29. Ruby
1735 Words
I fidget through lunch the next day then my servants dress me like a princess. I'm in a yellow and white dress. It has lots of poufs and a pretty bow on the back. I put the tiara on and spin in a circle for Collin.
"That is very pretty."
"Am I a believable princess?"
"You're a beautiful princess. I work at 5 again. I should be back around 11."
"I'll be here. I may go sculp if I get back early enough. He said it'd only take a few hours."
"Plenty of room out there now. A lot of your latest stuff is sold already."
We get to Dipak's office at the same time Romeo does.
"Is this ok?"
Romeo smiles. "It's perfect. You look beautiful."
Collin hugs me and whispers in my ear, "None of the good fun."
I giggle and hug him.
"Have fun, baby."
"We'll have fun." Romeo smirks.
"You sure as hell won't." Marcus stands up. "I'm ready."
Kane stands up. "Marcus is running security on Evie. I'm stuck doing security for Romeo, so Marcus doesn't kill him. We're on opposite teams this time."
Tye nods. "Maybe we should go supervise."
"You can come if you want. It's a garden party and races. I think my mom is trying to add a ballroom dinner. My father keeps saying it's too late to add stuff. But my sisters want fireworks. And my dad will do anything they want. So, nobody really knows what the hell is going on yet and my mother is walking around directing the disaster while my dad pretends to know what's happening." He shrugs his shoulders. "Same thing every year."
"I WANT TO GO." Thora is halfway to the elevator.
"No. Let Marcus and Kane get over there and see how it's going. You might be able to put on disguises and go over for the fireworks, but we are not surprising them with this much royalty. They're already getting 2 dragons doing security. That's enough."
"Fine, I'll get a dress ready."
Kane makes a door. I kiss Collin on his cheek and go in behind Marcus. We're standing in an empty sitting room. It's very fancy. Even the furniture is fancy. "I love this room."
"You have always liked fancy stuff."
There's a big painting above a massive fireplace. The painting has the most detailed fancy frame on it. I admire the frame and smile at the family in the painting. A real family. A king and queen with 4 children. Romeo is a little younger than he is now. Then he has 3 younger sisters. My dad had a fancy painting of us too. Maybe all dads do that.
"Yea, move."
Kane pushes me to the door. That breaks my trance.
Romeo puts his arm around me and we step into a very busy hallway. Servants are running in every direction.
"What's going on?"
"There's going to be a ballroom dinner, sir."
"Figures."
Kane and Marcus laugh.
He squeezes me a little. "You don't have to stay that long. I know you weren't ready for it."
"Thank you, sir."
"Less formal."
"Sorry, I'm nervous."
"You're doing perfectly." He leads me out onto a balcony. So many people are on the ground. "It's a village event. A lot of them come out."
I cling to him and look around. There's a band set up in the garden. People are playing some kind of games. Vendors have food and drink places. A little girl in a red dress with a tiara on her head catches my eye. She's jumping around waving. I smile and wave at her.
The crowd erupts into cheers. Romeo laughs and waves at the little girl too.
"Why were they cheering? I missed it."
"You paid attention to them."
I shake my head. "She waved first."
"It's ok. They like it. You wave to them all you want."
I smile and wave at her again.
From there we go to the garden. It's beautiful with flowers everywhere. I keep smelling them and Kane keeps making me move. Romeo is talking to people and doesn't seem to care how many flowers I smell. Marcus is following Romeo around, talking to everyone he does.
I smell a pretty red flower and Kane comes up beside me. "What do you want to do, Kane?"
"Not smell flowers for 2 hours."
"There are drinks over there. Go get me something."
"He's supposed to do that."
"You are killing me. You're worse than Marcus."
"What's wrong?" Marcus and Romeo stare at us.
I smile. "Nothing we're fine."
"She's thirsty."
"He's bored."
Romeo smiles. "Are you bored?"
"No. I love flowers. I'm trying to smell them all. But if Kane pokes me 1 more time, I'm going to pull one out and beat him with it."
"That'll be worth seeing." They turn back around.
I crack up laughing. "Kane, go guard Romeo from Marcus for a while. I'm fine."
I smell flowers and find a pretty fountain. I touch the water and throw a flower petal in it. Water flows over some rocks. It's relaxing. Then a girl tip toes behind the boys and comes up to me. "I'm Princess Ruby. You're Star?"
"Well, Evie like this."
"Yea, my brother confused everyone with that story."
"He told you about me?"
"Yea, he likes you. You're all we've heard about since that ball forever ago."
"I didn't realize that."
"Come on. Let's go have some fun."
I glance at the boys, and they aren't paying any attention to me. I smile and run with her.
We run around the side of the garden, and she stops dead in her tracks. "EEEE. There he is."
"Who?"
"Prince Finnegan. He is so cute. He's there with the blonde hair."
I find him fairly quickly. He is nice looking but nothing super special. He glances at me and I wave.
"DON'T LOOK."
"To late. He's coming over."
"Do I look ok?"
"You're the perfect princess."
"Hello ladies."
"Hi Prince Finnegan. How are you enjoying the garden party, sir?"
"It's as lovely as you are, Princess Ruby." He kisses her hand. My eyebrows shoot up, and she turns all kinds of red. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Princess?"
She says, "Star." and I say, "Evie." at the same time.
I shrug my shoulders. "It doesn't matter who I am. Go back to Princess Ruby."
"I do love seeing you, Princess Ruby. I need to check in now. Hopefully, I'll see you again soon."
"I hope so too, sir."
He walks off with a couple of advisors, and she is about to scream. She can't stand still.
"Wait. Play calm until he's around the corner."
She bites her hand.
"Ok, he's gone."
"DID YOU SEE?" She jumps up and down screaming.
"He is definitely into you."
"You think so?"
"Yes. It's as lovely as you are, and he hopes to see you soon. He likes you."
"I can't wait to tell Sara. She is going to freak out. She likes him too. She's my friend from the village. I'll introduce you if we see her. Let's go play a game."
I follow her to a game in the field. We hit balls with sticks. It's quite entertaining. We make small talk and play for an hour or so. Then the game gets to full. People are everywhere. She sneaks and pulls me into a little building.
"I'm going to turn the water on them. Then we can play again."
"Should we do that?"
"It's only a spray. They won't get soaked, and it's hot anyway. You hold this lever and I have to twist over here."
She does it and I hear people scream. We laugh and run out into the water.
The servants have the water off by the time we get to the path.
"What happened?"
"We got caught in the water, daddy. They must have forgotten to shut it off."
Her mom smiles. "Girls, stay in the sunlight for a little while. You're not that wet."
I smile. "Yes, ma'am."
"Ok mom."
The king and queen roam off and we giggle so hard.
"UH HUM."
We flip around. Marcus, Kane, and Romeo are standing there with their arms crossed.
"THE WATER TURNED ON US." I scream.
"RUN." She grabs my arm and takes off.
We run them all over the place. She's quite a good hider.
We end up under the cake table laughing. "They'll never find us here."
She sticks her arm out. "I wonder if I can reach the cake."
"Oh, I want cake."
We get some cake and that prince must come up to the table with his advisors. "Have you seen her?"
"Who, sir?"
"Ruby?"
She becomes a statue. Then she shakes. I crawl over and put my hand on her mouth.
"The princesses were playing games earlier. They may still be over there."
"She's so pretty."
"She is a pretty girl, sir. She seems to like you."
"You think she would go to the ball with me next weekend?"
"Her family is going already, but they may allow her to attend with you. I'm sure she would like to be asked regardless."
I hold her face tighter. She's trying to scream.
"Shhhh"
She bites her lip.
"I'll ask her today. Let me know if you see her please."
"Of course, sir."
We try to remain quiet. I check under the table cloth. "He's gone."
"He's going to ask me to the ball."
"I told you he likes you."
"We have to be seen." We shove the rest of our cakes in our mouths and she lifts the table cloth. "Wrong way."
"Why?"
"Your security is glaring at the table." She whispers, "We have to run out of that side."
"Ok. 1... 2... 3..." We run for it.
I make it 3 steps and Romeo picks me up. I wrap around him and laugh.
He chuckles and hugs me.
"NO. DON'T STEAL HER. GIVE HER BACK."
"We have to go to the racing stands, Ruby. You can play later."
"Fine."
"As long as you're not turning the water on people." Marcus crosses his arms.
"We would never do that, sir. We got caught in the water too." She is so serious when she says it. I try to keep a straight face.
Romeo bounces me. "Sure you did."
I giggle and snuggle against him. He's warm.
- Writer
