Accidentally on Purpose

Chapter Eight

I stand before three interior designers and my father, all who are watching me study different paint colors for the exterior of my upcoming palace, photographs of how I imagine it to look, different types of marble flooring, and pictures of some locations.

I find myself thinking frequently about the day at the park yesterday with Ben, about teaching him the piano, and I have to put up a mask to hide the smile that keeps forming.

He makes me happy, something that is rare for me to find.

I think about the canoe and the lake and how fun it was, and I find my eyes resting on the picture of an enormous property with a lake.

I nudge it forward.

"I like this one." I nudge it forward.

I move onto the next picture and choose a white exterior with huge walls and towards that make it look like a fairytale castle. It's beautiful.

"And this one," I push that forward as well, and then I choose white marble flooring for the majority of the hallways. The bedrooms and ballrooms will get intricate wood. The wall will be painted soft pastel colors, and all the creepy old paintings that line this palace won't be in mine. I want pictures of the world, some portraits of my ancestors, and paintings done by some of the best artists in the world.

I want balcony's at every upper floor, a fountain out front and in the gardens, along with one in the pond. As I pick things out on the table, I begin telling them everything I'm thinking.

"And the King and Queen's suite will be two stories, with the second floor being my own personal art room."

The designers are nodding at my words and writing things down as I go.

"And we need-"

I cut off by my mother bursting into the room with an enormous smile on her face.

"Theodor, look!" she thrusts a newspaper in his direction. She looks thrilled. She doesn't apologize for the interruption, and my father and I don't care. Nobody else would dare call the Queen out on her behavior.

My Dad takes the newspaper and stares down at it, raising his eyebrows. Slowly, a smile takes over his lips.

"How interesting." He walks over to me and hands me the paper.

I take it and my eyes widen at the front cover.

It's a picture of me and Ben in the park yesterday, of him catching me when I fell. Only, it was taken after, when he had stood me back up. His arm is around my waist, and we were both laughing.

With the way we're looking at each other, anybody with a blind eye would think we're in love.

The headline says: Dag en av sökande och kronprinsessan Emelie har redan hittat sin prins!

("Day One of Searching and Crown Princess Emelie Already Found Her Prince!")

My jaw opens slightly and I begin to read the article which talks about us sitting on the water for over an hour talking, and then me accidentally tipping the boat, and having to swim back to shore. It mentions how he helped me out of the water, us apologizing profusely to the man at the shack, and the whole walk back to the care where we were laughing about what had just happened.

With the way the media portrays it, we seem like we're deeply in love.

This is going to spark speculation about us. Everyone is going to think we've been together for a while.

I need to think.

Quietly, I hand the newspaper to my mother and walk out of the room, rushing down the hallway.