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“Here, let me do it,” said Doug, taking his laptop out of his backpack. “I’ll make a spreadsheet and keep track of payments.”
“You will?” she asked.
“Yeah, dwarfs are really good accountants. We have to be, with all the diamonds and jewels in the mine,” he explained.
“That would be such a great help!” she enthused, watching as he began to plug numbers into a column.
They worked side by side for a moment, Evie on the dress and Doug filing away all the order slips. When he was done he showed her the invoicing system he’d set up. “So you just enter the name here, and then the dress here, and the amount here,” he explained.
“You are a lifesaver!” she said. “Oh, and I came up with a name for my label.”
“Yeah?”
“Evie’s 4 Hearts. You like it?” she asked. “I got it from Mal’s spell. You know, the one that says ‘The Power of Four Hearts Are Better than One.’”
Doug smiled. “I love it.”
Evie sat back down at her sewing machine. Doug watched her thread a needle. “Oh, and Evie?” he said finally.
“Yes?” she asked, the needle in her teeth.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, will you be my date for Cotillion?” he said nervously.
“Me?” she said coyly.
“Um, I don’t see any other princesses in the room?” he said. “Unless you’d rather go with a prince?” His shoulders slumped.
“Why would I do that when I have you?” Evie said warmly. “Of course I’ll be your date. I’m honored. I was wondering when you would ask me, actually.”
Doug mopped his forehead in relief. “I still can’t believe you’re real, that we’re real. It’s like a fairy tale.”
“Fairy tales come true,” said Evie with her sweetest smile.
“By the way, where were you guys?” asked Doug. “I was looking all over for you the other day.”
Evie put away the dress and grabbed her purse. “Oh, let’s just say we had a little excitement under the sea. But we’ve got to hurry. Ben wants us all there in five minutes. So I’ll tell you all about it at dinner.”
“Great. Oh, an
d I wanted to warn you, we’re eating with my dad and Uncle Sneezy tonight. I’ll try and make sure you’re not sitting next to him.”
“Does he always have a cold?” asked Evie wonderingly.
“Allergies,” said Doug.
Mal’s final class of the day was her favorite: Freestyle Painting, where she could do whatever she wanted. She was looking forward to working on her self-portrait, which covered an entire wall in the studio. When Mal turned the corner, she was surprised to find the classroom not only empty of other students and the usual mess of paints and canvases, but also sparkling clean and overwhelmed with dozens of flower arrangements.
“Um, what is happening?” she said, just as Ben stepped out from behind a garland.
“Mal,” he said, taking her hand with a look of adoration in his eyes. “Remember I wanted to ask you something?”
“Sort of?” she said, not quite sure what was happening, as her heart began to pound painfully in her chest. But as she glanced around the room, she got a better look at the flowers. It was sweet of him to have remembered that her favorites were black dahlias and bat orchids. The room was bursting with their sweet-but-spicy scents.
“Mal, will you be my lady at Cotillion?” he asked.
She looked at Ben. “Um, okay?” she said. Ben looked so sweet and sincere kneeling before her, and of course she would do whatever he needed her to do.
“Great!” he said, folding her into his arms.
