Page 14 of Once Upon a Royal Summer
“She did, but you know what a sweetheart Wolf is. He won Gretel over when she forgot her basket of bread crumbs on the way to her meet-and-greet and Wolf ran back to the dressing room to fetch it for her. He sprinted clear across the park and back in that furry costume. He’s lucky he didn’t get heat exhaustion. It’s the middle of summer.” Ava stabbed her fork at her chicken for emphasis.
Ava and Wolf did a lot of appearances together in the park, given that their characters were from the same fairy tale. Contrary to the enmity of their costumed personas, they were very close friends. For Thanksgiving last year, Ava had even gone to Wolf’s parents’ house for turkey dinner. Since Once Upon A Time was open three hundred sixty-five days a year and the holiday season was so popular with tourists, days off for Thanksgiving and Christmas were often hard to come by.
Lacey had of course spent last Thanksgiving with Mark and his parents. That obviously wasn’t going to be an option this year.
Weird. Lacey frowned into her plate of yummy, sesame goodness. This was the first time all day that she’d thought about Mark, and they’d only broken up twenty-four hours ago. Was that normal for someone who was supposed to be heartbroken?
Her stomach churned.
Granted, Lacey been the breaker-upper and not the other way around, but still. She’d expected to marry Mark. Somewhere under her bed there was a stack of dog-eared bridal magazines. Which, come to think of it, she really needed to dump into the recycling bin. She sort of wished she could dump the memory of her last dinner with Mark in there too.
“Earth to Lacey.” Ava snapped her fingers in front of Lacey’s face. “You disappeared there for a minute. You completely missed my other Once Upon A Time romance update. Sneezy and Doc are engaged.”
“Oh, wow. Good for them!” Lacey grinned and tried her best to ignore the fact that she suddenly felt more invested in her co-workers’ upcoming nuptials than she did in the wedding she thought she’d be planning for herself right about now.
All the more reason to swear off dating for a while.
Clearly she’d made the right decision about Mark, but now she felt weirdly adrift. Heartbroken or not, the memory of their painful dinner conversation still hurt. A lot. Mark had been one hundred percent right about one thing, though—Lacey couldn’t work as a theme park princess for the rest of her life. She needed to enjoy every minute of her dream job while she still could.
“I’ve saved the most intriguing news for last,” Ava announced, leaning closer to Lacey across the sofa cushions.
“I hope this isn’t put-down-my-fork news, because I’m starving,” Lacey said as she took another bite. How did the old saying go? Feed a cold, starve a fever…and feed a breakup as much comfort food as possible. If that wasn’t a real adage, it should be.
“Keep eating.” Ava waved a hand. “It’s nothing earth-shattering, just a special visitor.”
“Really? Who?”
Ava shrugged. “I don’t know. Nobody does. That’s the intriguing part.”
“Is it a VIP?” Lacey said.
Like other popular theme parks, Once Upon A Time offered private VIP tours. The service offered a personalized tour guide who accompanied the VIP and their guests on all the rides and attractions throughout the day. Sometimes special guests were even given the opportunity to stay at a private suite on the top floor of Ever After Castle.
“Yep.” Ava nodded.
“Who’s in charge of the tour?”
“Charles, apparently,” Ava said, indicating the tour guide with the highest level of seniority at Once Upon A Time. “So it must be someone really big.”
“Agreed. Charles always gets assigned to escort the most important of the important people.” Lacey arched an eyebrow. “Remember that time the Vice President came? There were as many secret service agents in the park that day as there were fairy-tale characters.”
“Oh my gosh, what if it’s that big Broadway producer? The one who won the Tony last year for best musical.” Ava’s fork clattered onto her plate. “He’s got kids! It could totally be him.”
“For your sake, I hope it is.” Lacey couldn’t help but laugh. Ava’s dream was to perform on Broadway one day. “What if it’s the star of that new romcom you’re dying to see? She has kids too.”
“Don’t make me choose between a romcom and Broadway. That’s just cruel.” Ava clutched her heart. “I’ll bet it’s neither of those people, though.”
Lacey shrugged one shoulder. “Probably not, but it’s still fun to think about.”
“True.”
They sat quietly for a minute, until Lacey reached for the television remote. It was just about time for their nightly Friends ritual.
“You know who I think it’s really going to be?” Ava said as the sitcom’s familiar theme song started up.
Lacey stood to gather their empty plates and put them in the dishwasher. “Who?”
“Someone we least expect.”
