Page 88 of Prince Charmless
I swallow. “He threatened to out you.”
Taylor nods. “Four years ago, I met Jamie at this fundraiser event we were both attending. He accused me of sneaking glances at him the whole night, which I denied, even though it might have been a bit true. Anyways, I got home and found hisnumber in my back pocket like the magic trick of some freaky sex wizard. Like, who even does that!” He takes his last sip of wine and gestures to himself while holding the empty cup. “And tomeof all people?”
“Did you call the number, Taylor?”
I don’t know why I’m asking. I know he did.
He puts the glass down in defeat. “Yeah, I called the number,” he mutters. “Long story short, we ended up having benefits on multiple occasions. One day, he asked if he could borrow some money, and I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore. I still don’t know how he ran out of cash. He’s a successful actor, but I guess he was being hounded by the government for not paying property tax on one of the homes he couldn’t afford. He said if I didn’t give him a certain amount, he would leak some videos of me to Twitter goblins and confirm our relationship.”
Videos? Like a sex tape? Is he that kinky?“What, um, what type of videos?”
“Oh, please.” He squints. “Security footage of me walking out of his house at night. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“So what did you do?”
“At first, it wasn’t that much, so I paid him right away, but he got greedy and kept asking for more and more. I paid him three times before telling anyone.”
“Who?”
“Alex. My plucky new assistant. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him to solve the problem or just make matters worse, but remarkably, he had everything fixed within days. Alex can be pretty scary when he needs to be. I think he threatened to sue him into oblivion. Jamie could’ve googled to see if the royal family ever sues individuals and found out that we never do. It’s bad publicity. But, he’s too stupid for that, of course.”
“I can’t fathom what I would do in that situation.”
Jamie’s the worst.
He twists the base of his wine glass. “Yeah. There were some sleepless nights in those months.”
“So who knows you’re—”
“Everyone knows. The whole staff at Clément Manor probably knows if they pay attention. It’s my family’s worst-kept secret.”
I’m curious how this information was taken by the royals, but I also don’t want to pry.
“Your family seems pretty traditional,” is what I hedge with.
“Yeah, but we’re all hypocrites. My family is more focused on image and the Crown’s longevity. When a guard caught me and the grandson of the deputy prime minister making out in, ironically, a closet at some benefit we were both bored out of our minds at, my dad was further confused when I told him I was in factnota friend of Dorothy and more her flakey acquaintance. He’s too old to understand the, uh, rainbow of sexual preference, as it were.”
“And your mom?”
“She decided to give me ‘the talk’ again. This time with updated and surprisingly well-researched information.” He laughs. “And she hugged me and probably said something saccharine about being yourself or whatever. I didn’t want to freak them out and cause a whole gay panic at the palace, so I said I would stick to girls from then on.”
“But you didn’t stick to girls.”
Taylor shrugs. “Whoops,” he says, obviously never intending to fulfill the promise. He leans forward. “The Crown has to be strong enough to handle some gossip. While my family might be annoyed with it, they and I both know the monarchy isn’t going to crumble and fall just because of some rumors. Hell, there’s been rumors about nobles having less-than-straight relationships since the dawn of time. And it’s easy to gain the trust of your family when they see your little brother as the wildchild. So far, I’ve been grandma’s good Catholic boy. They know I’m not someone who messes up, and I promised I’d have the whole marriage and kids thing handled. At the moment, that’s all they want from me.”
“And do you have the whole marriage and kids thing handled?” My voice drips with skepticism.
By Taylor’s smile, I can tell I already know the answer.
“It’s bound to happen at some point, eh? It’s, uh...fate?”
I scoff at his insincerity. “Oh, cut the shit, Taylor.Youbelieve in destiny?”
“I just don’t want to start a relationship because my dad wants me to. That seems incorrect. And weird.”
“It is. But there’s nothing wrong with putting in effort.”
There’s an awkward silence. Taylor hums to fill it. This could be considered as effort, couldn’t it? I mean, he called all those Chinese restaurants. For half a second, I let myself imagine what being with him could look like. I stop when the vision involves me wearing a blue sash. It would never happen in a million years.
