Magnet & Steele Read Free

voice.
“Now you do,” he expressed softly, “I’m Angelo Magetti; I’ve been
carrying your picture in my wallet since last week. I wanted to see
if I could find you and I did.”
     
    Taking a second, Nancy took it all
in, the Italian accent, his sensuous body movement, his kissable
lips as he spoke. She turned to take a look back at the booth where
Kelly was once sitting and noticed her friend ignoring their steamy
interlude. Kelly had been engrossed in her own conversation with
another boy and Nancy was free from judgment.
     
    “I’m Nancy,” she uttered
freely.
     
    Angelo smiled, “Nice to meet you
Nancy.”
     
    Nancy nearly melted; he had such
white straight teeth too! “What picture do you have?”
     
    Angelo continued to stare into her
green eyes, “Picture?”
     
    When he finally remembered why he
was there in the first place, he took out a folded black and white
photo that had been cut from a newspaper. “This one,” he said,
handing her the photograph.
     
    Nancy took a quick look at it, “Oh,”
she said, taking the photo away from him. “This was when I won
Daffodil Queen…You…you were there, weren’t you?” She asked, trying
to disguise any real interest in him.
     
    Angelo grinned again, “Yes,” he
agreed, gazing around him and then nodding at his friends who were
now questioning. “Nancy, is there somewhere we can speak
alone?”
     
    “Speak?”
     
    “Yes, speak, talk…alone, my friends,
your friends, they’re all looking at us now.”
     
    Nancy was hesitant as an unknown
fear spread through to her skin; the damnation of others was so
unfamiliar and foreign to her, she wanted to keep talking to him,
but where? Definitely not there and Nancy shrugged her shoulders,
“I don’t know.” She then scanned the establishment and practically
everyone was staring at them now, even Stanley, the owner of the
malt shop.
     
    Angelo turned around; his friends
too were interested as well. He crammed his hands down his front
pant pockets in indecision, any moment now he would have to seize
her. “I have an idea,” Angelo whispered towards her ear. “I work at
Luccardi’s Diner down on Harbor Avenue. Will you meet me there?
Sei? Six? OK, six?”
     
    Nancy nearly expired at that moment,
the warmth from his closeness and the gentle breeze from his breath
on her neck sent chills up and down her spine. What was it exactly?
She wondered. Nancy couldn’t understand the attraction and the pull
towards this absolute stranger. She took a step backwards; she too
had this overwhelming desire to lay hands on him. “Yes,” she agreed
before she had time to really think about the
consequences.
     
    Angelo smiled again, “See you at six
then.”
     
    *****
     
    Later that evening, Nancy sat silent
at her wardrobe desk brushing her hair; she was getting ready for a
date with none other than that big-headed boor. “I can’t believe my
father is making me go through another date with what’s-his-face,”
Nancy said back to her reflection. She took a quick look over at
her clock. “Oh my God! It’s almost six!”
     
    Along the extensive winding
staircase, Nancy ran down the steps and out her front door. She ran
down the street and past every house and every lane and turned the
corner to run down another road. She ignored a neighbor’s friendly
wave and worked her way towards the shopping square on Harbor
Avenue until she finally stopped cold.
     
    She was suddenly caught off guard by
a passerby who had been smoking a cigarette just outside the
neighborhood butcher shop. Nancy felt a little strange from the way
he just kept staring at her. With her head turned to her side she
began to walk askew and passed him on the way to Luccardi’s when
all of a sudden, he snapped a picture of her with the camera he had
around his neck!
     
    With the cigarette still dangling at
the edge of his mouth, he expressed, “You’re a real
dish.”
     
    Nancy turned around completely and
stood there in surprise,