Somewhere in Northern Italy

Chapter 6

The cool breeze felt refreshing as we walked out of the stuffy bookstore and outside into the sweet summer air.

"It's so beautiful today," I said with a smile, looking towards Timothée.

Timothée looked back at me with a smirk.

"Fortunately for you, I have something planned for us outdoors."

"So is this official?" I asked, instantly regretting the stupid question.

Timothée's smile faded, "Official?"

"Forget what I said," I answered, waving my hand in air as if to shoo the unnecessary remark away from us. "So where are we going exactly?" I asked climbing into the car, Timothée settling into the driver's seat.

"So I was looking into some fun stuff to do over in this area and I found a really cool horse trail not far from here."

My eyes lit up as he explained what he had planned for us. In that very moment I could feel my heart begin to lean towards him. He just seemed to care so much. He cared about his work. He cared about the people around him. He cared about this date. I could tell he had such a big heart. This was the first thing I found myself truly admiring about him.

"I also thought maybe we could grab an early dinner afterwords," he said. "It could give us the chance to get to know each other a lot better."

"That sounds amazing," I said beaming towards him while I noticed him quietly celebrate to himself.

The car ride there certainly wasn't long enough. We had found ourselves deep in conversation about our families, where we were from, what we had planned for the future, other hobbies, and our views on the world.

Wait, wait, wait," still laughing at the story he had just told me, "you were a rapper in high school."

"Tried to be a rapper," he said laughing at himself, "but it was also this rap persona I made up. I really loved hip hop music... I still do, and I guess it was also something really fun to d- STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!"

"What!?" I exclaimed, now laughing even harder than I was before.

"This is so embarrassing," he mumbled trying to stifle the smile that didn't seem to ever leave his face. "Okay let's talk about something else. What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Come on, you have to have at least a few embarrassing stories from high school."

"Uh... no I don't," I said with a nervous smile forming on my face.

"You're such a terrible liar," he said with a smirk. "I told you my story you have to tell me yours."

"Okay let me think," I said. "Well... there was one time when I went to Florida on family vacation and Palmer and I went to a beach party after our parents had gone to bed. I think we were like 14 or 15 at the time and it was the the first time we had gone to a party of any kind. So we get there and my mom texts me-"

"Oh no!" he exclaims leaning further back into his seat.

"And I text her back telling her that we were in bed. A few minutes later I saw her walking down the boardwalk and onto the beach. She dragged Palmer and I off that beach and all the way back to the house in front of all those kids. I can't even explain to you how mortified I was when I saw her step onto that beach!"

"That's horrible!" said Timothée.

"I mean that's the best one I've got. I'm so glad you enjoyed that terrible story about my terrible beach party experience," I said with a light hearted laugh.

We continue talking about everything and nothing as the time flew by outside that car window.

Eventually we neared a gravel road winding through a canopy of several evergreen, cypress, and a few olive trees here and there.

We continued down the road until we approached a villa with a stable and a few fenced in spaces where we saw horses trotting around and eating.

Timothée parked the car and we started for the villa. The villa's entrance had high ceilings with dark mahogany beams supporting it. Paintings of the Italian countryside decorated the walls as well as old horse equipment from the 1920s and 30s.

Timothée greeted the woman at the front desk. Once he finished giving her all the needed information, she led us out to the stable where we met a few of the horses. I was especially interested in a beautiful black horse with a small white mark in between its eyes.

"This one's name is Lucy," said Timothée looking at the hand painted sign of the horses name that hung outside it's stable.

"Cute name," I said brushing the horse's nose.

"Oh Lucy's a sweet girl," said the desk lady, "we can get her out for you to ride if you'd like."

"That would be great thank you!"

"No problem!"

Once we were all set up and ready to go, Timothée pulled out his phone.

"Smile!" he said holding out the phone in front of him grinning while holding out a peace sign as I lifted one arm in the air smiling.

Timothée was getting on a light brown horse with white specks named Summer. Summer was a bit more rowdy and even violently shook her head which startled Timothée.

"Woah, woah, woah, I swear I did nothing I'm so sorry," said Timothée while holding on for dear life.

"You're okay! She does this before every ride," said our guide while I started cracking up behind him. That earned me a death glare.

The trail lead through the woods and into a meadow.We crossed creeks, climbed hills, and explored riverbanks. Every once in a while I would turn my head to glance at Timothée who trailed behind me; and he would always smile back towards me. Once, I caught him in the act of taking a picture of me.

"What are you doing?" I asked with a light giggle.

"Nothing," he replied avoiding eye contact like a guilty toddler.

The landscape was like something out of a movie. I could get lost in the endless rolling hills and winding rivers and I couldn't help but admire the beautiful evergreens that provided shade and shelter for the creatures that live among them. I just wanted to wander the woods under the high canopies of the beautiful trees while Timothée and I admired each other for eternity.

When we arrived back to the stables, I said my goodbyes to Lucy and Summer and started back towards the car.

"That was so much fun!" I said as I buckled my seat belt.

"I'm so glad you liked it," said Timothée doing the same. "I wasn't really sure what you liked, especially since I didn't know you that well."

"I mean that's why we're going to lunch right? Or is it dinner?"

"Let's call it linner," said Timothée chuckling to himself.

"Linner it is," I replied.

"What exactly did you have in mind for linner?" I asked genuinely concerned about the location. I hadn't eaten anything in ages and I was ready to eat something... really anything.

"I picked out the first date location, I think it's only fair that I let you pick out where we eat."

"Oh," I said racking through my brain for the perfect spot. "You know what, there is this one place I've been dying to go to."