Page 9 of The Princess and the Nerd

Chapter 5

I can’t bear to read beyond the first section of the article before I'm calling Ash back frantically. There are tears in my eyes. “Help me.” I say brokenly. “It’s not true. It’s a misunderstanding.”

"So, you didn't ignore him and avoid making eye contact when walking by?" he asks.

I pause, taking a deep breath to control my tears. “Yes, I did, but it was only because he was makingbedroom eyesat me. Underneath these big, thick, glasses—just piercing eyes like he was judging me—which I guess he was. And he had this sexy bedroom hair, with a stylish haircut. And this cute, colorful sweater. He was too handsome to look at directly. He just seemed like trouble. And after what just happened to Robbie..."

"What happened to Robbie?" Ash asks.

I glance over at my friend who still seems totally passed out, blackout drunk. “His boyfriend of two years dumped him,” I whisper. “And instantly moved onto another man. Alejandro was a similar type—the nerdy-sexy, intelligent, arrogant player who seems like a good, stable guy but is actually just dressed up like one. He’s just a jerk who’s full of himself on the inside.”

“Don’t you think that you might have judged your customer a little harshly?” Ash asks. “Just because he happened to remind you of someone who was a jerk on the inside, doesn’t mean you should treat him with prejudice. That other person who he resembles physically has nothing to do with who he is. It’s unfair of you to assume, treat him differently, and make him feel inferior.”

I pause, and consider this for a moment. “I suppose you’re right. I guess I’m just suspicious of anyone who’s that good-looking and well-put-together. Like you, Ash. You’re always so well-dressed and impeccably groomed, but I would say a prayer for the sanity of any woman who has the misfortune of going near you.”

“Thanks,” he says with a sigh. “But you shouldn’t judge me either, Will. You grew up with me and you know who I am, but you still let the media influence your opinion so heavily. I know, I haven’t always been amazing—but I’m working on it. The hot sauce thing was a fluke, but it seems like I’ll never live it down.”

“And will I ever live this down?” I ask him softly. “Or am I done for?”

He takes a moment to answer. “I don’t know, Will. I’ll see what I can do. I’ll make some phone calls, okay? But in the meantime… I think you need to contact H.D. McGuinty and apologize and explain what happened that day.”

“Okay,” I whisper, looking at my best friends. “I’ll try.”

“Don’t stress yourself out too much. It’s just one restaurant. At least you don’t have a multinational corporation that’s going to suffer because of your mistakes.”

“But I have Destiny and Robbie,” I remind him. “They invested so much in this.”

“I know. I’ll talk to some people. Call you later.”

Ash hangs up, leaving me alone in the silence of the early morning.

I take a deep breath. And then another.

I don’t know how I’m going to fix this. I don’t know how I’m going to even tell my friends. They’ll both be crushed. I'm the one from a wealthy family, and I can afford to fail. Even though I haven’t taken any money from my family in order to start this restaurant, I had the right connections to find investors. If I lost every cent to my name, I would still have a nice house to go home to, and could crash with my parents. Or with one of my wealthy, successful brothers. Although I might prefer to live under a bridge, or in a dark, wet, smelly mountain cave, than to crash on Ash’s couch…

Anyway. My friends don’t have parents with money or extra space. They were working so hard to try tohelptheir families out. They have nothing to fall back on. As strong as Robbie is physically from spending way too much time in the gym, his heart is quite fragile, like a tiny newborn kitten whose eyes are not yet open. Which is why we stayed with him all night to cheer him up, and drown our sorrows by drinking and watching RuPaul’s Drag Race.

This news could devastate him worse than the breakup.

He’ll feel responsible, especially since he wasn’t able to bring his A-game in the kitchen last night.

I take a deep breath and slowly get up from the couch, feeling defeated. I begin to gather the empty bottles and glasses, filling my arms with as many as I can. I try to be quiet and not clink the glasses together, but I mess up a little bit anyway. Destiny groans, and tries to stick out her foot and kick me in her sleep.

I smile lightly at this. She looks adorable in the pink fuzzy socks.

Sighing as I move towards the sink, I deposit the dishes, and toss away the trash. Finally, I head back to the kitchen and grab some dish soap. I begin to rinse and scrub.

After a while, I get lost in doing the dishes.

“What is that noise?” I hear someone asking from the living room. “Is she doing dishes?”

“She better not be.”

I suddenly feel Destiny’s hand clamped around my wrist. “Girl,” she says gently. “What the heck? How long have you been polishing that glass?”

“Oh,” I say softly. I realize that I have been standing here for a little while, and although all the dishes are done, I have been transfixed on this final wine glass. Scrubbing and scrubbing, even though it is already sparkling clear. My skin is a bit red and burning from the dish soap.

Destiny turns off the water and takes the glass away, leading me over to the kitchen island. She takes a seat and guides me to sit in front of her on a stool. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”

“It’s bad, Dez. It’s really bad.”

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