A knock rapped at my door that night, and I opened the door to find a penitent-looking Luke. He leaned on the side of the doorframe, his face somber. "May I come in?" he asked.
I took a deep breath and made him wait for a second. "You may." I stepped aside so he could walk in and shut the door behind him once he was in my room.
I folded my arms and leaned against the wall. "How was your day off?" I asked coldly.
Luke was quiet. "I'm sorry, Cass. I shouldn't have gotten so upset with you," he sighed. "And I realize it looked like I was avoiding you today. I wasn't avoiding you, per se, but just the entire situation."
I sighed. "I'm sorry too, Luke. I'm sorry I didn't respect your wishes for privacy. If it makes you feel any better, I think Coleman's fine with it."
Luke rose an eyebrow.
"I mean it," I said, revealing a small smile. "I talked to him a bit today—I think he was more surprised than upset about us." I chose not to tell Luke that I'd told Coleman about the Marstella Incident or the rift Coleman had caused between Mr. Prescott and his family. Maybe one day Luke would find out that I'd told him, but now we were skating on thin ice and it wasn't the time to drop any more problems onto the relationship.
Luke smiled slightly. "Will you forgive me?"
I walked up to him and gave him a hug. "Only if you'll forgive me."
He kissed my forehead. "Of course," he said.
"Oh!" I looked up to him. "And can we FaceTime my family? My mom is going to lose her head soon if she doesn't get to meet you. Same with Lydia!"
Luke laughed. "Alright, let's call them now."
Mom loved Luke, of course; she couldn't stop gushing about how cute he was. Dad didn't have too much to say, as he kept flitting in and out of the living room. Calvin, for the pest he could be, was very nice to Luke and even cracked a few jokes at my expense, but had the good sense to not mention Coleman. We then called Lydia, as she quite enjoyed speaking with Luke and asked that I send her more pictures of the two of us.
After Luke had left for the night, I received a call and was half-terrified that it would be Prince Nikolas because I didn't want to tell him that all was right as rain with Luke and face is ire. However, it was Madeline on the phone.
"Hi Madeline," I said as I picked up.
"Cassie, how are you?" she asked.
"I'm well, and you?"
She sighed blissfully. "I'm just wonderful," she said.
"Oh? Are things going well with Roiben?" I asked.
"They are," she said. "He's so kind to me, which I really like. And you know, he's really not a marshmallow with most people, believe it or not."
"Oh I believe it," I said, thinking back to my first uncomfortable encounter with him.
"Are you attending Lord Harry's brunch on Saturday?" she asked.
"I didn't know he was having brunch on Saturday," I admitted. "I must not have been invited."
"No, you just haven't gotten your invitation yet. He definitely invited you."
"Oh," I said. "I don't know, maybe I shouldn't go."
"Why ever not?" asked Madeline.
"Well, it's just..." I didn't want to sound too full of myself and insinuate that I thought that Lord Harry might have some interest in me other than platonic friendship. "I might be doing something with Luke on Saturday," I fibbed.
"Are you still dating him?" I could hear her sneer.
"Of course I am!" I cried.
"How long is that going to last, anyways?" she asked.
"I don't know? Forever, hopefully!"
"Forever?" she gasped.
"Isn't that the point of dating?" I asked. "To figure out if you want to get married?"
"You aren't going to marry him, are you?" she questioned.
"I don't know," I said. "We haven't been dating that long. But, the good news is that now Prince Coleman knows we are dating so it's completely out in the open."
"Oh, is it then?" Madeline asked. "Good. I've gotten some questions on your mystery boyfriend and I'll be free to answer them now."
Was Lord Harry one of the people who was asking? I wanted to ask, but decided not to.
"Who's asking?"
"Just people," Madeline said. "Though I'd love to give them a timeline on your relationship."
"Well if you really need a timeline, then tell them forever!"
Madeline sighed. "He's a butler, Cassie."
"And I'm a maid!" I countered. "I wear a frilly black and white uniform every day and I clean up after Coleman. Besides, being the butler is actually a pretty good position and it pays well. I mean, think about it in terms of business, right?" I was very proud of this analogy, and had prepared it to whip out when Madeline or anyone else made another derogatory comment about Luke's job. "If Prince Coleman is the CEO of a very successful company, then Luke is his secretary, which is actually a pretty good job."
"I don't know," Madeline said.
"See!" I pointed out. "It's actually not as bad as you make it out."
"Then what would that make the Lords?" she asked.
"I don't know," I shrugged. "Maybe, uh, the board members? And other Princes would be the CEOs of other companies!"
"Well then compared to board members and CEOs, the secretary seems kind of shabby, no?"
"Not true!" I protested. "Besides, if Luke's the secretary, that makes me in intern. No, it makes me the intern who moonlights as the cleaning lady! I'm the person that fetches coffee and vacuums the office!"
Madeline didn't say anything for several seconds.
"See?" I persisted. "You all are too harsh on Luke."
"You know," she began. "You make some interesting points."
"Thank you! You see—"
"You really need to quit, Cassie," she interrupted.
I blinked. "Huh?"