a gentleman's mistress

XIV. July 11th, 1989

Mira's POV:

The knock on my bedroom door caught my attention. I placed down the hairbrush and made my way to the sound. When I opened the door, Dawn was on the other side.

She smiled, "Hey."

My grip tightens against the doorknob. "Hi," I say, straightening out the old T-shirt. "What's up?"

"I—" she fidgets slightly in her place. I'm here to apologize," she says. I shouldn't have acted like that last night."

I smile and open my arms, "Come here."

Immediately, she hugged me, "I'm so sorry. I'm such a horrible friend. It's just-"

I pat her back, "It's okay. I know."

Dawn cried into my shoulder, "This vacation was a mistake. We should've stayed home and complained about how bored we are instead."

I second that.

Dawn and I spend the day on the bed with junk food around us.

"I'm assuming your stomach feels better?" Dawn asked.

I nodded, "Yeah." I turned to her, "So, update me. What happened after I left?"

Dawn turned to her stomach, "After you left, we went back out, and the atmosphere was actually pretty bad. The only thing you heard was the utensils hitting against the plates."

"That's rough."

Dawn crept closer to me, "So, did anything happen between you and the archduke?"

I squinted my eyes and stared at the ceiling to recall what happened yesterday. "No. He took me back, and then Bennett took me inside."

"Ah." Dawn nodded.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

I turned to my side and brought one left forward to feel comfortable. "Yesterday, you said you saw me going into a hotel with a random guy-"

"I'm so sorry I said any of that. What you decide to do is your business, and I have no right to bring that up."

"No. No. It's okay," I said. "I just wanted to know if you ever seen me with the archduke, other than yesterday."

"Oh-" She looks surprised by my question. "Other than the other, you guys danced together at the ball. No."

"We danced together at the ball?" You would think, even if I were hammered, I would remember something like that.

She nodded, "Yeah. You guys were basically the center of attention until the King and Queen arrived, and then that whole fiasco happened."

It's weird, but I don't recall ever dancing with Lucianus at the ball.

Typically, people don't get hung up over one dance, but last night's dream wouldn't let the uncomfortable feeling settle.

I had a dream that Lucianus and I were dancing together next to the lake under the moon.

His hand was on my back, and my head rested on his chest. There wasn't a single string of music in the background, but we didn't seem to care.

It was beautiful.

"Guess what," Dawn said.

"What?"

"This morning, we got a letter from the king."

"About?"

"He says we can visit Asena any time we want."