Teaser Tuesday: The Best of Friends

Hello, dear blog readers! How have you all been? Staying warm, I hope. (Haha, very funny, Caitlin. *glowers at -18 degree windchills*)

I have been feeling a bit glum about writing lately, but my lovely roommate gave me a bit of a pep talk last night, so I thought I'd share a little more of my current project with you (and by proxy, with her). This book is about the relationship between two best friends, so I thought it fitting. :)

Risa - who spends her nights as Venice's most feared thief - is giving her friend Gianna a ride to the opera house in her boat. Because Venice. :)

Enjoy!

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“So,” she said, skirting away from the Grand Canal and into the smaller rio that would lead them to the opera house. “Will the theatre be glittering with magic for the taking tonight?” 

            “Oh, in all likelihood,” Gianna answered with a mischievous smile. 

            “And do you think that the most fearsome thief in all of Venice will make an appearance?” 

            “Il Ragno never makes appearances – objects make disappearances. Especially when this tricky spider has its accomplice close by.”

            “And hopefully not too surrounded by besotted admirers,” Risa added with knowing smirk. 

            “I have spoken of how dreadful my costume for this ballet is, haven’t I?” 

            Risa rolled her eyes and snickered, sharply, just one short breath through her nose. The dreadful costume would make no difference.

            They arrived at the canal entrance to La Fenice in a few more minutes. Risa pushed the boat alongside the opera house’s mooring and grabbed hold of it to steady the boat enough for her friend to clamber out. At least, Risa would have clambered; Gianna always looked halfway to flying. The moment she stepped out onto the dock and bent to straighten her skirt, a few other members of the ballet corps lingering about the doorway turned their heads towards her, raising their long, delicate hands to wave. Risa could hear their previous conversations falter, transitional chords to open their chatter to Gianna’s presence, to add her voice to their melody. 

            “Thank you, Risa! See you tonight!” Gianna called over her shoulder, disappearing into her spotlit world with a flash of a smile and bright blonde hair.

            For a minute, Risa considered climbing up onto the dock herself, stepping into that spotlight, or taking some of it for herself. For a moment she wondered what it might be like to have everyone feel her presence in that soft, subtle way they felt Gianna’s. But she held on to her place in the shadows just a little too long, as always, and instead pushed her little boat away from the opera house. 

            What need did she have of a spotlight, in any case? She had business to attend to, and her business invariably needed the safety of the shadows to succeed.