“It might seem like an exciting adventure with exotic women throwing themselves at you, but it’s not,” Father said.
I didn’t know what to feel. My parents thought I would use Kalopsia as an excuse to run away. Until that point, I hadn’t even wanted to go to Kalopsia. I liked my life. Other people might see it as monotonous, but it was my life, and it suited me fine.
Marrying Clarissa was the next logical step in our relationship, and I had never once thought about using this summons to Kalopsia as an excuse to break-up. If anything, having a royal title and a place in the royal court would actually make Clarissa more inclined to marry me.
“Women will throw themselves at you,” Mother said. “Gold diggers, only after you for your money and your position. We know how…soft…you can be and we wouldn’t consider ourselves doing our parental duty if we didn’t protect you however we could.”
“And so you will deny me the title and the place in the royal court unless I am married?” I still couldn’t believe I was having this conversation with them.
“If you and Clarissa are engaged, then that will be good enough,” Father said as if he was extending me an olive branch and bending the rules for me.
The word no bubbled up in my throat. I wanted to stand and walk out and tell them to…tell them to…
I sighed and slumped in my chair. Who was I kidding? I’d never stood up to my parents ever, and I wouldn’t be doing it now either. I hated conflict and although it made them see me as weak, I would much rather keep the peace than deal with their tantrums if I defied them.
With the possibility of the trip to Kalopsia being taken away from me, I discovered that I really wanted to go. I’d never been away from the influence of my family for more than a few days at a time. Even when I attended college, I lived at home. Now I had the opportunity to go to a whole other country, away from them and their disappointed looks, and I wanted it more than I’d wanted anything else in my life.
If I had to be engaged to Clarissa to make it happen, then that was what I would be.
I smoothed my tie and buttoned my suit coat before I knocked on the door and waited. Clarissa lived by herself in an 1880s antique colonial in Dover, just minutes from Wellesley. The house had whimsical yellow siding and dark shutters and didn’t really suit Clarissa in the slightest. But it was a gift to her from her parents, so she didn’t complain about it too much. I knew she would have preferred something in Boston proper, and no doubt she had plans to sell the house after a suitable time so as not to offend her parents, and buy something more to her tastes. Although, as I stood back and took in the beautifully appointed house, I couldn’t help thinking it would be a delightful family home.
I froze at the thought. I was proposing to Clarissa, sure, but having a family together? I didn’t think I was ready for that quite yet.
The door opened, startling me out of my imminent panic. I leaned forward to brush a kiss on Clarissa’s proffered cheek and then handed her the bouquet I’d picked up earlier from the florist.
“Oh, these are lovely,” she said as she ushered me inside.
I followed her through the house to the recently renovated kitchen and watched while she filled a vase with water and arranged the flowers.
“Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” I said, tugging at the cuffs of my sleeves. “My parents wanted a quick word with me before I left.”
“Is that why you chose that tie?” Clarissa asked and then waved her hand. “Shall we go?”
I looked down at my tie. It was blue. “There’s something wrong with my tie?” I asked as I followed her back down the hall to the front door.
“It’s fine,” she said, reaching for her coat.
I held it for her as she slipped it over her shoulders. Her dress was black and made of a floaty material with large white flowers. It would be designer, of course, and one of the big names. Shiny gold shoes and large gold earrings completed her outfit, and my tailored suit felt like a rumpled thrift-store purchase beside her. Or maybe that was just me.
“You look lovely,” I said, offering her my arm as we headed down the path to the car.
“Thank you,” she replied with a tight smile. “It’s Ralph Lauren. I picked it up when I went shopping with your mother the other day.”
I opened the door for her and then walked around the car to the driver’s side. I didn’t have a problem with Clarissa spending time with my mother, it just seemed they spent more time together than Clarissa and I did. And then I had to wonder, had my mother prepped Clarissa about the proposal? Was that dress specifically chosen for the event?
I took a breath and tried to shrug off the tension in my shoulders before I climbed into the car.
It was a quiet drive to the restaurant, and I kept checking my watch. My parents’ ambush before I left had already put me behind schedule, and the traffic as we drove into downtown Boston wasn’t doing me any favors.
“We should have left earlier,” Clarissa said as we wove through Chestnut Hill.
I rolled my lips together and held back my sigh. It wouldn’t do to get into a disagreement on the night I planned to propose. There was a lot riding on Clarissa agreeing to marry me, more than there had been the day before when I picked up the ring.
I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter and rolled my neck, willing myself to calm down. She would say yes. She had to say yes. All the hints had been there; the rings on her Instagram feed, the increased lunches she had with my mother, and the wedding magazines I’d spied spread out on her coffee table a week or so ago.
We had been dating for a while now and getting engaged was the next logical step. We could plan the wedding for next year and that would give me time to get established in Kalopsia with the royal court…if that’s what I decided to do. Would Clarissa even want to uproot her life and move to the Mediterranean? I knew Kalopsia wasn’t what it used to be, but with a new king and a new royal court, surely things would be looking up. And Clarissa would be a markissia, surely that would be a draw for her. Marrying me and staying in the U.S. was fine, but I was just a glorified accountant here. In Kalopsia we would be titled and important, and surely she would prefer that?
The traffic slowed to a crawl as we approached Fenway Park. Clarissa huffed and turned her face to the passenger side window, her jaw clenched. Okay, so maybe I should have taken the increased traffic into account, but it was just one more thing I had to think about and my brain was already overloaded with everything I’d been hit with earlier. The king sent me a letter, written by his own hand, requesting my presence in his court. I didn’t think the entirety of that had quite hit me yet. I hadn’t even talked to Frankie about it. I’d planned to call her while I drove out to pick up Clarissa, but with my parents making me late leaving, I knew she would have already been at work. Maybe if I’d connected with her and talked it over, I wouldn’t feel so scattered and I would have planned the route to the restaurant better.
Who knew a simple thing like traffic could threaten to derail a proposal?
I shot a quick look at Clarissa, who was still giving me the cold shoulder. The night wasn’t off to a brilliant start, but surely she wouldn’t hold my choice of tie and the traffic against me?