I had moved from Ireland to New York one year ago, when I was nineteen. I'd came to study at university, or college as Americans called it.

A few months after I arrived I met Matteo, a drop dead gorgeous, Italian-American. We'd been going strong for nearly a year now.

I worried for Matteo sometimes, he never outright told me, but it was clear that he was high up in one of the Mafia families. He'd come home late, or not come home at all, those nights were the worst.

Today there was a wedding in the family and of course I went with Matteo and the rest of the large family.

The reception was outside on luscious green grass and I was sitting beside Matteo, waiting to be served dessert. A pure white tablecloth covered the table and there was a white canopy nearby.

Everyone around me was wearing fancy outfits, the men were in smart suits and the women were in beautiful dresses.

I was wearing a long blue dress, which I'd had from my school formal. Many people had complimented me on it.

"Are you enjoying your first wedding over here?" Matteo asked as he looked at me.

"Yeah, it's not very different to the weddings back home."

Matteo ran his hand through his black hair, which was in a perfect quiff style, not a strand out of place.

"Although there's a lot more people." I giggled.

"Yeah, our family is big."

"You got that right." Paulie nodded.

Paulie was Matteo's uncle, he was in his fifties maybe, although his hair was still dark brown.

"Hopefully you'll be part of it someday." Paulie said as he looked at me.

My eyes widened, I hadn't expected him to suggest marriage. I wanted to get married at some point and have kids, but I didn't even know if I wanted to live in America permanently.

"Jesus, we've been together less than a year and you're saying we should get married. I'm only twenty-five you know, a bit young to be thinking about marriage." Matteo shook his head.

"You listen up." Paulie shook his finger at Matteo. "I got married when I was twenty and I'm still happily married."

"We are." Marie said. She put her arms around Paulie and kissed his cheek.

Marie tucked her long, curly brown hair behind her ear and went back to talking to her friend, Mia.

"You need to get married before you're old and fat like me." Paulie said as he patted his stomach. "It'd be a lot harder to find a decent woman."

I definitely wanted be married by the time I was twenty-five, but I didn't know how realistic that hope was.

"Roisin here is a lovely woman, you'd be lucky to have her as your wife."

A blush burned through my cheeks, I thought Paulie was sweet, but I really didn't want Matteo to feel pressured. It wasn't like I wanted to marry him now anyway.

"Thank you, but I think it's a bit soon for marriage."

"See!" Matteo exclaimed as he threw his arms downwards.

The wedding cake was served, it had white icing with salmon pink edible flowers on it. I just hoped the cake would taste as good as it looked.

I lifted a piece on the fork and put it in my mouth. The icing was sugary and I could taste the sweet chocolate, I loved the taste.

"I love desserts." I smiled.

"Oh, I do too. They're my favourite part of weddings, but keep that between us." Paulie chuckled.

"Of course." I replied with a nod.

"My favourite part is when the whole thing's over." Matteo rolled his eyes.

"Aww, no. It's great seeing people who love each other get married and then there's the food and socialising." I said.

"I find it boring, I've been to too many weddings."

I continued eating the delicious cake, ignoring what Matteo had said, I didn't need that kind of negativity on a happy day.

"I'm on Roisin's side, weddings are beautiful." Paulie smiled.

"They're not for me." Matteo replied with a shake of his head.

My chocolate cake was finished within minutes, it was great but very filling. I didn't think I could eat another bite.

"Did you like the cake?" Matteo asked and he looked at me.

"Yeah, it was good." I nodded.

"I just hope it won't make you fat." Matteo rolled his eyes.

I folded my arms. "Whatever."

I hated when Matteo said stuff like that, it was rude. I just tried to ignore him when he acted like that, otherwise we could get into an argument which I didn't want.

Slow music came on, it must be time for the first dance. The bride and groom went onto the dance floor and started slow dancing. I smiled, thinking of how wonderful it would be to get married to a man I loved.

I felt my heart begin to race when I saw him, The Don, The Godfather, The Boss. He was Antonio Vitale. The youngest of the mafia bosses at thirty-three years old.

His black hair was neatly slicked back as usual and he was in a powerful grey suit with a white shirt and grey tie.

He was walking straight towards us. My palms were sweaty. I felt intimidated by Antonio, even though I'd met him a few times and he'd always been charming.

I looked away from him and other people were getting up to dance.

"We should dance." I said as I reached out and held Matteo's hand.

"I don't dance." Matteo shook his head.

"Aww, come on. Please, for me."

"No, I'm not dancing."

"You aren't going to dance with your woman?" Antonio asked.

My hear skipped a beat, I looked round and saw Antonio standing just behind Paulie. He had a stern look and I hoped I hadn't just got Matteo in trouble.

"Tony, you know me, I never dance."

Antonio preferred people to call him Tony, he seemed quite informal, maybe it was because he was younger than the other bosses.

"Well, in that case, Roisin, would you like to dance with me?" Tony looked at me.

My heart was beating even faster and my cheeks felt hot, my whole body was sweating.

"Uh, sure."

I might as well take the chance, I wanted to dance at my first Italian wedding and who gets to say they danced with a mafia boss?

I pushed my thin, blue glasses up the bridge of my nose and stood up. Tony walked over and we went to the dance floor. Tony held his hand out and I took it, I rested my other hand on his shoulder and he put his hand on my waist.

We swayed in time to the music and did a few simple steps. Just don't mess up and step on his foot or trip, that would be mortifying.

"You look beautiful, I like what you did with your hair." Tony said as he smiled.

"Thank you."

My blonde hair was normally down, either straight or curly, but today I'd put it in a fishtail plait. I thought it was sweet that Tony mentioned it, most guys wouldn't notice a difference in my hair.

"Have you been enjoying the wedding?"

"Yeah, it's been good." I replied with a nod.

"Is Matteo treating you right?"

If I said the wrong thing Tony might have Matteo killed, or whacked as they called it.

"Uh, I'd say so." I looked up at Tony.

Tony was very tall, over six foot, it was good for me because I was five foot seven and a lot of guys seemed short to me.

Thankfully Matteo was over six foot as well, I'd much prefer to date someone taller than me.

"Good, if he bothers you at all then you let me know and I'll deal with him."

"Alright."

I didn't think I would ever talk to Tony if Matteo was bothering me, I'd hate myself if I caused someone to be killed.

"How's that psychology course going?"

"It's good, I find it pretty interesting."

Tony chuckled, "Are you going to go about analysing everyone?"

There were a lot of people dancing around us, but I barely noticed them, all my attention was on Tony.

"Oh, I don't think I'm that good at it." I replied as I shook my head. "Although it does help me understand some things more. Like if someone doesn't like another person it could be because they see something in that person that they don't like about themselves."

"That's an interesting way of looking at it. I'm not sure how accurate it is though."

"I don't know, it's just what the textbooks say. I do learn some really weird stuff, like Freud's theories, like being in love with the parent of the opposite gender."

"That does sound pretty messed up." Tony nodded. "Are you hoping to be a psychologist?"

"Yeah, that would be ideal."

"Good luck with it."

"Thanks." I said with a smile.

The music came to an end and a more upbeat song came on. I let go of Tony and he kept hold of my hand.

"Thank you for the dance." Tony said and he raised my hand and kissed it.

"Oh, thank you to you too." I giggled and my cheeks felt hot.

Tony let go of my hand and I walked back and sat with Matteo.

I found it hard to believe that Tony was so friendly and seemingly normal, considering he was the boss and he ordered for probably tons of people to be killed. He even seemed nicer than Matteo, I thought it'd be the other way round.

"What were you talking about with Tony?" Matteo asked with his arms folded.

"He just asked how I was getting on with everything and we talked a bit about my course."

"Good, don't say the wrong thing around him."

"I won't." I replied as I shook my head.

I wondered if Matteo meant don't say the wrong thing in case he gets hurt or worse killed or if he meant I'd be in danger. I hoped he didn't mean the latter.

Sometimes I feared for my safety, but it wasn't like I could leave Matteo, he'd probably come looking for me. The others probably wouldn't care if I left as long as I didn't give any information to the police. I would never snitch, it'd be too dangerous and there was no good reason for me to do it. I knew one of the worst things to do was to grass on the mob.