The Royal Dream

Chapter 3

He unpacked the duffel bag and pulled out an unbranded t-shirt, which he had bought in a set of tens for this job. It was so not his style, but he knew he can pull off any look. He looked for a bathroom, but the room was like a bathroom, at least in size, it was.

"You have got to be kidding me. Don't tell me I have to use a common bathroom! Thanks dad!" He muttered, annoyed.

He walked out of his room with the t-shirt and towel in his hand into the corridor. He tried the door opposite his, it was a master bedroom, Gabriel and Antoinette's, he assumed. Then he tried the door beside it. It was the bathroom. 

He entered and hung t-shirt and towel on the hook behind the door. And then another surprise awaited him. The door wouldn't lock! The lock was broken. He cursed it and hopped into the shower anyway. He was in a desperate need of a bath. 

The cold water felt good and refreshing. He turning the running water off to take some of his shower gel for lathering up. 

Suddenly, the door opened and a blonde girl barged in. There was no shower curtain and he was completely naked, except for the white foam which covered him, of course. 

Her mouth fell wide open and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I am sorry" She managed to say as she turned on her heels and rushed out to close the door. 

Joseph had never felt so embarrassed in his life. One day in the life of a common, poor man and everything was a disaster already! He shook his head and came out of the shower. After drying himself up, he put on his t-shirt and wrapped a towel around his waist. 

The blonde girl was not in the corridor. He went to his room, put on some pants and headed downstairs for dinner.

The dining table was just outside the kitchen, an open kitchen wall separating the two. Gabriel was already seated and Antoinette could be seen in the kitchen.

 "Have a seat young man." He pulled out a chair and motioned for him to sit. Joseph cleared his throat and sat down while looking around for that blonde girl. 

"The lock of bathroom door broke today. Tomorrow Lucas will be here to fix it. I hope you didn't have any inconvenience."

Joseph didn't know what to say. Should he say that a blonde girl walked on him while he was showering? Of course not.

"It's okay, Gabriel." 

"Good. Well, Antoinette, darling, just bring on the dinner already. I am dying here." He called out. 

"Coming!" She said.

Antoinette came holding a casserole and a plate. After the food was set on the table, she sat down.

"Ahh! Claire! Finally, join us." Antoinette chimed. 

I turned back to see the blonde girl and could feel my cheeks turn red again. She sat down on the chair next to me. 

"Joseph, meet my daughter Claire. Claire, meet Joseph, our new helper." 

"Hello, it's nice to meet you." Claire said cheerfully. 

"Likewise." Joseph was too dumbstruck to say anything else. She certainly did know how to handle awkward situations.

"How was your day darling?" Gabriel asked turning to Claire.

"Oh it was the same dad, but I did get a lot of tips today." She said it with a smile. 

"So, Joseph, why did you come to France?" Gabriel asked, looking towards him.

"I wanted to make my career in something related to wine or brewery. So I thought what could be a better place than France?"

"That's true. So your parents are still in London?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. What did you study then?"

"I did a small course on vineyard farming but now I want to learn things for real."

"That's great."

After the dinner was over, Claire proposed to do the dishes and Joseph tagged along to help while the old couple retired for the day.

"You don't need to be embarrassed by what happened today you know. I am totally sorry, by the way." Her voice broke the silence and Joseph's train of thoughts as to what to say.

"Oh, umm, it's okay." His lips turned into a smile.

He noticed her from the corner of his eyes. She was attractive and beautiful for sure. But she had an enigmatic personality. One can't really say if she was angry, sad, happy or anything just by looking at her. He cleared his throat.

"So you work at a restaurant or something?"

"The one and only Restaurant slash hotel slash bar, whatever you wanna call it of the town. Yeah. But that's just to manage expenses you know."

"Ohh" He didn't know actually. How could he know a poor man's struggle when he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

"Yeah, I want to be a writer someday."

"That's cool. I can totally see you writing about a weird guy who baths naked in other people's bathroom."

She laughed out loud at that.

"It really sounds creepy when you put it like that." It really took her a while to contain her laughter. After she was done with the dishes, and he with wiping them dry, they both sat on the couch to do the paperwork for his employment. 

After forty-five minutes or so they said their good-nights and slept soundly in their respective rooms.

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Hello guys! Belated happy new year and sorry for the late update. I hope you all are doing fine.

This isn't a long chapter but it sure was fun to write. Let me know in the comments as to how you liked it.