Courting Royal

Chapter Eleven

On Saturday, I spend the day moping around. I know I shouldn't, but I feel left out.

Normally an entire day without plans is something I get excited about—I can do whatever I want!—but today, I just feel forgotten.

I've been monitoring Liam's arrival in Belarus on social media, not-so-patiently waiting to hear from the royal correspondents I follow to start tweeting about his plane landing in Minsk. A press release finally came out on Friday, announcing what Liam is up to there, and it definitely made an impact. This is the most political trip he's taken in his career, and there's been a lot made of the fact that it's Liam going on it and not Ben.

I want to point out to all of them that Ben is the one who is going to be king one day, and that, considering the United Kingdom has a Prime Minister and a Parliament, the royals aren't meant to be heavy-handed with politics. It wouldn't be appropriate for the future king to take such a strong stand on another country's capital punishment laws. By sending Liam, the royal family is taking a strong stand, letting their position and opinion be known, but in a way that could be construed as "Liam feels deeply about the topic and pushed the crown to let him go".

Plus, he's traveling with lots of other diplomats from lots of other countries—and none of those people are in a direct line of succession.

Not that Liam couldn't be king—he's fourth in line, behind his dad and brother—but a lot of really upsetting shit would have to go down for Liam to be on the throne.

In any case, this trip has raised a lot of eyebrows, but hopefully in a good way. Though Liam's right in saying that this isn't an exciting trip in the sense that there won't be photo ops with breathtaking natural backdrops, it's an important one, diplomatically.

I tried writing a blog post talking about all of that, but then trashed it as it's out of character for me to talk about the politics of royal visits. So instead I put together a draft outlining Liam's publicly released schedule, with links to information about Belarus in general, their capital punishment laws, and the NGO, for any of my readers who might be interested in that.

I assume it's around 2% of them. Most just want to look at pretty pictures. Which is understandable.

Driving myself crazy constantly refreshing my feeds, I pack my laptop and charging cord, get up and gather some laundry, quarters, and detergent, and then head two doors down to my neighborhood's laundromat.

Though it is a pain to have to sit here and wait for my laundry (the one time I didn't, an entire load of my whites was thrown on the floor post-wash by an impatient person who decided they needed to use my washer immediately), there's something soothing about the laundromat. It smells like clean linens and is always playing reruns of Seinfeld, which, for some reason, I find extremely charming. Maybe because it also reminds me of a scene from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog.

When I walk in, I throw my clothes into a washing machine, and then set up shop at one of the tables. As I'm waiting for news of Liam's arrival via social media, I start writing up the ad I'll post online to sublet my place. I, obviously, do my best to make it sound as great as possible: bright, sunny studio in Queens, fully furnished, stocked with books, cable, and WiFi, near the subway, a movie theater, a laundromat, a great coffee shop and a truly fantastic Greek restaurant. I make it clear that the sublet runs from early June through Labor Day, and that the tenant needs to responsible, respectful, and clean.

I consider drafting up a post on my site with the ad, but think better of it. Not that I think any of my readers are psychos, but if things go well this summer and news does break that Liam and I are official, the person subletting from me will have significant ammo. And, it's entirely possible some of my readers who try to filch from my teacup collection, and that will just not do.