‘Thank you, Miss Royale.’ He backed away, his eyebrows knitted in confusion.
‘Royale?’ Ethan repeated in wonder. ‘As in, Hotel Royale?’
CHANGE IN CONVERSATION = VERY GOOD RIGHT NOW.
‘Yes.’ I nodded, enthusiastically. ‘You know it?’
‘Hotel Royale? Yes. We’re in it.’
CHANGE IN CONVERSATION = DID NOT GO SO WELL.
‘Right, of course. Sorry, I drank a lot of coffee today.’ I laughed nervously.
‘I know the feeling. Nice to meet you, Flick, I’m Ethan.’
Skylar, still watching me strangely, gestured towards another guy and a girl who had come over while I had been yabbering about forks.
‘This is Carly, my drummer, and you might recognise Jacob. He’s a model.’
I thought it wise not to say anything this time, and nodded hello to both of them. We were guided across the room by Timothy, receiving plenty of stares and whispers around the room in the process. I made the conscious decision to try to sit away from Ethan (as apparently his jaw was all too much for my brain to handle) but somehow we ended up next to each other.
Well, this was going to be interesting.
‘These guys are all coming to the Hotel Royale Christmas Ball,’ Skylar announced. ‘I’ll be flying back from LA especially.’
‘It’s one of the highlights of the year,’ Ethan claimed. ‘I love it.’
‘You’ve only been once before.’ Carly laughed.
‘Yeah, and it was great. I’m sure it will be great this year too,’ he said defensively.
‘Did you all know that Flick actually lives here in the hotel?’ Skylar informed the table excitedly. ‘This is herhome.’
‘You live at Hotel Royale?’ Ethan’s eyes widened as he pulled in his chair. ‘You must know everything there is to know about this place then.’
‘Not really,’ I said shyly, fiddling with the silver napkin ring.
‘She has invaluable knowledge about the forks,’ Jacob teased.
Skylar rolled her eyes. ‘Ignore Jacob, Flick, he’s pretending not to care but he’s still smarting from losing out on a big modelling campaign today.’
‘I couldn’t care less,’ he replied breezily, clearly lying. I know because he made the same trying-not-to-look-bothered face that Ella made whenever someone else got what she wanted, like the time Zoe got partnered with Aidan in a science project. I had to listen to her go on about how much she ‘didn’t care’ for THREE DAYS and nod along while she made constant snide remarks about Zoe, until Aidan finally asked Ella on a date to the cinema and the whole world rejoiced in the change of her conversation.
‘Ask him who he lost the campaign to, Flick.’ Skylar laughed across the table to me as Carly sniggered.
‘Who did you lose it to?’ I asked.
Jacob sighed. ‘Dolly.’
‘And who is Dolly?’ Skylar pushed, leaning forward on to the table and cupping her chin in her hands faux-innocently.
Jacob mumbled something.
‘Sorry, what was that? I don’t think Flick heard you,’ Carly said, winking at Skylar.
Jacob clenched his jaw and said, through gritted teeth, ‘A hamster.’
The table exploded into laughter.
