The Saga continues...
Prince gasps approaching Elise, she sits on her usual bench in the park. "Where have you been?" He's been looking for her all over the town of Minneapolis. He's searched high and low, low and high. The entire city knew that Prince was looking for Elise.
"I've been busy," she mutters with her face focused into the pages of her book.
Prince sits down next to her and looks her up and down with a feeling of disgust. "Are you ignoring me?" He carries a skeptical expression. Every since they got back two and a half weeks ago. Prince leans in and places his head up against her cheek. "Elise?"
"Yes, Prince?"
"Where have you been," he questions again. She looks at him and turns back to the book in her hand.
Elise shakes her head at how bothersome he is being out of the blue. Prince, on the other hand, is secretly livid. Elise ghosted him. Someone he spent his everyday with for months and months, has just up and disappeared. He's been to her home, the record store, the park, every possible restaurant that she eats at, everywhere! Elise didn't mean to. She's been using the distance as a muse for her latest painting. She calls it, Shades of Blue. She tried to not tell him because if she did, he'd pester her more than he is right now.
Elise closes her sketch pad book and glances at him. "Prince," she starts. "I'm sorry."
"No you're not." He thinks to himself, let's see how sorry she is after this. And just like that, he latches a device around her wrist. She looks down and gasps. A devious smile creeping on his face, Prince watches Elise begin to panic. He knows that what he has done is officially the best thing he could possibly have ever done. "Shame on you thinking you could just leave me." Elise's shocked system begins to process the doings of her nefarious partner in crime. It's all fun and games until the shenanigans of Prince are against her and not in her honor.
Elise screams, "Prince!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk."
Elise pulls and pulls, trying to get out of his grip. "I can't believe you!" She squeals. People in the park begin to divert their attention toward the duo in a curious manner. Everything changes once they realize who they're looking at. Something's always going on with Prince and Elise. The people of Minneapolis have learned to simply ignore it.
"You think you can ditch me? No. I'll show you, Elise! I'll show you."
"You're being dramatic," an angry Elise retorts.
Prince shrugs his shoulders and scoots closer to Elise. "Maybe I am."
She scoots over and he follows up right behind her, scooting closer than before. Elise scoots away until she feels her thigh pressing into the bar of the bench's arm rest. "I have things to do today, Prince." She's not lying either. She told Joey she'd help me take inventory of the store, she has to go to city hall and pay her bills. Most importantly, she has to go buy some more brushes to finish her painting. The main thing she'd been keeping away from Prince for so long. Whenever he witnesses her painting he begs her to place his head on an ancient portrait of a king with his guitar in his lap and his favorite female subjects, topless, surrounding him as they stare in awe. Elise has a goal and she can't let Prince's usual antics interfere with it.
"Ew, don't tell me you're wearing that dress to run errands? Elise, you can do so much better."
After that, it wasn't a thing Elise could do to break free. She called him every curse word in the book. He took it all as a grain of salt. They did their best go on with the day as it would have went if they weren't handcuffed. To be perfectly honest, Prince would actually have accompanied her on these missions if they were not handcuffed together. Elise would have simply ditched him at the appropriate time. The appropriate time being her moment to finish the painting. That, and a couple of other minor moments. Minor moment that make this handcuff thing a lot more complex than she could possibly ever imagine.
"Okay, Prince, stop moving or you're going to make me fall in the toilet," screams a squatting Elise.
Prince questions, "Why do you guys squat?"
"Stop looking!"
His head tilts, his upper lip curling up beneath his nostrils in a humorous manner. "I can't watch you pee?" The question had left his lips in the upmost of natural ways possible. He meant what he asked. Prince can't figure out why she's so tense. In his eyes, it's just Elise peeing. Everybody pees, don't they? Yes, but not everybody pees in front of their best friend that they are frustratingly in love with. Of course, Prince doesn't take note of any of the times he has openly embarrassed or rejected Elise. It was never that serious if you ask him.
"No, Prince!" Elise hollers back at him. "No, you can not watch me pee!"
Prince looks away, reluctantly complying to the wishes of his favorite person. "Can you tell me why you squat now," he asks her. He's genuinely interested in the reasoning. He had heard of the myth but whenever he was a public restroom with a woman, urinating was the last thing on the both of their minds.
Elise sighs at Prince's sincerity. "We have to unless we watch to catch syphilis from a toilet seat. These things are really, really dirty. It's either that or lay down toilet tissue. These are things that guy don't have to deal with," explains Elise. Prince listens as her process stops. Being the gentleman he is, he grabs a handful of the toilet tissue from the dispenser that he's leaning against and hands it to Elise. She sighs and accepts his help. "Thanks." The awkward approach in her tone is pure.
How is he okay with this, she wonders.
The duo makes it through the day up until it's time for them to return to the residence of Elise. Here, she sits down at her easel. Prince pulls up a stool to sit directly beside her. He gasps at the image. "Is that me," he asks with a hint of excitement filling his heart.
"Yes," Elise replies.
"Why am I blue?"
"It's just my thing I'm doing," Elise says to him. "I've been working on this since we got back from California so please don't mess it up." She had been slaving over this image day and night. Every single stroke came directly out of her heart. This painting will be hung in her home. As much as she hates to admit it, she wouldn't mind this version of Prince watching her get dressed in the morning. Prince glances at Elise for a second before he looks away. He bits down on his lip like he has something to say. "Prince, if you have questions please just ask and not do all of that moving."
Prince stares at Elise with a set of puppy dog eyes. He thinks, if I say it... she's going to end me but I can't help it. For the first time he can think of, Prince is contemplating his words. He's not good at it either.
Elise's frustrations begin to rise. "What, Prince? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Elise..." Prince begins, he's still staring into her heart with those puppy dog eyes that he can't control. "I have to pee." The literal thought of witnessing what Prince carries in is pants throws Elise's mind overboard.
"No! This is where I draw the line!"
