Page 38 of Royal Bosshole

“Yeah, I'll meet you. Where do you want to go?”

“Perfect. I’ll text you. You never agree to lunch,” Peter said.

Twenty minutes later, I’d sent off my letter, and Peter and I were seated at a booth at a pizza place just around the corner. His security company wasn't far from my office, but it didn't mean we ever ate lunch together. This was kind of new.

“So,” Peter said after a few seconds. “You look like you've seen some shit. What happened?”

I ordered a beer, and when the waiter walked away, Peter lifted his brows.

“Okay, day drinking. So, it must be bad.”

“Last night was perfect. I was really nervous, but we got along really well and—” I paused.

I was so not used to sharing my feelings. Besides other members of the royal family, a prince didn’t really have anyone to share their innermost feelings with. They had to be the strong ones. But I knew I needed a change in my life. It felt like for the first time, happiness was almost within my grasp. Happiness was where I got to forget the shadows of the past.

“And?” Peter asked.

“I don't know. I think I could really care for this girl. And the sex was…” I blew out a breath. “Incredible.”

“Well, that doesn't sound so bad!” Peter said. “Why do you look like you've been punched in the face?”

I winced at that. Punching brought those shadows back to light again.

“Because. Listen, Peter, she’s the girl. She’s the princess. I found out she has the birthmark; I saw it for myself. And she told me all the women in her family had them. It’s her. It all fits together. The woman’s name who we were looking for, who’d left the country after the war, was Charlotte. She’d just changed her last name, and so that’s why she was so hard to find. And Lily’s café is Charlotte’s Coffee Shop, and she said she inherited it from her grandmother. Her parents died in a car crash. That’s one reason why my father never found the woman he was supposed to marry.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. The girl from last night with the red hair, who works in your office, who’s not a great singer, is your princess?”

“Yes!” When the beer arrived, I drank half of it in one gulp. “When it came to me, I just left her, man. I was so surprised I just left.”

“Well, this is great!” Peter said, his surprise turning into a smile. “You like her, clearly. You get along, and the sex is good. So, what’s the problem? It doesn’t sound like it will be a hardship to get her to marry you, and then you can save Lenovia. Why are you day drinking about this?” I knew once my father received my letter that he would say the same thing. But it wasn’t that easy.

“I can’t just ask her to leave everything and to come to rule a country with me. I can’t ask her, with hardly knowing her, to come and be the reason that my country is saved. She doesn't even know about her family. If she did, we wouldn't be in this place. The family knew about the contract and how the marriage was meant to save Lenovia from annexation.”

Peter thought for a second while I finished my beer. “You have to tell her, then. Even if you can't ask her to do it, she has to know about her family. It's not fair that her grandmother hid this away from her.”

“Would you want to know? Even if it would change your whole life in a second?”

“Yeah, I'd want to know. And you've got to make up for the fact that you acted like a douche and left just after sex.”

“Fuck. Yeah, I know.”

We ate and talked a little more about it. When I was on my way back to the office, I was confident in one thing. I liked Lily, and she was special. I could tell her everything and confess. But I was terrified to lose what I'd never really had in the first place.

* * *

LILY

While at the coffee shop, I paid a few bills, spoke to a few vendors on the phone, and then the rest of the time, I was writing and writing. The words were just pouring out of me. And I would have been overjoyed, except for the fact that underneath it all, my embarrassment and hurt were just getting worse and worse. I knew I couldn't stay off work sick forever, and I would have to face him eventually. But I was terrified I would do something stupid like cry and scream and ask him what the hell was wrong with me that he had to run off.

“Hey, Lil,” Jen said, coming up to me, bringing me a sandwich.

There were a few customers hanging around but not too many.

“Oh, thanks, Jen. You’re a lifesaver.” She sat down with her own.

“I just had an idea to bring in business, and I wanted to run it by you.”

“Fire away, I'm all ears.”

---