"I think the real issue here is that you clearly want me to be attracted to you. Now why would you, your royal hotness, care about the opinion of a lowly maid such as myself?" I responded. His smug expression dropped.
"You can call me Prince Coleman," he snapped.
"Yes, Prince Coleman."
I could feel his gaze on me as I placed his dirty clothes over my arm to take to the laundry room. As I began to head out, the Prince's booming voice interrupted my path.
"Wait!"
I sighed and stepped back into the room. "Yes your highness?"
"Didn't I just tell you to call me Prince Coleman?"
"Sorry."
"No matter. 'Your highness' works as well. Now I want you here at 12:00 sharp with my lunch. And I mean it!"
"Yes, Prince Coleman," I answered. Suddenly I was pelted in the face with some heavy fabric.
"This blazer I was wearing smells weird. Go have it washed, little maid," he ordered.
Little maid?!
"It doesn't smell weird to me," I muttered, my words muffled by the fabric on my head.
"Did you say something?" the Prince asked.
"No," I lied, removing the jacket from my face. "I shall see you at 12:00, Prince Coleman."
"You had better!" he shouted as I walked down the hall. I couldn't believe that such a man was actually a prince. Weren't they supposed to be charming and endearing? While he certainly looked the part, his personality was so abhorred that it negated any level of attraction I might have felt toward him.
I supposed I wouldn't be joining the "fan club" for Prince Coleman, though I considered creating one for his butler, who in my mind was his superior in almost every way. I bitterly dropped off the clothes at the laundry section and meandered to the kitchen. Why was it only 11:00? I still had half a day left. I had only been here for four hours and I was already tired of my new job.
"Hello," I said to a staff member in the kitchen. "Prince Coleman is to eat his lunch at 12:00. What does he normally eat?"
"What's it to you?" asked a kitchen hand.
"Well, I'm his personal maid, apparently." The horror.
"You? I've never seen you before," an approaching man said, wearing a heavy apron with a smudge of frosting smeared on his cheek.
"I'm new," I explained. "My name is Cassie Carmichael."
"Well Miss Cassie, I'm Jonathan, the head chef here, and you must be a stellar maid if you're new and you're already the personal maid to the Prince." The cook spoke with a rich voice full of that nice Aregano accent.
"Oh, I think he just hates me and that's why I'm his maid."
"Hates you?! Why on earth would he hate a cute girl like you?" Chef Jonathan chuckled.
I flushed a little, and noticed that Jonathan wasn't all that bad looking, though his hair was consumed by a chef hat.
"Well because I yelled at him," I informed Jonathan.
"You did what?!" he cried, the room suddenly quieting for a moment at his outburst.
"I met him in my home country, Embryia. He came into my parents' store and was a total tool, so I kicked him out," I shrugged. "I didn't know he was Prince Coleman of Aregano at the time. He saw me on the street and made me his maid. I'm sure it's part of some elaborate revenge scheme. I expect to be fired before the day is through."
"Wow! I've never heard such a story!" Jonathan gawked. He suddenly laughed. "You yelled at the Prince? Well I'll be! He's always the one doing the yelling, never being yelled at."
"How can anyone stand to be around him and not throw him some sass?" I asked.
"Well, he is our Prince. It's not that surprising that he is so...authoritative," answered Jonathan. I wondered if the Embryian Prince, Alexander, was so cruel underneath the smiles he displayed on TV. I couldn't imagine it was true.
"Anyways, what time should I collect his food?" I asked.
"11:35, Miss Cassie."
"Thank you, Chef Jonathan!" I smiled, and headed out of the kitchen. I walked through the hall and ran into Sherry.
"Ooh, Cassie!" she waved.
"Do you need help washing the windows?" I asked, to which she nodded.
"Okay, I want to hear every detail about Prince Coleman," she glowed, handing me a rag and window cleaner. In my short time here, Sherry was the only maid to introduce herself and to befriend me.
"Prince Coleman?" I scoffed. "Well he's a total jerk," I hissed. "I would take him off your pedestal immediately. He's condescending, rude, critical, begrudging, and very harsh. He's so...stupid! He tries to make you feel insignificant...like a piece of crap!"
Sherry just giggled. "Well gosh, he's always been rather blunt and he yells at us all from time to time, but he's authoritative. He's a real man's man. You know?"
"A real man doesn't need to shout so much," I retorted.
"Oh, you're just being a little sensitive. I think he's incredibly cool. You'll see. You'll spend time with him this week and you'll just fall for him. You'll see, Cassie," Sherry promised. "Now, tell me everything about him. Other than you think he is a bit of a jerk. What was he wearing, what was his hairstyle, what was his room like?!"
I rolled my eyes at her. Did she not hear my onslaught of insults about the Prince?!
"He has black hair."
"I know that, silly!"
"He has green eyes."
"And aren't they just to die for?! Anyways, I already know this stuff."
"Okay, Prince Coleman's hair was shaggy. He needs a haircut. You'd think a Prince could get a decent barber. He wore a white shirt with black pants and a black blazer, and he chucked the blazer at my face because he thought it stunk, which it didn't. His room was fairly clean, except for the messy bed and the few clothes on the floor. That's all I have to say," I sighed.
"You got to hold his blazer? Did it smell like him?!" Sherry asked.
"You know what, maybe it did." So that explains why it stunk.
At 11:55 I stood outside the Prince's door, waiting for the precise moment to walk in and present his food. I wondered if Luke was still in there. I slunk to the floor and sat with my back against the wall, watching the minutes crawl by until finally it was 12:00. I opened the door, careful not to tip the silver platter with Coleman's lunch, and marched in.