Chapter 3. Moving forward. Decided to have a little fluff coming in. Not too much yet. They sort of realise that there is a romantic spark, but without a clue of where this is going.

3. After the mustang ride

Joseph sat quietly in the dark overthinking last week events.

There had been the makeover of the princess which made Clarisse very happy. Then the media circus at school which brought up the best of the queen. The state dinner which also brought up the best of the queen that Clarisse was, but probably also the worst of the grandmother that Clarisse was as well.

She started wearing colours again.

The idea made a warm feeling spread through his body. Funny enough the warmth made him shiver. Quickly he set aside the feeling and reminded himself about the events from today.

He started to get fond of the princess. She was clumsy and talked too much. She was friendly and looked beautify after the makeover. But mainly she was still very young and therefore very uncertain about herself. He could tell that Amelia was looking up to Clarisse and wanted to make her happy. While doing her best she got more and more nervous and then more and more silly accidents happened. Which made the queen unhappy, which made the princess even more nervous, and so on.

He totally agreed with Clarisse's plan to set aside the queen and princess and spend time together as granddaughter and grandmother. He liked it. It was good for Amelia and it was maybe even better for Clarisse. Amelia was nervous about acting like a royal. Clarisse on the other hand was nervous about acting like family. Amelia might not realise. But while she received princess lessons from the queen, she herself was giving lessons in friendship to her grandmother. Amelia's unrestricted behaviour helped Clarise to overstep her difficulties with making friends.

Yes, Joseph totally agreed with Clarisse's idea to spend time with her granddaughter and to skip her other appointments for the day.

He agreed with the idea. Not with the way things turned out today. Yes, Clarisse liked to go against the status quo every now and then. But it always was a minor joke without too much harm. And more important, it always involved herself.

Today however she had asked the princess to take her out into the city. Without taking him or any other security along. Besides that, she just left the building without even informing the security office or anyone where they were going. And then the car! It was barely safe enough to drive in, Amelia had no driving licence, nor had Clarisse.

He had been angry at first, but after that feeling passed, he was mainly concerned. When he saw the police, car stop at the consulate and Clarisse and the princess getting out of the car he was relieved. He had to admit that the safety risks were low. Granted, the accident with the trolley was unfortunate. They could have been hurt! But that did not happen and as always, the queen of Genovia solved the problem in a very diplomatic way. The morning papers would most likely present a positive and romantic story about a strong queen and not a bad story about a rebellious princess.

The head of security needed to have a serious talk with the queen about safety risks. But that could wait till the next day or the day after that. The reason he was sitting here was because Joseph wanted to confront his friend Clarisse. He felt that she betrayed their recent found friendship.

Clarisse walked towards her suite. It had been an eventful day. She regretted the accident. But she was happy with her decision to spend time with Amelia away from the consulate. She started to like the girl that was her granddaughter. Slowly she learned to lower her guard. It made her happy that she could. She realised that her whole state of being was better than it had been weeks ago. For a big part that was because of her granddaughter. And she even stared wearing colours again!

Joseph.

The thought of Joseph reminded her of the thing nagging around in her head since she left the consulate. She did not inform him. She did not ask her head of security how to deal with the day out in San Francisco. But more important she did not inform her friend. She asked him to set aside his normal work and help her with Amelia. And she decided not to talk to him about precisely the decision to try and build a friendly relationship with her granddaughter.

At first, she thought that maybe he would not be upset about it and that she would be able to set things right quickly. But she was back for a few hours now, and Joseph was nowhere to be found. She had to come to terms with the fact that she would have to wait till the morning to talk with him. She hoped she had not damaged their friendship along the way trying to build another.

Meanwhile Clarisse reached her suite and opened the door. Automatic lights turned on while she walked towards the bedroom. While she extended her hand towards her bedroom door, she felt a hand on her shoulder. The hand was firm and turned her around.

"What is this supposed to…"

"Enjoyed your adventure today?" Joseph spoke very punctuated, but in a low voice so that the guards outside would not be able the hear him speak.

"Joseph, I did not realise you where there. You scare me." Clarisse release her breath.

"Yes, it was my intention to scare you a little, as to remind you of what could happen if you totally ignore your security. What did you think this morning?"

Clarisse sighted. "From the moment I left with Amelia I knew I was wrong not telling you. I'm sorry and I won't surpass you again."

Joseph still had his hand on Clarisse's shoulder, but his tight grip loosened. This was not what he expected of this confrontation. Her apology took away his anger. For a moment he did not know how to respond.

"I told you I wasn't too good with friendships." Clarisse said. She stared to her shoes to avoid Joseph's eyes.

Joseph found back his voice in the silence that followed. "I don't know what to say really. I expected some sort of fight, not an apology."

Still looking at the ground Clarisse answered: "Can you accept my apology? I promise that it is sincere, not just a diplomatic move."

Joseph looked at Clarisse and noticed her choice of attire. It was cream coloured, not black. He left his hand on her shoulder, but with the other he touched her chin in a way so that she had to turn her head to face him.

"I accept your apology and I will keep you to your promise not to surpass me again. And I want to tell you that it makes me happy to see you wearing colours."

Relief made its way through Clarisse's body.

"Thank you and thank you for advising me on the colours. It makes me happy too."

While looking Joseph in the eye, Clarisse was very aware of both of his hand touching her. After dancing with Joseph last week, she scolded herself about a certain romantic feeling that she must have made up. But now, looking at Joseph, she wasn't so sure the imagination part. Where was this going?

Where was this going? Joseph had no coherent thought as to why he was so bold to touch Clarisse in this quite intimate way. Friends touch each other's hands, arms and maybe they hug. But they rarely touch each other's face. Parents touch the face of their children, yes. But when you see adults touch each other's face, they most of the time are in a romantic relationship together.

But in this moment Joseph decided to just feel and enjoy the moment, so he kept his hand where they were. Meanwhile he waited to see how Clarisse would respond to this.

Clarisse couldn't stand the tension any longer. She moved her hands to catch both of Joseph's and moved them in-between their bodies. Still holding hands, she said: "I really want to catch some sleep now. Can we continue talking later?"

With a mixture of regret of the lost contact, but happy for the physical connexion that was still there for a short moment Joseph looked down at their connected hands. He realised that he was content with the feeling of Clarisse's hand in his, and that he was at the same moment completely confused about where this was going. He also realised that whatever the future held in store for him, a romantic relation to whatever extend with Clarisse was never going to be easy. But the fact that she was still holding both of his hands told him that he did not go too far.

This was not something to discuss now. He needed some time to think about this, so he replied: "Yes. I will see you in the morning in your office with business as usual." Then he squeezed her hands for a moment before letting go and he went to the door and left the suite.

Clarisse looked at the door that closed after Joseph just seconds ago. It was a long time ago that she had been so confused and so content at the same time. Because of her arranged marriage to Rupert, she never had the change to build a romantic relationship from scratch. She loved the fact that she finally felt a little bit of the feeling that she had been reading about in books for whole her life. She was desperate to grab this chance and to see where this would lead to. At the same time this, whatever it was, was terrifying and complicated her live even more.