Page 43 of Tech Prince Troubles
I sank onto the closest bench and stared at the fountain. No. It had to be a joke. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d told Adri about the history of Prince Bartholomew and his barista. Though he seemed genuinely taken by it. There’d been wonder in his eyes. And something else… Had he been afraid I’d find out that he was a prince?
How could that be real? How could any of this be real?
What would have happened if I hadn’t been worried when Adri didn’t answer my message?
We’d just finished taking the café’s perishables to the hotel kitchen. I’d sent everyone home and texted Adri to see if he was up for a walk. Wiping down the patio tables, I waited. Half an hour later, I’d run out of tables, but had yet to receive an answer.
He could have been asleep, so I’d gone up to his room. After knocking twice, it was clear he wasn’t there. Which led me to the Tech Hub. It was a gamble, but if he was there, maybe I could persuade him to take a break.
It took me a moment to understand what was going on. The way that kid had ranted at Adri. I couldn’t stop thinking about who’d have stopped him if I hadn’t entered the Tech Hub when I did? Anger surged through me—then and now. Not at Adri. Maybe I should be, for deceiving me, but that kid deserved all my rage. We had to close the café because ofhim.
I fought the urge to stalk back in and give him a piece of my mind. But Layla’s voice in my head stopped me. “I can handle him,” she’d said. The harsh notes in her voice reassuring. She could. And she didn’t need me messing things up.
With clenched fists, I turned away from the fountain and crossed the plaza to the café. If it hadn’t been for Adri, how many machines would we have lost?
I let myself in. The light coming through the windows and the lingering smell of coffee and Théo’s creations were welcoming as ever. But the silence unnerved me. In all my years working here, I could count the number of times it had been this… deserted on one hand. I grabbed cleaning cloths and filled a bucket with water. Might as well give it a proper clean. What else was I going to do? Go home and ruin everyone’s Sunday? I shook my head. No. They didn’t need to see me like this, and I needed space.
A giggle escaped me. Adri was a prince.
I couldn’t get that thought out of my head. He hadn’t denied it. He’d just stood there, shoulders hunched, listening to the kid rant. He’d even apologized, though I wasn’t sure what for.
It was the kid who should apologize. What had he been thinking, sabotaging the hotel like that?
By the time I’d cleaned all the machines, these thoughts werestill spinning around my head without an answer, and I wasn’t feeling any better. But I still couldn’t dredge up any anger for Adri.
I wanted to check how he was doing, but I couldn’t risk running into that kid. The urge to deck him crawled across my skin. I swept the floor instead.
My phone rang out into the silence.Damn it!I wiped my hands and fished it out of my pocket with trembling fingers.Please, let Adri be okay.
I let out a breath. It was just a message from Quinn. A photo of all the kids sitting on the swings. Alex in Julian’s lap, Ella in Quinn’s, and Charlie standing behind them, one foot on either seat. Tears welled up as I typed a quick message back. It was the perfect photo to tide me over while they were on vacation. It was only three weeks. But they were leaving in three days. Shit, I’d miss them.
Images of all of us sitting around the kitchen during lunch popped up in my head, laughing, chatting, squabbling about chores. And watching those reels with Quinn and Charlie. Of course. Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier? The engagement of Crown Prince Frank and Kaia Blue. Adri had mentioned he had one sibling, and if he was a Niren prince, then that siblinghadto be Crown Prince Frank. He could have been in one of those reels.
I typed in a search for the Niren royal family. Three clicks later, Adri’s face—his official royal portrait—stared at me from the Niren Royal Family website. Who knew such a thing existed?
I sank into the nearest booth and rubbed my face. Hot damn! Itwastrue. Adri was a prince.
I laughed and laughed until it hurt. He wasactuallya prince. One who hadn’t turned into a frog when I’d kissed him. Well… I cleared my throat. Not yet, anyway.
It struck me how lost he seemed in his portrait. Less so in the family portrait, despite the lines on his forehead glowing blue,instead of the green his parents and sibling sported. Surrounded by his family, he seemed stronger, and the tallest, if not by much. On his own, he appeared uncomfortable, regal, and ridiculously gorgeous.
I gave in to the temptation and searched for the reels from the engagement party. The music still sucked, but the happy couple’s smiles were radiant and infectious in every single one of them. Crown Prince Frank looked a lot like Adri. He had a wider build, a wider smile, too.
The tenth clip paid off. Adri stood in the background—no hood, his platinum hair swept to the left instead of slicked back, tiny pinpricks of color glowing at the ends. His smile seemed… practiced, and when I paused, he had that same lost expression in his eyes. The reel was too short. I tried a few more, but if he was in them, it was always in the background, on the edge, uncomfortable. As if he wanted to be anywhere else. A little bit like the first time he’d sat in that corner booth.
Shit. I’d kissed a fucking prince.
And I hadn’t said a word when I’d left him in Layla’s office. If he thought I was angry because he didn’t show up at the café for days, he was surely thinking it now. No matter what his deal was, he didn’t deserve that.
I cleared the cleaning supplies and checked that all the doors were closed. Only then did I walk back to the hotel, though I wasn’t even sure he’d still be there.
Andrea protested as I rounded the counter, saying that Layla was busy. I ignored her and entered without knocking.
All voices fell silent, and everyone froze… except for Layla, who stood with a group of people who looked upset. Behind her, the kid from IT sat tied to a chair with tie-wraps. I clenched my fists and didn’t care how wrecked the deep shadows under his eyes made him appear. I still wanted to hit him.
Rick sat across from him, elbows on his knees, lines of worryand exhaustion etched into his otherwise jovial face. Poor guy must have been asleep when they’d called him in. Layla stood next to him, fierce, though her face betrayed nothing. Young Riley looked as tired as Rick, cheeks wet with tears.
I took one step, but Layla blocked me. She tsk’d and shook her head. “Don’t do anything you’d regret. It’s not worth it.”
