Be My Princess ✔️

Chapter 6

I was fourteen and a half when you broke my heart the first time.

With Father's permission, I came down to New Orleans to visit. Big Brother and Sister Tiana were doing well, as was their restaurant and their daughter Phoebe, who was almost three years old. As excited as I was to see my family, I was looking forward to seeing you more. Perhaps I should have listened to Big Brother; he knew of my love for you and he warned me not to visit you. But I didn't listen.

When I want to your house, your father told me you were in town shopping. I had assumed it was with friends. Because that was women did, shop around with their friends, have fun in the day time before going out at night. So I looked for you, hoping to spot you in some bright pink outfit like always with another group of brightly dressed girls, bags and purses in hand as you ran up and down the shops.

I never found you with other women. I found you with a man. Tall, handsome, a little older than you, dressed to impress in a fashionable suit and a dark brown beard. Your arms were wrapped around his, giggling and giddy with hearts in your eyes as he smiled at you. Lovingly. I had been unable to move from my spot on the street, just staring at you and this man I had never even heard of.

But you saw me and waved. You came up to speak to me, hugged me, but even now, I'm not exactly sure what you said. I know you introduced to him to me. His name was Henry and you finally found your very own Prince Charming. Soon you would be just like Sister Tiana. But that is all I can remember. Everything else was a blur.

My heart ached. My legs felt like lead. There was water in the corners of my eyes because I was supposed to be your prince. You had even written in a letter that I would make a fine prince when I grew up. I had believed you were waiting for me, I thought you loved me. My foolish arrogance hurt me more than you ever did, but I was still betrayed. I was still hurt. And the only thing I could do was run away. Not a goodbye, nothing at all. I hadn't been able to find my voice and I couldn't even turn around when you called after me.

Big Brother must have known. He had to have because when I came back to the vacation house, he was there with little Phoebe. He apologized. For what? I still can only assume for not warning me. For not preparing me for the inevitable heartbreak that would come with loving a woman thirteen years old than me.