Prince Nathaniel Gabriel Schreave

"Just where do you think you're going, Your Highness?" Lexus grabbed my arm, before I could slip out of my office. "You still have to work out tonight's eliminations."

I groaned, making a face at my assistant. "I was hoping you'd forget about that."

"Nice try, bud. Now get to work," she said, dropping the stack of forms in front of me. The papers made a huge thunk as it hit my desk, I screamed internally at it. I was hoping I could've snuck out of my office, just for an hour, really. I hadn't gotten to walking Cap yet, and to be honest, I could've used some fresh air myself. Aside from baking some cookies this morning for Mom's PTA meeting (which had lead to a pleasant conversation with Lady Adilene), I had been cooped up in my office for the whole day..

"But how am I supposed to know which girls have to go? It's kind of difficult to tell who is marriage material from one conversation. I don't know if anyone's noticed, but I was with my last girlfriend for four years before the thought of marrying her even crossed my mind."

"I remember that now, I almost forgot you dated a Swendish princess for a while. Isn't she pregnant now?"

I gave Lexus a hard stare. "If you don't mind, I'd rather not discuss my previous relationships."

"Right, sorry. We need to focus on your current girlfriends," Lexus smiled cheekily before turning back to her own work.

Eliminations were quite possibly the most stressful part of the Selection process. While there were definitely girls I didn't like as much as others, one meeting seemed a bit hasty. Sure, it was comparable to a first date, but once a girl was gone, she was gone. This wasn't Tinder that swiping right on a girl could be undone.

"You won't make the wrong choice, just put some trust in fate."

"No thanks, I did that once and it did its damage." I propped my prosthetic leg on my desk, lifting my stare to the white swirls on the ceiling. If there ever was an accurate description for my feelings, it was the ceiling. Or maybe I was just crazy for thinking a ceiling and I were one and the same. Lexus winced at my reference, moving her gaze quickly to her feet. "Jeez, I meant it to be a joke. Loosen up a bit, will you?

Lexus sighed, tapped her foot, then spared a glance to the clock. "If you get this done, I'll let you go for the rest of the day. I can probably make up an excuse for you. But only if you finish these eliminations."

"Really? Wow, that's...nice of you."

Lexus shrugged, her pen immediately resuming its constant scribbling. She mumbled something along the lines of "you're welcome" before giving a pointed look to the forms. "Am I going have to come over there myself and pick your wife for you, or can you handle it yourself?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly mind it if I had help." I flinched, waiting for her to deliver a lecture.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised when she wheeled her chair next to mine. "I'll help you this time, but you're going to have to do it yourself next time. Like a big boy."

"Hey! You may be older than me but you still have to respect me, I am the future king and you work for me."

"Slow down there, I was hired by your lovely mother, not you. I don't even know how such a kind woman gave birth to you."

I rolled my eyes, "God, don't talk to me about you and my mom. She looks at you like you're her long lost daughter. I swear, she's considering adopting you. Wouldn't that be just dandy?"

"As much as I'd love to be your big sister, I kind of have a family already. And speaking of families, which girl can you see yourself having kids with?"

"I hate kids."

"Okay, have you been on any dates yet?"

I thought back to my encounter with Lady Adilene this afternoon. She had helped me bake for my mom's PTA meeting today, and I did enjoy it but did I see her as a romantic interest? At that point, I didn't know but the future could always hold more. "Does baking cookies with Lady Adilene count as a date? Because I didn't actually ask her, she was just there."

"I'd say it's a date, maybe not an official one, though." Lexus paused, thinking about who knows what. "You should probably get some more dates in, though. Statistically, princes usually get in at least three dates a week."

That sounded like way too much for me. But, who am I to say anything? Monika, the Swendish princess, and I had a long distance thing going for a lot of the duration of our relationship, so it probably was normal. "I'll try. I don't know if I'd be able to plan really unique dates, but I'll do my best."

"They don't have to be complex, most girls don't need huge gestures all the time. That's unrealistic, especially considering that the two of you would be King and Queen someday, so you won't necessarily be able to fit in three dates a week after marriage."

My phone blipped in my pocket, Lexus wasn't looking so I gave it a quick peek. The screen lit up with a text from my friend, Zach. He was supposed to come over to Angeles for the weekend, there was this huge car show we were supposed to check out together. He had cancelled, citing his father. I understood, family and work politics were basically my life, but I was disappointed.

"Who was that?"

I was expecting Lexus to be mad (she had a personal vendetta against my cell phone use, I swear), but she looked genuinely concerned. "Just...Zach. Guess I have to go to the car show alone now."

If light bulbs actually could ding above heads, that's exactly what Lexus looked like. "No, you don't have to go alone! That's a great date idea."

I thought about it for a moment. "I mean, yeah, you're not wrong. But would any of the girls be interested?"

"Are you implying that girls can't like cars?"

I quickly backpedaled, "No, no, I wasn't. Just I don't want to bore them or anything."

"Sir, they signed up for you, they honestly won't care. They came here to get to know you, and if you like cars, I'm sure they will, too. Trust me, just ask the next girl you see to go with you."

I nodded, deciding to take her advice. Lexus smiled, penciling it into my calendar, she even put a heart around the date. Okay, that was a little over the top. We quickly moved on from that.

"Hmmm, oh! Lady Skylar and Lady Jane are drowning, and you can only save one of them. Who do you save?"

"Neither of them, I don't swim. Besides, where are the life guards? We pay them good money to make sure people don't die."

She choked on her water, but managed to splutter some words out. "Quit being so critical. This is your last chance."

"Fine, fine. Continue."

Lexus held up a form. Lady Adilene's form, to be exact. "We'll go slow. What did you think of Adilene?"

"I guess she's a frontrunner? She was a refresher from all the sweet and shy types we got here."

Lexus shook her head but nonetheless, still placed Lady Adilene's form on the right side of my desk. "To be fair, you can't blame them. You looked like you were going to behead someone last night!"

"I would never," I said, looking at her indignantly. "Everyone knows that you can't behead someone on a Friday, it's simply not done. Sure, those uncouth Swendish rats may do it, but we all know how the Swendish are."

"My apologies, how rude of me, Your Highness," Lexus laughed, sliding another form off the top of the stack. "This one's Lady Leyla."

I grimaced, recalling how Adilene told me of Leyla and her fantasies of 'our twin children, Oscar and Audrey'. That girl was definitely going. I snatched the paper out of Lexus' hand, and promptly disposed it into my shredder. Lexus shot me a confused look, "All you need to know is that she's delusional and needs to be put on the palace blacklist."

"Harsh, but noted." She quickly jotted it down in the little book that seemed to never leave her hands. "The next girl is Lady Lorelei. Ha, she really fell for you last night, didn't she?"

I glared at her and quickly placed the form on top of Lady Adilene's. "Rules be damned, if I have to hear that joke one more time, I will execute someone."

"So I take it you like her?" Lexus smirked. I rolled my eyes, and was about to say something but the next face I saw really soured my mood.

"How long do I have to keep that Swendish girl?"

"I don't know, as long as the King wants you to."

"But isn't this my Selection? I'm supposed to be calling the shots here," I exclaimed, throwing my hands up. Honestly, the most annoying part of this Selection was how pick-and-choosey Dad and his advisors were about it.

"Quit your whining. Besides, Princess Beverly says she wasn't that bad."

"Well, that's 'cause she wasn't trying to get into Beverly's pants," I grumbled before adding, "I hate the Swendish."

The next hour passed by quickly and we figured out by then which girls had to go. I handed Lexus letters with the names of Leyla Brockton, Raven Hernandez, and six other girls who I couldn't be bothered to remember. I handed the envelopes to Lexus. "Here, these are notes for the girls to be eliminated. Have these sent down to them before dinner."

Lexus' mouth fell open, not quite grasping what I had told her. "Are you kidding me? This is like breaking up over text!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do? Personally escort them to their doorsteps and have tea with their parents? Give them a sperm sample as a condolence?"

"Talk to them. Make it personal, and like you regret wasting their precious time."

Was she crazy? I'm supposed to be eliminating them, there's nothing personal about the word 'eliminate'. Besides, other than that delusional Leyla, none of them would care once they got home. They'd go home and get the finest proposals in the country (well other than mine, I currently sat on the top of that list).

"I would, but then I'd have to deal with their tears and listen to them bawl about how I'm their one true love and their plans to bear all my children or whatever."

"Trust me, very few people find the idea of having children with you desirable."

"Tell that to the millions of girls that signed up for the Selection, Lexus." It was my turn to smirk now. I gave her a smug grin, knowing that I had won this round.

"Alright, fine. I'll drop by their rooms before I leave." Lexus shoved the letters into her purse, grabbing her coat as well. "Have a great rest of the day. I'll see you tomorrow, sir."

Something occurred to me as Lexus was about to step out of my office. "Lexus, you don't have to call me by my title. Just...uh, Nathaniel will do, for now."

Her face lit up noticeably with a smile. "Alright, Nathaniel."

"Come on Cap, we're going to eat out tonight," I opened the passenger door of my car, allowing my dog to jump into the front seat. "What do you want tonight? I was thinking hot wings…"

I hopped into the driver's seat, pressing the ignition once I heard my prosthetic click into place on the gas pedal. To my dismay, the car started up but promptly went flat the second I switched gears. Cursing, I tried again. To no avail.

"What's wrong now? You had to break now?" I opened the hood of my car. Granted, the car was a bit old, but I got it serviced regularly so it shouldn't do this as much as it did. I began fiddling with the different parts, trying to diagnose the problem myself.

"Mind if I help?" I turned around to see Lady Celica, a questioning smile on her face.

"Have at it." I tossed her the wrench, moving aside so she could do her thing. She tinkered around the gears a bit, and without fail, managed to get grease all over her. The lace on her navy dress became the colour of her hair and I could just imagine the hissy fit Beverly would have if she saw 'such high fashion being made into a mockery'.

After a couple of minutes, she leaned back to examine her work. "There was just a loose wire, nothing big but I'd strongly suggest you'd get this car some upgrades. The engine is not as good as it could be and you see how that stick is sticking out over there? That could cause the brakes to fail. The ventilation system is beginning to rust a bit right over there, I actually have one back home that would be a perfect replacement. Uh...Your Highness."

"You got all that from five minutes of clanking around with some tools?"

Impressive. I recalled that she was a mechanic but even my servicemen never gave me that type of diagnosis in such a short amount of time. She blushed, "Well, yes. Why is that such a surprise to you? Any mechanic could point that out to you if you get proper servicing."

"It's not surprising, I have no doubt that you're talented, you're just quite young, that's all."

"I'm twenty-five years old, I practically have one foot in the grave. And if you're implying that I'm inexperienced, then you got a whole 'nother thing coming for you, Your Majesty. I've been working in mechanics for my whole life, in fact, I'm named after a car. So are all my siblings, so don't you dare underestimate the power of the youth."

I paused, not sure how to respond. That conversation escalated very quickly. "It's 'Your Highness'."

"Excuse me?"

"My title. The proper one is 'Your Highness', You said Your Majesty, which is typically reserved for the King and Queen. Your Royal Highness works for me, too, and I guess Your Grace, although that one's a little too pretentious for me."

To my surprise, her lips quirked into a smile. "Are you trying to explain to me how titles work?"

"Well, you were talking about something you were passionate about, so I thought why not give a go at it myself? I'm passionate about my position in life."

She laughed, shaking her head. "Well, it's just Celica for me, Your Highness. And I better be going now, your royal pupper is getting a little jealous over there."

Sure enough, Cap was sulking in his seat. I turned to say something, but by then she was already a bit away. Lexus' words echoed in my head, Trust me, just ask the next girl you see to go with you.

I cupped my hands over my mouth, hoping she could hear me because there was no way I was going to repeat myself. "Celica! Car show on Saturday?"

Her only response was a shrug of her shoulders as she disappeared into the palace. I took that as a yes, considering she probably didn't have anything planned on the weekend. It'd be a good start to the endless slew of dates I had ahead of me. SHe was a mechanic, so she'd enjoy a car show, right?

Man, I'm so smart.

Ok that last line is so not Nate, I just wanted write that there because I say that a lot. ANd not even when i do smart stuff, it's when I do dumb stuff. Okay y'all, whaddya think of this chapter? I'm excited to move on to dates next cahpter, I already have the foundation set for it. I had a story outline for this but somehow, it's deviated completely and I'm not mad at ti but now I gotta rearrange my whole outline.

Stay Fab,

Star