A/N- AHH! I swear, fanfiction document uploader HATES ME.
Anyway, I wanted to explain my stupid moment: I forgot to click save changes when I edited the story, and so I ended uploading the whole story. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I'll try not to use that term, instead I'll use other phrases.
I made a major mistake, so let's just pretend that she eliminated four guys last chapter. It doesn't really matter who, just that she eliminated four guys and now there are sixteen instead of seventeen. (Go with it, I know what I'm doing I swear!)
An answer to a question: no, Nick isn't from the movie. The movies absolutely suck, I refuse to put anything from them in my stories. I got most of the names of my guys from band. I love band! (Geek moment there, sorry)
I love the reviews, you guys! Keep 'em coming!
Chapter 4I was pacing my room nervously as Julia rolled her eyes. "God Mia, you need to stop stressing about this."
"I know, I know." I muttered. It was like a mantra to everything that Julia had told me for the past few hours.
"You look nice."
Sebastiano designed sundresses too. It was white with a pink floral print and flared out just below my knees. I was wearing white gold hoop earrings and white strap-y sandals. My hair had been straightened and parted the side and my eyes were accented with a faint pink eye shadow. I knew I looked nice, but would the guys notice?
Or more specifically, Michael?
I kept thinking about him all last night. I couldn't sleep at all. My thoughts kept reverting to why he broke up with me. He said he wanted to experience new things and date other people. But there must have been something more to that, because he would have at least tried to have another girlfriend after me, right?
I started wringing my hands when Tim, one of the camera men, and the guy that the crew had officially named "Lori's Bitch" knocked on the door of my chambers, opened it, and leaned in. "Princess? We're ready for you now."
I had to do another individual interview before I went out on a group date with the first three guys. I was starting to get used to it, but it didn't mean that I liked it.
I turned to Julia and gave her a hug. "Wish me luck," I whispered in her ear.
"Good luck. Tell me everything when you get back."
I nodded and followed Tim out of the room.
"Hey, wake up!"
Dennis slammed a pillow on top of my head, effectively waking me up and ending the dream I had of Mia and me. Groggily I sat up and stared at the digital clock on the bedside table. "What time is it?"
"Seven."
I groaned and fell back down on the bed, smothering my head with the pillow. "Hey, we have to get dressed. They said they have a surprise for us."
"You know, I'm really starting to hate the surprises they have here," I muttered as I slid out of the bed.
Dennis just chuckled. "You're obviously not a morning person."
I shook my head when I realized that he had already taken a shower. "God, people like you are the reasons why there's a lack of coffee in the world."
He shrugged and combed his hair carefully. "We're starting the group dates today too. Mia's going out with the first three guys."
"Who would that be?"
"Liam, Tom, and Ben."
"She's dating them in groups of three?"
"That's the plan."
"But there're sixteen guys."
He shrugged and threw a towel at me. "Take a shower, dude. You're starting to smell."
I grimaced. "Thanks."
Now it may take me forever to get up, but it takes a half hour, forty-five minutes tops to get ready for wherever I'm going. And I look damn good too.
Just as I was combing my hair, Lori's Bitch walked in and asked us to be in the parlor in ten minutes.
When we got down there, Lori immediately walked over to me and started combing my hair. "Ah! What are you doing?" I demanded as I squirmed to try and get away from her.
"Fixing your hair," She replied as she licked the tips of her fingers and ran them through my shaggy dark brown locks. "You look like shit."
Dennis laughed as I cried out, "Hey! I think I look nice, thank you very much."
"You look too New York."
"Well that's kind of where I'm from."
"That's not the point, the point is you look like shit."
I stuck my tongue out at her. As much as I liked Lori and found her extremely amusing, I didn't like it when anybody touched my hair. Well, anybody except Mia.
After she was finished, she ushered us all to sit down on the antique couches around a small coffee table. Robert was going to make another announcement and then Liam, Tom, and Ben were going on their date with Mia.
"Lights! Camera! Action!" Lori called and cued Robert.
He walked onto the set in the same Armani suit that he had worn yesterday. "Good morning, gentlemen."
We all mumbled back a greeting.
"You will be going on group dates of three. But one of you will have the special privilege of eating dinner with her for those five nights."
We all looked at each other eagerly. I especially wanted that chance. Please let it be me. Please let it be me.
"You may be wondering how we will choose which of you will be the lucky individual. Well yesterday we had asked Mia which of the men she had felt a special connection with and she said…"
He was pausing for dramatic affect. I just knew that when this stupid show aired that this would be the perfect opportunity for a commercial break, so that was partly another reason.
"She said Michael for several obvious reasons." Robert and I smirked knowingly. I could practically feel the jealousy pouring out of all the guys around me. "So Michael will have the privilege of dining with Mia every night for the next five days. Tom, Liam, Ben, you will we going on the first group date with her tonight." He gave us a smile and said, "Good luck," before walking out of the parlor.
As soon as Lori yelled "Cut!" all the guys crowded around me, but I just smiled and pushed my way through. I was going upstairs and going back to sleep.
I didn't feel that bad about it not being my day to go out with Mia anymore. I got to eat dinner with her tonight!
I knew of course, that Michael was going to be my dinner date for the next five days. I couldn't think of anything else on the limo ride there. I knew I wasn't being fair to Liam, Ben, and Tom, but I couldn't help it.
Wait, what the hell was I thinking? The guy dumped me five years ago and here I was on a date with three total babes still thinking about him!
I've got some serious issues.
Ben, Tom, Liam and I got back to the palace around four o'clock. I did another interview, then ran upstairs for a little bit of quality girl talk with Julia. She was waiting with another pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I collapsed on my bed and she asked me about the date.
I shrugged. "Nothing special. We went out for a boat ride on the lake. Mostly Ben talked about computers, Liam talked about tennis and Tom didn't talk about anything."
"Boring, huh?"
I nodded.
"Well you've got an interesting dinner with Michael to look forward to."
I sucked on my spoon for a moment and stared at my ceiling thoughtfully. "Julia? Is it weird that I'm still semi-infatuated with my ex-boyfriend after five years?"
She thought carefully. "Not unless you were really in love with him."
I looked at her for a moment, thescreamed in frustration as Iburied my head in my linen sheets. "Why do I have to be like this? Why does he have this affect on me?"
I could almost feel her smiling and shaking her head. I knew she still thought I was in love…but I don't know. I'm still really confused. And really hurt.
I looked at myself in the mirror for a while, hoping that I didn't look too "New York-ish."
Dennis grimaced at my reflection. "How did Mia possibly feel a connection with you?"
I smirked and replied, "It's my ravishing good looks and magnetic personality."
He rolled his eyes, but still smiled. "Yeah, yeah." He hit my head with a pillow and threw himself on his bed. "Go impress her with your magnetic personality."
I slipped on the only pair of dress shoes and looked at him carefully. "What're you doing tonight?"
He shrugged. "I'm going down to the kitchen later to grab something to eat. Then maybe Alex and I would go spy on your dinner date with Mia."
I nodded. "Good luck with that."
He looked at me suspiciously. "What's going on between you two anyway?"
I shrugged. "Maybe something, maybe nothing. I'll find out." And with those parting words I walked out of the room and down to the formal dining room where Lori and the cameras were waiting.
"Hey Michael!" Lori called me over. "C'mere." She pinned the microphone to the collar of my shirt and said, "Remember, just have a normal dinner and—"
"And pretend the cameras aren't there." I chanted with her. "I know, I know."
She smiled. "Good. Make it something that's worth watching, okay?" She patted me on the back and sat me down for another interview.
"So do you feel this connection that Mia talked about?"
I looked into the camera and nodded. "I do feel this connection. I think it's partly because this isn't the first time that Mia and I have met, but the other guys don't know that."
Lori's eyes widened in curiosity. "You haven't told the other guys?"
"No. I figure it'll give me an upper-hand."
"So how do you know Mia?"
"I broke up with her five years ago."
"You mean she was the girlfriend that you loved so much?"
"Yeah."
"So, this means you're in it for love, not for the money?"
I scoffed. "I can't believe that she would subject herself to this kind of torture, sorting through twenty guys just to find someone who might not like her for her, but for her title."
She raised her eyebrows. "Okay then. Cut!"
I sat patiently waiting for Paolo to finish my makeup.
The dress I was wearing tonight was one of my favorites. It was a shimmer-y pale blue color with spaghetti straps. The simplicity just appealed to me. I hope it would appeal to Michael.
Wait, why was I trying to impress him? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
Lori did an interview in my chambers and when I was finished, I went downstairs for dinner. My heart thumped with every step I took. My head was overflowing with memories and thoughts of Michael.
When I saw him standing next to his chair in the dining room, my knees went weak. How could I possibly have an intelligent conversation with him when all that would come out of my mouth was nonsense?
"Princess," He bowed deeply and smiled. "You look lovely tonight."
I cleared my throat and replied, "Thank you. You look nice too."
And he did. He was wearing black dress pants with a nice, dark blue button down shirt. He had rolled up his sleeves to his elbow which made him look even manlier. I shivered from his sheer sexiness.
He pulled out the chair and gestured to it. I smiled graciously and sat down. It was like high school again, when we had attended a lot of banquets together. Grandmère mercilessly beat the etiquette lessons he had taken into his head. I smiled at the memory of him complaining about my grandmother as we walked home.
"So, sweetie, how was your date?" He asked as he seated himself and shook out his napkin.
I felt like we were married. "It was fine, darling," I replied, playing along. "Uneventful really."
His eyes lit up. "So you didn't like any of them?"
"Not like boyfriend material. All they talked about were their careers. Which reminds me," I leaned forward and looked at him meaningfully. "What are you doing with your life?"
He gave a small smile and replied, "I'm a computer programmer. And Felix and I still have that band."
"Really? Played any gigs?"
"Yeah. We played at El Grito and the Lotus."
I felt my eyes widen. Those clubs were the hottest spots in Manhattan, not counting all the celebrity catering clubs. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah. We almost had a record company sign us on, but we decided against it. We didn't want to go mainstream, we just wanted to play gigs."
Inwardly, I admired his conviction. He didn't dream of fame and fortune. He just wanted to make people happy through his music.
"What about you?" He asked as the waiter poured our wine. "How's the Genovian parking meter issue going?"
"We finally came to a compromise. We'd only put parking meters in the downtown, and in the hot tourist spots."
"Sounds fair."
The waiter came and served our hors d'oeuvres when we got around to discussing Lilly. "She's great," He told me. "She's already famous, just two years after college."
I smiled as I bit into the caviar on wine crackers. "I knew she was destined for greatness. Has she won any awards yet?"
"No, thank god." He sighed. "If she did, I'd never hear the end of it."
I'd forgotten how much I missed her smile.
She was so much more…sophisticated. It felt like she had grown up, and I didn't. Like she was leaving me in the dust. I felt like I needed to catch up with her.
I felt like I didn't deserve her.
I had to convince her. I had to get her to love me again.
I had to get her to love me as much as I loved her.
We went through dinner like we were friends again. We talked about Revenge of the Sith (we had both seen it) and argued on whether there should be a sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy.
When desert rolled around she smiled and said, "Oh by the way, how's your Buffy obsession?"
"Ever since I saw Sarah Michelle Gellar in that lame Scooby Doo movie, I've given up on her."
The corners of her lips twitched. "I'm sorry for your loss."
I gave a dramatic sigh and replied, "It was all for the best."
We both looked at each other and blushed. It was like high school, before she had discovered she was a princess. We just had comfortable, fluffy conversations with an unspoken meaning underneath.
When we had finished, I got up and took her hand. "Let's go."
She looked up at me bewilderedly. "Where?"
I gave her an excited smile. "You'll see."
I had explored the palace grounds earlier that day and knew I wanted to take her to the gardens, and not just that stupid gazebo. A special place.
She got up, dropped her napkin in her chair, and followed me, a smile playing on her pink lips. I led her out of the palace and into the gardens, past the gazebo and deeper and deeper into the maze of perfectly trimmed bushes.
Before we reached the exact spot, I turned to her and whispered, "Close your eyes."
She looked at me skeptically. "Michael, where are you taking me?"
"Just close your eyes."
She put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows.
"Trust me."
She sighed and closed her eyes. I waved my hand in front to make sure. I took her hand and led her past these two huge oak trees and into a sort of clearing.
And there it was. This huge, sparkling fountain that was made to resemble a waterfall. It was surrounded by exotic plants and flowers, and the warm Genovian night air was saturated with the heavy, fragrant perfumes.
I turned to her and whispered, "Okay. Now you can open."
Her eyelids fluttered and she gasped. "Oh…my…"
I grinned. "Isn't it beautiful?"
"This is gorgeous!" She exclaimed softly. "I…I never knew that this…this was in the gardens…" She stepped forward and touched the sparkling water and ran her fingers over the silky petals of the jewel bright flowers. "How did you…?"
"I was exploring the grounds while you were out. When I found this place, I knew that it would be a lot more beautiful at night, so…"
She turned back around and I admired her figure against the sparkling waterfall. "It's beautiful…" She murmured again.
"Yeah. It is."
But I wasn't talking about the waterfall.
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