Forced Royal

Dylan's Sweet Surprise

Quickly, I cut him off, "Yea, I know. I can tell by the way you are looking at me. It is the same way you look when you see a crippled person or an injured soldier..." Miles bites his lip, gnawing away at the skin across his bottom lip. "So... Jasper is living with you, right?"

"No, he isn't."

"What do you mean 'he isn't'?"

My confusion and frustration increases at the fact that Jasper hasn't been with Miles and that he could be living on the streets. That thought drives me completely insane.

"When his parents got kicked out of the house, he apparently saved some cash up for a place of his own so he moved away from his parents and into his own place. He invited me over and it is small, but it fits Jasper. Don't worry about him, he is fine. Jasper got a new job, too. He works at a quant, little coffee shop near his new apartment." Miles explains to me calmly, and a weight is being lifted from my shoulders. One less thing to worry about for now.

"Did you help him with anything?" I ask. Knowing Jasper, he probably didn't ask for help, but I want to make sure.

"A little, I loaned him some cash."

"Well, you better make sure that if he needs anything, that you help him. You know how he is..."

"I will, Ari. Relax. Jasper is fine and dandy." Miles reassures me and then he quickly speaks up again, "Ari, if Dylan says 'yes' to my proposal... I am probably going to sell our apartment and move out with Dylan once we are married."

Move out? I figured this would come soon. I mean, who wants their little sister living in an apartment with his new wife? Nobody wants that. I would just be the 'third wheel'. They would want alone time where it can just be them together as newlyweds.

"Well..." My words trail off until I think things through, "Where am I going to live then?"

Miles eyes avert to his shoes as he nibbles on his bottom lip again. His identical eyes flick towards me before speaking. "For now... it looks like here..."

Those six simple words make my insides ache. The important factor of those words that creates an ache within me is the realization that it is true. The truth hurts, but I can't let that happen. I just can't... I don't want to live in royalty. If you asked me as a child if I would want to live as a princess and be surrounded by pure luxury everyday, I would've said 'yes', but things change...

Honestly, I don't want to think about this anymore, so I change the subject as quickly as I can. "So," My melancholy facial expression is transformed into a smile, "Tell me what you have planned for your proposal and we will set it up. After that, I'll let you meet some of the people I've met since I have been here."

***

After we put out a small table outside in the center of the garden, Miles wanted to set up everything else just for Dylan, so he shooed all of the servants off as he set the table up just the way he wanted it. Miles draped a white tablecloth over the dainty table and he made sure that the cook knew what to serve them. Apparently, Dylan's favorite dish is steak and for dessert is molten chocolate lava cake since she is a huge chocoholic like me. (That is one of the many reasons I approve Dylan for Miles. She loves chocolate.)

Miles also set up pink candles everywhere, and when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. He laid the candles along the patio, creating a path. Also, he hung candles from trees, and I know when it becomes nighttime that it'll look breathtaking. Miles took an hour just placing candles and then replacing them somewhere else.

After that, Miles cut some of the bloomed pink roses (with permission, of course) then peeling petals off one by one scattering them all along the patio and forming a heart around their table where they are going to eat.