Page 41 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

“Trust me, dude,” Abbie said. “You don’t want to get any more mixed up with these two lovebirds than you already are. I’m only here to keep her from doing something stupid.”

“You were the one suggesting climbing through a window,” said Eva, almost delirious with exhaustion and nausea, unable to help herself.

“At least I wouldn’t have twig scratches all over me,” countered Abbie.

Tobias raised his hands, and Eva and Abbie stopped talking.

Tobias blinked at Abbie owlishly. “Did you just call me dude?”

“Yeah? Is that, like, not polite?” Abbie asked genuinely.

“I’m so sorry,” Eva said, physically putting a hand over Abbie’s mouth. “We’re very jet-lagged, and my friend here hasn’t exactly brushed up on her etiquette lately.”

Tobias’s eyes darted between the two of them as he decided what to do. Then he sighed, piercing Eva with a look that was more sorrowful than angry.

“You broke his heart,” he said. “You know that, right?”

Eva dropped her hand from Abbie’s mouth and looked down at the toes of her boots, her face burning.

“I know,” she said quietly.

“She ain’t been too cheerful herself, you know,” said Abbie, sticking a thumb in Eva’s direction. “Distance makes the heart grow fonder, apparently.”

Tobias shook his head at Abbie, not quite able to make heads or tails of her, before turning back to Eva.

“If I take you to him to say whatever it is you need to say,” said Tobias, “is it going to make him more depressed than he is already?”

Eva started chipping anxiously at her fingernails.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But it will be honest. And… it will give him the power to decide what to do with his life. I’ll follow whatever direction he chooses. But it’s up to him.”

That’s all she’d wanted for herself, after all, wasn’t it? The information and power to make her own informed decisions. She’d give Finn the opportunity to do the same. It seemed to be enough for Tobias as well.

“Fine,” he said. “He’s about to go live soon, but I’ll lead you there. But you better not leave my sight. Andyou,” he added with a pointed glare at Abbie. “Please. No more talking.”

Abbie bobbed her head and mimed locking up her lips and throwing away a key. Tobias could only shake his head at her once more.

“All right, follow me before I change my mind.”

With that, he turned and stalked back through the door into the warmth of the palace. Eva and Abbie scurried to follow after him, sticking close to his heels. Eva had never felt more like a stray cat in all her life. As much as she had fought tooth and nail against the pomp and dress codes all her life, right now she felt like she was committing some sort of blasphemy being dressed like this in a royal household, like her very DNA was retaliating and lightning was going to erupt from the sky to strike her down as punishment. She pulled the beanie off her head and shoved it into a back pocket, combing her fingers through her hair as best as she could.

Abbie didn’t seem to care at all, gazing around happily and soaking it all in.

“Thank you for the coward speech,” Eva said, bending a little to whisper into Abbie’s ear. “I think it tipped him over the edge.”

“I was trying to be inspirational,” Abbie whispered back.

“It worked,” said Eva, giving her friend’s hand a grateful squeeze as they were led into the depths of the palace.

CHAPTER19

FINN

Finn was pacing slowly up and down the carpeted floors of the room that the camera crew had set up in. He’d been listening in on their conversations;this window would give the best light, but do we need a reflector? Have you made sure to charge the backup batteries? Do we want a lapel mic or a boom mic for this?

He was thrown back to that day at the cabin, the cold wind biting at his cheeks, when Eva had shown him how to use her camera, using terms he’d never heard before. How he’d been let loose just toplay, to figure things out and try something new. Several times, Finn almost walked up to the camera crew and asked about their equipment, about the lights and microphones, curious about how they worked. But he bit his tongue. That wouldn’t exactly be proper, and the crew had a job to do. His parents were in the room, as were numerous members of the palace staff. Tobias had been here too, but he’d disappeared somewhere. If Finn started asking about cameras, trying to remember how an aperture worked, they would all think that he’d well and truly gone off the deep end.

He had a job, his own job. Be the perfect crown prince. He’d always succeeded at that job before. He just needed to get back on the horse and pretend like Eva hadn’t rolled through his life, blowing it apart in the process.

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