The Florist And The Prince (ON HOLD)

~ 28 ~

Prince Alexander's POV

Sitting in the back of the Roll-royce in a convoy of SUVs filled with their private royal guards, Alex gazed out the window thinking about how he looked up to the second floor of the palace and saw Avery. They were into their second hour of driving now and he still couldn't get his mind off of her, no matter how hard he tried. There was something about her that just pulled him towards her like a magnet and he found that ridiculous because he hardly knew her.

"Alex." He felt someone nudged his elbow and he looked to the side to see that it was his sister, with a scowl on her face.

"What is it?" He asked, frowning.

"I was asking for your opinion on my paintings. Which one do you think is better?"

"Your painting?" Alex frown deepened.

"Yes, since Madam Eunice is in charge of taking care of the contestants, so Mrs. Merrill is tutoring me and asked me to paint a portrait of any plant on the grounds." Brianna explained, swiping through her Ipad to show her brother the paintings. She was very talented for her age. "There are so many, so I painted a few and now I'm confused on which one to submit."

"They are all amazing Brie."

"Really?" She grinned up happily at Alex and he nodded his head.

"They really are."

"Thank you, but you still haven't answered my question yet." Brianna stated seriously this time.

Chuckling, Alex took her Ipad from her and began swiping through the photos of the paintings that she did. There was a bush of ferns, a poppy, sunflower, pink tulip and waterlily but what caught Alex eyes was the China rose. It caught his attention almost immediately when he saw it because it reminded him of her. When he first met Avery it was in the flower shop where there was a collection of different varieties of roses on one side of the room as well as same growing on the outside of the shop, then on their second meeting, they were both in a rose greenhouse.

"What's wrong? Is it not good?" Brianna asked nervously, as hadn't Alex hadn't spoken a single word after seeing the rose.

Clearly his throat he gave her a apologetic smile. "Of course not. It's beautiful, you should submit this one."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"What is it?" Their father inquired. He had been looking through the itinerary list for their day in the city, but kept his ears open, listening to his childhood.

Alex held out the Ipad for him to take. "Brianna's paintings for her summer class."

Placing aside the Ipad that he held, King Stefan got his daughter's and began looking through the paintings, smiling proudly at how talented his daughter was.

"They are all beautiful sweetheart. You have your grandmother's love for art."

"Thank you dad. Which one do you like?"

"They are all great, but I like the rose a little better." Their father replied.

"That's what Alex said too, then I'll give that one."

Three hours later, when Alex looked out of the window and caught sight of the ocean in the distance down the mountain, he knew that they had arrived at the city and were only a few minutes outside of it. Isle Gregoria named after the first France settlers leader's daughter was were the Kingdom was first established before they relocated inland, leaving it to become the capital city. The city still had many of its historical sights, landmarks and buildings that were brought in and made from their earlier settlers, from Sweden, France, Germany and Spain that blended in well with the modern age architecture around.

Once they arrived in the city a few minutes later, Alex watched as everyone on the footpaths as well as the ones inside the nearby buildings, stopped what they were doing and watched the royal convoy drive by and he was grateful that they had gotten into one of the Roll-royces that had dark tinted windows instead of the clear one, so that the people couldn't see them.

"Looks like we are going to spend the night here in the city, children." King Stefan spoke up, with his eyes on his laptop.

"What?" Alex whipped his head around, away from the window to look at his father.

"After the opening ceremony, we'll have afternoon tea with the staff members of the research centre and the Prime Minister and a few of the Politicians, then in the evening, we have being invited to attend a gala to celebrate the launching of the centre." They're father informed them of the last minute changes.

"But I haven't got anything to wear dad." Brianna said, a small frown appearing on her forehead.

"It's alright Brianna, I'll have Charlotte order you some clothes. You too Alex." King Stefan assured both his children.

Alex didn't mind because they were all for a good cause, but he wasn't a fan of last minute changes.

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