tick.
tock.
tick.
tock.
Monaco groaned, it was only 6:15 and the girl had finished all her tasks as a country. She had even done her daily regimen of ballet for an hour. She sighed and sat on her couch, she held her legs close to her chest and quietly pouted. She was not being intellectually stimulated.
"Monaco~! Cíao!" an Italian said. Monaco looked up at her door to see the micronation of Seborga.
"Seborga! M-my door was locked! How could you have possibly gotten in here?" Monaco rises to her feet and stubbornly shouted.
"I know you keep your house key under your gardening gnome~" he replied slyly. Darn it.
"What do you want?" Monaco said in suppressed annoyance.
"Get out of your frilly, pink, satin pajamas! We are going uptown!" Seborga said, clearly excited. An idea popped into Monaco's head.
"Okay, I'll go. If you win a game of black jack against me~" she told him. Seborga nervously nodded and exhaled deeply. Monaco giggled.
Monaco grabbed a deck of cards and immediately started to shuffle them, showing off to Seborga that she clearly was going to win and she could return to a night of... Nothing.
"You know what Seborga," she began, "I will just go. Let me go change." she finished. Seborga did a little happy dance as Monaco walked up to her room to change.
Monaco swiftly removed her satin pajamas and put on a white blouse, a black pencil skirt, knee high white socks with Mary Janes, and a nice grey pea coat. It was December and the weather had been particularly cold for the past few days. Monaco walked back to where Seborga was and nodded.
"I'm ready to go Seborga." she stated quietly.
"Okay~ Let's go! By the way, don't be so formal! Call me Romeo!" Romeo told her. She sighed, "Romeo," she began, "I'm ready to go." she told him.
"And if I have to call you Romeo you must call me Cecilia."
"Sí my lady!" he responded. He held the door open for her and they began walking to uptown Monte Carlo.
When they finally reached the beautiful city lights of Monte Carlo they both smiled brightly.
"Come on! Let's get some coffee!" Romeo exclaimed.
"I prefer tea, or hot chocolate. I know a nice little cafe near the casino that has amazing hot chocolate." Cecilia responded. Romeo nodded excitedly, "To the casino so we can get to the cafe!" Romeo said. Cecilia nodded and they walked two more blocks to the cafe.
The cafe was a very nice looking place, china plates, fancy silverware, velvet curtains, tablecloths, you name it. Cecilia went up to the waiter with Romeo following close behind her and she started talking in French. The waiter smiled and brought them to a nice little table for two. Romeo pulled out a chair for Cecilia and she elegantly sat down.
"Bonjour! Je suis Francine et je serai votre serveuse aujourd'hui. Que voulez-vous deux comme?" (1)the woman said cheerfully.
"Nous aurons deux de vos chocolats chauds signature." Cecilia replied. Francine nodded and left to retrieve the hot chocolates.
Cecilia and Romeo struck up a nice little conversation about boats and yachts until the waitress came back with a cart and two china tea cups. She reached under the cart and grabbed a few things to make the hot chocolate with. Francine filled the cups with Chantilly Cream and then put Liquid delight and molten, creamy chocolate. She also put one big marshmallow in each and chocolate shavings. Romeo was licking his lips through the whole process.
Once she placed the cups near Romeo and Cecilia they each picked their designated cup up, blew on it, and sipped it. A releasing sigh of satisfaction came from both after their first sips.
"This is the best hot chocolate ever!" Romeo nearly shouted. Cecilia gave him a smile and nodded, still sipping her own drink. They quickly finished and the waitress brought the check.
"€40 EUROS?!" Romeo said in a surprised tone of voice. Cecilia shrugged and reached out for the check until he swiped it away.
"Don't worry, I'll pay." he said.
"But you just complained about how it cost 40 Euros." she counteracted.
"I wasn't complaining! I was just shocked at the price. But it was well worth it. I am paying though, my treat!" Romeo finished. He slipped his credit card into the check booklet and the waitress picked it up.
"What shall we do next Cecilia?" Romeo asked and Cecilia shrugged.
"I don't know, anything you want to do?" Cecilia asked. Romeo thought for a moment but then a wide grin came to his face.
"Is there an Ice Skating Rink near here?" he asked. She thought about it for a moment, "I believe there is an ice skating rink in Fort Hercule. And that's about 20 minutes walking distance." she remarked.
"Well lets go!" Romeo exclaimed. He retrieved his credit card and started to run towards the route that would lead them to Port Hercule with Cecilia trying to keep up.
They were now inside the Skating rink and Cecilia was tying up her skates carefully. She looked over to Romeo and gasped at his horrible tying of ice skates.
"Romeo! I need to fix your skates!" she exclaimed.
"What? Why?"
"Because! They are improper and messily done!"
"I think they are dandy!"
"No! You need to tie all laces as delicately as a ballet slipper, like this!" she told him and began retying his shoes. He chuckled at this, gave up, and finally let her tie his shoes.
She finished and they both stood up together. Romeo gestured towards the rink and Cecilia grinned. They both walked into the rink and began to just glide around freely.
As Romeo continued just to glide and stride Cecilia began to do spins and jumps. Romeo stopped and watched in awe.
"Where did you learn to do that?" he asked curiously.
"Ice skating reminds me of ballet. So I just incorporate the moves into ice skating and that." she replied.
"Though I will just glide if you prefer it." she told him.
For the next hour they just simply navigated through the crowds on the rinks and talked and laughed.
"This is really fun Romeo, and to think if you hadn't stopped by I would be watching television and eating popcorn." she told him.
"Well I hope I have made your evening more interesting!" he responded .
"You certainly have Romeo!" she chuckled. They continued on the ice until Romeo asked a question.
"Hey Cecilia?"
"Hmm? What?" she replied.
"Could you do me a favor?" he asked.
"Sure?"
"Could you teach me how to spin on the ice!" he said excitedly. Monaco nodded enthusiastically, "Sure Romeo." Cecilia led him to an area clear of people on the rink.
"Okay so you will need to begin with the two-foot spin." she said. He interrupted, "Don't you need two feet to ice-skate anyways?" he asked. Cecilia scoffed, "It's just the name of te move Romeo." she replied. "Oh..."
"Well if you spin to the left try to get the feeling of spinning forward on your right skate and backwards on your left skate." she told him. He looked sincerly confused and Cecilia sighed. "Like this." she said and moved his feet into proper position. "Alright, make sure the right foot has the most weight on the heel and the left foot has the most weight on the toes." she instructed. Romeo did as told and Cecilia gave him a gesture of approval.
"Now lift your right foot." she said. He lofted his right foot and Cecilia held him up. "Now slightly lean forward, not noticeably forward but a little." she says. He does and he starts to slowly spin.
"Wee!" he squeals. "Now hold your stomach in and pull your free leg into your knee and keep spinning!" she keeps instructing. By doing this Romeo picks up some speed. "Now hold your arms in and you will be properly spinning!" she shouts proudly. He is now fully spinning and is super ecstatic about it. Cecilia laughed and began spinning with him.
They both returned to Cecilia's house around 10:30 PM with giant smiles on their faces.
"Today was quite fun Romeo." Cecilia remarked. Romeo blushed, "Oh- Grazie!" he said.
"Well I ought to retire." Cecilia told him. Romeo nodded and hugged her goodbye.
"We should do this again next week!" he told her.
"That would be lovely." Cecilia responded. A glimmer of excitement shimmered in his eyes. Then Romeo bid farewell and started on his way to the train station so he could go back home.
But Cecilia, she simply went inside. Then she changed back into her silky pajamas, grabbed a small tub of greek yogurt and ate it quickly, and fell asleep with a grin on her face.