Cream Puffs and Courtship

Chapter 31- The Sister Finds Out

"So," Kennedy started, sipping on her iced coffee lightly. She and Evie had stopped at the cafe and were now headed to class. "Have you talked to Princess Tina since you last saw Prince Devon?"

"How many times am I going to have to tell you that you don't need to call her 'Princess'? She's perfectly fine just being called Tina," Evie responded, taking a long sip of her fruity refresher.

"Sorry, Ms. I'm-best-friends-with-the-royal-family but I don't want to get my head cut off for not addressing them properly."

"You're not going to be beheaded!"

"Whatever. But back to the question," Evie sighed internally; she had been hoping to avoid answering that. "Have you seen Princess Tina lately?"

"No," Evie mumbled.

"Well, why not?" Kennedy asked.

"It's hard for her to meet up outside of the palace." Evie shrugged. "And I really don't want to go to the palace."

"I doubt she's going to make you spend time with him."

"She doesn't know about the whole 'thing'."

"You didn't tell her that you dumped her brother?" Kennedy exclaimed.

"Well, umm, no," Evie muttered, loudly sipping her drink.

"Alright, that's it, tell her to meet us at Carla's after our shift tonight. You clearly have a lot to talk about."

"But what about her parents-"

"Tell her to bring that bodyguard or whatever," Kennedy insisted. "Look, I get that you don't want to see Prince Devon right now but I think you should tell Tina what's going on."

Evie nodded her head.

"You're right. I'll text her after class ok?"

Kennedy smiled at her.

"Thank you."

~

At first, Evie wasn't sure that Tina would be able to meet her in such a public place but, after a long shift at the bakery, Evie spotted the familiar strawberry blond wig that belonged to Tina. Evie gulped as she also took notice of the bodyguard sitting next to her. Still, she approached her friend with a smile.

"Evie!" The princess exclaimed when she saw her friend. "I haven't seen you in ages!"

"It's only been a week or two," Evie laughed.

"Same thing," Tina said, then she glanced down at the guard. "Carlos? Would you mind waiting by the door? I wish to talk to Evie privately for a bit."

Carlos grumbled but nodded and stalked over to the door. Tina rolled her eyes slightly and gestured for Evie to sit down.

"I don't know how I got stuck with that grump. But he has always kept me safe so I must commend him for that."

Evie laughed nervously.

"So you wanna tell me why you and my brother broke up? More importantly, I want to know if I have to beat him up for breaking your heart," Tina said lightly, stirring her drink with a wooden stick.

Evie stared at her, completely gobsmacked although the more she thought about it, she didn't know why she expected Tina to be completely out of the loop.

"He came home one night looking rather, hmmmm, put out? Thoughtful? I don't really know how to describe it but then he didn't leave the painting room for almost two days straight so I figured something had happened between the two of you. And then the statement he made last week just confirmed that. So you wanna tell me what happened?"

"Well, you don't have to beat him up first of all. Although I kind of doubt you would be able to even if you tried," Eve said, picturing Devon in his tight white dress shirts. His muscles weren't easily visible when he wore a full suit but when he pulled off his jacket, his arms and back were clearly incredibly toned. Evie wasn't sure how he acquired so much muscle mass since he didn't play any sports as far as she was aware but, she did know that she thoroughly enjoyed feeling them while Devon kissed her.

"Ok, first of all, I've been trained in several types of self-defense and second of all, can you please stop daydreaming about my brother's muscles?"

Evie had the decency to blush.

"Anyway," Tina said, crossing her legs and leaning in. "Continue with your story."

"He's a great guy!" Evie assured her friend. "It's just that us being together caused a lot of unnecessary problems and I think it was really getting to us. I mean Devon told me about all the trouble with the board and your parents and I had my own problems with work and having a long distance relationship. So, I told him that we shouldn't see each other anymore."

"That's it?"

"Well, yeah," Evie said lamely, shrugging her shoulders.

Tina laughed deeply for a moment before shaking her head at her friend.

"Alright well as long as I don't have to slap him for you but just to be clear, I still think you two made a cute couple."

"We were never a couple though!" Evie insisted. Tina scrunched her eyebrows together. "We never really called each other boyfriend and girlfriend and I mean we never even really said that we were dating. It was more just, like, hanging out and getting to know each other."

Tina's eyes sparkled and she sipped her drink happily.

"Yeah sure, you weren't together."

"We weren't!"

"Whatever you say, Evelyn!"

"Can we just not talk about this," Evie groaned.

"Fine, fine, I'll let you off the hook this one time. But only because I really want to tell you about my trip to this charity in Grandway."

And so Tina launched into a vivid retelling of her adventures in Grandway. Evie listened with interest, nodding and making small noises when appropriate. And she even felt herself envying Tina for being able to have these experiences. She was in other countries helping people in need while Evie was struggling to care for her family.

'What would it be like' Evie wondered. 'To be able to do anything? To have so much influence that you could help anyone? To be able to change the world?'

A/N- You guys I have been in such a good place with my writing it's insane. And I'm doing camp Nanowrimo in July so I'm so excited!!!

Also there's this absolutely amazing song that all you guys need to listen to. It's called Fuqboi by Hey Violet and IT DESCRIBES MY SOUL OMG!

Anyway, I'm thinking of eventually writing a side story for this book and it would be all about Tina. Is that something you guys would be interested in?

And last but not least, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR A THOUSAND READS!!! It means the world to me and I love each and every one of you.

See you on Monday!