Darien stared aimlessly out the window, as he escorted his guest down the hall. Another early meeting, he tried so hard to hide his yawn. He could hear her and her assistant's voice but whatever they were saying was gibberish. He felt a little tug on his arm, causing him to turn his attention to his guest. She smiled at him with her bright red lipsticked grin. She was pasty, with an elongated face, her hair was red with curls.
"Prince Darien did you hear me?" She called. "Earth to Prince Darien..." She whistled. "Hello?"
He shook his trance. "I am so sorry I thought...I uhh... saw something in the front." He pulled his arm back adjusted his sleeve, "Turns out it was just your driver."
He turned to continue to walk her out, but again she grabbed on to his arm.
"I was saying... what if I send my assistant and driver away for a bit...and you and I..."She stopped him from taking another step and turned him to face her. She ran her long pale index finger down his chest, before going to adjust his collar. "Could spend some quality time together..."
Darien posture became stiff. "Uh..."
"Come on, we get a very quick bite...spend sometime by the pool, maybe even..." She moved closer to him.
Darien's forehead started to perspire. The smell of her floral perfume burned his nose. But before she could say anymore, his attention was drawn to none other than Serena and Molly walking down the opposite side of the hall. Molly was carrying some large white boards as Serena was holding on to two black cases. Whatever conversation they were in must have been funny because their laughter echoed down the hall towards Darien.
Darien cleared his throat. "My apologies." Darien said, holding up his index finger, pulling his arm away from his guest one more time, and hurrying off in the direction of Molly and Serena. "Ladies! He called waving his hand up. "Let me help you with that."
The two turned to Darien, thrown off, while Darien's guest turned to her assistant, rolled her eyes and starting stomping in his same direction.
"Prince Darien," Molly bowed as he approached.
He nodded at her.
"Morning." Serena greeted with a smile, and a curtsey.
"Serena you really do not have to do that." Darien reminded.
Serena's face started to blush. "Sorry..."She shrugged. "Old habits."
"Here let me grab these for you." Darien said reaching out for the white boards.
"I got it Prince Darien," Molly said cheerfully. "We aren't going too far."
"Yeah, Prince Darien, she has it." His guest came up from behind him.
Her stance tall. Her chin and nose up. Her stride confident.
"After all it is her job." She stood next to Darien. She observed both Serena and Molly. Neither of them moved. She looked at Darien who made no eye contact with her. "Allow me to introduce myself." She smirked. "I am Lady Beryl."
"Oh. Nice to meet you Lady Beryl." Molly bowed her head.
Beryl turned her attention to Serena expecting her to do the same.
Serena too smirked. "Yes it very nice to meet you, Lady. Beryl."
The emphasis on Lady, causes Beryl's goosebumps to rise and her ears to become as red as her hair.
"I am-"
"My wife, Princess Serena," Darien sharply said as he took a step towards her side, throwing his arm around her waist.
"I am very aware of who she is..." Beryl looked Serena up and down. "You sure do look different than the magazine photos." She scoffed. "It is amazing with make up and a glam team can do, right?!" She looked at Darien started laughing out loud.
Serena lifted her foot to take one step forward, only to feel Darien's hold on her side tighten.
"Well Lady Beryl, as fun as this has been, my wife and myself did have an afternoon of painting planned."
Serena just looked up at Darien, as Molly leaned to the side looking at him a little confused.
"It must has slipped my mind earlier," He smiled. "Sorry I was not able to help you gather the supplies."
"No big deal..."Serena said hesitantly.
"Oh Prince Darien, what sounds more appealing, drinks and light lunch with myself..." She looked at Serena up and down again. "Or..."
"Sorry Lady Beryl, but happy wife, happy life and I promised my wife we would spend the day painting."
Beryl's blood started to boil. Her face red with embarrassment.
"We would ask you to join us, but we really wanted to spend some alone time together." Serena added condescendingly. "You will understand one day...I am sure."
Beryl heart started to race as she watched Serena look up again to Darien, as he adoringly gazed down at her.
"We should really head out before it gets too hot." Serena suggested as Darien nodded. "It was very very nice to meet you, Lady Beryl." With a stuck up smile and shoulder shrug, Serena walked past her.
Molly bowed again and followed her.
"And here we are the front door." Darien putting his arm out, point towards the main door, that was now opened. "Thank you for this meeting on behalf of your dad. Hopefully, next time he can come."
Beryl gave him an awkward/guilty chuckle.
"Have a great day."
"Prince are you sure..."
"Lady Beryl, for the sake of your dignity and image please just step out gracefully." Darien demanded with a stoic face.
She huffed, turned to her assistant. "We are out of here." She turned to Darien one more time, looked him up and down, then walked away.
Darien signaled the guards to close the front door as he started to walk in the direction Serena and Molly had gone. They must have left the door they went through open because he could hear their laughs getting louder with each step he took in their direction. Serena's laugh ridding Darien of all the annoyance of the morning. Suddenly there was a little hop in his step, and before he knew it, he was outside with the two.
"Oh Prince Darien," Molly greeted surprised. She bowed.
"Molly."
"I was just getting Serena all set up and I am going to be on my way." She smiled as she laid the thing of paint brushes on the table next to Serena.
Serena turned to Darien."We weren't sure if you were serious about joining me, we uhhhh..." Serena said drawing Darien's attention to the fact that one set up was done. "I figured you had other meetings."
"No I have some time, so I figured why not?"
"I will grab you a chair sire." Molly said with a bow.
She shortly returned with the entire set up and prepped a little station for Darien.
"If I am no longer needed, I will go back to my chores."
Both Serena and Darien nodded at her. Molly bowed one more time and headed back into the palace.
"If I had a dollar for every time she bowed." Darien said pulling out a paint brush.
"She is trying to be polite." Serena justified as she started to paint.
"You could tell her, she does not have to bow every time." Darien suggested.
"I am not going to boss her around on behalf of you."
"She is your lady in waiting."
"And she is technically under your payroll." Serena disputed.
"Fine she will just have to keep bowing." Darien shrugged as he too started to paint.
"So..." Serena exhaled. "That is the famous Lady Beryl."
"Yup."
"She...is lovely..." Serena just nodded.
"Ehhh."
"How come...ummm...have you ever...or uhh...did you two..." Serena quickly looked away, she had no idea what she really wanted to ask, because she wasn't sure she really wanted to know the answers.
Darien chuckled to himself. "Why Princess are you at a lost for words?" He teased. "Is someone trying to process their emotion of je-"
"Ugh! You wish!" She interrupted. "Just trying to understand why you didn't choose her..." Serena returned her focus to her painting. "Like I said she is lovely." Serena rolled her eyes.
"You know, I can see your eye roll from here right?"
"I wasn't trying to hide it." Serena explained with a smirk. "Just like she wasn't hiding how much she would love spending the afternoon with you, alone, despite the fact your wife is in the building. Wonder what would have happened if we did not walk by."
"Absolutely nothing!" He said definitively.
"Not according to the gossip papers."
"You actually read that trash."
"Sometimes when I am bored," She shrugged. "And according to them she is about to move in."
"That would never happen." Darien said sternly.
"I don't know. You two looked awfully close to me while we were walking down the hall."
Darien couldn't help but smile. "So you were watching us?"
"Eww... no." Serena made a disgusted face. "You were in the middle of the hall we were walking down, kinda hard to miss."
"Well, she was a hard no for me." Darien dipped his brush in another color.
"Hmmmm. But are you a hard no for her?"
"You saw the way she treated Molly, I couldn't be associated with someone like that." Darien did a couple of paint strokes. "The press-"
"So that is why? The press, and your image?"
"No!" Darien snapped his head around to look at Serena who was avoiding his eye contact. "Well partly... but mainly no! She is not who I wanted or see myself with!"
"And exactly why not?" Serena quickly glanced over at him. "I mean she has money, power, arrogance. She worships the ground you walk on. She could careless about a marriage." Serena looked up at the sky. "Huh. Now that I think of it, she is kind of a female version of you. Maybe that is why you don't want to be with her. Even you don't want to be with you."
"Wow, tell me what you really think." Darien adjusted his body position to be straight with his painting. He felt this weird electric like impulse in his heart.
"I don't think anything." She added some color to her painting. "Even if I did. You. Can do. Whatever you want."
"Are you sure, because this almost sounds like you are a bit jealo-"
"Pshhhh." Serena turned her body away, pretending to deciding on a color. "If you want to go be with her, go right ahead." She turned back to her painting, legs still turned away from Darien. Her ears were starting to feel warm. "I mean having super early meetings when everyone is sleeping, lunch plans."
Darien grinned and lightly shook his head. "First of all, I thought I was meeting with her father. " Darien put his brush down and turned his body to face Serena. "Had it been with her dad we would have continued to lunch as planned." He scooted his chair closer to Serena. "But it wasn't. I was just as surprised when it was just her." He scooted a little more. "And believe me, if I wanted to be with her, I would have continued the meeting with her." He finally got close enough to where he could lean over and get a good grasp on her chair leg. ""But here I am." One strong tug on her chair and she was right next to him. Her eyes wide and face surprised. "Just painting with you." He lowered his voice.
"What are you doing?" Her back arched where his arms were encircled around her. She held her paint brush in a stabbing position. The paint was slowly running down.
However, Darien was unfazed. He tightened his arms around her, and despite her pull to get out of his hold, they were chest to chest.
"You made me ruin my painting. Now I have to start over." Was the only thing Serena could process right now. He was so close to her she could feel his breath.
"I'll get you more supplies." He started rub one of fingers up and down her back.
Her eyes wandered back and forth in an attempt to avoid eye contact. She was not sure if that was her heart that she was feeling or his, but either way it was racing. Her face was warm, from the sun beaming on them and the blood rushing to her cheeks.
"Paint is going to drip on your shirt."
"I'll get a new shirt." He softly replied. "I am not going anywhere." He exhaled the breath he was trying to hold. "I love admiring regular Serena and I could admire her all day...but jealous Serena and frazzled Serena..." Grinning. He moved in face closer to her. His nose now touching hers.
"I said I wasn't jealo-"
Again he interrupted her, but this time not with his words, but by the swift motion of pressing his lips against her. The paint brush fell on her hand and onto the ground. Whether it not it made a noise, she was unsure, her shock turned into a simple bliss before she could overthink anything. Naturally her hands rested on his chest, and she kissed him back.
Darien tried to fight it as long as he could, but he finally had to give in. He pulled his lips back, giving her small pecks in between to catch a breath. He kissed her nose, causing her scrunch her face for a second, and went back to pin his lips against hers.