Rival

7. Part The Almost Wedding

Falling asleep in Nicholas’ arms was one of the best things. I groan waking up from the nicest sleep I’ve had in a while. Not opening my eyes yet, I feel Nicholas holding my hands, a warm buzz radiating from his touch.
“Good morning,” He softly says. I move my head on his chest to look up at him. Opening my eyes to see his beautiful blue eyes.
“Good morning.”
“Hello” He kisses my head.
“We stayed out all night,” I say.
“Yes, we did,” He confirms. This makes me gasp. I shoot up from Nicholas’ grasp and look around my surroundings.
“We stayed out all night,” Saying this my voice carries panic. But in a few moments I chuckle a bit. Then I look at the lake, seeing a boat, “Is that…? There’s a man in that boat.”
“What?”
“Do you see that? There’s somebody over there.” I fully focus my gaze on the boat.
“He’s probably some fisherman, I suppose.” Nicholas ignores the boat and looks at me intently.
But then a man with a large camera peeks out of the boat. My expression changes to a frown. I turn my head to Nicholas. Shit!
“With a video camera?” I ask.
“What?” Nicholas looks at me confused. Did he do this? I pull the blanket off me.
“You’re really low.” I get up from the ground and take the blanket with me.
“No, Kit…I have no idea…” Nicholas follows me.
“It’s really a shame you didn’t get juicer stuff last night, you asshole.” I threw the blanket at him.
“Kit, I have nothing to do with this, I swear.” He says exasperated. I continue to walk towards our horses. I get on his horse, “Kit, please. Come on. Will you listen to me? That is not my boat.”
“Hey, Nicholas, have a nice life.” I say coldly to him as I ride away from him.
“But that is my horse. Kit…” But I ignore him.
I ride away trying to hold in tears.

When I walk into my suite I see Grandma sitting on my bed, and Mia under the covers. Grandma looks beyond confused.
“Kit? What’s going on?” asks to see my disheveled hair, clothes and tear streaked face.
“Princess, I think you should see this.” Charlotte says coming into my room and turning on the TV. My gaze shifts onto the screen. I saw a video of me and Nicholas. I feel my legs start to give out under me so I sit on a stool. I run my hand through my hair and face, hot tears resuming to come out my eyes. Elsie Kenworthy says something on TV. Mia speaks up.
“I’d like to tell her what she can do with those eggs.”
“Mia, could we have a moment alone?”
“Yes, grandma.” Mia gets out of my bed and walks out with Charlotte following her.
Grandma sits next to me, I can’t even look at her, feeling so disappointed in myself.
“So?” Grandma says. I gently shake my head.
“I got played.”
“Uh-huh. Well, the big question is, do we still have a wedding?”

“Andrew, I’m so sorry,” I say to him as he walks down the steps outside, in front of the palace. I followed him, “I just…Andrew, please wait. I promise you nothing happened.” We both stop on the steps. Andrew sighs.

“Yes, but, Kath, you still went, didn’t you? You went. I don’t think you understand. I am an extremely eligible bachelor in England. I really am. I’ve got plenty of friends, lots of lovely women friends, and…”
“And how does this help?”
“I still think this marriage is a good idea. Kit…” Then he comes over to me and kisses me. I feel very uncomfortable. Besides that I feel nothing. The kiss was fine.
I squirm in his grasp, and he pulls away.
“Ah…”
“So? Anything?”
“Sorry, nothing. I really want to say yes, but no. There’s just…just no…spark.”
“Me, too.”
“Really? Well, this sucks.”
“Really. I mean, it was pleasurable.”
“Very.”
“But no fireworks.”
“Nothing whatsoever. Ohh. What are we going to do? We will figure something out.”
“Hmm. Kit…You chose me…” Guards that were outside walked past us.
“No Privacy.” I stated.
“None.” He stands next to leaning on the banister. My hands are crossed, “You chose, and I accepted, and a gentleman never backs out on his word. We are going to…We’re going to stand up in church and say, “I do,” and tomorrow we’ll be man and wife, and you are going to make an amazing Queen of Genovia,” Looks like I’m gonna have a marriage like my grandmother's. I lightly kiss Andrew's cheek, not in a romantic but more of a friend way, and hug him.
There has to be another angle for this, I’m just not looking hard enough. I want both Andrew and me to be happy.