I leaned back in my chair and sighed loudly. Another boring day of work. Another heartbreaking problem that I can't fix. Wonderful.
"What is if this time?" Anne asked.
"It is nothing in particular. Just complete helplessness as usual."
She skillfully maneuvered a needle through silk at a speed faster than I think I've done anything. Her eyes glanced down to her work to me swiftly as she multitasked. Currently she was a seamstress, therapist, friend, and assistant of sorts. My maids have decided that I don't really function as a human being when one of them isn't around.
Basically they're taking turns babysitting me.
"Why are you being helpless than?" Anne asked, not even bothering to look at me.
"What?" I whispered.
"Look Ames, I've known you for a long time. And it's always hurt me to see how cold you have to be to get through the day. Stone cold. I hate seeing you like that because it's not good for you to be so pretend all the time, emotionless."
"I have to be."
"You did," She agreed. Anne stabbed the needle into the dress and set it down next to her. "But something inside you broke when you found out about Maxon and I've seen you break down countless times since. You need to piece yourself back together."
"I don't understand what you're saying Anne," I stuttered.
"You've alway told me that even if you have to pretend for your whole life, it would be worth it to be queen some day. You need to pretend again. Paint a smile on your face and pretend like you are so in love with Maxon that you can barely stand to be apart form him. Put on a show. Be the Princess I know you can be so one day you can be queen. And then you can achieve all the things you've alway wanted. You're stubborn and you don't want to give in to you're father. But right now, there is no other choice. Make you're Dad happy. Play the role of the lovesick girl. This is just obstacle and it's taking you a little longer to get past it."
"I don't want to give up," I admitted. "I don't want to give in to his control."
"You're not giving up. The America I know, never gives up. You're doing the opposite. You're doing what you have to."
I lifted my chin up and breathed in deeply. She's right. I won't give in. I won't break down. I am going to be the best damn fiancé that there has ever been so that I can be the best damn queen Illea's ever had.
I only cuss in my head, like a true lady.
"Well than I'll get back to work," I said, lifting the next file.
"Nope. That's not in the schedule," Anne said.
"Schedule?"
"Yes. I received you're schedule this morning."
"And you didn't share it with me?"
Anne ignored me. "You have a photoshoot next. With Maxon. Engagement photos."
"Engagement photos?" I yelped.
She nodded.
Oh god. This not giving up thing was going to be harder than I thought.
~oOo~
"I hate this cream dress," I muttered as I shuffled through the halls, switching between covering up my chest and making sure the slit doesn't ride up too much.
"Yes, but this exact type of dress has been worn by the selected for generations when they take photos with the prince. Your parents thought it would be an appropriate dress for engagement photos." Anne was following next to me, reminding me very much of an assistant. Maybe I should get an assistant...
"We both know that those selected photos are only a ploy for the public to see if the selected look good with the prince."
Anne nodded. "Yes, I'm aware. And the public wants to know if Maxon looks good with you."
"I think that they should just mind they're own business," I informed her.
"Quit being dramatic. That's not how being a Princess works," She said. "Now are you ready?"
"I don't know, am I? I wasn't even made aware of this photo shoot none the less what I should look like?"
"Tiara?"
I tapped my head. "Check."
"Sash?"
"Check."
"Than you should be ready," Anne confirmed. She did a double check of my outfit and than ushered me into the room in which they had converted into a studio.
"Princess!" The photographer called as I entered the room.
I smiled fondly. "Hello Rosaria."
"I am still setting up but I shall only be a few more minutes!" She exclaimed and got back to work. Rosaria was a five who became famous for a single photograph and climbed the castes to a two. My mom fell in love with her work and began hiring her for all our photography needs. She was a sweetheart though a bit pushy.
I smoothed out my dress and glanced around. That's when I noticed Maxon standing awkwardly in the corner.
"That's a nice suit," I called.
He practically deflated in relief when he saw me. "Princess."
"Just call me, America, please," I spoke, approaching him slowly. "We are engaged."
"Yeah. I guess we are," He mumbled. "Oh, uh...you look pretty."
"Thank you. And you clean up nicely in a suit," I complimented.
He smiled and reached up to nervously fiddle with his bow tie.
"I wouldn't have pegged you for the bow tie type."
"I'm not. I just don't know how to tie a tie."
I chuckled.
"Alright. I'm ready! Bring me the happy couple!" Said Rosaria.
Maxon and I started walking over and it only took me a few seconds to realize that we looked like strangers. I wrapped my arms around his waist and he practically jumped out of his skin.
"I'm sorry," I murmured. He took a deep breath and wrapped his arm around my waist too.
"Adorable!" Rosaria cooed. "Now I want these photos to be completely natural. So just sit on the couch and have a conversation."
I squinted as she took a test shot. I led Maxon to the loveseat. We sat a foot apart.
"So how are you?" I asked.
"Well my family left this morning so I'm a little down, but I'm alright."
"Your family left? I had no idea or I would have said goodbye," I said. "How are they taking everything?"
"Well...." he lowered his voice. "May is too in love with the idea of us being together to question anything. My mom and dad don't understand why I'm doing this and it's not like I can really tell them why. I think they have an idea of what's going on but they're going along with it."
I nodded. "That's safer for them."
"Oh don't be modest on my account," Rosaria interrupted. "Sit closer, cuddle. I'm not even here."
I scooted right up next to him and grabbed his hand.
Rosaria squealed. "Ah, to be young and in love."
She started clicking away with her camera.
"I really hate them saying that," I sighed.
"What? Really?"
I laughed dryly. I don't know why I was going to tell him this, but why not. "Yes. I suppose, I had planned on finding real love...eventually. It was stupid of me to ever think that I would."
"No. It's not. Everybody deserves it no matter what they're position in the world is."
"How naive," I sighed weakly. I smiled just as light flooded our faces.
"I think it's just hopeful," he replied.
"I'm sorry you've been dragged into this." I froze for a second, posing with my hand on his chest and looking into his eyes. I stopped after a few seconds. "I've kind of always known this is a possibility. You're life has been turned upside down and it's all my fault."
"It's not your fault. But yes...it has been quite a change. I've kinda tried not to dwell on it."
"It's all I can think about," I countered.
It went silent as we both looked at the other. It was uncomfortable to be having this conversation in front of a camera. Obviously the camera couldn't hear, nor could Rosaria at the volume we were speaking, but Maxon and I were strangers. We had talked and obviously we were now bonded by this event, but we had only known each other for a small amount of time. We were strangers. Not only that, but we hadn't even had a chance to get to know one another. We had only spoken during our brief conversation before the report. And here we are in love and engaged.
Rosaria snapped her fingers, capturing our attention. "Princess, sit on his lap and wrap your arms around his neck."
I looked at him with wide eyes. He just shrugged. I hesitantly shifted closer to him. Pursing my lips, I lifted myself so that I sat on his lap. His hands instantly rested on my hips. God, this is embarrassing. Do people really do this? I'm an adult, not a child, why am I sitting on a grown mans lap?
"Gorgeous," Rosaria said approvingly. I wrapped my arms around his neck and smiled brightly.
"What's her name?" Maxon whispered.
"Rosaria," I replied through my teeth.
And then Maxon, out of nowhere, spit out some observation about how if she did this somewhat or other with the camera than it would do this thing and make us look like one or something. I'm not sure, but I was astounded.
"Wha......" I trailed off and cleared my throat, laughing nervously. "That's my fiancé. He knows wonders about photography." I think...
"I believe that I'll take that suggestion. I didn't know we had a photographer on our hands," Rosaria beamed.
Neither did I.
"You do photography?" I muttered as soon as she had started taking pictures again.
"Yes, I do. I am a five, America."
"Well yes I know, I had just never really asked..."
"You haven't really had much of a chance."
"Well I suppose if we are to be married than I should learn some basic information about you."
"Favorite color?" He asked.
"That would be blue. What about you?"
He peeked at me. "Mine's blue too."
"What is your favorite food?"
"Mmmmmm, my mother's potato casserole."
"I love Chef Delilah's strawberry tarts. They are the best in the world."
"I'll have to try them," He said.
"You'll have to eat two in honor of me," I agreed. "What hobbies do you enjoy?"
"I help my mom cook sometimes and I like doing that. But photography is my main hobby that I enjoy most, not just a job, so I'm pretty much snapping photos all the time. You?"
"Music."
"Music?"
I smiled shyly. "Yes. It isn't a well known fact about me but I dabble in music."
"What do you do?"
"I play piano, violin, flute, a few others and I sing a little bit."
"Dabble?" Maxon choked. "I'm pretty sure that's more than 'dabbling'."
"Well when I was younger, I obviously wasn't making important palace decisions yet, so my mom suggested that I take up an instrument. I started with piano and my love grew from there."
"How come nobody knows that?"
I shrugged. "I didn't think anybody would care."
He was about to respond when Rosaria spoke. She was analyzing Maxon with her brows furrowed, when her smile slipped into a frown.
"I hate the bow tie," She finally announced. "Can someone bring me a regular tie?"
A maid who was on standby rushed to go get one. While we waited, she had us change our pose quite a few times. Most of them required me to stand in front of Maxon, which coincidentally or not, covered the bow tie. We stopped once she had ran out of creative ways to pose us, but the maid arrived just in time with a plain black tie. She handed it to Maxon.
He cringed. "So, um...I don't know how to tie a tie."
"For real? I thought you were joking. Do you not dress up for weddings and events when your taking photos?" I whispered.
"I do, but I'm behind the camera so I just leave out the tie."
I exhaled. "Alright, I'll tie it."
"You know how?"
I nodded and took a step towards him, leaving only a foot of space between us. I could feel his breath on me. It smelt like minty toothpaste. I wrapped the tie around his neck and adjusted it carefully to his shirt. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Rosaria was loving this and I plastered a big smile on as the flash burst across our faces.
"How did you learn how to tie a tie?" Maxon asked, watching me.
"I learned from my secret lover," I deadpanned.
Maxon's chest heaved and he chocked on air.
I grinned and wrapped one end of the tie around the other, creating a loop. I looked up at him from under my eyelashes. "No, actually I learned from my father."
I laughed lightly as his face calmed and he shook his head at me. "Not nice. Wow. I'm very close with my old man and he never taught me how to tie a tie. You and your dad must be really close."
My hands faltered for a second. I shook it off and stuck the tie through the loop, beginning to adjust the height.
"Yes," I said slowly, testing the words on my tongue. "We are very close."
There is no way to explain to Maxon why I actually learned how to tie a tie. My dad said that I would need to be able to tie the future Kings tie because a maid wasn't worthy of it. He followed that by saying that I was hardly even worthy but he had no other options. I bet he didn't know that his other option is the future king of Illea. I stepped back.
"All good?" He asked.
"Perfect."
"Yes, yes. Much better than before," Rosaria decided. "Now can I get one of the two of you holding hands and looking into each other's eyes."
We nodded our heads and turned towards each other. I slipped my fingers into his and looked into his eyes. I've seen the photos of my parents engagement and this pose was the one that was chosen to be plastered on every magazine. Maxon's eyes are brown, I noticed, but not an ugly normal brown. They were like swirling orbs of milk chocolate.
"I remember the first time I looked into your eyes," Maxon stated.
I raised an eyebrow.
"It was our first date."
A grin stretched across my face. "Oh really? And what did we do on our first date, babe?"
"You don't remember? Allow me to jog your memory. After we had been talking for a little bit, you flew out to Carolina to bring me my jacket and I asked if you were going back right away. You said that they had to prep the plane and that you wouldn't be leaving for a few hours. So I asked you if you wanted to go ice skating on a real Carolina lake and you said yes."
"Right, right. And I had a jacket this time?"
"You kept mine."
"Does it pair well with an evening gown?"
"It blends right in, darling."
I couldn't help but laugh. "So what else have we been up to these last 2 years?"
"You're being so forgetful today, but I'll remind you anyways. We had to hire a pilot to be on standby because we would constantly be flying back and forth between Carolina and Angeles."
"Well I couldn't go long away from you, Max."
He cringed. "I hate that nickname."
"Oooooo," I sang, breaking character. "Do tell."
"My two older siblings, Kenna and Kota, would call me that. It was cute until I was about 8, but than I grew out of it."
Rosaria called out to have us switch positions and we followed.
"So than what do you go by? Maxie? Just M?"
"I prefer just Maxon. What about you? Do you go by Princess America all the time?"
"No, actually. I have quite a few nicknames. My best friend calls me Mer. And my mother calls me Amy."
"I'm learning so much," He chuckled.
"Yes, my nicknames are of key importance," I agreed.
"Well obviously, as your fiancé, I have my own nickname for you which is....A-America-Am—Ames. Ames!"
"My maids call me that but I suppose you can too. It's much better than what all of the other suitors I've had have called me."
"What?"
"They all call me 'my dear'. And it's very sweet and endearing until I see them on tv with another girl a day later. We can't all be 'dear'."
"Well now you're tied down to one man so technically I can call you 'my dear'."
"No, I'm afraid it's been ruined for me. It is strictly off limits."
"America, my dear," Maxon said teasingly.
"Ugh!"
"I'm so happy to be taking photos with you, my dear."
I sighed. Wonderful.
"Perfect! I have got all that I need!" Rosaria yelled.
"We're done?" Maxon asked.
"I think we got a lot of great shots. You two are a very photogenic couple," Rosaria complimented.
We nodded our thanks and Maxon turned towards me.
"Well I do believe if has been a pleasure taking engagement photos with you," Maxon paused. He swung his hand down and brought my hand to his lips, kissing it mockingly. "My dear."
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