Ten: Vivian Blackwood
1235 Words
Ten
Vivian Blackwood
Royal, English Garden parties were made for three things. Charitable organizations, rich people with too much money to spend, and hormones. The hormones seemed to be in full swing as I had already seen Lady Cecelia Porter go off into the garden maze with Prince Marlowe.
Prince Marlowe was not her date.
Rather, she had come with Prince Victor, which was something of a shock to me. Victor was a favorite grandson of the Queen’s. His mother was her daughter, and the Princes aunt. They were close with the family, and I’d grown up with him as much as the boys. But Victor wasn’t like Marlowe or Henry.
He was flirtatious and didn’t know when to stop.
I’d been hoping that Cecelia would distract him, but it didn’t seem to stop him from looking at me the entire time. I was at Marlowe’s table, with Daisy, and Astrid. Henry was off with Derek and Delilah off doing royal things meaning I’d been left alone with nothing but a glass of champagne.
“You’re looking lovely, Vivian,” said the golden Prince of France.
I ignored him, and took a sip of my drink.
Next to me, Astrid snickered. “Honestly, Victor, you have a girlfriend that’s been approved by the Queen. Vivian’s been with Henry since they we were thirteen. That’s nearly four years. They’re not going to be breaking up anytime soon.”
Victor smiled. “I never said anything but that she looked lovely this evening.”
“Which is french for ‘I miss you after that one night stand we had in the Hamptons last summer’,” Astrid said.
Victor glared at his cousin. “Astrid, I said nothing. I only said that she looked lovely. Besides, we’ve never had a one night stand before. Have we? We’re just old, childhood friends. With no love lost between us. Except the friendly kind.”
“Of course,” I said, locking eyes with him, “we’re nothing but old friends.”
Astrid’s words rang in my head. The one night stand to which she was referring had happened last summer, before Derek’s wedding. My family went to the Hamptons every year and I’d invited some of my friends with me. Henry, Marlowe, Astrid, Daisy, and Victor among them.
Henry had been pissing me off. He’d been distant and ignoring me ever since Derek’s birthday when he’d been introduced to Cecelia Porter. He thought I was fool, but I knew that he was in love with her. Everyone seemed to lose their minds over this simple, common girl and I didn’t know why.
Henry had spent the trip sulking, and getting high. While I had spent the weekend avoiding Victor’s gazes, I had still found myself swimming in the pool alone at midnight under the full moon.
It was summer, I was drunk on champagne, and I was sad.
So, I was out there swimming alone when I saw Victor coming out of my family’s house from the sliding glass door. “Mind if I join you?” he asked.
I was sitting by the edge of the pool, sipping the glass of champagne I’d been nursing for sometime. “Whatever you want. I don’t care.”
He was wearing only his swim trunks, and I took in his well muscled form. He had a fleur-de-lis tattooed on his chest to symbolize his house. He was blond, and french, and perfect. And I’d seen the looks he’d given to me over the years.
“My cousins a fool,” he said. “You’re the most beautiful woman around. I don’t understand why he’s pining for some commoner that he barely knows.”
I glared at him. “What makes you think that he’s pining for some commoner that he barely knows?”
“Because,” he said, “both him and Marlowe haven’t been talking about anyone else since that ridiculous party. I don’t understand it myself. I’ve seen pictures of the girl. She’s not even close to Delilah as far as looks, and she’s average at best. You, on the other hand, are a work of art. You deserve to be treated as such.”
“What? Put on a pedestal and looked at?” I demanded.
“No,” he told me, “admired and loved. You’re beauty personified. Venus. Aphrodite. Every goddess ever. And if you were mine, I would treat you as such. Rather than pine for some impossible, average girl who the Queen will never even approve of.”
“Go away,” I snapped, “I’m dating the Prince of England. We’ve been together since I was thirteen. This girl won’t interfere with us. She’s….a blip.”
He smirked. “Fine, she’s a blip. But he’s pissing you off right now. Do you want to piss him off right back?”
I stared at him, and he stared at me. He was gorgeous, and royal, and everything a girl dreamed about. He also happened to be completely obsessed with me more so than my own boyfriend was.
Without a word, I put the glass of champagne on the edge of the pool. Then, I wrapped my arms around his neck, and the two of us kissed. There was nothing but the smell of chlorine, the stars, and the two of us doing the last thing that we should have been doing.
We hadn’t talked since then. Now, it was like I couldn’t stop thinking of that moment. His lips on mine and the smell of the chlorine as we kissed.
“Vivian,” Henry’s voice called.
I turned to find him walking towards me. “Hello. Done with the meet and greet?”
He nodded, and smiled at me. With a quick to Victor, he said, “Where’s Cecelia and Marlowe?”
Victor shrugged. “They went off in the direction of the maze, I think. They were fighting. I thought it best not to follow.”
Henry frowned, and glanced at me. “You know he’ll probably kill her.”
I shook my head. “She’s a big girl, Henry. She can handle herself.”
Henry looked off in the direction with the maze. “I’m going after her. Just to make certain that she’s okay.”
He walked off before I could say anything, and I felt Victor’s gaze on me.
“Don’t say a word,” I said. I finished the champagne I was drinking, and then I got up and left the table. I wanted to be anywhere but there.
My boyfriend was in love with someone else.
And the person I loved was dating her.
It was my hell and there was no escaping it.
- Writer
