Suddenly Royal

Chapter 9:

MOM WOKE ME the next morning with the smell of bacon in the air. I ran my hands through my hair quickly and went down in my pajamas.

"Power of bacon, it wakes zombies," Mom said as I came up behind her and gave her a hug.

"Baaaacon," I said in my best zombie impression.

She laughed, "You want to grab plates?"

Mom traditionally made breakfast on Sundays, and we soon sat down and enjoyed the bacon, eggs, sausage, and pancakes that she had cooked. I was amused as I watched her force Giuseppe to join us for breakfast. He eventually gave in after a lot of cajoling and seemed happy with her offerings there.

Half-way through breakfast Mom started talking about the day, "Allie your grandmother wants the two of us to meet her for dinner at the embassy, but until then I thought maybe we could go shopping?"

"Shopping?" I asked, "Didn't I just get the giant princess wardrobe to end all wardrobes?" I smiled, "Would any more clothes even fit in my closet?"

She laughed, "I'm thinking you have enough 'princess' clothes..." she shook her head, "No, I'm sure you don't have even enough of those yet... but I'm thinking you could probably use some everyday things like pajamas still. Maybe some things to put up around your room?"

I smiled, "So I get a shopping trip with my mommy?"

She smiled, "You want to then?"

I nodded and wrapped her in a tight hug, "It would be a dream come true," I said. I felt a tear in my eye as I really meant it. My mom loved to shop and I hated that she never knew I wanted to go shopping with her... just not for what she thought she needed to buy.

"Mrs. Nelson?" Giuseppe spoke up.

"Yes Giuseppe?"

"If I may suggest that you give me an hour, and I'll have a car and a couple more security team members to accompany us?"

"Us?" Mom asked.

He pointed at yesterday's paper still sitting on the table. I felt my shoulders deflate at the thought of dealing with the press. I'd never been allowed to look at the spread on my lawn, but I'd seen a few pictures of it online...

"Are we going to have to run around with security guards on all sides of us?" Mom asked wearily.

"Just me if you don't mind?" he suggested, "But I'll have a couple other people discreetly following us just in case?"

Mom nodded, "We can do that. We're taking a limo though? Won't that draw more attention?"

"I'll get them to bring an SUV instead?" he suggested.

"Much more discreet, we can do that." She replied. "And I thought my only exciting thing this week was going to court tomorrow..."

"Court tomorrow?" I asked. Mom rarely talked about work with me.

She grimaced - her philosophy was to not bring work home. "I can't talk about specifics Allie, but I have a client like you who's due in court for a civil case tomorrow. It's a big case with national attention."

"So, I could look it up and learn about it?" I asked, "Tell me a little?"

"You know I don't like to talk about cases Allie..."

"This one is big though?"

She nodded, "This woman, who's like you, was outed at work and fired. She was also physically attacked by some of her coworkers, so she's suing the company for discrimination."