Maid For You 3

Chapter 25

Merc deflated like a balloon, and Coleman guffawed while I clasped my hand over my mouth to contain my own laughter.

"Wait, wait, no, I think I remember you now!" Lydia said hurriedly. "You invited Cassie to that pool party, didn't you? You're Prince Coleman's friend?"

"That's me," Mercucio smiled tensely.  

"Oh, cool," Lydia said. "Um, why did you want to talk to me?"

"Right. I'm going through Cassie's Instagram with her and Prince Coleman—"

"Wait, is Prince Coleman there?" Lydia interjected.

I gulped. Eventually, I had told her about Coleman and mine's mutual confession at the Autumn Festival, and I just hoped she wouldn't say anything embarrassing.

"Yes, I am," answered Prince Coleman, smiling with amusement.

"Oh, wow," Lydia sounded nervous.

"Enough about him," Mercucio said. "Anyways I'm helping Cassie fix her Instagram, which means starting from scratch, alright? But Cassie doesn't want to delete this ice-cream photo of the two of you, which will totally ruin the aesthetic I'm trying to achieve. So you don't mind if I delete it, do you?"

Lydia didn't say anything for a moment. "Lord Mercucio?"

"Yes?" he answered.

"Are you gay?" she asked him.

Mercucio's eyes flapped open and his mouth dropped and Coleman burst out laughing.

"I'm—I'm not gay!" Mercucio stuttered.

"Are you sure you're not?" Lydia asked. "It's the 21st century—there's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I'm not!" Mercucio was blushing. "What makes you say that?"

"No straight guy would blabber on and on about Instagram aesthetics like that," she said.

"She has a point," Coleman lilted, smiling at Mercucio wickedly.

"That's very much a stereotype!" Merc fought back. "And—and it's not nice to stereotype people anyways. Why can't I care about my social media platform?"

"Wait," I said, thinking about Mercucio in a new light. Afterall, hadn't he just mentioned this morning how good-looking Luke was? "Are you gay, Mercucio?"

"I'm not!" Merucio blushed, looking at me. "I mean, I just called your friend cute, didn't I?"

"You think I'm cute?" Lydia said.

"No!" he stammered. "I—I mean, it was purely subjective and it was based off one photo and—"

"Calling me cute sounds like something a gay guy would say because he isn't attracted to women," Lydia argued.

Mercucio buried his red face in his hands.

"Lydia," Coleman said, smiling like it was Christmas. "I must say, Mercucio isn't particularly manly—"

"That's not true!" Merucio butt in through his hands. "And—and that's also a rude stereotype and you people should all feel—"

"But—" Coleman continued. "I've known Mercucio my whole life, and I'm afraid he is too helplessly awkward around girls to be a homosexual. I mean, look at how awkward he's been just talking to you on the phone. We all know he thinks you're cute—imagine how spastic he would be in real life if he met you!"

Lydia and I laughed while Merucio started to drag the skin from his face downward.

"Coleman!" he hissed. "I—I just thought that—"

"Prince Coleman has a point," I said to Lydia. "Mercucio looks very embarrassed now that his crush on you has been revealed."

"I never said that I had a crush on her!" Mercucio snapped.

"How delightful!" Lydia crooned.

"I—I never, I never said—" Mercucio stammered.

"Well, Lord Mercucio François, I must thank you for helping Cassie with her Instagram. I give you permission to delete that photo of us—I've already gotten some Areganan followers from it anyways. Now I just got to my class. I'll call you later, Cass! Love ya!"

"Love ya too!" I called just before she hung up.

"That was great," Coleman beamed. He looked at me. "I should really fly her out here—for Mercucio's sake. Maybe he'll finally find love."

"There's no need for that," Mercucio snapped. "I hate you both."

I smiled. "No you don't."

"Yes I do!"

"But Merc," I said. "How can you hate your future wife's best friend?"

"You don't deserve my help anymore, Cassie Carmichael!" Mercucio sniffed.

"Aww, Merc," I pouted.

But he did end up helping me, and we posted pictures of each of my three looks at the Autumn festival, and a photo of me on Prince Nikolas's arm. That night, Lydia called me back.

"Cassie, that whole conversation earlier today was so thrilling!" she gushed. "I can't believe I talked to Prince Coleman! Also aren't you proud of me for not saying anything embarrassing to him? I just wished Luke was there. You know, I still haven't talked to him!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry," I said. "It's hard to find the time—he's always so busy. Especially today, poor thing." I wondered when Luke was going to get off of work today, and decided I'd text him after my conversation with Lydia. When I got off the phone, I texted Luke asking him if he was off work yet. After several minutes, he texted back "not yet."

Around 8:30pm, Luke sent a text telling me that he was finally off work. I had changed into a pair of pajamas already, but I slipped my feet into a pair of slippers and quickly made my way to Luke's room and knocked on the door. When he opened it, he wore a white undershirt atop checkered flannel pajama pants. He braved a tired smile.

"Hey Cass," he said.

I walked through the threshold of his door and wrapped my arms around Luke's torso and rested my head on his chest. "Long day?" I asked him as he wrapped his arms around me in turn.

He kissed the top of my head. "Yeah," he sighed.

I let go of him and took his hand. "Want to tell me about it?" I asked, tilting my head.

Luke squeezed my hand. "Sure," he said.