"You are but a phoenix among feathers."

• • •

"I've never been to New York." I stare out the window, taking in the city.

"You like it?" He looks over at me.

"Yeah it's just kind of....different than I thought it would be." At least in reference to what I see in movies and tv.

Finally not gaping out of the window anymore I text my mother back, telling her that Mya and I are at the movies so she'll stop texting me. Knowing her, she's still going to text me.

Jacob pulls into the aquarium garage after paying at the entrance. We get out into the weirdly warm garage and stand in the elevator, he presses up. A large group of people cram into the elevator right before the doors close and I secretly wish we didn't come during the weekend. I figured 3pm wouldn't be as crowded as earlier. If this is their slow rush, I feel bad for the people that work here. We step all step out.

"Welcome to the New York Aquarium, how can I help you today?" The worker at the desk asks, she looks way to young to be working here, I can't see her being older than 15. She smiles as if her life depends on it.

"We got the one day passes, I bought them online." I hold onto his arm like I'll get lost in the crowd if I don't. All the people around are not making me feel any better.

He shows the woman his phone and she scans it. Moving over to let us inside. He grabs a map on our way in, wrapping the arm that I was holding onto around me.

"Where do you want to go first?" He asks, I look up at him while thinking of all the places we could go.

We haven't been on a date like this in a long time. It's making me nervous, why does he still make me nervous? Why is every girl here so pretty? I look down at my fitted white knit sweater and black ripped jeans, feeling subconscious about my outfit choices. Mya told me it was cute but I should've known. I must've still been looking up at him while getting lost in my thoughts because he begins to look at me like I'm crazy.

"If it's that hard to decide we can just walk around. They don't close for another two hours anyways." He grabs my hand, interlocking our fingers.

"No uh lets go to the ocean wonders shark thing." I snap out of it.

When we finally reach that part of the park, there's not many people here. I'm glad this is where we decided to go. The blue light sets a calm mood as we look at the fish swim around.

"Have you ever been here before?" I ask.

"Yeah, I used to come here all the time with my mom when I was younger." He hands me the park map and I put it in my purse.

He's never really talked about his mom before. I've always had questions but I didn't want to bring it up. I figured he doesn't talk about it for a reason. Does this mean I can ask now since he brought it up?

"You never talk about your mom." I mention, hoping he will realize that I am asking without asking.

"She left us when I was 10," He shrugs, "Moved back to Madrid and I haven't spoken to her since." He looks up at the ceiling where the sea creatures swim around.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me."

"No, it's fine. Plus I know you want to know. Your mind races twice as much as a normal person." He smiles and pulls me closer to his side, putting his arm back around my shoulder. I laugh with him, he's right.

"Soooo, is your dad from Spain too?" I ask, this is something that I have been wondering for way too long.

"No, my dad was born in Italy. That's where my grandfather started his company. Then he moved the business to Spain after my grandmother passed when my dad was like 13. Then he met another woman and they had my uncle. My dad met my mom in college, then my grandfather passed. My dad decided to move the business to the US once he graduated, my mom came with him. Later on down the line my uncle came to the US to help run the business." This makes me think about how I never really asked what Mr. Ricci did. We continue walking through the exhibits leisurely, hand in hand.

"How come I've never met you uncle if he works with your dad? And why doesn't you dad have an accent if he's fluent in like three languages? Well at least I didn't notice it." I think back to all the interactions I've had with him.

"You have met my uncle, his name's Marc. He talked to you at the casino that one time, black hair, not the most pleasant meeting but that's him. He doesn't work with my dad anymore they don't really get along much. And my dad is weird about stuff like that, I remember him working with a speech therapist when I was younger to work on his accent. If you listen closely sometimes you can hear it, I hear it all the time."

"Hm..." I respond. I wonder what that family business really was considering his uncle's current profession. Does this mean Mr. Ricci was a criminal at some point in his life, is he still one? I think back to their interaction at the charity gala, it explains so much.

"What do you mean 'hm'." He jokes.

"Just ... surprised. Didn't expect all of that."

"Well you wanted me and all that came with and now you got it." He bends down and kisses me on top of my head. I smile at the truth behind his words.

We walk around the aquarium until it closes. Jacob truly does love it here, he could tell you facts about almost any animal in here even if you didn't ask to begin with. I've never seen him this excited about anything, neither of us wanted to leave. He bought me a hot chocolate on our way out and now we're back in the car. I'm back to looking at the tall buildings and busy streets, enjoying the chaos.

"Where to now?" I ask adjusting my seatbelt.

"Well we have a vacation house near Meschutt beach, it's a bit of a drive but not too far. Unless you want to go back home." He drives with one hand on the wheel, his phone in the other despite the many times I've told him not to text and drive. My mouth falls open at how nonchalant he mentions this.

"You have a beach house in the fucking Hamptons?"

"I know how it sounds but like, is that a yes?" He says still shifting his eyes between his phone and the road.

"Of course I want to go." I conceal my excitement. "Are we staying over night then, 'cause I don't have anything to change into."

"I mean I wouldn't mind if you wore nothing." He finally stops putting my life at risk to look over at me with a mischievous smile. My heart rate spikes momentarily.

I have never spent the night with Jacob, I've never spent the night with a guy. My nerves are all over the place, especially considering I wasn't prepared for this.

"You think you're so funny."

"We can stop somewhere. Even though I'm pretty sure I have old clothes somewhere in there that you can wear. They're too small for me by now even though they'll probably be too big for you."

"Then what are you gonna wear?"

"I have clothes in here, but I could wear nothing if you would like." He looks over at me again, taunting me. He knows I wouldn't mind. I recline the seat and turn as far over as I'm able to.

"Wake me up when we're there!" He chuckles.

• • •

"It should not be that hard to wake you up." Jacob steps out of the car.

I look in the sun visor mirror, adjusting the scarf tied around my hair. Making sure my curls didn't fall, this roller set cost too much for it to be gone after a few days. I step out of the car shortly after him.

I take in the large estate, my eyes widen at the sight. The sound of the waves from the beach that is only a short walk away fills up the atmosphere. I slowly step out of the car, wrapping my arms around myself. It's nighttime now.

He unlocks the door, turning the light on once we step inside. It's nice but pretty empty, cold. You can tell no one lives here full time. There's a large brown sectional couch, a light brown wood tiled floor, white walls, a dusty large flatscreen tv. A sliding glass door with a white see-through curtain, you can see the large pool outside even though it's covered.

"I'm gonna go turn the heat on. You can sit anywhere." I watch him walk away, through the large hallways until he disappears.

Sit anywhere. I hate vague instructions.

I pull my sleeves over my hands, it's really fucking cold in here. I walk through the same dark hallway I saw Jacob go down, feeling the walls for a light switch. Once I find it I look around the hallway, family pictures hang everywhere. Pictures of Jacob as a kid catch my attention, he looks so innocent. If I didn't know him I would never think it was even possible for him to have ever been that small. I take a picture of it on my phone and walk into the kitchen at the end of the hall.

The kitchen isn't that big compared to the one at the Ricci house, but it's still bigger than the one at my house. I open the fridge but the only thing in there are some water bottles and ketchup. The cabinets and pantry weren't much better; I only see pasta noodles, salt, and cans of tomato sauce. There's also a box of cereal on the top shelf of the pantry, I'm pretty sure no one should eat it.

I open the drawers, finding napkins and random tools. In the drawer next to it I see more pictures, it's Jacob as a kid again, a younger Mr. Ricci who's looks I'm not even going to comment on, a woman with dark hair, and the man I just found out was his uncle. I'm going to assume the woman is his mom, and seeing both of his parents in this picture explains how someone can be that attractive. I shut the drawer when I hear a door.

"Do I even need to give you a tour since you're just wandering around?" He jokes.

"I wanted to see the house. You left me by myself."

"I know." He kisses me and walks back to the living room, I follow him.

"What do you do here when it's cold?" I ask noticing that there isn't much besides the beach and pool. He takes off his jacket and shoes, walking up the stairs. Feeling out of place I do the same. We walk into a room once we reach upstairs, it looks like it belongs to a teenage boy. When is the last time he was here?

"Do you just not change your rooms?" He chuckles, taking off his shirt. Fuckkk. I sit my jacket and shoes down along with my purse on his bed.

"Nope. Haven't stayed here in a few years so there really is no point. You can sleep in here if you want though, we have guest rooms I could use."

I don't say anything else, just sit on the king sized bed. Later on he cooks something for us to eat, I'm assuming he stopped at the store on our way here. He shows me the basement where there's a movie room, we decide to do that since it's getting late anyways.

• • •