When you tell the world you're mine

Chapter 2: Know-it-all

The second and third days working with Prince Harry were surprisingly normal. Carolina always thought that having a member of the Royal Family on her "team" would be totally different than what it really was. Every morning Harry entered the headquarters to greet every single one of them. He always brought a cup of tea, a polite smile and seemed interested in everything they told him. He always checked the archives to make sure brazilian and british people were getting the right information and in the right way, and sometimes he left notes on the corners. In the afternoons, after lunch hour, he requested a meeting and he just waited for everyone to speak first before he gave his own suggestions and predictions.

Carolina never spoke that much English in so little time. She still felt insecure, sometimes she would stutter on the simplest words. She truly didn't think she had the suitable level for the job. But up until now, nor Renata or Edward had made a single correction on her work. And whenever she had a hard time remembering a word or stuttering while speaking, Edward and Harry were always polite and waited for her to take a deep breath and try again, they even helped when she couldn't remember the word she wanted to use. She would always feel shy and insecure about how she was speaking and making herself understood when things like this happened but both of them made sure to tranquilize her as if it wasn't a big deal.

After she was done for the day she walked again to the subway station, and differently from the last few weeks, she was calmer, she had a smile on her face, she was working with something she had always wanted to. Things were starting to get better.

She arrived home only to notice she was alone. Again. Another day of her mom working overtime. She just heated something fast to have dinner, had a shower and started an essay due next week. In the meantime, she saw pictures of the prince she had met the day before. Every article talked about how the idea of the games was a good one and how much they expected that brazilian military men and women would join the Invictus.

Thursday morning and Carolina had more work than normal. She had done a great part the day before, but it seemed like all the files had been sent to her to write, correct and make suggestions. She was the first to arrive and was humming a song when the door opened silently.

"Oh, sorry.", he said while entering the room and realizing he had startled her. "Good morning"
"Good morning, sir.", she answered after taking a deep breath to calm her heart that was pounding so fast in her chest.
"Please, call me Harry. There's no need to formalities here.", he said sitting on the chair in front of her desk.
"Sorry... Harry.", she looked at him and noticed he was wearing informal clothes. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Yes, actually I need to check-up on my speech for tomorrow morning. And I tried to put in some portuguese words. But I don't know if they fit in there or if it means what I want it to mean. Such a difficult language...", he said scratching his forehead.
"It is difficult indeed. But let me check it up.", she said stretching up her hand to catch the paper that was in his hands.
"Thanks a lot... what's your name again?" he was visibly embarrassed for having forgotten her name.
"Carolina" she grabbed the paper and read it quickly before starting to make changes and in the page footer she wrote the right way of pronunciation the words he had chosen to compose his speech. 

While she worked Harry just watched her. She worked quickly and methodically. She checked several times what she was doing. She erased and scratched what he had done, only to add a new sentence to complement it. She also made notes on the sides.

She was beautiful. She didn't have a stunning model-like beauty. But she had the kind of beauty that if someone looked close enough - like he was doing now - one could see that she'd be prettier than after the first glance. She wasn't fat, but wasn't skinny. She had curves, a dark brown curly hair that was in a ponytail and a smooth brown skin that made him think of chocolate. But her eyes were what he liked the most: they were a mix of green and a light brown color depending on lighting and angle. She was responsible and serious, but also polite and smart. So fucking smart. But sometimes she was shy and she got frustrated when things didn't go like she had planned. She was also very harsh on herself, specially when she made mistakes while writing or speaking. He was actually surprised by how easy it was to read her. He had been taught how to read people since he was a kid, and there she was, this woman of several features in front of him. Whom he was reading and being surprised by what he was finding out.

"There it is. I rewrote some lines because the words didn't really fit in, and I added a pronunciation guide for you so you can practice how to speak them the right way.", she handed over the papers to him and noticed he was staring at her. She fidgeted uncomfortable in her chair and offered a smile. 

He got the paper and saw what she had done. He re-read the speech and noticed it was better than before. 

"Oh.. wow, Carolina. It is really great. Thank you so much for this.", he said looking and reading his speech again.
"That's no problem. But you do write good speeches, you know?"
"You think so?"
"I do. That one only had slips because you tried to incorporate a foreign language in it. The English part is perfect. And that's very considerate of you to try to do some parts of it in Portuguese", she said looking at him.
"Well, I really like Brazil and brazilian people. Your people are very kind, warm and welcoming and I wanted to show that I appreciate it.", he folded the papers and put them in his pocket and left right before everyone else arrived.
–
Carolina spent the day immersed in her work. Her head ached, her fingers and arms hurt because of all the typing and looking for files. She forgot about the meeting and Edward came to remind her of it.

"Miss Nogueira... it's time for the meeting." he said politely to her.
"Oh, I am sorry, Edward. I totally forgot. I am on my way now. Thank you.", she got up and went straight to the meeting room where everyone was already seated waiting for her, the only chair available was the head of the table. Harry sat in one and she sat at the other.
"I am sorry for making you wait for me", she said sheepishly.
"That's no problem... Carolina.", he emphasized her name to show he still remembered it and smirked. 

Edward e Harry led the meeting from that point. On the next day they'd have an early start. A very early start. They wanted to use Brazil's interest in the games to try to include all Latin America. And they needed more files and documents and announcements to be written. 

"Does anyone here speak Spanish as well?", Edward asked.

Carolina and another guy raised their hands.

"Of course she is going to raise her hand", Harry thought. She was almost a Hermione-a-like. And probably is a know-it-all. Harry raised an eyebrow intrigued. That girl was so smart that it was almost as intimidating as his title. He was surprised but if anyone else would be as qualified as they needed, it'd be her. He shook his head to come back from his wonderings and focused again in the meeting while Edward explained what needed to be done and the deadline.

After that everyone was dismissed to go home. Carolina had to be at the hotel at 5 in the morning to have enough time to write the announcements that would be sent at 8. In three different languages. She tried to not overthink it, because being nervous would only disturb her working and she was doing alright so far. But she could feel the weight of the responsability that she had been given. And it was almost overwhelming. She went home as quickly as she could in the rush hour traffic. She arrived almost an hour later than usual, had a shower and put on the first pair of clean pyjamas she found on her laundry pile before going to sleep without having dinner or chatting with her mom.