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He’d felt the same way, I was certain of it. Why else would he have been so damn bossy?
All the same, I had to focus on what was happening right in front of me. I was seated at the big table in the royal dining room, the same place where I’d had that awkward first meal with my father. The place setting was done up in front of me, nearly twenty pieces of flatware altogether. The silver was so shiny that it was almost blinding to look at.
“OK, I’m going to be real here,” I said. “What’s the point of all the silverware? When I’m in the crab truck grabbing lunch, I barely need a fork. Most of the time, I use my hands.”
The color drained out of Oscar’s face at the mere mention of me using my hands to eat. He looked like he was about to faint on the spot.
“You can use your hands,” he said slowly, as if explaining the concept to a toddler. “That is, if you want to give half the royal court a heart attack!”
“You might think this is all silly,” Giselle went on. “One big joke. But knowing the difference between a fish fork and a salad fork is what separates royalty from the, as you Americans say,riffraff.”
“Hey, before you knock it, have either of you eventriedbeing riffraff? Sure, you don’t get to live in a palace, but it’s got its high points. Like, for example, being able to eat an entire mushroom Swiss from Shake Shack in the privacy of your own home in front of the TV.”
“Shake Shack?” Oscar asked, scrunching his face in confusion. “What isthat?”
Giselle sighed. “I have no idea. I simply refuse to learn. Something tells me the less I know about it, the better.”
“Regardless, Princess,” Oscar said. “You’re not a common person, whether you like it or not. Being royalty is in your blood. Your mother, despite her… regrettable decisions, embodied the position of queen with grace and dignity. Even with your present difficulty, I have no reason to think that you won’t, with a little work, be able to perform in the same way.”
I wanted to throw a little more sass their way but reminded myself that these two were only doing their jobs. I didn’t want to betoomuch of a royal pain in the ass.
So, I sat and listened to them explain to me such fascinating topics as the proper placement of a cake fork, and in what order the different glasses went in a place setting. As they did, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I’d gone from the down and dirty world of food trucks to a place where using the butter knife in place of the fish knife would cause a scandal.
About twenty more minutes into it, I felt a buzz on my hip, it was my phone.
“OK, as thrilling as this all is, mind if we take a break?”
Oscar and Giselle regarded one another with the same expression of uncertainty. Giselle reached forward, placing a finger with an immaculate French tip on one of the forks.
“Tell me what this is and you may have your break.”
“Sure. Easy. Not a problem in the slightest.”
I kept my eyes on the fork, racking my brain as I tried to figure it out.
OK. The big one is the salad fork because that’s the first one you use. Then there’s the fish fork, which is super small. It’s the…
“Dinner fork?” I asked.
Giselle and Oscar let out the same sigh of relief at the same time.
“Mon Dieu,” Giselle said. “For a moment there I was worried.
“So, shecanlearn after all,” Oscar said. “Thank heaven for small miracles.”
“Can I take my break now?” I asked.
“Ten minutes,” Giselle said. “Then you’re coming back and parking that royal bottom right here until you have all of this committed to memory.”
“Deal.”
With that, I sprang out of my seat and hurried out of the dining room, rushing to the nearest restroom. I stepped into the space, taking a moment to appreciate the gold and marble and how even a place to pee in the palace managed to be something to take my breath away.
Once I’d collected myself, I took my phone out of my pocket. I was expecting to hear from Hailey, but the text that had come through was from Luc.
Hope you’re enjoying the lesson. Come to the kitchen when you’re done. I have a surprise for you.
His message was enough to ignite my curiosity, not to mention get me all kinds of turned-on. Between the dream and what had happened last night, just the thought of talking to Luc was enough to get me hot.
