So Alex was a good friend. And that was all he ever would be. Well, he tried putting his arm around me the night before he left for Spain. "Alex, no," I said pushing it away.

"What? I can't put my arm around a friend?" he asked innocently.

"Go ahead and be gay, I don't care. But don't be coming onto me. I don't go for that stuff. Back off."

He started to sober up at the end of the night and apologized. "It's just hard to find someone to connect with, ya know?" he explained as we waited for the subway. "I just came out a few months ago to my family. Before that I couldn't really date or flirt in public because someone might tell the family. But they were really supportive of it, ya know? I was really surprised."

"Not a big deal," I replied. "I'm sure you'll find someone."

He patted me on the shoulder, "You too man. You'll find the right girl."

I pulled on the chain around my neck that held my wedding ring. Alex had no idea that I already had my right girl. And she was waiting for me on the other side of the world.

I walked out of the terminal at the airport . I was waiting for the University's shuttle bus to come pick me up, but I saw a sign that said my name being held up by a really thin guy. I walked over, "Hey, you from the University?" I asked looking at him quickly. It took me about a second to realize that it wasn't a man.

The person's smirk that was clearly a woman trying not to laugh. I looked at the fingers. Perfectly manicured. This was my Mia. My wife dressed as a man in a chauffeurs uniform. She never ceases to surprise me. "No, I am not."

My face exploded into a huge smile. "Let's go get my bags."

We walked out to a small car and put all of my luggage in the trunk. We didn't express any emotions. I acted like she was just like any other driver and she treated me like a regular old client. "I didn't realize you had your license," I said when we were locked into the car.

She shrugged. "I got it when I got here. The only way I can have any privacy, ya know?"

"How'd you get away from Grandmere?"

"She's getting a face peel in Paris this afternoon. She won't be back until late. Dad is playing polo with the Prince of Wales. I had to dress like this because the press was staked outside the palace gates for me. I kind of just took this car from my dad's collection. No one recognized me at all. I must say I make a cute man, huh?"

I shook my head and let our hands touch on the middle console. "How was that Evan guy?" I asked.

She laughed, "Well, my suspicions were correct."

"Suspicions?" I asked.

"He's gay. Totally gay. But I came up with an idea," she said, putting on her blinker and turning into a secluded area.

"Interesting, continue," I replied.

She stopped the car when we were in the middle of a field, far from the Genovian traffic (I flew into Genovia because it was easier.The school does this for everyone going to Spain) and turned to me. She took off her sunglasses and smiled. "I can pretend to date him. He can't let anyone know he's gay because of his family so he can't really date anyways. He said he'd pretend to be my boyfriend until...well, ya know...."

I didn't let her finish her sentence. I leaned over and kissed her. I loved the little moan that she gave out when I kissed her, proving that she had missed me just as much as I missed her.

"Back seat?" she said breathlessly.

I laughed. It was really cliché, but who the hell cares?

"Mia, this is Alex, he was an intern at the firm as well."

She smiled. "Nice to meet you Alex. Really, I love meeting more of Michael's friends. My friend Evan should be coming any minute now."

I gave her a look. I was going to meet the guy who would be taking my place for three years. "I'm sure we'll like him," I replied holding her hand underneath the table.

"Oh, there he is! Evan! Evan! Over here!"

Alex and I looked over to a guy who looked remarkably a lot like me. He had a little bit of shorter hair, but so what. Mia smiled at me as I took his appearance in. How was she not attracted to him when he looked exactly like me?

"Hi fellas. I'm guessing you are Michael, right?" he asked, extending his right hand. I reluctantly shook it.

"Yeah, you got that right."

"Mia never stops talking about you. And she's right, you look exactly like me."

"Which is perfect because Grandmere will think I am only replacing you with Evan. See? She knows that I thought, think, you are attractive soooo....."

I still didn't trust the guy. Then again, I didn't trust any guy around Mia.

"That Evan is hot, huh?" Alex asked when we returned to my dorms that night. His was just down the hall.

I shrugged. "He's a dude. I'm not into that man."

"You aren't gay if you simply think that a man is attractive. Stop being a homophobe."

I glared at him. "I'm not a homophobe. I just don't check out other guys."

"It's really obvious that he's gay, isn't it?"
"How so?" I asked.

"You have to check the little details. You need a real gaydar Michael...didn't you notice how he wiped his mouth with his napkin every time he spoke. Or how flamboyant his hands were when he spoke."

"A lot of Genovians talk with their hands," I replied.

"But his finger nails were perfectly manicured. What man has those?" he asked, flipping through a magazine. "And not a single hair on that precious little head of his was out of place. No sir. I think I am going to go after him."

"You do that. No offense, but I'm really tired. Can I talk to you tomorrow?"

Alex and I walked around Madrid the next day looking at the sites. I was meeting up with Mia later that night. She had to attend some royal appointments with Evan that day. Some meeting with the prime minister or something like that. She tried explaining it to me, but I was a bit preoccupied with the bikini top she was wearing. Okay, I was trying to figure out if she'd notice that I cut the string in the back. I concluded that she'd be pissed because although we were in the privacy of her hotel pool there were still some guests floating in and out.

Alex and I went to the palace in Madrid. They did a tour of the part of the palace that was open to the public, but not of the residences. Alex was pretty impressed, but I had seen the palace in Genovia before so I was used to it. Actually, Mia's place was much nicer. She had convinced her father to modernize the place in the past few years.

"Just imagine living in a palace like this," Alex said taking in all the beauty of the palace.

I could have said something then. Like, 'I will be someday. When I am the prince of Genovia. Maybe you can come by and hang out with me', but instead, "Yeah, but it'd be like living in a cage, ya know?"

He looked at me like I had three heads. "Yeah, sure. I'm sure having servants waiting on you hand and foot would be horrid. Why, does Mia complain a whole lot about it?"

I shook my head. I didn't want him to think she was a brat. He just didn't understand what she was going through. And I didn't think we were close enough for me to talk to him about it. To tell him about the ring I wore on the chain around my neck.

"She seems really sweet. Too bad things couldn't work out for the two of you," he said taking a picture of a stain glass window.

I shrugged. What if he was right? What if things got screwed up? What if the old lady figured us out? What if she had me taken out (okay, she's not in the mafia or anything but still. She is the dowager princess. She can have things taken care of quietly. She terrifies me to this day). "Yeah, well, who knows these days? Maybe I'll become her lover or something. I might go back to the dorms. I'm kind of tired. Don't forget that Evan is coming back tonight to bring you to some ballet charity thing." Alex was way into the ballet so Evan suggested that he take Alex to a performance that night so I could see Mia.

Alex smiled a little. "He's kind of cute don't you think?"

"I told you last night I wouldn't know."

"I am going to make you open up a bit. I mean, you are so oblivious to what is right in front of you afterall."

"Huh?"

He laughed. "First off, I was blatantly flirting with you all summer long and you only figured out that I was gay a few weeks ago after I told you bluntly. Secondly, it is clear that Mia has a boyfriend, and it isn't Evan."

I half smiled as I looked away from him. "Why do you say that?" I said.

"She has that glow about her. Plus, did you see...wait a second. You have..." he said with realization. I pulled him into a public bathroom. I looked around quickly and found no one else was there.

"Look, yes we are together and no one knows. Well, Evan does. But I swear if you say one word I will kill you."

"How is this supposed to work?" he asked, clearly confused.

I looked at my watch. I was expecting Mia in another three hours. "Let's go back to the dorms. I'll explain there.

"So?" he said with raised eyebrows when we reached the safety of the dorms. My roommate, Andre was out chasing some girl in the courtyard.. "Explain."

"Okay, so see, her family hates me."

"Well, you are a commoner and look how you dress..." he said making a face at my Ramone's concert t-shirt and ripped jeans.

So what if my shirt had a few holes here and there? It added character. "It's not that. See, we broke up after we dated for like, I dunno, two years. I was a moron, I broke her heart. But I only did it because my friends wanted me to. I felt kind of tied down at age nineteen, ya know?"

He shrugged. "I guess it can be scary to meet someone that seems perfect at such a young age."

"That's what I told myself!" I exclaimed. "Well, in any case, I regretted it right away but was too much of a shithead to do anything about it. And she had started seeing some actor . So I figured it would be better for her to just be with him. But then I decided I needed to have her back. It felt like something was eating away at me when I was away from her. So at her junior prom I got her back from that sleezy actor, but it turns out she was just with him to get me jealous. So ever since we've been together. But her grandmother has never forgiven me. She had been thrilled that we had broken up because up until then I'd been the ideal consort, she literally had nothing to pin on me. No one would accept her complaints.....now she had an excuse not to like me. But we stayed together anyways against her wishes. Mia found out that once she graduated high school her grandmother was planning on taking her to Genovia forever. She is not a legal adult there until she is twenty one. So she couldn't escape for very long if she tried to. Her grandmother brought her there so she'd forget about me and her life in New York."

"And so far it isn't working?"

"Well, she turned eighteen at the beginning of May..."

"Yeah? Did you knock her up or something? You can't tell..." he said, loving the fact he knew about royal scandal before The National Enquirer.

"No, well, I don't think so. We eloped. No one knows other than my sister and two other friends. You rat us out and I'll kill you."

"Yeah, but I don't get how a marriage will work out if you can't tell anyone."

"When she is twenty one she can choose her marriage partner and no one, not her grandmother, her father or parliament can do a damn thing about it. It's an old law that Mia looked up."

"So...you got married why?"

"Because that way if her grandmother forced her to marry it'd be null and void because bigamy is illegal in Genovia."

"As it should be. It's kind of romantic, the marriage, not bigamy. So she isn't with Evan in any way, right?"

I laughed. "No, he's a cover. He's a gay man from an aristocratic family so he's using her to cover that up. Once his old man dies he can do whatever he wants. That'll happen soon I guess, but he'll wait to come out until Mia and I are together officially."
Alex smiled, "I knew you were a romantic! I knew it from the moment I met you! I mean, sure back then I wished it was me who was receiving your attentions but still...she's lucky. I'll help out however I can. I promise."

I don't know why, but from the look in his eye I could tell he was telling the truth. He would help me, but in ways I would have never imagined that late summer evening.

In ways that MIA would have never imagined.