Game of Love

Melodi-

"So let me get this straight: you're how old and you have a fear of what?" I ask trying to hold back my giggles as we get out of the car.

Since it was a warm and sunny day, there were a lot of people crowding the water front today, a lot of them city natives just having a day out and about like use but most of them were tourists trying to get their sight seeing in.

The entire car ride from my apartment our conversation flowed easy. We talked about ourselves trying to get to know each other better.

"I'm 25 and I have a deep rooted fear of squirrels. You would too if your older brother used to terrorize you with them when you were younger." He said, hitting the lock on his key chain before coming around so we could cross the street.

"Camryn used to do things like that to me all the time but by fears are rational things. You know, spiders, snakes and bees? You're the first person I've met who is afraid of squirrels." I giggled.

"Subject change before I freak out and I go cry buckets of tears in my car for the day, effectively ruining my second chance with you. Have you always wanted to be a baker?" he asked me as we made our way down the waterfront boardwalk to the aquarium.

"I used to bake all the time with my nana when I was little. I fell in love with it. I loved making creations for people and I'll be honest, I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I went to school for business and graduated a few years early, I decided to go back to school briefly to get my culinary arts degree. Then last year my best friends and I opened up the shop and it's just taken off from there." I said, pride from my accomplishments bleeding into my voice.

"That's amazing. You're really young to have gone through all the schooling for that Bellissima." He said in awe as we came to a stop in front of building.

"I'm 23. I graduated from high school at 17 and I had been taking a lot running start classes at the time so I got to skip a year in college. I graduated a from Stanford head of my class at 20."

"Wow I'm officially impressed. That's quite a resume Miss Gray. Stanford isn't an easy school to get through. I chose to go to UW even though I could have gone to any school I wanted to because of my parents. My older sister went to Columbia. She didn't want to be like my father, my brother and I and go into business. She's the family lawyer" he said.

"You've mentioned your older brother a few times. What does he do? I'm assuming he works for your family's company with you." I ask innocently.

A dark shadow fell across his handsome face and a haunted look glazed over his eyes. "My brother passed when I was 12." He said softly.

I felt like a bitch for bring up something that was obviously extremely painful for him. "I am so sorry. I shouldn't have asked. Its totally and completely cool if you want to cut today short after that." I said trying to back pedal out of the awkwardness of the conversation.

"No Bellissima. You didn't know and besides I'm not letting you get out of our date before it had a chance to get started. Come on let's go inside." He said smiling as he held his hand out for mine.

I sighed in relief that he didn't seem to be upset over my flub and it didn't seem to affect the mood too much. I stuck my hand in his and returned his grin and we walked inside the building, eager to get our day started.

Kaiden-

After the mention of Gio's death, things were awkward for a while, as we both worked to find our comfort zone again. It didn't take long for us to warm up to each other again as we wandered through the exhibits. "So your sister and your best friend call you cookie monster?" she asked me as we stood in front of the massive tank that housed all kinds of sea life that could be found through out the sound.

"Yes. I've always had a big appetite for sweets of all kinds, from cookies to cakes to candy, ever since I was old enough to eat solid food. My mother used to tell me all the time I was going to rot out my insides with all the sweets I eat. I would go so far as to when my mother or our house keeper, Rosita, would make cookies, I would go down and take bites out of every cookie just so that I could have them all to myself. So my sister, Isabella, and my fratello di sangue, Luca dubbed me the cookie monster. Even now to this day, they can't leave sweets alone with me, for fear of when they come back it will be gone." I told her.

"Wow I thought I was bad where sweets are concerned. I apparently have nothing on you." She giggled before continuing "What does fratello di sangue mean?" she asked causing me to grin as she butchered the sentence.

"Fratello di sangue means blood brother. Luca's family has always been extremely close to my family. We were born within 2 weeks of each other and we've always considered each other as brothers." I explain.

"Kind of like Trinity, Cassie and myself." She points out.

"Exactly. Luca and I would get into so much trouble through out our younger years. Hell if you put us together now, I'm pretty sure there is some kind of trouble we can find to get into." I boast proudly. Luca and I were proud hell raisers and that's why we work so well together.

"That's how my brother and his friends are. He's a police officer along with most of his friends and they still like to play pranks on each other like 12 year olds. I was just thinking this morning about the last time I was here at the aquarium when I was 16. Trinity, Cassie and I had to come for a school project. My brother, who was 18 at the time, decided to follow us down here with a couple friends and scare the living hell out of us. I've never jumped that high again to this day. I ended up ass first in the touch tank, effectively killing a sea star or two, Trinity broke a couple fingers from trying to punch one of them and Cassie took the brunt of it. She ended up getting tangled up in my brother and broke her leg in 2 places. I'm surprised we didn't end up being banned from her forever after that." She told me causing me to break out in a fit of laughter. I couldn't remember laughing that hard in my life before then.

"I'm pretty sure that would have been worth it to see. I can't imagine someone as tiny as you are being able to crush something to death." I teased earning a death glare from her.

"I'm not that tiny. And I know you've seen the size of my ass. Its huge!"

"Bellissima, if you were any smaller, I could fit you in one of my pockets. I'm almost twice your size. And for the record, I love the size of your ass." I said with a wink causing her to swat at me while flashing me a killer smile, her grey-green eyes flashing.

'Damn those eyes and that smile are deadly.' I thought to myself and tried to think of anything else other than how incredibly beautiful she was.

The entire time we were there at the aquarium I had to fight the urge to pull her to me and just completely devour her. Whenever she was distracted looking at the exhibits, I would find myself distracted watching her. My eyes couldn't stay away from her. On top of her beauty, it was her simple fascination of everything around her, that kept my eyes glued to her.

"Why do you keep staring at me?" she asked. We had been standing in the newly opened underwater dome for the last 15 minutes or so while she ohed and ahed over the fish and other sea life that would swim past us and over our heads.

"Because you have this child like wonder about you that makes you even more beautiful than you already are. We've been here for a few hours already and any other woman would have been bored out of her mind. But you, you are having as much fun as I am. Its like you see everything with brand new eyes. Is refreshing and hence makes me even more attracted to you than I already am." I told her honestly.

"I've never had anyone say something that sweet like that about me. I told you yesterday, I'm not like all the other women you surround yourself with. I like simple things in life. Obviously if the women you are around would find this boring, then you need to surround yourself around different people." She said matter of fact like.

Her thought process made sense. Deep down if I really forced myself to think about it, I was sick of my playboy lifestyle. Sure having a different beautiful woman in my bed every night was fucking awesome but after a while it gets exhausting, because they always want something.

Money, shopping sprees, fame. It was always something. Melodi was right. If I wanted things to change I needed to change who I spent my time with.

'Where the fuck did come from?" I thought. Melodi has me so turned around, she's got me rethinking my entire life in the middle of the aquarium.

In the short amount of time that I've known her, Melodi has turned my life completely upside down, changing the way I see the world and how I behave. And the funny part is, I liked it.

Damn.