Page 1 of A Girl and HER Prince
Chapter One
Monday, August 20th
The music of lutes and drums and pipes filled the sizzling hot air rich with the scent of savory roasted lamb, basil, oregano, and feta cheese… and Livvy was hungry, wasn’t she?
“Where will we eat?” she asked her friend. They’d just gotten off the boat and strolled down the pier with their luggage while Livvy’s stomach tried to eat itself. There were plenty of places to go—the Skopelos town located on the island of the same name had red-roofed structures from the coast, climbing up the mountain, with restaurants everywhere the eye could see.
“Just a sec,” Deedee said. “It’s all planned. Just you wait!” She lifted her camera phone to take a dozen more selfies. Livvy’s best friend was a gorgeous, statuesque redhead, and her job was to blast her good looks to the world… literally, that was her job. Deedeelicious was a TalkieTalk influencer—that meant that she got to take trips like these on the regularandfor free… as long as she found the right sponsors.
Her friend giggled and flipped her long red hair this way and that.
Livvy’s stomach complained at the delay. She set down her baggage heavily on the planks of the dock.They’d documented their boat ride to the island already.This obsessive picture-taking isn’t about work anyway—it was time for a break. Livvy waved over at her beautiful friend to interrupt the impromptu photoshoot. “Didn’t you say we were done with pictures for the day?”
“Ha!” Deedee rearranged her hair over her shoulders, like that had been the thing to ruin her previous shots. “I meant we were done taking pictures of theboat!” Her gleaming eyes went to a superyacht in the distance as it also neared the port, like she’d start capturing that too.
Livvy should’ve known that they’d be experiencing Greece through the lens of a camera—sharing their holiday with the world was the price for an all-expense-paid trip. Livvy wouldn’t have minded as much, except Deedee trying to make her ex jealous with how much fun she was having was the worst way to heal her friend’s broken heart.
Livvy stepped back on the flat heels of her sandals to get a good look at her surroundings. They were a feast of colors to her artistic eye. “This is spectacular, Deedee! Take a moment to just let this sink in.”
Her friend laughed at her. “What do you think I’m doing?”
“Yes, but… really look at it!” Livvy had never really ventured far from her hometown of Sacramento, California, let alone gone anywhere overseas, and now they were on the vacation of her dreams. She’d grown up on tales of Persephone and Hades, Poseidon—all the tales of Greek gods and mythological heroes she’d read about in her Easy Read books, and then finally found in her father’s library.
Her father had been a teacher of history. Livvy’s brothers were always too much into sports to care about his literary interests, but her father found a kindred spirit in Livvy. He’d been more than happy to share everything he knew with his only daughter. He’d named her Lavinia, after all, the supposed Greek ancestress of all Latin countries.
And now she was finally here! Strangely, she’d always thought she’d experience this with him, but after he’d passed away, she’d brushed off any thought of visiting the place, the same as she’d brushed away her sorrows of missing him.
But now she could really feel—not just how much she wished her father could be here with her, and not just the wistfulness of realizing her dreams, but just feeling the beauty of this place. She’d never truly seen blues this blue or greens this green. The price for this, unfortunately, was this wind and humidity.
And August was supposed to be the Mediterranean’s driest season?
It didn’t have to rain here for Livvy to feel sopping wet. Her dark hair curled around her neck as she reached for her sunscreen and began applying another round to her throat and face. She’d seen enough purpling tourists to know that would be her fate if she didn’t keep up with this.
Deedee was a redhead, so she had to be extra careful. Livvy handed the bottle to her friend who absentmindedly rubbed the white lotion into her shoulders.
“I don’t know about you,” Livvy said, trying again to interest her friend in eating, “but I’m starving, and don’t those gyros smell divine?”
Deedee nodded and went back to taking more selfies. “I’m definitely going to need you to touch up these photos after we’re done. My hair is too windblown after that boat ride.”
Livvy steeled herself for the long night ahead. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be squinting down at her laptop for hours in a quaint hotel meant for paradise. She was Deedee’s multimedia graphic designer, who made Deedee look flawless in all her footage. That’s how the two had met.
Only later did they bond over their love for all the Chrises in Hollywood. And yeah, that was where their similarities ended, and still their differences only seemed to complement the other. Livvy was Deedee’s anchor, and Deedee showed Livvy how to fly. She’d even taken Livvy under her wing,as she said, to experience the trip of a lifetime. It was the one time Deedee wasn’t dating someone, and so she was out of travel buddies. Livvy was more than happy to comply, for a lot of reasons, but the tip of the iceberg had to do with Deedee’s watering eyes when she’d asked her. Deedee was reeling from the breakup of a lifetime.
“Eat your heart out, Venice!” Deedee told her camera phone, as if on cue. “You ready for this?”
Livvy’s heart hurt for her friend. This wasn’t some ordinary breakup. As an influencer, Deedee had the chance to meet all sorts of famous celebrities and brush elbows with the rich and famous at parties where no normal person would be invited.
But people didn’t date “The Chrises,” as Livvy had once tried to explain to Deedee when she came dancing into the office after a night of flirting with some of these high-end players. No man could possibly live up to how Hollywood portrayed the glittering magic of their personalities.
Sure, Deedee could enjoy the flattery, but really long-lasting relationships depended on a man who was more down to earth, one who could commit, who was more grounded. Real!
Livvy thought that Deedee agreed with her until, disastrously, her friend had gone a step further from a Chris and fallen for a prince! He was a triple threat with elegant manners, a devilish smile, and a sultry British accent! It didn’t matter how much Livvy had tried to warn her about possible heartbreak, Deedee had put the charming royal high on a pedestal—too high—the fall Deedee took back to reality after they broke up was a doozy.
And now it was becoming painfully clear that this trip was to show Venice Mnon of the Tyndarian Royaltyexactlywhat he was missing. “You’ll be sorry you dumped me,” Deedee muttered through a beautiful red-lipped smile.
Livvy’s heart sank. These were familiar words. Revenge was all Deedee talked about. And when she wasn’t bringing up the prince to Livvy, she was doing it to her fans online, and then Livvy had to edit all her videos to make her seem a little less desperate, a little less obsessed.
The trick was making Deedee seem outrageously happy with her newfound freedom, not like the ravenous shark that got tossed back into the water because she wasn’t the luscious trout the prince thought she was.
