I really wasn’t going to just sit there and do nothing about it. My old self needed to get back in the driver’s seat: enough of that weak and miserable person who barely knew how to act anymore.
I got out of bed. “Mona, please leave it,” I told her. “I’ll get him his tea.”
Mona actually grinned for the first time in what seemed like a long time at my statement about going to the prince with his tea, and then nodded. She prepared the smaller tray that held the teapot and a cup with a plate of English cake, while I fixed my hair and took a look in the mirror to see how wrinkled my blue short-sleeved shirt and navy sweatpants were. They looked fine.
“Shall I put your coffee with it, Princess?” she asked.
“Yes, please,” I smiled, and she added another elegant cup with the coffee pot to the tray. Mona then carried the tray and was about to take it in to the prince herself, I imagined, thinking that I’d be following, but I stopped her.
“Please, let me,” I said softly.
“But, Princess–”
“C’mon, Mona, I’m not that spoiled, I know how to carry a tray,” I smiled.
She smiled back. “All right, let me open the door for you.” After handing me the tray, she opened the secret door and held it open for me as I went inside, mouthing a ‘thank you’ to her. She replied with a smile and a nod before she closed it again.
The prince wasn’t sitting on the armchair I’d seen him sitting on last night. I searched for him with my eyes only to find him standing in front of a large window which dominated one of the side walls of the living room.
I set the tray on a table near him, the tray making a noise when it touched the glass tabletop, so there was no way he hadn’t heard, yet...he didn’t move at all, seemingly deep in thought.
I cleared my throat, but it was no use. I thought it would be better to just pour him that cup of tea, so I did, then asked, “How much sugar?” my voice soft and my tone calm.
It was then that the prince turned his head to look in my direction. His eyes didn’t hold the same amount of emotions I’d seen in them about six hours ago. They now held sadness most of all, more than I’d seen in any sad eyes before–and I’d seen a lot. It made me sad myself, but I kept my soft smile in place as I kept my eyes locked on his green ones.
The prince didn’t reply to me. He looked back out the window for a second, sighed, then turned around and took the two or three steps that separated us and picked up two sugar cubes, putting them in the cup before stirring it with a teaspoon. Then he took his cup of tea and moved back to where he’d been standing a minute ago. No words. At all.
Oh-kay…
I pressed my lips together, disappointed that he seemed to not really want to talk to me, but I wasn’t going to give up so soon. I really wanted to talk to him.
I poured myself my own cup of coffee, picked it up and went to stand beside him. Out of the window, I was able to see a part of our bedroom window, and when I looked down, it was the beautiful garden I’d grown to like a lot; its bright green was almost the same as the prince’s beautiful eyes.
“Uh…is it okay for me to drink coffee, Doc?” I smiled, hoping to lighten the atmosphere. “I feel fine.”
“You answered for yourself,” he said sternly, not even glancing my way, and then sipped his tea.
Ouch!
I shook my head slightly, but didn’t comment, trying to act as if it wasn’t so obvious that he wasn’t fond of my presence. I took a sip of my hot coffee and gazed at the sight in front of me, though I wasn’t really enjoying it, not with what was going on around me. Um…beside me.
When he was finished with his tea, he went and put his cup on the tray, and I followed suit, thinking of something else to talk to him about. I really hated that he was ignoring me this way. I hated his silence; I wished he would tell me something, anything – even yell at me. It was seriously annoying.
“Can we talk, please?” I asked him as