A New York waitress has a chance encounter with a prince, and is then offered the opportunity of a lifetime! But...she doesn't have a valid passport! Is the fairytale over before it even began? Or will Jen still find her happily ever after? This is...
The phone rang early on Sunday morning, waking Jen from a confusing dream. In it she'd been dancing with Rick on a rooftop somewhere, knowing every step to the Cordonian Waltz. And although she was very impressed with herself for mastering every step, something wasn't feeling right.
She was a little confused as to why Maxwell was ringing her instead of texting her, but she didn't think too much of it. "Morning, your Lordship," she answered, sarcastically.
"I'm sorry? What was that? Is that Jen?"
"Ugh... who is this?"
"It's Kieran. Can you come in this morning? James has just rung in sick."
"Oh. Sure." She looked at the clock. It was eight. "What time do you want me?"
"Soon as you can. I need you till about five."
She sighed. "I get double pay, yeah?"
"Time and a half plus a share of the tips. That's the best I can do."
She debated trying to negotiate higher, but she needed this job. "Okay. I'll be in shortly."
She hung up, chuckling to herself at having called her boss "your Lordship." But then she thought about it some more. No daily digest? No 7am wake up call?
Was Maxwell okay?
She sent him a quick message before she headed off for her shower.
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Her head was full of thoughts. Maybe now that Rick had contacted her directly, he'd decided he didn't need to keep in touch with her anymore? Or maybe Rick had asked him to stop spamming her?
Whatever, she didn't like it.
The conversation she'd had with Rick had been, on the whole, surreal. He'd sounded like a different person to the one she'd met that night. He sounded responsible, measured, formal. He'd given her a full briefing on what his life comprised of right now, and asked her how she would feel about arriving in the midst of all this. There was only one answer to that question. If she was to come to Cordonia, she'd need a friend by her side. And, she had one. She knew he had her back.
Rick had decided that it probably wasn't the right time for Jen to come over, but had insisted that she was very welcome to if she wanted to. He'd made it very clear that had she come with Maxwell on day one, things would have been very different. He'd even told her that it was Drake who had talked Maxwell out of telling him about his idea to enter her into the competition. Things she already knew, but to hear them from Rick was just a little bizarre.
The strangest thing was the way they had left the conversation though. "I very much want to get to know you better, Jen. Whatever my marital status may be." Was he suggesting that he wanted her to be his bit on the side? Because that was something she wasn't willing to be. Not for him, not for anyone. That was why she had dropped in the nugget that she was in a relationship. It wasn't technically true, but he didn't know any different.
