Page 10 of Royal Extra After

“It appears we do,” Benson said, not looking thrilled about it.

“Oh, wait, my hat,” Ned called out after her.

The princess took off Ned’s black baseball hat and waved it at him. “We can talk about it at dinner.” She then quickly put his hat back on, grinning.

“Princess, you still need to call the king and queen and tell them about this. You promised,” Benson said in a stern tone.

“Well, it’s too late to call them now. They’re sleeping,” the princess replied. “But I will call first thing in the morning. Now, let’s plan our dinner. I want everything to be perfect…”

“Your plan for the princess isn’t going to work,” Ned told Gary as soon as he returned to the movie trailers.

“What do you mean the plan isn’t going to work?” Gary asked. “We’re all set. I have my media sources ready to run with the story of how we have a real live princess as a consultant on our movie. She’s a real looker, too. That’s going to really grab some attention. You should see her in the pictures. We just need to cut her bodyguard out. That guy barely left her side.”

“Pictures? What pictures?” Ned demanded, shocked. “I told you we couldn’t take any pictures of her.”

Gary laughed. “I thought you just meant in front of her. That’s why I had my guys use their telephoto lens so they were far enough away she couldn’t see them.” Gary, excited, got out his phone and showed some pictures of the princess to Ned. “The photographer sent these to me already. Amazing, right?”

Ned felt sick to his stomach seeing the shots of the princess looking carefree and smiling. She was waving his baseball hat, surrounded by some actors. It made him feel even worse that she looked so happy, like she’d just won the lottery.

“See,” Gary said, grinning like a kid at Christmas. “Everyone’s going to eat this up!”

“No, they’re not,” Ned said emphatically as he took Gary’s phone and started deleting all the photos of the princess. “I gave her my word. No pictures. Period.”

Gary grabbed back his phone. “Ned, what are you doing?! What is wrong with you? We only invited her here so she could help us get press for our movie.”

“That might have been the original plan, sure, but she really made a big difference with all her insights today. Our movie is going to be a lot better because of her.”

“Great,” Gary said. “It’s a success story…”

“But we’re not using any photos of her or telling the press,” Ned interrupted. “We don’t need to plaster her picture all over the press. Our movie will speak for itself.”

Gary’s eyes widened. “You like this girl!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ned said quickly as he turned his back on Gary to open his trailer door. He didn’t want Gary to see the truth, that he was right. He didn’t know how it happened so quickly. One minute he thought the princess was a giant pain, and the next, he found himself wanting to know everything about her. He’d never met anyone like her before. It wasn’t because she was a princess. It was because she was smart, funny, and feisty. She was everything he never knew he wanted.

But Gary wasn’t letting up. He followed him into the trailer. “I saw the way you two were looking at each other. The way you were laughing and flirting. Be real. What do you think is going to happen here, Ned? Do you think you two are going to ride off into the sunset together? That only happens in the movies, buddy. Get a grip. She’s a princess. She’s leaving to go back home. Stop acting like a hormonal high schooler. We have to focus on wrapping up this movie. We’ve both sunk a lot of money into this. Our careers are on the line.”

Ned turned and locked eyes with Gary. “I mean it, Gary, no pictures. No press. Got it?”

The two men stared each other down.

“Got it,” Gary finally said before storming off.

***

An hour later, when Ned was leaving the set to meet up with the princess, he ran into Simone.

“Where are you going so fast?” she asked.

“I’m meeting Izzy for dinner,” Ned said, instantly regretting his words when he saw Simone’s smile fade.

“Izzy?” she asked.

Ned heard the jealousy in Simone’s tone and knew he needed to pivot fast. Even though they weren’t dating anymore, Simone was still possessive of him, and he couldn’t afford to upset his star actor now.

“It’s the princess’s nickname,” Ned offered nonchalantly. “It’s a working dinner. We need to go over some last-minute things. Have I told you how amazing you were today?”

Simone’s expression softened. “Yes, but you can tell me again.”

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