Sam waved the question away. “She’s got man problems, same as you.”
Frannie gave her a sympathetic look. “Oh, sorry to hear that. Well, fries and pies can make anyone feel better. I’ll get your order in, and bring your drinks in a couple minutes.”
Once Sam’s coffee and her tea arrived, Sam started talking. “First of all, I am your best friend and I fully support whatever you do or don’t want to do.”
“Thank you.”
“That said, I think you’re being an idiot.”
Gen had been about to take a sip but put the cup down instead. “Sam!”
“It’s true. You have a hot man, who also has a secure job and financial stability, after you and you’re turning him down. I understand why, you don’t want to trade one prison for another?—”
Gen’s gut clenched again.
“—but not all palaces are prisons, and neither are all men.”
“Maybe not. Maybe it would be okay. But I’d never get away from my mother if I married Gabriel.”
“You’ve got to stop letting your mother run your life. You’re still basing decisions aroundher. Base them aroundyou.”
Gen bit her lip. Was she doing that? She thought she had been making decisions based on her own needs, but maybe Sam was right.
“Beside, you can be a selfish bitch if you become queen, you know.”
“Probably the opposite. I’d care more about the people than myself.”
“Obviously. But you can be a selfish bitch to your mother and she can’t do fuck all about it.”
As the food arrived, Gen absently began eating. The fries were cooked perfectly, thin and crispy on the outside, and soft and steaming hot in the middle.
“I told you that you’d start eating once you calmed down a bit.”
“Shut it,” Gen said without any heat behind it, and ate another fry.
Sam smiled, then bit into her burger.
Gen noticed she was eating with more gusto than usual. “Didn’t you eat dinner?”
Sam shook her head as she finished her bite. “I meant to sneak into the kitchen and grab something but I wasn’t able to. Didn’t you eat with the prince?”
Gen nodded but said, “Only lunch though. Nothing since that picnic.”
Sam sighed and stole one of Gen’s fries even though she had plenty of her own on her plate. “It looks like the men in our lives can’t really take care of us, huh?” She took another bite.
“What man? Do you mean your father?”
Sam drank some water. “No, Cary.”
Gen’s mouth dropped open. “You’re not serious? You went out with him? I thought he was just a dance at the ball!”
Sam shrugged. “My parents want to arrange my marriage. The guest they’re entertaining? A matchmaker. I had to get all dressed up just to spend five minutes meeting her, then she told me to ‘leave the room so the adults can talk’. What a fucking joke. If I’m not an adult, are they arranging a child marriage? I got so pissed at my parents, my mother especially. ‘This is how things are done’ and ‘we only want the best for you’. So much bullshit. I’d rather elope with Cary than marry whatever asshole they pick for me.”
Gen reached over and put a hand on Sam’s arm. “I’m so sorry.” Though marriages were arranged in high society, even with some royalty, it was such a thing of the past to her. But not in Sam’s culture.
She squeezed Sam’s arm. “But to quote you, ‘You’re being an idiot’ and I mean that.”
Sam wiped her hands and stared at Gen in disbelief. “Do you honestly think my parents are right with what they’re doing?”
