Maid For You 3

Chapter 21

"Aw, he saw us!" mumbled Oliver.

"So what?" I shrugged. "He looks plenty preoccupied at the moment."

Harry, Merc, and George laughed, and nervous Oliver even cracked a smile.

"I can't believe you chose Prince Nikolas of all people," Harry said. "Did you know that he and Coleman really don't get along?"

"Of course I knew that," I smirked. "That's why I chose Nikolas. I wanted to piss off Coleman."

Harry looked enthralled, and Oliver and George exchanged pleasantly surprised looks.

"What!" exclaimed Harry.

"I mean, look, this was like my one day where I could be in high society or whatever, and the first thing Coleman does it tell everybody—like my boys Oliver and George here—that I'm a freaking maid!"

"That was wrong of us!" Oliver piped in again, and Harry and Merc laughed.

"So I wanted to go to a nice banquet and have a good time, but Coleman turned me into a black sheep. Well, or a black and white sheep if we're talking about my maid uniform color scheme. Either way, I was pretty annoyed. And to top it off he acted like he was guaranteed to be my prince for the day, which annoyed me even more!"

"And so you picked Prince Nikolas!" Harry said.

"Yes," I answered. "And besides, Prince Coleman is my boss. I already see him at work every day anyways, so why would I want to hang out with him on my day off?" Okay, yes, that was a bit of a dirty lie seeing as how I had wanted to spend time with him, but it worked for my comedic effect.

"Hey, Coleman's looking over at you," Mercucio nudged me.

"I guess his ears are burning," I said. "But if he mentions that I'll just blame it on the hot tub heat."

"Now, you're also going to the Winter Ball with Prince Nikolas, correct?" George said.

"I am indeed," I nodded. "I'm really excited!"

"How on earth did you snag that?" Mercucio asked me. At that moment, another guy walked up to our hot tub and asked Mercucio if he could slip in.

"Sure!" Merc answered. "Cassie here is going to tell us how she got to be Prince Nikolas's date for the Winter Ball!"

"Wait, you're the Queen Maiden girl, then?" the guy asked, slipping in next to Mercucio.

"Yes, that's me," I said, holding out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Cassie Carmichael."

"Lord Noah," he answered, shaking it back. "And—I guess you are also Prince Coleman's maid, then?"

"Shut up, Noah," George said. "We've already moved past that now."

"Why did Prince Nikolas ask you to the Ball?" Oliver piped in.

I smiled. "Well, because we're friends now, I guess."

"You're friends with him? The ice prince?" Harry gaped.

"Yes, we are! He said so himself the other day," I said.

"The other day?" George asked.

"Yes. I talked to him on the phone on...I think it was Monday?" I said. "I just called him to tell him about what had happened that day and he mentioned that we were friends and that it was okay that I call him."

"Hold on, you just have regular chats with the Crown Prince of Nikoto?" That new Noah guy interjected.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "We really bonded at the Autumn Festival. Two outcasts working together to have a nice evening."

"You're kidding!" Noah said.

I suddenly wondered if I should have kept my nice friendship with Nikolas to myself, but he had wanted me to network. Maybe my margherita had loosened my tongue a bit too much. I figured I would call Nikolas tomorrow to tell him about the party and I could confess that I had brought up our friendship.

"And you really are just..." Harry looked unsure of how to say it. "Just friends?"

"Prince Nikolas is a perfect gentleman," I answered. "So we are just friends, no benefits of the sordid sort."

"Just like our own Prince Coleman," Merc beamed, glancing over at Coleman's hot tub. I looked over at him to find Prince Coleman looking back at me, looking far more unhappy than he looked at the beginning of the party. Mercucio swung his arm around me again and waved at Coleman. I probably should have pulled out the whole 'I have a boyfriend card' and made Merc remove his arm, but it felt friendly so I didn't mind. Besides, though Coleman was several yards away I could just imagine that little flex of his jaw.

"Very funny," I said, drawing the attention away from Coleman and back to myself once more. "Though I must make it clear that I'm not one of Coleman's 'special friends.'"

I continued chatting for a while, making everyone laugh with my stories and spilling some gossip on Prince Coleman, which maybe I shouldn't have done but I didn't care at that moment. Even Noah seemed to warm up to me.

"I actually got a lot of followers on Instagram after the Autumn Festival," I said at one point.

"Oh really?" Mercucio perked up.            

"Mercucio is a social media fanatic," Noah piped in.

"Let's check out your account!" Merc grinned. He snapped his fingers and requested one of his phones. The servant quickly returned with a phone that was the latest model, and Mercucio opened up Instagram.

"I kind of didn't know what to do when I got all of those followers," I admitted. "So I've let it be."

Mercucio searched me up and started scrolling through my feed. "Oh gosh," he said. "Your Instagram is awful."

"What!" I cried, as Noah and George tried to lean over to Mercucio to see. "It's not that bad!"

"What even...what is this?" Mercucio asked, pulling up a random picture of my McDonalds food.

"My friend and I went to McDonald's late one night. Look at the caption! It says 'Midnight run with Lydia.'"

"Why would you post this?" Mercucio asked.

"Because it seemed like a good idea in the moment," I admitted.

Mercucio rubbed one of his temples. "You haven't posted any pictures from the Queen Maiden event yet. Did you get pictures yet?"

"I did."

"Good.  Your Instagram needs help. I'll come over one day and help you fix...this."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah, of course." Mercucio turned his head towards me. "I love a good project. Now what's your number? Wait, I can probably get it from Coleman."

"I don't think he has my phone number," I admitted. "I can just put it in for you."

"Alright."

Shortly thereafter, I realized that the heat from sitting in the hot tub for a while was becoming unbearable.

"I think I'm going to head out and go into one of the main pools," I said, secretly hoping someone would come with me so I wouldn't be bored. "It's hot in here."

"I agree," Oliver said. "I'll come out with you."

"Me too," Harry added.

Mercucio smiled wildly. "Well, if half the party is leaving, then I'd better go give my greeting to other people. But, my friends," he clapped his hand on my shoulder. "As you can see with Cassie here, I invite some of the best and most interesting people in the country to this soiree of mine. Now, I'll leave you all be to the pool!"