Page 15 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

On the other side she emerged into an abandoned alleyway, the back of an old brick warehouse rising up above her. It wasn’t unusual to find this so close to a palace. This was a small country, a small city. Buildings had to sit next to something, even palaces. Right in front of her, lining up with the secret hole in the fence, was a red circle spray painted onto the wall amongst other graffiti. And it looked fresher than all the other tags as well. So… the sneaky, oh-so-perfect prince had been doing this a while.

Eva crawled back through the fence to the safety of the courtyard, trying not to fall on her face, trying to act natural in case anyone walked in and found her crawling around like a knock-off Alice in Wonderland.

The thought occurred to her that this was information she could use. When she next saw Finn, she could tell him that she’d been sort of accidentally spying, that she’d seen his little getaway hole. Blackmail him, maybe? Or just go straight to everyone else and blurt out how the crown prince had been sneaking away from the palace with zero security measures for who knew how long. That would certainly get some tempers flaring.

But Eva abandoned the thought almost as soon as it occurred to her. She couldn’t be that cruel. The thought of having a secret bit of privacy ripped away like that… it sent a shudder up her spine. She knew all too well how stifling it was to be in a position like Finn’s. She was trying to escape too, after all.

Eva turned and left the courtyard to go back inside, making sure she didn’t have any leaves stuck to her hair or coat. She might not want to marry him, but Finn could have his secret.

CHAPTER6

FINN

This had been the longest two days of Finn’s life. Every second felt like a decade, every minute a millennium.

Finn had never been much of a romantic. All he could have ever hoped for in a marriage was that it would be a good business deal, a favorable union between two nations. At the very least he’d hoped to have someone he could get along with, make decisions with, and have as a partner. Someone by his side to weather the storms of royal life. And as much as he hated to admit it, waiting to meet Eva after seeing her photographs, he’d hit on a hidden romantic streak he didn’t know existed. He’d started imagining more than just a business partner. Maybe even someone he could fall in love with.

Now Finn just felt ridiculous. Eva had been… difficult. That was the polite way to put it. He had plenty of other words he could use to describe her right now, though.

That stupid photo of her walking across the street in New York had led him astray, hooking him in with a vanity that he was ashamed to recognize in himself. He’d gotten caught up on how beautiful she was, how sure in her own skin, and had projected a whole idea of a person onto her. Someone who would be kind and funny and joyous. He should really know better by now. Sometimes beauty only runs skin-deep. He needed that tattooed on his forehead so he would remember it every time he looked in the mirror. Maybe then he’d finally stop expecting the best out of people. It only ever seemed to cause him grief.

Finn now stood out in the tiny courtyard in the back of the palace, desperate for fresh air and to be away from the walls that were holding him hostage. If he was being honest, he was desperate to be away from Eva. She was so… loud. And messy. And inconsiderate. And justapatheticabout everything, like the world held no joy for her at all. It was exhausting to be in the same room as her, especially when there were others around. For them she could smile and act half-decent. It was just Finn’s luck that he was the only one to see her true colors.

He’d thought she’d been unwell on the evening she’d arrived, but maybe that had just been her throwing a tantrum at all the traveling. It would be better if she was just straight-up mean or angry. But she wasn’t; she was just incredibly annoying. Like a pebble stuck in your shoe or a mosquito bite on the palm of your hand. Angry and offensive people he could deal with, but this level of irritating was driving him insane.

He just needed a few minutes alone, outside, away from all of it. He needed a moment to get a firm grip back on his sanity. The courtyard was just as pristine as the rest of the palace, but tucked away at the back was a hedge concealing an iron fence that Finn knew led out into a secluded alley. He was the only one who ever came here other than the gardeners.

A hand clapped onto his shoulder and Finn jumped about a foot in the air.

“Jeez, Finn. Feeling a bit jumpy today or something?”

Tobias’s grin turned into a look of genuine concern, his hand squeezing Finn’s shoulder. Tobias had been his best friend since childhood. A high-ranking politician’s son and an only child like Finn, they’d struck up an immediate bond in school. They understood each other. And they understood that there was no point complaining about their lives. The strict regime of it all. The loving if somewhat distant parents. The security teams and the need to have a public persona and a private one and how, now that they were in their twenties, the two of those personas seemed to be merging together. They couldn’t change any of it. So they would muddle through as best as they could, relying on each other, knowing at least they had one person to talk to who would understand.

Right now, Tobias, tall and birdlike, his spectacles perched on the end of his nose, had taken one look at Finn’s face and known something was wrong. Just that understanding already made Finn feel at least a little bit better.

“You’ve got to stop doing that,” huffed Finn, trying to get some composure back after being startled breathless.

“Not my fault I have quiet footsteps,” said Tobias, rearranging his glasses. “And not my fault at how deep in thought you were either. Didn’t exactly look like happy thoughts.”

Finn shrugged. “I’ve got a lot on my mind. What are you doing here anyway?”

“Been looking for you for the past half an hour, but no one knew where you’d scurried off to. I wanted to see how things with the bride-to-be were going, but you haven’t been answering your phone.”

Finn struggled to keep the grimace off of his face.

“Oh. That well, huh?”

Finn rubbed a hand over his face, praying to any god that would listen that he wasn’t letting that grimace slip when he was around everyone else.

“I can’t…” he started. “She just…”

Tobias patted Finn on the back, two sharp taps to show he meant business. “Let’s go to my apartment. Then you can tell me what’s going on without any ears listening in.”

He promptly disappeared through the hedge to the other side.

Finn sighed, checked no one was watching, and followed. They’d discovered the broken pole in the fence as kids. They hadn’t mentioned to anyone that it needed repairing, and over time they had grown bolder with their temporary escapades to get Finn away from the palace. It felt slightly ridiculous to be a grown man bending just so through a hedge-covered fence and out into an alleyway. But Finn may have actually gone insane over the years if he hadn’t had this escape route; a way to get out, just for a little bit, with no security, no eyes watching him. Just his friend to watch his back and make sure he got home safe.

Tobias was waiting for him in the alley. They’d never come across anyone down here in the tiny street, always careful to listen out for footsteps before climbing through. And with a red circle spray-painted onto the wall directly opposite, one they’d only needed to touch up once or twice in the previous years, they knew exactly where to climb back through.

---