May I, My Love? ✔

20. t h e t r e p i d a t i o n

"That.... was a hell of an information to be dumped upon someone so sensitive as me in just.... one minute. We're going to meet His Majesty? Right now?!"

She kept on ranting and shouting – whether with excitement or with nervousness – I had no idea, as I was busy in sorting out the chaos inside my mind.

How was I going to behave with Josiah in front of his grandfather?

How would I sit with them, have a proper meal and deceive my parents as well as His Majesty into thinking this was my first time meeting him?

'Well, you will have to. You can't really tell His Majesty that you've met his grandson a couple of times, danced with him and took a liking to him, and also learnt piano from him. You will have to act really well.'

"Lisa, you need to stop panicking and get ready ad quickly as you can. We can't disappoint my parents. They invariably take all these dinners and brunches extremely seriously. Get up now."

It's going to be okay. It's all going to be okay. If I'm fortunate, it will be just the royal family and us. It will be okay.

For the next hour, all we did was search for the 'perfect dress' which was still going on. I would have never imagined that preparations for a simple dinner could be so stagnant. Lisa had thrown hundreds of dresses all over my walk-in closet, and I genuinely didn't want any maid to come clean this hurricane up.

"When I told you I will be wearing this white dress, what part of it didn't you understand?"

I whinged to Lisa for the nth time today, but she was a bull-headed girl. Always so obstinate.

"No. That will not make you stand out. You need brighter colours."

"That's the point, I don't want to stand out and be seen apart from everyone else. I might as well just disguise myself as an uninteresting person."

"Don't be silly. You're going there to grab everyone's attention, not to evade it. And even if you don't like it, I won't let you get away with it.
Hmm... let's see what we have here. I haven't explored this section of your closet ever. Why so? Not this one, not this one too, .... yes! This is the one!"

She exclaimed after an eternity of nitpicking, finally finding the perfect one for me. I looked around to face her where she was standing –  in front of the last rack in my closet. The dress in her hand was one I had no memory of. I couldn't even recall buying something like that.

It was a pleasant pink knee length dress, which was tight till my waist and then opened wide open into a pretty skirt. It also had elbow length sleeves which looked so chic. I was sure I would look gorgeous when I wore it.  I gave a wide grin and a thumbs up to Lisa who grinned in return and threw the piece of clothing over to me. Now once she chooses hers, we would get ready as fast as lightning.

Another two hours later, and a burnt neck later, both of us were ready for the dinner. I still couldn't believe we had to take so many pains to get our looks straight just for a dinner. But I dared not call this just a dinner in front of Lisa, otherwise she was surely going to kill me.

"...But how could you do that? You burnt my neck!!"

I shouted at Lisa again, not ready to let go of the issue. No matter how good my hair looked after getting straightened, you don't burn people's necks just like that. And as much as I was in love with straight hair now, I would never let her touch my hair ever again.

"It doesn't matter. I covered your neck perfectly with foundation and your hair looks brilliant. So without wasting anymore time on all these trivial things, let's get down otherwise your mom will kill us."

I gasped in disbelief,

"Tri- trivial things?!! How dare you- ah!"

Before I could even finish my sentence, I was pulled around yet another time and made to sit on the bed and wear my black heels while she wore her silver ones and then I was pulled again towards the door without being able to utter a word.

'Just bear it until later Har, and your revenge will definitely be intolerable for her.'

By the time we had reached the main dining hall in the main building, it was ten to seven. My ears and mind were stuffed to the brim with all the same pieces of advice I have been receiving since childhood, but my mother still thought it was utterly necessary to reiterate all of those sentences every time I step out for a formal gathering.

As the guards outside the room checked our ids for security purposes, I looked to Lisa in panic. The harsh reality and gravity of the situation hadn't hit me all this while, until now. I felt as if I had been deprived of all the air in this universe as I was drowning in my own sweat of agitation.

"Lisa, what do I do? I can't go in there! I have no confidence to do so. And what if they're not the only ones present? What if we have more people? What is this meeting about? I'm not getting a good sign about all of this, Lisa. Something in my gut tells me this night too, will not end well for me. I should just–"

"Calm down Harpy, relax. What's wrong with you now? There's nothing that can happen to you in there, those people are people we have been seeing all our lives, so what's so bad about it?! Stop having these stupid collywobbles right now, and focus on being confident. You need to socialize and be on your best behavior and most of all, have fun tonight – whether there are other people or not. Don't go in there with a scared mind or expression, because you have done nothing wrong. Alright?"

I slowly nodded as I felt my crazily beating heart slow down. She really had a knack for this. She gave me one last quick hug and pulled me out of the corner we hid ourselves in. If we had this conversation in front of my parents, it would only add to my embarrassment and lectures from them that would go on forever. I looked at her, feeling much more relieved, and smiled freely.

I was ready to take on the world tonight.

But little did I know, little did Lisa know, that nothing could have prepared me for the disaster that was coming my way this evening.

Absolutely nothing.