Author's Note: For Lamia, for the July Exchange. Sorry this took so long!
Also much thanks to Liza for talking me through this.
Life Ain't a Fairytale
Walburga had always imagined her life as one of the romance novels she was so fond of. She would immerse herself in the world created by Lorelei Honeycut, where women were strong and powerful and men fell at their feet. She imagined herself as the heroine: a pretty, rich young woman torn between three handsome and successful men, traveling to a new exotic country every night.
For hours she could sit on the swing in the garden and pretend, and then with the two little words – the end – be thrust back into her dull life, complete with demanding father and clueless boyfriend.
She'd hinted at a proposal for months, but each time returned home without a ring. Even her dense younger brothers managed to land themselves spouses before she did, and she had grown impatient by the time her twenty-seventh birthday came around.
"If he doesn't propose soon, I'm going to have to let him go," she complained to her sister-in-law one evening.
"Give him some time," Druella advised. "It took a while for Cygnus to get the hint, too."
"Yes, but Orion actually has a brain. And it's not as if we haven't talked about marriage, he just won't ask me."
"So ask him."
Walburga scoffed. What noblewoman in her right mind would ask a man to marry her? Certainly not one from a Honeycut novel.
"I'm really not that desperate," she replied coolly, and went home to get ready for her dinner with Orion.
:-:
Dinner was lovely, overlooking the Thames from the balcony of their favorite expensive restaurant. It was a warm and starry night, and Walburga thought it would've been a perfect time for a proposal, if only Orion could talk about something other than work for two minutes.
"Your birthday is next week, isn't it?" he asked just as their dessert arrived.
She tried to remain calm and not show her overwhelming excitement at the slight change of subject as she nodded. Finally, she thought.
"I'm going to be out of town." She had to take a sip of wine to hide her disappointment. "They're sending me to Paris for work. It's going to be very dull. I'll probably spend the whole time in the Ministry going through forms with translators, but you can come along, if you like. You can sightsee and it'll be my gift to you."
Walburga's eyes lit up and she nearly dropped her glass. Paris was the main setting in at least thirteen of the Honeycut novels, and was at the top of the list of places Walburga desperately wanted to visit.
"You're serious? You won't get in trouble for bringing me along?"
"As long as you don't accompany me to the Ministry, we shouldn't have any problems."
:-:
The left three days later. It was easy to get time off work for a week or two, though Walburga gladly would have quit had it gotten in the way of the trip. As disappointed as she was that her birthday wouldn't include a shiny ring on her finger, Paris seemed like a good substitute.
Of course, she hadn't thought through what she would do once she got there. Paris was beautiful and magnificent, but it was also the city of romance and she was there without her boyfriend.
For two days she was escorted through the city by a tour guide, photographing paintings and sculptures and shopping in the finest robes shops, and squeezing in a few moments with Orion at dinner before he had to be in bed for another early morning.
By the fourth day, her birthday, Walburga was positively sick of Paris and ready to leave if she wasn't able to spend a single moment of her special day with Orion. Since he'd already made it clear that he would be tied up in meetings for the whole day, she began packing after breakfast and was heading for the floo by nine, lugging a suitcase full of souvenirs.
Their hotel overlooked the Eiffel Tower, and Walburga was sure she had about a dozen pictures of it from afar, but there was something about the way the early morning light was shining on the tower that made it seem all the more magical – like a cover of her coveted romance novels.
Seizing her last chance to see the tower in person, she sent her luggage on ahead and set out with just her camera in hand.
She was so taken by the beauty of the sky and architecture that she nearly missed the picnic set out in the courtyard in front of the tower, and the handsome man knelt on one knee.
The camera broke from the fall it took to the pavement, and several passersby would swear they went deaf that day from the high-pitched squealing of an annoying tourist, but all that mattered was that Walburga got her ring.
"How did you know I would come here?" she asked once Orion had gotten her to calm down enough to enjoy the champagne and chocolate-covered fruit platter he'd brought along.
"You can't resist the tower any more than I can resist you," he answered, grinning at the way she admired her ring. "And I had hoped you would do as the women in those silly books you read. I planned the entire trip around the plot from the one about the Parisian baker."
Walburga let the insult to her interests go for another time. She was finally a Honeycut heroine.