Royal Dilemma

Chapter Seven

(Caleb's Point of View) 

"The next person to ask me if I'm dating someone is getting sucker-punched," Joey huffs, falling into a seat near me at the large white-clothed round table. "That includes grandma."

"At least they're not asking you when you're getting married," Julian points out.

"When are you getting married?" Joey asks Julian, brows furrowed.

Julian doesn't answer, just glares at him. I don't blame people for wondering about it though. As the second oldest not only is Julian the next person expected to get married but he's also been with his girlfriend, Aria, for four years.

"When are they bringing out the food?" Colin mutters beside me.

I'm wondering the same thing. Colin and I had spent the night before partying on the Shirashio, the sixth week in a row we'd done this, and I'd slept in today, forgetting to eat breakfast before the garden event my parents demanded we all be at.

The gardens themselves aren't bad. Filled with flowers and fantastic topiary, they're pretty beautiful. It's the people attending the party that kind of suck.

"If they don't have something with crab in it I'm going to throw a fit," Joey says, leaning back in his chair. "Screaming, crying, rolling on the floor kind of fit."

Julian, Colin, and I seem to roll our eyes in sync.

Aria approaches the table in a pretty blue dress that makes her blue eyes pop. Her long brown hair is in curls, falling down her back. Julian lights up, sitting a little straighter in his seat.

"Hey there handsome," she says to Julian, kissing him on the cheek as she takes a seat next to him.

"Hello beautiful," he replies, putting his arm around the back of her chair.

"Barf," Joey mutters, rolling his eyes.

"Just say you're jealous and move on, Joe," Aria taunts.

Joey rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything. He probably is jealous, I know I am. Julian has somehow found a woman who not only couldn't care less about his money or status but is also a genuinely good person. Those types of people are rare.

My mind strays to the girl from the bar, Charli, wondering what she would think if she knew I was a prince. While the royalty factor is a motivator for most women I think it would actually drive Charli away. I try to imagine her here, in a pretty dress, playing nice with socialites, and I can't.

Then I imagine her teasing Joey or joking around with Colin and Julian. She'd definitely fit in in that sense. The idea brings a small smile to my face.

I catch myself and have to hold back my groan. This again? I pinch myself as punishment. I haven't seen Charli in weeks and I'm still thinking about her. What is wrong with me? I barely know her.

"Has anyone seen Levi?" Joey asks, looking around as if our eldest brother would appear out of thin air.

"He was playing Mr. Nice Guy with dad," Colin says disinterestedly.

Since Levi is the firstborn he's the one that's being groomed to take over as king when my dad steps down. It's good it worked out this way because Levi's the most responsible and level-headed out of all of us. Or perhaps that's why he is that way, because he's been prepared for it his whole life. Either way it means he has to shadow my dad a lot and part of that is playing nice with the other politicians and powerful people in the kingdom.

"That shit would drive me crazy," Joey says, voicing my thoughts. "I cannot pretend these people are interesting."

Everyone at the table chuckles and the line kind of reminds me of something Charli might say. There I go again. I pinch myself.

They finally begin serving the food and you can bet Colin and I are the first in line. It's buffet-style and the servers give both of us weird looks when we keep requesting they put more servings on our plates.

They have crab puffs, which means Joey doesn't throw his fit. By the way Colin wolfs down his food I'm guessing he didn't have time to eat breakfast this morning either.

"We should have Saturday game nights again," Julian says, putting a forkful of food in his mouth. "Those were fun."

Colin and I pause while shoveling food in our mouths and glance at each other. I know we're thinking the same thing, but Saturdays are for the Shirashio. Obviously we can't tell Julian that though.

"Maybe on Sundays instead," Colin suggests.

"Yeah, Saturdays are busy for me," I contribute.

Joey gives me a weird look. "Busy with what? You don't even have school right now."

"Busy with super-secret twin stuff," Colin answers for me.

Joey sighs and rolls his eyes, going back to his food. Colin and I have been claiming to be doing super-secret twin stuff since we were kids whenever we don't want to tell people what we've been up to.

Joey gets seconds and then thirds of the crab puffs. Then he walks up to the server and tells them to just fill his entire plate with crab puffs at which point Julian intervenes and tells him he's had enough. Julian gives Joey's plateful of crab puffs to Colin and me and we eat them as Joey glares at us from across the table.

Julian starts telling a story about something that happened at work. Then Joey's phone begins buzzing incessantly on the table, interrupting his pouting, filling the screen up with half a dozen notifications in the span of a few seconds. We all stare at it as it continues to buzz every few seconds. Joey glances at it and then ignores it, propping up his chin with his hand and sighing. His phone buzzes a few more times with more incoming texts.

"You gonna look at those?" Colin asks with a mouthful of crab puff.

"No," Joey sighs. "Never give a crazy chick your number."

"Maybe she just likes you," Aria says, defending her fellow woman.

"Then I want her to like me less," Joey says, picking up his phone and finally checking the notifications. A small smile forms on his face and he quickly types something back.

"You like her," Aria teases.

"I like when you don't speak," Joey retorts, setting his phone down.

"Watch it," Julian warns him.

I watch our mom approach, looking elegant in a beautiful ankle-length dress.

"How are my boys?" She asks, coming up behind Joey.

"Your boys are bored," Joey says, looking up at her.

"What do you think of reviving family game night?" Julian asks her, completely ignoring Joey. "We could do it on Sundays."

"I think that sounds wonderful," she says, smiling. "You can all leave if you want." She kisses the top of Joey's head.

We all stand and give our mom a hug and kiss on the cheek goodbye. None of us bother going to find our dad, knowing he's probably busy. Then we all practically bolt to our cars. I spend the rest of the day playing video games with Colin in his apartment.

We go out using the Shirashio that weekend again. I meet a nice enough girl I take back to a hotel but two weeks later I can't recall her name or picture her face. I can picture Charli's face though, like she's standing in front of me. Every time her face floats through my mind, smiling mischievously, I pinch myself. I don't know what's wrong with me but I know I need to stay the hell away from Charli.

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