Matched by Fate: Prologue

Chapter 10

   I smile as Dante walks up to me, "Hello Dante! Yes I'm ready!" He looks down at me, analyzing my outfit, then he blushes, "You look cute, Caroline." I feel my face heat up, I laugh "Thank you, you look nice too." He smiles as he rubs the back of his neck, "Well, we should probably go. We only have two hours," I nod. "You're right let's go!" We walk out of the building together and start walking down the street. I build up the courage to break the silence, "So what do you want to do? Maybe we could walk around the park or something."
"We can do that, I was thinking since you said you liked reading we could go to one of my favorite places to get books. Unless you'd rather go on a walk, whatever you want to do sweetheart." I feel my brain short circuiting, Sweetheart? Guys say that to me all of the time when they try to flirt, but it sounds sincere when he says it! It's nice, "Caroline? Everything okay?" I snap back into reality, "What? Oh. I'm fine, uh we can just uh..." I blush out of embarrassment. "Let's go to the book store you were talking about." I hear him laugh which just makes me more embarrassed, "What's so funny! I stutter sometimes but it's just because I'm nervous!" He pats the top of my head, "I'm sorry for laughing, I wasn't trying to poke fun. In fact I'm probably just as nervous, and maybe even more than you are. So you still want to go to that book store?" I nod, "Yes please." He smiles and we continue walking down the street.
"Here it is," He opens the door and I walk inside. It's a cute little bookstore and I see people sitting at the chairs by the window. And to my right there's a desk, "Good morning, just let me know if you need help finding anything!" I smile and thank her, "So where do you want to look first? They have nonfiction books but they mostly sell fictional books." We both walk towards the book shelves, "Where are the Fantasy books?" He leads me deeper into the store, soon I see a sign say Fantasy. "Here it is." Without thinking I run over to the shelf, I wonder if they have the new book for my favorite series. Ohh! They do! I grab the book off of the shelf, I want it but I don't think I brought enough money. I turn and see Dante behind me, "What book is that?" I blush, "It's one of my favorite books and this one was just released. It's not a very popular series which sucks because it's so good!" Dante grabs the first volume from the shelf and takes a look, "Is it? 'The Dark Manor?' What's it about?" I don't hold myself back from gushing.
"It's about a girl who can't cast magic despite living in a world where everyone can cast magic. Everyone sees her as useless and she's bullied because of her lack of magic. Her parents then sell her to a mysterious man who lives in a Manor on the tallest hill in town. And he's said to be a powerful magic caster but no one has ever seen him face to face. He then makes her work as a maid, I won't go into details since I don't want to spoil it. But it's really good! This is the third book and it came out just recently! You should read it, well if you're in to this kinda book." I laugh. I look up at him and he's staring at me with a little smirk, I hold the book to my chest. "Sorry for gushing just now, i just really like these kinds of books!" I turn back to the shelf, God why can't you just stop talking! I sigh as I put the book back on the shelf. "Why are you putting it back?" He asks. "Well I don't really have enough money to get it, the money I did bring with me is just for the dates. Besides, I can always buy it another time." He grabs the book right back off the shelf, "I can buy it for you if you want." I'd love that but, i make some space between us. "You don't have to don't have to do that! I'll just come back over here another time and," He cuts me off by tapping the book on my head. What's with all of the head abuse! "It's not a big deal, and besides I'm going to buy the first book. You convinced me, I'll try this book out." I smile, I let out a small sigh. "Okay, but after this I'll take you somewhere nice for lunch!" He opens his mouth to protest but he takes the serious expression on my face as his warning. "Alright then, it's a deal. Do you want to look around more?" I nod and he leads me to a different section of the store. And soon enough we're checking out our books. "Thank you for coming in! Have a great day!" We both walk out of the store with a bag of books, "You really didn't have to get me three books. I appreciate it but I don't think lunch will be enough to pay you back." He rubs my back which causes me to shiver a bit, "It's okay, and I think lunch sounds awesome right now. What do you have in mind?" "Haha well..."