The Red Nights

" Regarding the way you're acting I can suppose you seek to meet him, don't you? " Matteo asked directly as he didn't want to waste his time .

Dana sighed " Such a rude boy, don't you know it's not good to hasten women " she waited for his reaction and seeing it didn't have any effect she went on, she coughed and said " yeah, it's true, I want to meet him " she acknowledged .

" For what reason? " he automatically replied. But she didn't respond, instead she just lowered her sights on the ground and remained silent. He waited until he understood that she would definitely not answer and overlooked it , he looked aside distracting and asked her " you have some plans for the rest of the day? "

she looked confused " what ? "

" I'm asking you if after that you have something to do, maybe hanging out with you gang " he repeated.

She stuttered a response " hum... my gang and I... no I mean no it's not a gang... but anyway yeah , my friends and I don't have any plan for today ".

Matteo shook his head " I don't ask for your friends, just you . Will you come? "

" Where? Wait ! Are you tryna ask me for a date ? " she asked him while she was blushing.

Matteo started to find difficulties to figure out her real personality, she could pass from a serious and self-confident leader who did not talk for nothing to a normal young girl who could lose her means while she's on a discussion with a boy . For a moment he thought that she might be acting when she was with him or with her buddies but if it's the case she must have been a super great actress because Matteo, with all his talent to observe people, couldn't find any hint of fake about the way she was.

" No it's not a date, calm down. You said you want to meet him, it's okay but for that you must need the agreement of his... close friend " he said.

Dana seemed to be lost, she thought that he would refuse as she refused to give a proper motif to see Jamal but now it looked like he was giving her, not exactly a way to meet him, but only a chance by passing by his acquaintance what was largely enough. She didn't know what to think about how easily he accepted her request .

" I warn you I've been practicing martial art since I was six " she said calmly without blinking her eyes even once " if you dare to try to mess with me or to make any indecent stuff to me , I will kill you "

Matteo hung himself on to not burst out laughing, not that he found her ridiculous, but he thought that it was funny the way she could drop and hold her guard all along the conversation, but it seemed like Dana didn't figure it out and she understood it on the wrong way " are you making fun of me at me even though I told you to not mess with me ? You still don't take me seriously, do you? Maybe I should break on of your bones to show an example " she said with menacing tone .

However it didn't impress Matteo who carelessly responded her " even though it's you who is acting funnily , do you even realize your changes of temper? Are you like that with your friends as well or just with me ? "

It was only after he finished his sentence that he noticed that he touched a sensible point but it was too late to retract what he had said. He prepared himself to be severely beaten by her but surprisingly she didn't do so , instead she quietly explained herself " with my able to control myself since I know them for quite long , for nearly two years, and I'm not used to talk too much , but with you it's different "

" In which way ? " he asked as the atmosphere became less tense. But he again ended up to embarrass her , she stirred in her corner for few seconds before catching her cool back .

" I would say... in the way that you actually know someone whom I would want to meet, so it put a little pressure what caused my emotions tend to overwhelm " she managed to say.

" Is that a kind of psychological disease? " he asked after arguing with himself about whether it will somehow vex her, he finally just went on by justifying himself that she would figure out that it was a question worthy to be asked.

And it seemed that his supposition was correct as she didn't get mad at him but it was the opposite, she answered him with a pleasant smile " if you want to know if I'm somehow crazy... the answer is 'not all' , I just got a problem to deal with people. Until two years ago before that night... " she said with a tone which expressed revulsion and anger " ... I was kinda asocial and even though now I have my own gan... no I mean my own band of friends, I still got difficulties to talk with strangers "

He listened to her all along silent without doing anything which might've interrupted her and she finished he just nodded, in fact he understood her very well, he might not go as far to say that they had the same problem but he could understand the fact that it's complicated to interact with others when we're not used to. He didn't told her that however just by seeing through his eyes , it was easy for Dana to understand it even though she didn't have Matteo's talent.

A silence remained for quite a long time before Matteo decided to break it as it was starting to become embarrassing " Well, enough of chitchat if you don't mind let's go meet Stainfall's mayor and I warn you that instead of you she is clearly a crazy woman " .

Before they took one step ahead, she rose her hand on Matteo's c.h.e.s.t what got him a very odd feeling she pulled it off and asked " excuse me but before we get going I would want to ask you something " she paused and stared at him " why do you do all this for me, you don't even know me " .

That made him thinking and after few seconds he replied " I don't even know myself, but you know what, when I met him he knew me less than I know you now and it didn't stop him coming to help me " he paused and smiled " I may look presumptuous but maybe he just contaminated me with his kindness "

Dana glanced at him " is he really such amazing, this Jamal? "

" Who knows, you may be able to decide it the day you will meet him " he said " well, we should really get going now " . They then headed silently to the city hall but Dana didn't stop wondering which kind of man Jamal really was , relying on all what she had heard about him .

•••

Lina just finished repeating her discourse she was holding in her hands for the third time, knowing that she rewrote it more than five times what ended up to exasperate Natasha as every time she finished reciting she lifted her head toward her and told that it was not good enough and this time again she was not satisfied.

" What is the problem there again ? " Natasha growled while she was sitting in front of her on the sofa " it's the fourth ... no the fifth... I don't even know many times you've said that it was not good while I found that it was nice "

" just nice it's not enough, it must be perfect in such a way that they won't be able to turn it down " she justified " and I have until tomorrow to prepare it so I refuse to just be satisfied with a ' nice ' "

Natasha rolled her eyes " you are abusing, you already know that there is no chance for your project to be rejected " she tried to reassure her " you even told me that Matteo and you have already all organized in such a way that they will definitely accept ".

Lina shook her head " you must have misunderstood me , I said that we organized it in such a way that all the conditions will be favorable for them to accept it. But the major part of the plan is leaning on my capacity to convince them ".

" You're too much stressed about it, it doesn't look like you who is use to be full of self-confidence . Why are you so hesitant? You should just relax. " she advised her.

Lina gazed down at her, she dropped her hand which was holding the piece of paper, she came to sit beside, she leaned her head on her c.h.e.s.t while she was lifting her sights on her and said while she was fondling her t.h.i.g.h " maybe you could help me to relax, you know like we used to do ".

At that moment while she was saying that Matteo and Dana were entering into the the office and they attended the scene. " I knew it that there was something fishy between you, so that is what you do when you're all alone "

Natasha looked up at him and noticed behind him an unknown pretty girl . She hurriedly stood up , turned and looked down at Lina still sitting on the sofa , the indignation could be seen through her sights " you see when you push the joke a bit too far ".

She started to laugh loudly as her usual " you don't have to get mad just for something like that, relax he already knows the way we are"

The Natasha, with a swing of her hand , showed her the girl who was with Matteo , Lina stopped laughing but her smile didn't leave her face, she stared at Dana and then turned her face to Matteo " by the way who is she " she said while she was pointing her " she is cute, I didn't know that you were going out with such a pretty girl? " she turned now to Natasha " look you're now the only single among our group, you better looking for a man instead of chasing after mine "

The latter rolled her eyes lazily " you're saying that while two minutes earlier you wanted to have your way with me " she put her hands on her h.i.p.s " can you at least wear your feature of Mayor we are receiving a guest and being like you are now will give us a bad image "

" cut it off " Lina grumbled " who cares about my features, if they do I wouldn't be here sitting on the chair of the Mayor " she stood up and walked toward Dana and Matteo , she turned around them and landed her arms on their shoulders " instead, let's hear about the story of these two fresh lovers " .

Dana couldn't hold no longer she squatted and covered her face with her hands and even though her intention was to not catch attention, it made the total opposite, everybody was up, staring at her but Matteo quickly came to her rescue " well, first of this girl is Dana, she didn't tell me the totality of her name, she is not my girlfriend and she would want to meet Jamal ".

As he expected they were speechless, when Natasha regained consciousness, she was about to ask a question and break the silence but Lina overtook her " wait, so you're telling me that you brought another rival, for you Nat' was not enough? " , the latter clapped at her forehead by disappointment and pushed Lina aside. She asked him " do you think it was safe to do something like that, didn't you think it may be dangerous, to bring someone you have just met, a perfect stranger on here knowing in which situation we are now? "

" helped me a lot to move the materials to venue we would use" Matteo started to justify himself " I couldn't just turn her down " he paused and looked down at Dana " moreover I thought that you could help to figure out her real intentions "

Natasha and Lina looked at each other and they nodded as they comprehended each other, then Lina stepped toward the young girl who meanwhile raised her head to follow what was going on, Lina gazed at her and she gazed back at her, with a sweet smile she lent her a hand and she gladly took, she helped her to stand up then she said with still the same tone as before " well, shall we proceed to the interrogatory cute lady? " she asked to her who just nodded