The Royal Romance - By My Side

Not a Prince

It had been really good to talk to Maxwell yesterday. There was always something a little surreal about talking to someone who had been drinking when you were stone cold sober, but somehow she'd still managed to connect with him.

She wasn't exactly impressed with the developments he'd relayed to her, but she knew she only had herself to blame. And yes, she got where Drake was coming from with his comments that their friendship could have run its course now. Some of Maxwell's chirpy morning updates had got on her nerves this week. This morning's had been amusingly brief, at least he seemed to have remembered most of their telephone conversation (although she wished he'd found a proper glass of milk rather than a few drops of that UHT rubbish that he'd found in his room). But he was livening up her otherwise boring existence, and that was just fine. She thought she'd play along for a bit longer.

Her shift was almost over, and it was the evening that she was going out for post work drinks, definitely not a date, with Daniel. She wasn't really thinking too much about it, she was thinking back instead. It was hard to believe that two whole weeks had now passed since her date with the Crown Prince of Cordonia, and finding a new friend as a result.

Her eyes fluttered in the direction of the table she'd been sat in. She could still picture them clearly; well, Rick and Maxwell, anyway, as she'd seen pictures of them to reinforce the images in her head. Right now, there was a family sitting there, two bored teenagers and two middle aged parents. Bit of a contrast. And it illustrated the contrast between her way of life and theirs.

***

"Well, this is nice," Jen said to Daniel as they sat in another bar, pretty much like the one they worked in, just not the one they worked in. Nowhere special, really.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted to get food or not?" Daniel said to her. "I thought if we went somewhere like this, then we can if we want to, but it's not weird if we don't."

"A wise plan. But to be honest, I figured we might get food, so I didn't eat at work. Let's eat!" She banged the table. "Steaks!"

"Uh, Jen, what?"

"Never mind," she sighed. "Let's look at the menu, like normal people."

"Are you still going on about that bachelor party?" Daniel sighed. "They really made an impression on you."

"Yeah, they did," she said. "Oh, listen. I'm gonna tell you something. I kinda went on a date with one of the guys afterwards..."

"I knew it," he said. "You were too happy the next day."

"We all went to a club, and... you're not gonna believe this, but... one of them was a Prince."

"Prince? Of where?"

"Cordonia. It's in Europe. Near Greece."

"A likely story.."

"No. It's true. I googled him afterwards. And I took him to the Statue of Liberty. It was... quite romantic, actually."

"Huh, guessing you'll never see this Prince of Cordonia again?" Daniel pulled out his phone. "Is it... oh yeah, I recognise him!"

He held out his phone to show a picture of Rick.

"No, I don't think I will," she sighed. She decided not to tell Daniel about the fact that she'd been chatting on a daily basis with one of the Prince's friends. That might scare him off.

"Wow. Did you... I mean..."

"Oh, nothing like that," she explained. "A kiss on the cheek."

"Still.."