His Choice (The Selection)

Chapter Thirty Six

Wrote by firerose11

§§§

"Have you ever loved someone and realized that they wouldn't ever return your affection?" A voice asked from beside me.

I looked over, startled, to find a man around my age in a suit lounging next to me. His right arm was propped up on the table, fingers coiled lightly around the stem of a glass.

"Excuse me?" I said, blinking hard as I tried to remember if I knew him. "I missed that."

He sighed slightly, peering at me with a haunted look through his glasses. "I asked if you had ever loved someone who won't ever love you back?"

"I don't believe so."

"Lucky," the man whispered before raising the glass to the light. "It's a terrible thing to feel."

With that statement, he drained his glass and dropped it back onto the linen-covered table. I watched him vanish into the crowd of party goers.

This whole affair had been too elaborate and rich for me. It spoke of my mother's love for parties that would never admit anyone whose income was less than the top ten percent.

Even the gown I had been stuffed into was not what I would have chosen for myself. It was a shimmery silver dress that made me feel less like a young woman and more like an ornament or a disco ball, on display for the whole world to see.

I had wondered if I was even going to make it through the doorway; my skirts were that bulky. Luckily for me, my mother had not insisted on it draping all the way to the floor. I would have fallen on my face every five steps with the ridiculous high four-inch heels I was wearing.

"I see you have met Tanner," Lily whispered, bounding over to me. "What do you think of him?"

I wrinkled my nose, studying my friend, as I remember the gaunt young man. "Who is he? I've never seen him before in my life, but he seemed to know me well."

She laughed, smoothing her floral-print gown. "He goes to school with your brothers, but Tanner's our age. He's part of your brothers' plot to keep your parents occupied. They brought him home because he wants to go into politics like your father."

"That explains a lot then," I admitted, "but why did he act like I was so familiar to him?"

Lily patted my cheek lightly. "Later, dear friend. Right now, we're about to be invaded by your delightful camera escort."

I grimaced. They had been trailing me everywhere I had went. The whole country would now see my mother's agony when she had found out that the gown she had commissioned was now a little too tight for me.

That had led to a wonderful conversation about how I should have laid off the sweets more and spent less time lounging around.

Someone was going to have a field day with that footage. I don't even have to mention who.

"Little sister," my brothers pounced on me seconds before the cameras reached us, "have you seen our parents recently?"

I stretched up on my toes to see if I could find either of the two in the swarm of people. Strangely enough, I didn't see either of them though they should have been easy to find.

Anson nudged Kingsley. "Don't tease Ember. After all, she deserves to know that our delightful parents are out in the hallway, arguing over her future."

Of course, this statement was just loud enough for the cameras to pick up, and I saw them change directions. Those people were worse than a swarm of bees in pursuit of a bear.