"Do you really want to go?" Daisy asked doubtfully. "It sounds like things didn't go very well with his mother the last time you talked to her. And your dad's coming home in a couple of days, too."

"I actually do, mom. It would be good to get out of the city," Francie told her. "It's only for five days, and it's during break, so I wouldn't miss school, and the place is crawling with adults and classical musicians and stuff, so it's not like you'd have to worry about me, you know?"

The Wozniaks were going to a classical music retreat in the Adirondacks for five days, and had invited Francie to come along. Chester's father was a featured guest and would be performing and teaching some classes. Chester told Francie it was by way of an apology from his parents, specifically his mother, who would apologize in person when she saw her.

"She feels really bad for the way she spoke to you that day," he told her. "She was so upset because I was upset, and you know what they say about a parent only feeling as good as their least happy child. Well, that was obviously me that day, and she was in full, protective mama bear mode, you know?" He rubbed Francie's shoulder. "So please come. It's really nice, there will be lots of free time between all the boring seminars about music for walks in the woods and swimming in the lake, you know, real "Dirty Dancing" moments, very romantic." He raised his eyebrows in a very hilarious and endearing way. "Except I can't lift you over my head like Patrick Swayze did, I'll tell you in advance."

"Okay," Daisy said, pulling Francie back to the present. "Give me their number, and let me talk to Ms. Wozniak, and get the details, love. You can go. Dad will miss you home when he comes back, but he'll survive, I'm sure," she joked.

So Francie showed up bright and early at Chester's on the day of the trip will her pull case decorated with dahlias, and waited in the lobby for the Wozniaks to come down. Chester came first to keep her company.

"You look beautiful," he told her, leaning in to kiss her. "Like a little bit of sunshine with your hair and your smile and your pretty suitcase, honestly," and Francie felt like she'd hung the moon.

"You're very handsome, too," she told Chester, and he was. He was freshly showered, his hair and eyelashes extra curly, smelling incredible, his chest broad in his yellow polo shirt.

Her words made Chester smile, and this of course made him even more gorgeous to Francie. They held hands as the doorman watched them and smiled benevolently.

The elevator doors opened behind them. "You kids ready?" Mr. Wozniak asked, and Francie could tell he was smiling.

"Ready, dad," Chester answered.

"Yes, sir," Francie echoed, rising and grasping her pull case.

Five minutes later they were in the Wozniak's comfortable SUV and headed north on the West Side Highway, and Francie was smiling with the pleasure she always felt when beginning a car trip.

"First, Francie, let me get this out of the way," Ms. Wozniak began without preamble. "I spoke to you appallingly the last time you were in our home, and I'm very sorry about that." She twisted around so she could see Francie's face. "I was very upset, though that's no excuse for my words. I've spent my whole life protecting my son, and I was just doing what I always do. I know that he's growing up, and I can't do it forever. I also know that he doesn't need protecting from you, dear child. It was a knee jerk reaction, and a bad one at that. Please accept my apology if you can?" She put a hand on Francie's knee.

"Of course, ma'am, my mother would probably have reacted the same way if she thought someone were trying to hurt one of us," Francie reassured her. "I'm just so sorry this ugliness is happening at school, it's an awful situation."

Chester gave her a warning glance not to go into too much detail. His mother didn't know about a lot of the stuff that was happening, and he didn't want her to, the look said.

"It sounds like you're bearing a lot of that as well, though, so I'm sorry for both of you," Ms. Wozniak said. "Teenagers can be so cruel."

"We'll be all right as long as we can count on each other," Francie assured the older woman. "Teenagers also get bored easily, so they'll probably move on to something else pretty soon."

"Let's hope so, because this is getting really old," Mr. Wozniak interjected from the driver's seat.

"Agreed," Chester said, kissing Francie's knuckles.

A few hours of beautiful scenery later, they arrived at the resort in the mountains, where Mr. Wozniak, as the featured speaker, had his very own cabin.

"Wow, look how pretty everything is!" Francie declared. The mountains were in the full flush of spring, with every shade of green imaginable as far as the eye could see. The cabin was at the end of a private road surrounded by old growth evergreens and pretty landscaping made to look like a natural part of the surrounding woods. "This is the one thing we don't have much of in the city, isn't it?"

Chester found her enthusiasm charming, and knew his parents did too.

"So the cabin only has two bedrooms," Sharon Wozniak apologized. "We thought that Francie, you could take the other bedroom and Chester could sleep on the foldout sofa bed, right?"

Chester nodded. "Of course, no problem. We're busy all day, anyway, all we do here is sleep, right?"

"Exactly," Sharon said. "You can keep your things in Francie's room and share her bathroom, and just sleep out here, if she doesn't mind?"

"Of course not," Francie agreed immediately.

"Wonderful, so that's all sorted out. There's a welcome luncheon in about an hour and a half, so let's get unpacked and head over there, okay?"

"Sounds good."

Chester told Francie that the welcome luncheon was garden party dressy, so Francie put on a light blue sundress and sandals, knowing it brought out her eyes. She wanted Chester, and therefore his family, to be proud of her.

Chester himself was wearing a light blue linen shirt with a matching tie, so they complemented each other very nicely, she thought.

"Wow," was all he said, but she could tell he thought she looked good, and she was happy. "You're going to be the prettiest girl in the whole place," he whispered as they were walking toward the main building, and Francie felt like she could fly if she wanted to.

They walked into a large room full of tables with linen and crystal, and the soft clinking of cutlery. They were escorted to a table and seated with four other people much like them, an older couple, and two teens.

"Marty, Pauline, how are you?" Mr. Wozniak spoke with familiarity, reaching out to shake hands with the man and kiss the woman on the cheek.

"Francie, this is Mr. and Ms. Levine, and their children, Holden and Nadine," he said, gesturing. They looked like each other, good-looking and dark haired. Francie could tell Holden was giving her more than a friendly look, and she knew Chester could tell, too, when she felt his arm around her waist as they sat. "Mr. Levine is in charge of the entire retreat."

"Everyone, this Francie Santangelo, Chester's girlfriend," Ben continued, putting a hand on Francie's shoulder, and even Francie could hear the pride in his voice. She was glad, for this one time in her life she didn't mind being on display; she could tell Mr. Wozniak was enjoying showing off his son's beautiful girlfriend to all and sundry. She had a feeling no one at the table thought this day would ever come, and she was proud to play the part for them.

As the adults chatted, Holden leaned forward, his arm across his sister's chair. "Say, are you related to Pete Santangelo? You don't look anything like him, but he has a shitload of daughters, I remember. Are you one of them?"

Francie smiled. "I am, I'm the second one. I have an older sister, two younger ones, and a younger brother as well."

Holden leaned back in his seat, perfect teeth gleaming. "Chester you gimpy old dog, you! How'd you score this shiksa goddess, hm?"

Nadine slapped at his shoulder. "Holden, you're so rude!" She shook her shiny dark hair back and leaned forward. "I'm sorry for my brother's manners, Francie, he's such a boor, he thinks because he's handsome he can get away with anything, you know the type?"

Francie just looked at her with a neutral expression, not sure how to respond. If their father was in charge of the retreat, that made him an important person, and she definitely didn't want to offend him. Or his children.

"So we have some fun things planned for the younger set in between all the seminars and performances and workshops and stuff," Holden said casually, looking back and forth between Chester and Francie. "You two in?"

"Well, we've been under a lot of stress at school, so we were hoping to spend some time alone, you know?" Chester answered, putting his arm around Francie's shoulder. "Romantic walks, swimming in the lake, evenings by the fire, stuff like that?" He rubbed Francie's shoulder for emphasis.

"Right." Holden stared at Chester's hand where it rested on Francie's bare shoulder. "Well, that's the kind of stuff I was talking about, old dog. Night time swims in the lake with a bon fire on the beach, hikes in the woods, all that good stuff." He smiled. "Come on, all the young people are participating. Like old times, you know."

"Please say you'll come," Nadine chimed in. "The more the merrier."

And Mr. Levine, who had apparently been listening, said, "Aww, go on, Chester, don't be a stick in the mud. Show your young lady how the younger crowd lets their hair down here at Mount Rosen. You don't have to worry about missing anything informative, Holden has only planned activities for when it's adults only seminars, haven't you, son?" He ruffled Holden's hair affectionately.

"You know it, dad," Holden responded. "I wouldn't want to miss any of the workshops. They're the reason I came, after all."

Francie was beginning to find Holden creepy in the extreme.

"Me too, dad," Nadine added. "I can hardly wait for our time with Mr. Wozniak, his fretwork is amazing."

And Nadine wasn't much better.

Chester leaned in and pressed a kiss to Francie's temple.

"We'll see. Like I said, we don't get a lot of time to ourselves, and we were really looking forward to a quiet few days."

"We'll let you know, though," Francie said, taking Chester's hand and rubbing it on her leg.

Again, Holden's eyes were drawn to the motion.

Creepy.

Just then, their food arrived, and everyone, and everyone fell to, eating the beautifully prepared meals with enthusiasm.

Francie watched Holden eye the waiter, wondering what was up. When he came by to ask how their meal was, Holden asked him a question about how the food was prepared. Francie could tell from his accent that the waiter was Italian; she could even tell that he was from Tuscany, her father's part of Italy, and that his English wasn't very strong. What was more, she knew that Holden knew this as well, and was messing with the waiter for some reason.

"So can you tell me please how this was prepared?" he repeated, flicking his eyes to his sister. The adults at the table were growing embarrassed, but no one was stopping him, though Francie wondered why not. What purpose was being served by this? The waiter was in obvious agony by his lack of language skills, trying to explain in his very limited English how the cutlet had been prepared.

Holden looked around the table. "What? Don't you think they should hire staff who can communicate in the most elementary way with the clientele?"

Enough.

Francie asked the waiter in Italian how the cutlet was prepared. The waiter, Matteo, whirled to her in palpable relief and let loose an absolute barrage of Italian, telling her in minutest detail how the filet was prepared, dredged, and fried, what kind of oil was used, and how it was dressed.

Francie translated, using her cutlery to gesture  at her plate and emphasize her points.

"Grazie tanto, Signorina," Matteo said with sincerity when she finished.

"Niente, Matteo," Francie told him, beaming.

She looked around the table, her eyes landing on Holden as she put a bite of the cutlet she'd been talking about in her mouth. "Any other questions?"

It was as if a gauntlet had been thrown down.