if she was aggrieved. "Caleb did his best, but he couldn’t win anything. Even the kids who were playing for fun did better than him."
She then addressed Emline, "I hope Kelsie doesn’t mind his lack of skill. He was awfully poor at aiming at the right target... I suppose his lapse in judgnt extends to all parts of his life, including carnival gas."
Reviews
All reviews (0)