Royal Dilemma

Chapter Forty

(Charli's Point of View)

I get to Caleb and I's meeting place and take a seat on the cushioned bench, leaning back against the wall. There's still another half an hour until his class gets out and I could use this time to do something useful, like study, but I'd rather read fantasy novels on my phone.

Caleb and I have been carpooling to and from school since we cleverly scheduled our classes to be around the same times this semester. With us living together it makes more sense for us to just take one car to school, plus it's more green.

Even though I was hesitant when we first started officially dating we only waited a couple of months to move in together. It made more sense for me financially and by that time I felt pretty secure in our relationship, and then there was the matter of the reporters camped outside my apartment all of the time.

When word got out about the twin's new girlfriends the press went a little wild for a few months. They were following us around and hiding in bushes and a lot of other plain weird stuff. Caleb and Colin had to hire Piper and me bodyguards to protect us from reporters because we were getting swarmed so bad every time we exited a building.

Caleb's building has much better security than my old apartment complex does, he was afraid a reporter was going to get bold and try to break in. Moving in with him just made a lot of sense, but I don't really need to justify it. I wanted to move in with him, I like spending time with him.

Now that almost a year has gone by things have definitely died down. Piper and I were able to ditch the bodyguards five or six months ago and life feels a lot more normal again.

It was hard to see Caleb as a prince at first. He's just Caleb to me, a goofy laid-back guy that I met in a bar and then again in a restaurant. But I definitely got the picture after the press fiasco, and after my face started showing up in magazines and my name in headlines. Caleb is royalty and with that comes a lot of scrutiny.

I'm not a fan of the wildly false stories the tabloids run about me. They range from me being pregnant to accusations that I'm part of a larger organization trying to overthrow the government. They're ridiculous and annoying but they don't necessarily bother me.

They bothered Piper for a long time though. She's never taken other people's opinions of her to heart but when the whole country is saying awful things about you it can make you feel like shit. Colin got her into the best therapist in the city though and she's been doing a lot better since then. I think she's a lot less bothered by the public's opinion of her than before.

The double doors at the end of the hall open and people flood out, heading in all directions. I stay seated where I am and slip my phone back into my pocket.

Caleb is one of the last to exit the auditorium, lagging back to talk to a friend of his. He's a semi-recent addition to Caleb's social circle, he met him in one of his classes last semester and they hit it off. I think he enjoys hanging out with someone different.

Caleb breaks from his friend and walks toward me with a smile. "Ready to go?"

I stand and throw my backpack over my shoulder. "Let's go."

When I moved in with Caleb he gave me free rein to redecorate however I wanted along with a limitless budget. I didn't really need either of those things, I like the furniture he has, but I took it upon myself to print some of my favorite of Caleb's drawings and hang them around the apartment. I wanted to encourage him to be more proud of his work and I also wanted more people to be able to see it.

One of his digital paintings is the first thing I see when I walk into our apartment. We both drop our bags off to the side and slide off our shoes.

"What do you want for dinner?" Caleb asks, walking towards the kitchen.

I follow him and check the time on the microwave. "Caleb, it's only four o'clock. Are we eating the early bird special?"

He pours himself a glass of water then turns to face me, leaning on the counter. "How many times do I have to tell you cooking takes time, I can't just snap my finger and put lobster on a plate for you."

I roll my eyes.

When I was talking to CJ I encouraged him to cook more and Caleb started cooking a few meals a week at home, but now that I've moved in we hardly ever eat out. I like to tease him about being a good house-husband.

"Go ahead and pick," I tell him. "I picked the last two nights."

He tilts his head and looks thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I think I want barbecue chicken."

"That doesn't take seven hours to cook." I cross my arms over my chest. "Get out of the kitchen."

Caleb's eyebrows shoot up in mock surprise. "You're kicking me out of my own kitchen?"

"Yes." I grab him by the arm and start pulling him toward the living room. "Let's do a puzzle or something."

"Let's not do a puzzle ever again," he says, falling into the couch. "Do you want to play that asylum game together?"

I wrinkle my nose, sitting next to him. "I'm not good with a controller."

"I can teach you." He hands me one of the controllers and wraps his arms around me, covering my hands with his. "These are the buttons. This is the joystick."

"I don't think you're helping." I elbow him lightly. "Get off of me."

He sighs and retracts his arms. "I'm feeling kind of snacky. Am I allowed to eat those raspberries in the fridge?"

"Absolutely not, I told your mom I would make a couple of pies for game night."

After Piper and I beta read his book and gave feedback on some of the edits Joey lifted the family only rule on family gatherings so that Piper and I could attend. Weekly family game nights are intense. On top of the three oldest princes being ridiculously competitive, I'm also very competitive and I cheat just as bad as they do, except I'm much better at getting away with it. Family game nights have become a cut-throat battle of the cheaters between the four of us and the rest of the family kind of just sits back and watches us try to kill each other.

Caleb groans. "I love your pie."

"Which is why I'm making an extra one just for us."

He smiles. "I'm so in love with you."

"That's kind of lame."

"I'm kind of lame."

"You said it."

He laughs and pulls me close, kissing me on the cheek.

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would have a handful of close friends, a boyfriend, and his family that treats me as their own I wouldn't have believed them. Sometimes I think about it and I still can't believe it, how much everything has changed.

Looking back I can't understand why I so stubbornly refused to give anyone a chance. Well, I do understand, but I also understand now that the risk is more than worth the reward.

Maybe none of this will work out and in a few months, or years, everything will turn to shit. Or maybe I'll spend the rest of my life surrounded by people who love me, who really care about me.

I will take the risk of disaster if it means that I get to have all of these people in my life with me now.

I finally know what it's like to have a support system and life has never felt so good. There's no going back now. Even if Caleb and I break up, even if I have a falling out with my friends, I can't go back to living the way I used to. Knowing there are people out there that love me is the best feeling in the entire world.

I wouldn't trade that love for anything.

The End

Author's Note: It's over! Thank you to everyone for reading, commenting, and voting on my story. It makes me so happy to know someone out there is enjoying it. Let me know your final overall thoughts on the story.