Annalise Stark, orphaned after losing her parents in the military, is desperate to find a way to pay off her sister's medical debts. She finds work at the palace, home to the infamous Prince William. Despite her efforts to ignore him, Annalise soon...
"Be the good girl you always have to be." ~Elsa, Frozen
Annalise
"Hey, Anna," Mark said when I entered the warmth of Donaldson's. I greeted him in return as I took off my coat and brought it to the backroom. Grabbing an apron, I went to help Mark. When I approached the bar, a familiar black-haired girl sat on the chair in front of me.
I blinked in shock. "Everly?"
She appeared equally surprised. "Anna! You work here?"
"Yeah."
"You two know each other?" Mark asked.
"We literally just met a few hours ago. She's Will's cousin," I said. "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting on Eric," Everly replied.
As if on cue, Eric Montrose strutted into the bar, planting a kiss on Everly's lips. He noticed me and said gleefully, "Annalise! Good to see you!"
"Hey Eric, good to see you too!" I lied.
It wasn't good to see him. The guy was a pig and a womanizer. I wanted to warn Everly about him right away, but I didn't know her well enough to do that. Plus, Everly seemed like a smart girl who wouldn't take any crap. I had a feeling that if she found out about Eric and his real self, she'd dump him faster than he could blink.
"Small world, isn't it?" Mark mused with a grin. "All right, you two, what would you like to drink?"
Eric ordered a beer while Everly ordered wine. I started taking orders from the other customers that began to file into the pub. I'd come into work at four, and the pub had been half full. By six, the entire place was packed, and we even had a wait. I vaguely wondered why we were so busy on a Tuesday night.
Thankfully, by ten o'clock, the crowd died down, leaving only a few groups and Everly and Eric.
"Are you guys always that busy?" Everly asked.
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"Not during the weekdays. The weekend has our biggest nights. Today was an oddball. Was the food good?" I asked.
"Delicious, but then again, Will and Eric have both told me the food here is amazing."
"I'm glad you liked it!"
Everly smiled. "What's up since I last saw you?"
"Not much, just been working all day," I answered, slapping Mark on the butt with the towel I was holding when he tried to tickle me. Everly looked at me with a curious smirk, causing me to ask, "What?"
"Are you two dating?"
"What?" I repeated, looking at her in disbelief.
"Are you two dating?"
"No!" I laughed. "Mark's like my brother. We've grown up together."
"Sorry, you two seem pretty close, so I kind of assumed... Do you have a boyfriend?"
