Maid For You 3

Chapter 19

Suddenly, that bar I had seen in the back of the building didn't sound half bad. I hoisted myself out of the pool, and within seconds a servant walked up to me offering a hot towel, which I greatly appreciated. I wrapped the warm towel around myself and shuffled over to the bar and mini restaurant.

First, I walked up to the food stand grilling several meats including steak—the smell of all the sizzling meats made my mouth drool. Steak was probably my favorite food, so I was more than eager to dig into that. While I waited for it to cook, I went up to the bar and ordered a margherita to sip on.   

Soon, I had my plate of steak and my drink in front of me at a small table while I sat with my now-damp towel loosely sitting on my shoulders. My food was delicious, and my drink tasted fantastic. After I polished off my steak, I wrapped my towel around me and reached out of my towel cocoon with little T-Rex hands to hold my margherita and sipped at it through a straw. Unfortunately, Coleman of all people was my ride, so I couldn't exactly leave. Maybe I could ask a servant to get my phone and I could look into bus routes? Or at the very worst I could ask Luke if he could come get me—he'd probably be glad to drive me home over Coleman, even if it was really out of his way. However, Nikolas had told me I should use this party as an opportunity to network or something, but that was easier said than done. How did I do that, exactly? Just walk up to random people and join in their conversation? Perhaps that would make me look classless and unrefined. Besides, I already had my now 17k Instagram followers (it had grown since I first saw a huge surge of followers). I had deleted my app because I didn't know how to deal with it or the massive swarm of troll comments, but maybe I could redownload it and approach that situation more carefully. Then I wouldn't even need to talk to anyone! I shrugged off my towel with the intention to fetch a servant asking for my phone, but a familiar voice stopped me.

"Goodness, your bathing suit is awful."

Lady Madeline Rylin. I guess our brief moment of a friendship glimmer was long gone. I turned my head to find Madeline making herself right at home at my table.

"Excuse me?" I snapped. In her defense, her swimsuit was much cuter than mine. She wore a coral bikini with the top half connecting to two off-the shoulder sleeves that were slightly puffy before they cinched in the middle of the bicep. Her blonde hair—perfectly styled and completely dry—hung down with a pretty wavy look.

"It looks cheap," Madeline said, she herself sporting a champagne glass. "And polka dots, really?"

"For your information, it was inexpensive but I have no shame about it! And polka dots are cute!"

               "You aren't a polka-dot sort of person," she rose an eyebrow. "I can only imagine what horrible thing you would have dressed yourself in at the festival if you'd been in charge of your wardrobe."

"That's not fair to say," I said. "Besides, you know that I'm not rich!"

"But even still, you couldn't find a better swimsuit for an inexpensive price?" Madeline scoffed.

"If you'll excuse me," I started. "I was just about to go find a servant."

"For what?"

"I was going to see if they could take my wet towel and fetch my phone."

Madeline rolled her eyes before snapping her fingers twice. Within a few seconds, a servant was at her side asking what he could do for her. "Replace Miss Carmichael's towel there with a fresh one, and retrieve her cellphone."

"Yes, ma'am," the servant bowed. He turned to me. "Is that alright with you, Miss Carmichael?"

"Um, sure," I said, handing him my damp towel before he scampered off.

"Why would you go chasing after servants when they'll come to you?" Lady Madeline asked. "Tsk, tsk." 

"Well, I'm just not used to it," I protested as a different servant came to my side holding a fresh towel for me.

"Oh, thanks!" I said. That was fast.

"It's my pleasure, ma'am. Also, we're still retrieving your phone," the servant girl said.

"Oh, cool."

When she left, I watched Lady Madeline sitting rigid and staring to her side.

"Did you want something?" I asked her curtly.

Madeline didn't speak for a few seconds, but still looking away from me, she lifted her chin and asked in a casual tone, "I'm just curious about something."

I looked in the general direction she was facing—there were several hot tubs. One including none-other than my favorite person in the whole world, Prince Coleman, surrounded by ladies and like one or two guys. Yuck.

"About what?" I asked.

"In your opinion, do you think Lord Roiben is attractive?" she asked, raising her eyebrows to the sky as if that would make her appear indifferent.

"Lord Roiben?" I repeated, suddenly readjusting my focus to find that Lord Roiben was sitting in another hot tub near Coleman's, only his was predominantly guys. "Hmm," I said, thinking back to the other times I'd seen him. "Yeah, I think he is. I mean, maybe he wouldn't be an Abercrombie and Fitch model, but who could be?"

"Coleman could," Madeline said simply.

I smiled awkwardly. I walked right into that one. "Yeah, I guess so." I decided I would be honest. At that moment the servant boy returned with my phone, and after thanking him I returned to the conversation. "But Lord Roiben has good features too," I said. "A nice nose, if I remember. Pretty good hair too—he isn't balding or anything. I couldn't say if he has a good smile or not because he never smiles."

"You haven't seen Roiben's smile?" Madeline said, poorly concealing one of her own. "Interesting. Well, he does have very nice teeth, I'll admit. It's too bad he's short."

"Short?" I asked. "He didn't seem short to me."

"That's because you're short," Madeline sniffed.

"I am not!" I protested. "I'm like 5'6"!"

"And what is that?" Madeline asked. "Only you Americans ignore the metric system."

I opened my phone and googled an inch to cm conversion chart.

"I'm like 167cm then," I answered.

"I am 178cm," Madeline answered. I quickly clicked into my conversion tool—she was 5'10". "And Roiben is 181cm." Or 5'11".

"Well, then he's still technically taller," I argued.

"Coleman is 194," Madeline whined. 6'4".

I didn't say anything for a moment. "Well, do you think Lord Roiben is attractive?" I asked her.

She pursed her lips, and turned to face me. "I don't know," she said. "He's just always—been there, you know. And I never really thought about it before." She turned to look at Roiben again.

"Do you want to go talk to him, or just stare at him?" I asked her.

"I don't know," she pouted.

I rolled my eyes. "Here's an idea."

Her eyes slid over to look at me.

"Why don't we go over to the hot tub where Roiben's at and you introduce me to the people there. That wouldn't be weird, would it?"

She thought it over for a couple of seconds. "Alright, then."