"Can we drink the water?"

Harry distracts my staring at the Trevi Fountain. I'm so in awe of it. I could look at it forever. But Harry's question makes my brows furrow.

"I don't think so. And even if we could, I don't think it's that clean." I don't see litter in the water but Rome is full of tourists on any given day and who knows what they've thrown in there.

"It looks clean." Harry's eyes focus on it.

"Drink if you want then."

Merriment flickers on his face and he suggests, "What if you drink it?"

"Why would I do that?"

"You've only been working. Take a break." He raises his eyebrows. "Do something fun."

"I'm not here to have fun. We agreed on working."

I'm really not here to be friends with him. I told him that. I'm only here so that I could have some pictures ready if a job comes along or if I exhibit them somewhere else. I don't have friends but I do know a lot of people who will be willing to let me display my photography. That's why I wanted to go to that opening in Japan so the owner and I could do business together for a while.

"Not even if I dare you?"

"What?" I laugh unconvincingly. "Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not." He folds his arms, then gestures to the water. "Unless you don't have the guts."

"Guts are all I have, Harry." I fix my glare on him.

One thing about me is that I never turn down a dare. If someone dares me to do something, you bet your ass I'll do it.

"Then do it." He raises his eyebrows challengingly.

Motherfucker. I look at the water and then back at him. Then I look around for a guard or someone who might see me. There are a few but they don't seem to notice me.

"If I get caught, it's on you." I bend down in front of the water and pretend to be taking a picture with my camera. With my camera in one hand, I slowly extend the other one and as fast as I can, I pull it closer to my mouth and drink it.

It doesn't taste bad or good. It's tasteless. Nobody noticed me doing that so I do it again.

"Cosa stai facendo?" A security guard yells and I drop my hand.

"Run!" I scream at Harry as I pick up my camera and run as fast as I can.

He runs after me and soon we're both running like crazy. The guard is still yelling and I can hear him approaching.

"Run faster, Harry!"

"Why are we even running?!"

"We'll get fined, idiot!"

"Shit!"

We sprint faster not knowing where we're going. We run on the streets I've never seen before.

"How do people do this in movies?" He bellows. "I keep tripping over things and people aren't getting out of the way!"

"We picked the wrong city to run away from a guard!" Rome is full of tourists almost all the time and that's why there are so many people even in small alleys.

"I don't think I hear him chasing us anymore!" Harry shouts, still darting beside me.

I stop for a second to confirm and Harry stops too. I look behind me just as Harry looks ahead to check if we're still being followed from both directions.

"We outran him," I say, out of breath.

Harry is breathing heavily and we stand with our backs against a wall, trying to respire steadily. When we finally catch our breath, he breaks out in a laugh.

"That was crazy." Our heads still rest against the wall but I turn mine to look at him, eyes glinting as always. I couldn't help but laugh a little myself.

"You're a real actress. Pretending to take a picture like that and then drinking." He chuckles, impressed.

"Had to make it believable," I say. "This is the first time I got caught doing something like that though. I never get caught. I'm blessed with having the skills for being sneaky."

A blissful memory enters my mind. When we were kids, Muskaan and I used to sneak out late at night and ring doorbells of the entire neighborhood. There were a lot of stupid things we did. Like we once set the kitchen on fire while making only sausages. I didn't realize I was smiling until Harry says, "What are you smiling at?"

"Nothing," I wipe it as soon as it came.

"You rarely ever smile and when you do, it's kind of necessary for me to ask."

"Why, you don't like my natural resting bitch face?"

"That's very scary. I'm not sure I like it."

"Damn right it is." I let the scariness wash on my features once again, all smiles gone.

I move away from the wall and he takes it as a sign that I'm not going to tell him. Disclosing that information will give something of my life away and that will mean he knows something about me. Which will lead him to believe we might be friends. I start walking ahead and he joins me.

"I do know one thing about you." He puts his hands in his pockets and says exactly what I didn't want him to say. "Don't you think that makes us friends?"

I bargain. "Tell me the thing then I'll decide."

"You don't turn down a dare." He smirks.

"True," I affirm. "But knowing one thing doesn't make us friends. Also, we're-"

"Friends."

"Nope."

"Yup."

"Whatever."

He's impossible. I don't have to look at him to know he must be smiling. We're not friends. I repeat in my head to remind myself so that we never be.