Royalty

Fifty One

After a couple days of trying to figure shit out in my life, I finally came up with a sort of game plan. Not necessarily a plan but more of an idea of what to do. 

I spent the past couple of days on my own, minus the occasional tour around the city with Isabella and the 'bro times' with Xander. Although I did pick up a couple waiting shifts at the restaurant to earn a little more pocket money. I just wanted to clear my head and think things through by myself. No outside opinions on what to do, no outside opinions on how stupid I've been. I needed time to sort out the situation and think of what I wanted to do next.

What would my next move be? Did I really want to work this thing out with Summer and her parents? Was it worth it? Was she worth it? Or did I just want to let it all fall the way it did and part ways?

To me, the answer was crystal clear. 

Both Isabella and Xander knew that I didn't want to talk about things with anyone else, so neither of them had mentioned or brought up a word about anything related to Summer. 

The day I ran into Liam and Danielle by the Hudson was the day Summer and I finally got a hold of each other. She had called later in the afternoon, apologizing for being so busy and not being able to talk with me. I thought it was just dumb for her to be apologizing for something so trivial because getting a hold of each other was the least of our issues. Plus, if there was anyone to apologize, it would be me.

Which I did.

Summer and I finally got to talk about what the hell was going on at that charity event. I explained where I was coming from and how I didn't mean for it to turn out that way or go that far. Even though Niall tried to take the blame when we were there, I informed Summer that everything was my idea. It seemed a little ridiculous for me to bring Niall into it when I was the one actually making things worse. 

She was understanding about everything for the most part. I mean, she was still upset and still thought I was stupid for doing it, but she felt better now that we had talked it out. 

And of course, her parents still hated me. So I needed to try and work things out with them. At the very least, I needed to find some kind of middle ground with them. If they could only just hear me out, maybe this whole situation wouldn't be so bad. 

Walking inside the unfamiliar building, I was completely in awe of everything around me. It all looked so clean and brand new. The windows were crystal clear, the floors sparkled under the lights, none of the tables had any sign of dust covering them, and there was a faint scent of lavender that filled the air. 

Standing there in the foyer in just a t-shirt and jeans, I felt undeniably underdressed. There were men and women passing me by, conversing together or focusing intently on their phones or consistently checking their thousand-dollar watches, all dressed in business attire. I was a fish out of water in this place.

I spotted a receptionist sitting at a desk towards the center of the room. Her rectangular glasses were perched upon her nose as she rapidly typed into the computer in front of her. As she noticed me approach the desk, she used the computer mouse to click on something before she switched her attention.

With her hands clasped together on the desk and a warm smile across her lips, she spoke directly to me, "Good afternoon, sir. How can I help you today?"

"Um, hi," I cleared my throat as I awkwardly shifted my weight between my feet. "Is - do you know if Mr. and Mrs. Lutes are here?"

"Marilyn should be back any minute from lunch, but Robert is up in his office," she spun in her chair to look back at the computer. "Do you have an appointment or a meeting with them?"