Danielle glanced up as Emily got off the phone. "It was Marcus, he said that we shouldn't wait for them and that they'll meet us later," she explained. "We should probably go ahead without them, he said they'll catch up to us," Emily added, glancing to everyone. Dani nodded, thankful that the mess was cleaned up and the disaster was over with. "Really, trust those four to not even make it to hotel without any hiccups," Ashlyn mumbled, already starting to walk off towards the front desk to get her room key.
"I think we should go check our rooms first, besides I could really use a shower right now" Em said with a smile, glancing to Dani, then Jayson and at Ashlyn. Danielle nodded, turning to walk towards the front desk with Emily just as a young Italian man came up from beside them."Welcome to La Rosa Sul Fiume, I'm your tour guide and this is my extremely lazy cousin who you should take no notice of," the man chirped, an exotic grin stretching from one ear to the next. He didn't mention what his name was, but he was wearing the hotel staff uniform so she shrugged it off. After all, she was rich now right? So if he did end up stealing her suitcase, at least she could replace it.
"Please come with me to the front desk, my delightful cousin Alessia will give you the keys to your room and I'll show you the way, if you'd like," he added in his sing-song voice, causing Dani to raise an eyebrow and glance to Ashlyn who was professional at catching a liar. Can't bullshit a bullshitter, they say. "Oh, I'm Ashlyn, and these guys are Danielle, Jayson, and Emily," Ashlyn responded to the guys, introducing the gang one at a time, as one of the guys took her bag off of her. Danielle smiled then, comfortable with them since Ashlyn was. Maybe it was just the way she was, being nervous around people she didn't know. As they walked towards the front desk, Ash asked with a smile, "So what is it with this place? Are you guys all related or something?"
Dani giggled as she followed behind everyone, toying with the hem of her shirt as she waited for the lovely cousin of the random Italian to give Emily their room key. It was just then that her pocket vibrated with an incoming e-mail from her iPhone. Instantly butterflies overturned her stomach. She couldn't help but smile, knowing that the only person who e-mailed her was Augustus. Her thumb slid across the screen, unlocking it and revealing one new e-mail. She nearly vibrated with excitement! She pressed the tiny white envelope with a red 1 lit up, and held her breath.
Spam. She nearly threw the device across the lobby. With a frustrated sigh, she went to shove the phone back into her pocket. Just as she did so, it vibrated again, an e-mail automatically opening since she had already been in the inbox.
I figured you were clumsy, Princesa. Turn round.
Her heart stopped, and she slowly... very, slowly, turned around.
A pillar? Confused, she took a step away from the group. There he was, in all of his golden skinned glory. She could have cried, she was so happy, and in fact-- tears did start to brim. Embarrassed, she laughed and quickly rubbed her wrist against her eyes. "Auggie!" she cried. With a laugh, she ran towards him, throwing her arms around his neck in a long over-do hug. It had been so long, so very, very long. Her heart thundered away in her chest, unable to suppress it's joy. He was here! He was real! He was really here! Her laughed bubbled down into giggles as she released him and looked him over. "You have perfect timing, we just got here! Do you have time to meet my frien-" she stopped talking, glancing behind him at the men in suits that were shoving the paparazzi back out of the doors of the hotel. She glanced to him, unsure what to say. "Are they always like that?" It seemed a safe thing to say, much better than her initial reaction of holy-shit-he-was-telling-the-truth-he's-really-a-prince-and-hes-been-talking-to-me-oh-my-god-I'm-an-idiot!
After a few moments of blinking, and accepting that all of his 'lies' were actually true, she put on a smile and offered a little, shy laugh. "Meet my friends," she said, gently taking his hand and leading him over to the front desk where the beautiful Italian behind the desk was handing over the keys to Emily. "Everyone, this is Augustus... my friend from high school, the guy I met on my senior trip.. We've, ah... we've kept in contact all these years! Crazy, huh? Heh. Um, Auggie, this is the girls. Well, most of them. We lost a few on the ride over, but Marcus swears they're safe. Emily, Ashlyn, and Jayson." She allowed for a small pause before turning to him, secretly toying with the hem of her shirt nervously, "Are you staying here, too?"