Chapter 9
I had to set my glass of wine on the coffee table before I spilled it all over my green velvet couch. “I’m sorry, you were what? Catfished?” I asked through fits of giggles.
“No! Dick-fished!” Dash said from the other side of the couch. “The dick he sent me pictures of was not the dick he showed up with! I was expecting a bratwurst and got a Vienna sausage. The tiny ones that come in the can,” he huffed as he collapsed against the back of the couch.
“Oh my God, I’m dying!” I grabbed my stomach as I cackled again.
Dash narrowed his eyes. “I want you to know that I would not be laughing this hard at you if roles were reversed.”
I snorted. “Bullshit!”
He finally joined in on my hysterics until we both had tears streaming down our cheeks.
“So, what did you do? Did you leave?” I asked, wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my sweatshirt.
“Yes! If he’s not confident enough to send me pictures of his own dick, then he’s definitely not going to be able to handle all of this.” He waved a hand over his toned, olive-skinned body.
“Exactly. Know your worth.” I grabbed my wine from the table and took a sip, confident that I could finally drink again without making a mess. Shadow, my enormous black Maine Coon, jumped up in my lap, glancing at me warily as if he wasn’t sure if I was going to erupt in a fit of laughter again.
“So, tell me about how the competition is going,” Dash said after taking a bite of pizza.
For the past several years, we had spent Christmas night together.
Neither of our families were big or had a lot of holiday traditions.
Dash’s mum practiced a combination of Shinto and Buddhism, and I spent Christmas morning with my parents, exchanging presents and enjoying a leisurely brunch.
Christmas evening had become Dash’s and my time to get together for wine, pizza, and gossip.
“There’s really not much to catch you up on.” I set my plate down on the coffee table and ran my hand over Shadow’s head, scratching him behind his tufted ears. “Since Birdie left the competition, I’m really not sure who Oliver is going to choose.”
“Hmm,” he said. “From what you’ve told me, I would have guessed Renata, but not after he had her escorted from that party at Lexington Manor. Which, by the way, was the highlight of my year.”
“I know he didn’t do it for us, of course, but man did I feel some vindication from the terrible way she treated most of the other contestants. It was nice to see her get knocked down a few pegs.”
“Cheers to that!” He raised his wine and we clinked our glasses together before taking a drink. “As usual, the pizza and conversation was amazing. But I have to call it a night. I am exhausted.”
I looked at the clock on my mantle and realized we had stayed up later than planned.
It was well past eleven and I needed to be up in just over six hours to get showered and ready before our call time for the proposal ceremony.
Not that it mattered much if I didn’t look my best; Oliver certainly wasn’t going to be proposing to me.
I just had to smile and wave for one more day.
“I’ll walk you out,” I said as I stood, displacing Shadow, and took our plates and glasses into the small kitchen. After setting the dishes in the sink, I met Dash at the door.
“One more day and your life will go back to normal, and we’ll look back at this and laugh.”
I jumped as a knock sounded at the door. Dash and I glanced at each other with a look that said, Who the hell is at the door at eleven thirty on Christmas night?
“I’ll get it,” Dash said as he puffed his chest up a bit. He had been protecting me since we were kids.
I started to open the small entryway closet to grab the croquet mallet I had borrowed from my neighbor a few years ago but quickly realized a robber wouldn’t knock on the door. Well, at least not a smart one.
“Your Highness?” Dash said from the door. I looked around his broad shoulder and found Oliver standing on my porch.
“Hi. Tadashi, right?”
“Yes, sir. Come in.”
“Dude!” I hissed from behind him. “You can’t just invite people into my house!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you just want me to leave the future king of Wexstone standing on your porch while it’s snowing?” he hissed back.
“Well, no, but at least ask first!”
“You’ve been courting him for months now, I would assume that it would be okay for me to invite him in, Adelaide.”
Oliver laughed nervously from the entryway. Dash and I looked at him, Dash smiling and me glaring. Why is he here? What is so urgent that it can’t wait until the morning?
“Well, I was just on my way out. It was a pleasure to see you, Your Highness.”
“It was nice to see you as well, Tadashi.” Oliver smiled warmly as Dash let himself out.
I inspected the prince standing by my front door. He was wearing a heavy wool coat over a black long-sleeved henley that hugged his chest perfectly and fitted jeans that left little to the imagination when it came to the package that I had once been very fond of.
Snap out of it, girl. This man is about to be engaged.
“Happy Christmas,” he said as the side of his mouth rose, putting his delicious dimple on display.
“Happy Christmas, Your Highness.”
He rolled his eyes to the sky. “Oh, stop. You know better than to call me that.”
I noted the tense way he held his shoulders. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Can we talk?” His tone was nervous.
“Yeah. Have a seat.”
He walked over to the couch that Dash and I had just been occupying, removing his coat and draping it over the neighboring navy armchair before he took a seat.
“Would you like something to drink?” I asked.
“I really would, thank you.” He laid his head back on the couch and ran a hand down his face.
“Something stiff?” I smiled ruefully.
“Preferably, if you have it.”
I did. My dad enjoyed a strong whiskey, so I kept a bottle in the house for when he came over. I poured Oliver a double and refilled my wine. I didn’t know what was going on but by the looks of it, I might need a drink as well.
I handed him the small tumbler. “Thank you,” he murmured as he took a long drink.
“So…” I took a sip of wine. “Everything okay?”
He set his glass on the table and studied my face like he was taking stock of my mood.
“Just spit it out. You’re freaking me out.”
“Marry me.”
A loud laugh erupted from my body.
“I’m serious, Adelaide. I want to propose to you tomorrow.”
I fell silent. What the fuck. He had to be joking. Out of all of the women in this competition, he wanted to propose to me? This couldn’t actually be real. I had to have been in a dream or something. There was no way I could marry Oliver. He had officially lost his marbles.
“You don’t want to marry me. I’m just a swotty commoner,” I snarked, harkening back to the taunts that Renata and the other bullies threw my way in primary school. “There are plenty of other women in the competition who are much better suited for you.”
He grabbed the glass of whiskey, took another long swig, and ran his hand through his ashy blond hair.
“Oliver?” I grabbed the top of his hand. “Is everything okay?”
He let out a long breath and flipped his hand over so that our fingers intertwined. It had been years since we had held hands and tiny little baby butterflies tried to take flight in my stomach. I pushed them down, caging them back in.
“I need to get engaged tomorrow for a lot of reasons. But mainly because I want to change this country and the way things are done. I’m tired of people just going along with things because it’s the way we’ve done them for decades.
I’m going to abolish the marriage rule, but to do that, I have to take the crown now. ”
He took one more long drink of his whiskey, draining the glass.
“I—” he started. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he continued.
“I came here tonight to ask you if you would stand by me while I do that. That’s all I’m asking, no funny business.
I know you aren’t interested in being my bride.
We likely won’t have to actually get married; I believe we can push the movement through the Council quickly and get it passed before the six-month engagement time limit is up. ”
I did not often speak without thinking first, so I paused, mulling over Oliver’s words in search of a response. But I was coming up empty, unable to process what he was saying.
Shadow meowed from the floor and then jumped up onto the couch. He made a few circles before plopping down between the two of us. I pulled my hand from Oliver’s and ran my fingers through the cat’s long fur.
When I entered the competition, I hadn’t had any intention of coming out of it engaged.
I had done it because my dad had asked me to, and it seemed like a good opportunity to get eyes on some of the programs at my school that were in danger of being shut down without more budgetary support from the Council of Lords.
And, surprisingly, it had worked. The day after my fellow contestants and the royal family helped with our annual clothing and food drive, donations had skyrocketed and were now up sixty percent year over year. It was amazing.
But I couldn’t understand why he wanted to propose to me.
If he just wanted to get engaged so that he could take the crown, why not choose someone like Sabine Thorne?
She was from a noble family. Or Mel Schneider!
At least as a journalist, she knew how to navigate the press.
They could keep it platonic. I couldn’t wrap my mind around his choice.
“Why me, Oliver? You have other women to choose from.”
“I don’t trust anyone else. And right now, I need someone I can trust.” His silver eyes shone, holding a plea for me to just listen.
My eyebrows knit together. I had the sense he wasn’t telling me something. Something important. We sat in silence while my mind spun. The silence must have spurred him on because in the next moment he was speaking again.