To Wed a Princess

Eloise glanced at the clock. Thirty minutes until he arrived. With a sigh she heaved herself up, off the sofa and looked around for something to do. She couldn't believe she'd agreed to this.What could he possibly want to do at her home, anyway? Well, there always was one possibility. She shuddered at the thought before turning on the television and sitting back down. Knowing she'd have to sooner or later, she flipped to the trashiest TV channel she could think of and grimaced as her face popped up on the screen.

“Princess Eloise took to the stage on Thursday night at a fundraising event for charities aimed at helping women suffering from domestic violence,” an overly bubbly man stood in front of a pink and white CGI background beside a huge digitally imposed image of her on stage “She wore a Badgley Mischka gown and played Por Una Cabeza, originally by Carlos Gardel...”

When nothing more was said, she breathed a sigh of relief and went to change the channel, but just before she did the man continued.

“But that's not all!” the photo of herself animatedly (and somewhat dramatically) uncropped itself to reveal Brian beside her, smirking boldly at her whilst he accompanied her on guitar “She was joined on the stage by an unnamed man and wow, did sparks fly!”

“Shit,” she hissed, practically falling into the chair behind her.

“Winks and smiles were exchanged between the man and our very lucky princess throughout the performance, and at the end he sealed the deal with a kiss and a wink...well, the kiss was on the hand, but that's besides the point,” the photograph then changed to one of Brian and Harry, unaware the photo was being taken and laughing with beer in hand “The mystery man was later seen laughing and drinking with Princess Eloise's brother, Prince Harry – one of the family already? Even if nothing has been announced yet, I feel Royal Wedding 2.0 approaching!”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” she groaned into her hands “I'm going to kill Harry.”

She'd noticed Brian putting on the charm when he met her family – he laid it on thick. However, the second her father, William and Gran gave subtle shows of dislike, she smugly turned away from the situation and reclaimed her seat, assuming her other brother would react similarly. Leave it to Harry to be different. Her grandfather had seemed amused enough by Brian, but he had always been lighthearted...then again, Harry wasn't entirely different from him, was he?

“This needs to stop,” she murmured to herself, shaking her head.

Then again, how could it stop when he'd be at her home in twenty minutes? She bit her lip. She could always cancel. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck with him, alone, in her apartment. A genuine kind of fear and panic was beginning to take a hold of her and she could no longer brush it off and pretend he wasn't managing to worm his way into her life. She couldn't cancel, though, and she knew it. He'd be livid if she did. A whole night stuck alone with him. The thought made her sick. She froze in the process of slipping on a pair of flats – the idea of being barefoot around him was far too casual for her liking - she was already in a jumper and jeans, which disgruntled her. She'd always had a thing about dressing up around people she disliked, as though it gave her some kind of advantage. She needed all the advantage she could get if she would be entertaining him by herself tonight.

She paused and glanced back at the, now switched off, television. What if she wasn't alone? With a grin, Eloise practically tore her phone from her jeans pocket.

“Hello? Harry? Brian and I are going to watch some films tonight and I was wondering if you want to join?” she had to work to keep herself from laughing.

She'd found a way to twist things in her favour, even if it was just temporarily.



The look on Brian's face when Harry opened the door was priceless. The look he gave Eloise once he was in the apartment, before the act slipped back into place? Not so funny. She felt her blood run cold as he glared at her for a solid two seconds and any plans of being smug slipped away. The reality of her situation seemed to sink in and Cardona's words came back to her.

“Just...Be careful, Eloise. I don't know what he has planned for you, but it won't be good.”

She tried to ignore the feeling of nausea beginning to settle over her. It never occurred to her that one day his amusement towards her retaliations would end and she could anger him. She'd realised that too late.

All three of them settled down to watch The Breakfast Club, pizza in hand and she tried to force her body to stop tensing. At first she had questioned his choice in film, but as the dynamics between two of the characters – Bender and Claire – became clear she couldn't help but mentally roll her eyes at him. His goals were becoming clearer and her curiosity was fading into annoyance. She wanted him gone. But how? The only person she could go to with this was Rafael and he'd made his position perfectly clear. She didn't want to resort to anything that drastic, either.

Slipping her feet out of her flats, she brought them underneath her legs and curled up in the armchair. She felt incredibly trapped.

“Are you okay, El? You're being very quiet,” she jumped when Harry spoke and then sighed.

“I don't feel well,” she admitted, not completely lying “Migraine, I think.”

Brian, who had been nearly as quiet as her throughout the course of the film – clearly choosing to spend his time brooding and messing with his beer bottle – spoke up.

“We can go if you want? Let you get some sleep, me and you can do this some other time.”

“You've barely been here an hour,” she shook her head, wondering why he suddenly wanted to leave but knowing it probably wouldn't be good for her.

“Nah, it's honestly fine, babe,” she cringed at his use of the nickname but said nothing, her new main goal being not to piss him off “I gotta pack for California anyway.”

He stood and shrugged his jacket on, smiling at Harry as they said their goodbyes and gave him a “manly” hug. Who knew they were so close all of a sudden? Eloise ignored that, too. She felt light-headed with relief. He was heading back to the USA? He was leaving.

“You're going back?” she trailed after him to the doorway.

“Sure am. Family obligations,” he smirked, turning to her in the doorway and glancing towards the door to the living room.

Once he seemed sure that Harry wasn't lingering, he kissed her on the corner of her mouth and let his lips linger there before whispering “Don't worry though, I'll be back soon.”

Moments after he was gone, Eloise was running to the bathroom to vomit.


Three hours later Rafael Cardona raised an eyebrow at his phone, showing only one letter on the caller ID – E.

“Cariño,” he smirked, taking a draw of his cigar.

“Rafael? Can I stay at your place tonight?” her voice was shaking, as though she'd been crying or was about to “I'm an idiot.”