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Nik’s face was unreadable, but sensing that her answer didn’t satisfy him, she blurted out, “Do you know the fairytale about the princess and the frogs?”
“The one where the princess ate all the frogs?” he deadpanned.
Daria gasped in horror. “I do not eat frogs!” Then she realized what she had just let slip.
Nik’s face was relaxed now, and a smile started to tug at his lips again.
Sitting up, she instinctively touched his lips. “I like you smiling,” she said softly. “I wish you’d do it more.” His smile didn’t disappear, but it failed to reach his eyes this time, and she regretted saying anything at all about it.
“My life doesn’t give me much to smile about,” he said flatly. And he knew it was true, despite the billions in his bank account. Before she could answer, he changed the subject, murmuring, “But I’m sure it’s different for a princess like you.”
She grimaced. “You’re not going to let me forget that, are you?”
“I had a feeling you were the type of girl to think you’re the princess in all fairytales.”
She immediately shook her head. “Not at all. I can’t be Belle, for one.”
He raised a brow. “Belle?”
“Beauty and the Beast,” she explained.
“Because you can’t fall for someone unattractive?”
“That used to be one of the reasons,” she acknowledged honestly, “but I’ve learned my lesson. Looks don’t matter as much to me.” At the skeptical look on his face, she laughed. “I mean it,” she insisted.
“If you say so,” he murmured noncommittally.
“No, really, if God gave me someone who looked like the Beast, I’d love him.” It was the closest to the truth she could speak of. “But...that’s really not the reason why I can’t be Belle.” She gave him a shamefaced look. “You see, I’m not that into books.”
“Ah.” He struggled not to smile at the way she seemed to wait for him to call her an idiot.
“You think I’m the typical dumb little rich girl now, don’t you?” she accused.
“I haven’t said anything.”
“But you’re thinking it!”
“No. I’m not. I only think it’s...admirable that you can admit to something like that.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever like reading either,” she confessed unhappily. “I’m so impatient, I want to know what’s going to happen in the end right away. I usually end up skipping to the last page but whenever I do, nothing makes sense because I only read the first few pages.” She sighed.
He was almost tempted to pat her head in sympathy. “It’s all right,” he said finally. “Not everyone can be like, err, Belle. But at least you can be the princess who eats all the frogs.”
She groaned. “Yuuuuuuuuck.”
This time, he couldn’t help it. A grin briefly touched his lips, the result of seeing the genuine revulsion on Daria’s face.
“For your information, I’ve never eaten a frog, and I have no plans to,” she said huffily.
“If the princess isn’t going to eat them, what’s she going to do with all those frogs?”
Her smile faded. “Date them. Kiss them, in hopes that one of them would turn into a prince.”
Ah.
Nik forced himself to smile. “A good plan.” And it was, he thought grimly. Use all her charms to have a man fall for her, and when he wasn’t good enough – when he wasn’t rich enough – discard him until the next frog came along.
“Is it?” Daria shrugged. “I think it’s a waste of time.” And that was an understatement, she thought.
