Chapter Eight
"You should have come to me sooner," Clarisse told Mia somewhat sternly; trying not to be too hard on the new Queen that sat before her.
"I'll put that on my list of things to do; though I have to tell you it's like number 473 so I wouldn't hold your breath," Mia mumbled before taking a bit of her salad.
Clarisse choked slightly on her water and pinned her with a look, "And may I ask why you are especially sassy today?"
"I'm sorry," Mia sighed putting her fork down, "I didn't sleep well last night I've had a bunch of stuff on my mind and I just feel like I have so much to do and there isn't enough of me to do it."
Clarisse reached across the small table in the gardens where they were having lunch and grabbed Mia's hand, "My dear that is why you have an assistant you must rely on them."
Mia ran a hand through her hair and nodded, "I know, I know I just feel like something is off and I can't figure out what no matter how hard I try and it's so frustrating!"
"Do you mean with your assistant?" Clarisse retracted her hand and folded them in her lap.
Mia shook her head, "No, no Maria is great honestly she keeps me so organized that I'm sure I would have missed all my meetings had she not reminded me. She really is a great person and she works so hard all the time, I should give her some time off." Mia got a far distant look on her face.
"Number 474 I presume," Clarisse gave her a small smile.
"Yes it'll have to be," Mia sighed, "I fear the poor girl will never get a vacation or a day off for that matter."
"Well she just started Mia you can hardly expect to have to give her time off already, good heavens, I don't think Charlotte ever got time off," Clarisse chuckled, "Besides you can't expect too much time to yourself when you sign on to be the personal assistant to a Queen."
"True," Mia nodded, "So your all-knowing wisdom is to just rely on my assistant more?"
"I fear that's all I've got and have lunch with your Grandma more that should be on the daily list not this astronomically long to do list you have."
Mia laughed out loud, "Of course Grandma I will make sure to pencil you in."
"Absolutely not!" Clarisse sat up in her chair more, "Pencil can be erased my dear, our lunch dates shall be in pen."
Mia stopped herself from saluting her Grandmother and simply smiled, "Of course."
M/N
Mia walked quickly to her office she had some documents she needed to sign before a meeting next week and didn't want to forget about them. Walking in, she hardly noticed Olivia cleaning until she nearly ran into the girl, "Oh! I'm sorry,"
"No apologies are all mine your Majesty I thought you were having lunch out today so I thought I would clean up your office." Olivia curtseyed as she explained.
"That's alright, are you almost done?" Mia asked not wanting to rush the girl but she did have work to do.
Olivia nodded quickly, "I can finish later, Your Majesty, sorry to disturb you."
"It's alright Olivia no need to apologize. I'll be out later this evening if you'd like to finish then," Mia offered with a smile as she sat down at her desk.
"Yes Your Majesty," Olivia said quickly, curtseyed again and fled from the room.
"Huh," Mia watched the girl flee, "That was odd," she shrugged and looked down at her desk frowning as she noticed her planner was open, "That wasn't open when I left," she whispered to herself as she flipped through the pages to see if anything was amiss. Alarms went off in her head as she noticed eraser marks on a meeting time for this week that she knows she had told Maria was at noon and had watched Maria write it down; now the two had been erased and a penciled one stood out on the paper.
Mia looked back up at the door as images of a shifty and nervous Olivia only a few moments ago entered her mind, "No." she whispered shaking her head now very much upset, "No she wouldn't." She looked back at the planner and then back at the door. Picking up her phone she dialed the familiar number, "Hey can you meet me for dinner tonight I have some disturbing news. Yeah, I don't think it's me that's messing up, Nicholas, I think somebody is trying to sabotage me…"
M/N
"Run that by me again," Nicholas said pacing the floor of the dining room.
Mia sighed and slightly banged her head on the table before groaning, "I told you; I had cut lunch short with Grandma because I had to get some documents signed and sealed for a meeting the next week. When I got to my office Olivia was there 'cleaning'" she used air quotes to further acknowledge her disbelief, "She seemed twitchy and nervous and kept apologizing to me,"
"Apologizing for what?" Nicholas asked.
Mia leveled him with a look she had already told him all of this, "That she wasn't finished by the time I was done with lunch, anyways, then she leaves the office very quickly and that's when I noticed that the meeting time I had for the next day had been changed, the two had been erased making it from noon to one pm. I would have missed the meeting, Nicholas, because I don't usually look at my planner, Maria does. She generally writes everything down and keeps that organized and I watched her write down noon so I know she put it in right."
Nicholas looked at her, "Ok I see your point."
Mia threw her hands up, "Tell me exactly how you are helping here?"
He couldn't help but smile at her it didn't matter if she was a Queen she would still always be that sarcastic city Princess that he fell in love with, "I'm getting to that."
"You sure are taking your time with it," she huffed crossing her arms and he bit back another smile.
"Look here is what we will do we will send Olivia on a vacation for a few days get her out of the palace see if anything gets erased or what not while she's gone. If nothing happens then we know it's her but if something still does happen then we have another culprit and we must keep looking and Mia please be discreet tell no one what we are up to."
"I'm discreet!" she shouted her voice echoing off the marble floor and high ceiling.
"Of course, dear, of course," He said nodding his head over dramatically.
"Shut up," she mumbled, "And if it's not Olivia? I don't know who to trust Nicholas."
"Hey, hey," he knelt down in front of her taking her hands in his, "You can trust me, your Grandma, Joe, Shades I told you, you have supporters and we will help you, don't worry about this. You go on about your Queen duties and let me find the bastard that is doing this ok?"
Mia nodded and bit her bottom lip, "I don't know what I'd do without you."
"If it makes you feel better," Nicholas said softly cupping her cheek, "I don't know what I'd do without you either."
Mia's eyes began to water and she smiled, "Thank you."
Nicholas smiled back, "Your welcome," he said before kissing her forehead, "Now let's go catch a trader."
