Masked Mysteries

Well guys, things have turned as interesting as I'd thought it would.  And by interesting, I mean sort of sucky. 

But you're going to need some backstory before I get into the nitty gritty.

So my parents run a business, right? Right. And like any business (but particularly this one), we have competition,  we have business partners--and then there are people we want to be partners with. Basically the people we suck up and give blinding smiles to. (We become masters of bs in front of them.)

There's this one...company we want to do business with. Importing and exporting in Europe, though mainly the France/Italy area. The head family's name is Price--undoubtedly ironic since they never seem to settle on a price.  We've spent years pampering and flattering the senior Mr. Price's nephew who came here to inspect possible clients, but he's become best friends with our competitor's heir. We didn't give up hope, but every time Marcus says "I'll see what I can do", even an infant could tell you he's not on our side. And trust me, we've tried bribery (and I'm pretty sure the Montagues, our competition, have too), but he won't agree to anything. 

Which may be part of why Mr. Price and his son Pierre decided to come overseas and assess their options themselves. I doubt they trust Marcus's judgement--and really who would? He's kind of a tool.  

You want to know what mom said when my parents found out that they were coming, though? "Make sure Pierre shows some interest in you. Make sure you show some interest back." In case you didn't catch that folks, she wanted me to basically seduce Pierre. A random 17 year old. My own mother. Here's the kicker though: "Rose's too invaluable to the business and we can't have her wrapped up in a guy or distracted by other duties." Yeah. There's Rose being Better Than Julia once again. 

Thanks mom. I was tempted to do it just so that when we closed the business deal, I could claim credit and shove it in my sister's face. 

But...I didn't. Here's what happened: 

We threw a party the night after the Prices arrived. Masquerade ball actually. (Sidenote: I had the most gorgeous ensemble: white dress, gold accents, and a half mask that was lined with feathers.) Everyone had masks so you could barely tell who was who. 

Well, I mean, you could tell who the Prices and Capulets (my family) were if you got here early enough for the speech, but I digress. 

So everything's going well. I'm talking with Pierre here and there, but definitely not paying him as much attention as my parents want, and if we're being honest, he was kind of a bore. I mainly took refuge with my best friend Nancy until she went to do her parents' bidding and socialize. 

Then. Then I fell in love. I swear to you it was love at first sight. 

Lol yeah no. 

There was this one guy who wasn't taking part in the festivities at all--the kind of guy you notice too. Maybe the same age as Pierre. Gold mop of hair. Dazzling smile (and by dazzling, I mean dazzling). So who was I to resist when he comes up to me and asks me to dance? 

Especially when he called me "Angel". Yeah, I was pretty much swooning at this point. Or maybe a bit tipsy. Either way I ended up staying near him for the rest of the night and we talked about any random topic we could think of (at one point we ended up on the topic of religion. How strange is that?), and then...well I'm pretty sure he meant to kiss me. I sort of swerved and he ended up kissing my cheek.  He was a quick thinker though; kissing my other cheek, he said ciao and started to leave. I figured I'd see him around sooner or later--after all, if he got into this party, he had to be someone important. 

Then Nancy comes back from being a social butterfly, a strained smile on her face (I feel you, Nancy. I feel you.) and for some reason I just...don't tell her about him. I dunno, I sort of want to keep him as my secret, you know? For all I know I won't even meet him ever again.