Page 14 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

“That’s all right, thanks.”

“No, honestly, we should all get together, perhaps over dinner? He’d love to meet you.”

“Like, no offense, but I don’t really have any interest in meeting your buddy.”

That seemed to hit a soft spot and Finn shoved his hands back into his pockets, turning his gaze to the glass wall with his lips tight. Eva even felt a little bad. But just a little. She was clearly starting to get under his skin, and she wanted to sing and dance at the success of it.

“Well,” said Finn, trying to find something to say and coming up short. So they just stood in awkward silence, not looking at each other. Eva’s anxiety was picking up, so she just focused on looking as bored and indignant as she could. Finn, meanwhile, had focused his gaze on her like a laser beam.

“Do you realize how rude you are?” he asked suddenly. “Or are you blissfully unaware of what comes out of your mouth?”

Eva blinked at him, surprised. Maybe even a little impressed that he was finally standing up for himself.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“You heard me just fine,” said Finn. “Are you like this with your family too, or am I just special?”

Good. This was good. She’d finally provoked him enough to get him to talk like a real human. She buried a smirk and just stared at him, insulted.

“Am I like what?”

“Like this,” he said, waving a hand up and down at her.

Eva shrugged as if he were being an unreasonable toddler. “If we’re going to get married, like, this is who I am. Sorry that I, like, don’t know how else to act.”

She knew the “likes” were irritating him too, so she made sure to scatter in as many as she could.

He smirked at her, a cold expression on his usually affable face. “Don’t you? Because you can at least pretend to be polite when the others are around. And I’m certain you don’t act this way in public because I’ve heard how loved you are. I can’t possibly imagine why, when this is what you’re actually like.”

Eva folded her arms and shrugged as if he’d offended her deeply. It had been Abbie’s suggestion to turn it around on him and make Finn out to be the unreasonable one if he called her out on her behavior. Another layer of crazy added to the mix couldn’t hurt.

“Thanks for the confidence boost,” she pouted. “Good to know that I’m such a terrible person.”

Finn sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, clearly at his wit’s end.

“I didn’t—” he began, then stopped himself. “Never mind. It’s like talking to a brick walk.”

“You aren’t so great yourself, you know. Have fun on your pedestal, Your Highness.”

She turned her back on him and walked briskly out of the room, arms still folded tight across her chest. She left her jacket on the floor, having no intention of picking it up and not caring if it was lost forever. A small price to pay if it meant getting under Finn’s skin just that little bit more.

* * *

Eva was tired. The jet lag, the stress, the scheming, the anger she held towards everyone… it was all weighing down on her. And she was so, so sick of small talk. The day had dragged on unbearably slowly.

She had been wandering around the palace in an effort to avoid everyone and had ended up in the furthest corner of the massive building, where no one seemed to venture much. She holed up in a corner of the room, looking out over a small courtyard that also looked a bit forgotten. She was content just to look outside and let her mind rest for a bit.

Keeping the act up around Finn and then dropping it when anyone else came near had been harder than she’d anticipated. It was like spinning plates, always being on alert. She was a photographer, not an actress, but she reckoned she’d done a fairly decent job so far. Finn had seemed less and less enthused to be in her company as the hours wore on, and their parents tried to get them alone in rooms together, which could only be a good sign.

Movement caught her eye. Finn strode into the courtyard below, bundled up in a thick coat against the cold, and walked towards the hedge that marked the fence line around the perimeter. Eva stayed very still so that he wouldn’t sense anyone watching him from behind. Without missing a step, heclimbedinto the hedge and disappeared.

Eva sat up straight, waiting for him to reappear, but he didn’t. Well, this was certainly more interesting than wandering around empty rooms.

* * *

Five minutes later, Eva had found her way out into the courtyard, trying to be quick so that Finn didn’t come back and catch her snooping. Though that might not be a bad thing either; she could maybe make herself out to be the kind of girl who went through your phone looking for infidelities that didn’t exist. She walked up to the hedge around the spot she was sure she’d seen Finn disappear through.

There was a slightly less bushy section which she only noticed because she was looking for anything out of the ordinary. She stuck her arm through and felt an iron bar of a fence, then another next to it, then… nothing. Eva bit back a yelp as she half fell through the fence, persevering and seeing where the hole led her.

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