Page 119 of Nobody in Particular

“Well, that’s true,” she allows. “Finding out I’m the future mother-in-law to the future queen is kind of a bomb-drop of its own.”

“Please don’t call yourself her future mother-in-law when she gets here,” I say in despair.

“Of course I won’t, Danni. Why don’t you trust me not to embarrass you?”

“Because you’re alwaysembarrassing me.”

“Name one time!”

I am about to do just that, when there’s a knock on my door. Finally, finally. I lunge for it, and let Rose in, throwing my arms around her as I do.

“Hey,” I babble. “Are you okay? What did they say? Did they say what happens now? Are youokay?”

She extracts herself from my arms, laughing. “Hold on, one second, one second.” Straightening, she turns to Mom and holds out a hand. “Hi, I’m Rose.”

Mom pulls Rose into a tight hug, and Rose lets out anoofas she does. “Hi, Rose,” she says. “It’s just wonderful to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, too,” Rose says. She’s giving my mom a toothy grin, so wide her chin is dimpling. She catches me looking at her, and her eyebrows go up, like she’s asking if I can believe she’s meeting my mom—my mom, who knows about us. Honestly, I’m not sure I can.

“Your parents?” I nudge her, and she snaps out of her happy bubble.

“Yes.” She searches for the words, but she doesn’t seem to find them. In the end she just sighs and shakes her head. “It’ll be fine.”

Mom might not know Rose at all, but like that’s ever stopped herfrom giving an opinion. “I watched your speech online,” she says in a serious voice. “You did very well. It can be hard to be a good parent when your child does something you don’t think is right for them. They just want you to be happy. When they realize this is what you really want, they will be so proud of you. Anyone would be lucky to have a daughter like you.”

Rose looks touched, but a little pensive. “Thank you.”

Well, as much as I’m enjoying their meeting, I’m dying to talk to Rose one-on-one. We haven’t had a chance to all day, and it’s been ahellof a day. So, I start shoving Mom out of the room, as warmly and lovingly as I can. She goes, but not before making Rose promise to come over for dinner during the break. And making her promise to look after me.Andgiving her her number, while making her promise to contact her if I ever need her and I’m too stubborn to reach out. By the time she finally leaves, I’m feeling less like Rose is my girlfriend, and more like she’s my mom’s spy on the inside.

Finally, we’re alone. Rose basically melts into a puddle as soon as the door’s closed, leaning her whole body weight against my desk and linking her fingers behind her neck.

“Well,” she says. “Today’s a very different day than yesterday.”

“That’s one way to put it,” I say, leaning against the door as a barricade, like Mom’s gonna try to burst back in any second to keep making Rose promise stuff. “Do you know if Alfie’s seen it all yet?” I ask, and she winces.

“Right. I forgot to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Hmm. Well, to summarize, he’s the one who outed us to my family last year, he ignited the online rumors, and he leaked the video of you and Harriet, so he could get his mother to expel you… so he and William could convince me to marry him.”

It’s just about the last thing I expected her to say. “What?”

“I know.”

“No, seriously,what?”

Rose touches her fingertips to her lips. “Alfie,” she says, “doesn’t matter anymore. You matter. And I’ve been meaning to ask you, what would you like to do with the press? Regarding us?”

At first, I don’t understand what she’s asking me. Then, it clicks, and I forget all about Alfie. “You mean, you’d be okay with telling them about us?” I ask.

“Danni, I have been wanting to stand on a podium and scream it to everybody who will listen since day one. If I could have, I would have. And now I can. But if we tell them about us, you will be a part of this. There will be more attention. Those photographers at the ice rink, and at the palace? They will become a part of your daily life. Bramppath is a bubble, but we won’t be here forever.” She takes my hands. “If you don’t want that, I understand. We can spin a story. If we do tell the world, there will be hate, and some of it will be directed at you. Some people will be furious about us.”

So much has changed. Gradually, so gradually I barely noticed it happen, my anonymity has been slipping away. I’m not who I was when I first arrived here. I’m the person who can play piano to a crowded room, and a person who the paparazzi know by name, and a person who has stood in front of the country and revealed some of the most private parts of myself. I’m somebody strangers do double-takes at on the street. I’m somebody they write essays about online. And, yeah, I’m somebody lots of strangers hate. But I think I’m also somebody even more strangers kind of like. I’m Danni Blythe, and I’m a future concert pianist, and Rose’s current girlfriend, and I’m still a student at Bramppath College because I stopped fearing the idea that people might perceive me.

Who knows? If Rose never gets tired of me, I could even be the queen consort one day. If they let her become queen, that is. And if they don’t, maybe a future version of me could be the wife of Rose the not-queen.

There’s nothing scary about any of that to me. Not anymore. The only thing I feel is excited to get started.

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