luckie street

chapter 4 »

"Hello." Riley said tonelessly.

"Vincenzo," He extended his hand expectantly, "Vincenzo Estronovo."

She took his hand cautiously and replied, "Riley, just Riley."

He turned up the same smile he granted her with earlier, this time with pearly white teeth. At least, they were pearly white on top. The bottom row of his mouth was covered in a gold grill, but it was barely noticeable at the tiny grin he allowed.

She looked him over this time. Black work boots, low riding acid washed jeans, a long sleeve black and white flannel, unbuttoned, and two shark tooth necklaces. Had it not been for his velvety foreign accent and odd demeanor, Riley would have rolled her eyes and left the second he stood up.

"You smell like weed." She bluntly stated, not sure if he'd entertain the idea or be offended and leave.

Vincenzo laughed quietly and batted his long eyelashes downward. "Last night's clothing, I suppose. I have got wild friends."

Riley wanted to turn her nose up at this, but once again, there was just something about this Vincenzo man. She nodded and smiled a bit, then she inspected the rest of him.

"Would it be pretentious of me to ask if you liked what you saw?" He asked, distracted by the angles and dips on Riley's face.

"It resembles more of a tenth grade, overly sexually active boy than pretension to me, but sure, have at it." She stopped reviewing him to answer.

He stopped reviewing her, too.

"This is what you say, weird, no?"

"Very." She responded.

Vincenzo rubbed his nose a few times and undid the bun resting atop his head. Of course, the nicely tucked black locks came avalanching downward into his face and around his neck. Again, most women of Riley's age and maturity level would have swooned, but she had lovely locks of her own.

"You seemed very disturbed by those people." He observed, over-pronouncing certain syllables and misplacing the stress on others.

Riley turned to discover the couple had since left during the strange conversation with the even stranger man.

"It is only natural." He blinked slowly.

"Are you trying to seduce me in a library?"

Vincenzo chuckled, this time loudly. Riley whipped her head toward the librarian to make sure he wasn't disturbed.

"I am not, but thank you for considering the possibility."

Riley leaned on the desk. "Sex really isn't my thing."

Vincenzo rubbed his nose a few times more and ran a hand through his hair, redoing the knot he had since taken out.

"I have taken quite a liking to it over the years." He winked.

-

"All we seemed to do is talk about sex." Riley recalled to Harley later that night.

Harley's eyes were wide with interest, and she'd discontinued the attention to her whiskey. "Tell. Me. Everything."