A Farewell to Charms (17 page)

F
loressa twirled in the mirror.

“Wait, did you just ask me to ruin the wedding? Like, your mom’s wedding?”

She held out her hand and examined her manicure. “Yep. If my parents get married, it’ll mess everything up.”

“They’re your
parents
. Don’t you want them to be together?”

“Hold on. I’m hungry. Let’s go have the chef make us something yummy.” Floressa yanked me off the bed and thread her arm into mine. She peeked out the door, then pulled me into the sun-drenched hallway. It seemed the entire house was made out of glass. “If my parents get married, then my dad is going to think he can suddenly be my real dad and be all disclipliney like he is with Isla. And he wants me to move to Tharma and live in his palace and basically give up my whole life. And my mom is just so stoked to have him back that she doesn’t see how this move could ruin her career. Have you ever heard of Grace Kelly?”

Please. “Yeah, she was an actress in the fifties who married the Prince of Monaco—”

“—and then never worked again. Oh, and she died in a car crash, just like Princess Diana. So, hmmm, what would you choose?”

We reached the expansive living room, and Floressa flopped onto the couch and pushed a button on a large remote built into the wall. “Javier, I want a beet salad. And Elsa wants…?”

“A grilled cheese,” I said.

“Make that, two beet salads.” Floressa shook a finger at me. “You’re supposed to be on that root diet I sent you.”

“I turn fourteen tomorrow. You shouldn’t do a crazy diet like that at fourteen. Or ever.”

“You’re only fourteen? What are they doing sending me a little kid?”

“I’m only two years younger than you. And this little kid saved your butt back in Tharma.”

“You have some spunk.” She tapped her chin. “I can’t decide if I like that.”

I lowered my voice. “So you’re really going to destroy your mom’s love life because you’re worried about her job? She could never work again and be fine, moneywise.”

“Oh, not just her job. Mine, too. I don’t have an Academy Award to lean on. Do you know how much effort it takes to be famous just for being famous? I have to be at every party, take every opportunity I can. Sure, after the wedding, there’ll be some interviews about Princess Floressa, but then that’ll get old and I’ll be left living on some remote island that doesn’t even have a Gucci store. No way.”

“But if they’re in love and happy—”

She held out a hand. “I don’t care. They were both fine before they hooked up again. It’s just going to mess up my life. I mean, yes, let them have the party, because that’s great press, but then you need to do something really big that’s going to end their whole relationship. That night, because then Elsa gets back and she’ll go into the let’s-useour-influence-to-save-the-world junk that she and Karl are into. Blah.”

Javier came out wearing a white chef’s hat. He lifted the domed lid with great ceremony and unveiled our beet salads. Floressa tucked her legs underneath her on the couch and proceeded to inhale her food. The beet juice stained her lips. I stared at her in disgust until she finally paused her shoveling to say, “What?”

I couldn’t believe this girl. How could I in good conscience take this job? She wanted me to impact her life at the risk of destroying others. I couldn’t do that. I knew her mom, Gina. I liked Gina. When I’d last subbed for Floressa, I’d seen how upset Gina was when she got into a fight with King Aung, and now they were happy. Floressa’s half sister was happy. Why couldn’t Floressa just go with it? Not to mention, if anything went wrong, Elsa would be Floressa’s scapegoat. Real Elsa, not me. This went against everything I stood for as a sub. I pushed the plate of beets away and stood.

“Sorry, Floressa, but I’m not your girl. I’m not going to help you ruin your mom’s wedding.”

Floressa’s fork froze midway to her mouth. “But you have to. I’m paying you.”

“Keep your money.”

“But you are the only one who understands what I’m going through.”

I patted my pocket for my manual. I would summon my bubble and go tell Meredith, or I guess Genevieve, why I couldn’t do this job. I didn’t know what happened when you refused to do a gig, but everyone had limits, and Floressa had crossed mine. “You couldn’t pay me enough to ruin someone’s life.”

“I’ll pay you double.” She set her fork down and kneeled down on the carpet in front of me. “And you’re not ruining their life. Just their wedding.”

“No.” I had no idea what Floressa paid, but I could only guess that I made a lot of dough at Level Three, probably more than my dad made. Still not enough to sell my integrity.

“Triple?”

“Floressa? Where are you?” A voice, a very familiar voice, called from the front entryway.

“It’s Bear-Bear.” Floressa jumped up and glanced wildly around the room. “Don’t tell him about my plan. He’ll say it’s a bad idea.”

“That’s because it
is
a bad idea.”

Floressa crossed her arms over her chest. “Look, are you going to do this or not? Because if you don’t, I’ll give you a really bad PPT.”

Princess Progress Report. “It’s PPR.” And what did I care about that? Floressa could say I did the best job ever and it wouldn’t erase the trouble I’d get into if I got caught searching for Caprice.

“Whatever. I’ll make it so you can’t sub anymore.”

“Flossie?” Barrett was getting closer.

I let out a frustrated grunt. I didn’t care so much about my future with Façade, but I did need to stay on this job. Reed and I were never going to get another opportunity like this. So I looked Floressa straight in the eye and…bluffed. “Destroying the wedding would go against, er, royal confidentiality agreements to harm another royal. And there’s another rule that says I can’t defile Elsa’s reputation. The agency won’t allow it. If they found out what you’re doing, they wouldn’t send you another sub. Not ever. You’d lose me as a Match, too.”

Floressa’s face fell. “Really?”

“Really.” I tried to keep the relief out of my voice. “Sorry. But I can totally help you with your dress and getting all your guests into the wedding. And that’ll give you time to reconsider doing anything drastic.”

“Oh.” Floressa blew out an exasperated breath. “Fine. Stay. Stupid agency rules.”

“Right.” And I
never
break agency rules.

“Guess I’ll just have to ruin the wedding myself,” she said thoughtfully. “And find a way for you to accidentally help, so I can blame you later. Yeah, that’ll work.”

“What? No, I won’t—”

Barrett came barreling into the room. “There you are!” He rushed over to Floressa and swept her into his arms.

She squealed. “Don’t kiss me. I have beet breath.”

“I love beets.” Barrett leaned in to give Floressa a passionate and uncomfortably long kiss. When they came up for air, he grinned at me and said, “Hey there, Elsa. I could give you a kiss, too. You know, from my brother.”

Floressa pinched his arm. “Don’t even joke. Besides, if she likes Karl, she obviously wouldn’t like you. You’re too handsome.”

“Smart girl.” Barrett kissed her forehead. “Man, it’s the perfect day for biking. You want to go for a ride?”

“I already did my hair.” Floressa nestled into Barrett.

“What about you, Elsa? I bet you don’t ride many motorcycles in Metzahg.”

I looked away and blushed, just like Elsa would. “I’m fine.”

“She can’t go on a motorcycle with you!” Floressa’s voice rose. “She’d have to hug you and get close. No girl gets near my man.”

“Get your claws back.” Barrett’s eyes crinkled. “Besides,

Elsa’s been in love with Karl since they were two. She’s practically my sister. One quick spin? The hills here are awesome.”

“No, seriously, I’m good.”

Barrett finally made eye contact with me. “Really fast. I’ll show you some evergreen trees in the area.”

EVERGREEN. Gah, I was an idiot. This wasn’t Barrett, this was Reed, and he’d found a perfect excuse for us to be alone to talk. He’d been so in character, so Barrett, I hadn’t realized that this was a Sproutville boy in front of me. The boy I kind of had a crush on, who had his arm around one of the most gorgeous model/actress/heiress/princesses in the world. He’d kissed her, too, and not a dunk tank or stage kiss. That was major beet action. “Oh. Wow. I really love evergreen trees. I guess I could, even if you aren’t Karl.”

Floressa made a pouty face. “Okay, take her. We just had a big-girl talk anyway, and she probably needs some time to think about why she’s here. Right, Elsa?”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do!” Floressa tapped me on the head. “Don’t you get it? I get what I want, one way or the other. So you might as well make it easy for us both.”

“Floressa—”

“Now, go look at those stupid trees with my boyfriend so he’ll be happy. And don’t go thinking you can switch princes.
That
Fenmar boy is mine.”

Barrett was already walking to the front door. We followed him outside, and there on the circular driveway was a black motorcycle. I didn’t know a thing about motorcycles, but it looked expensive. Barrett/Reed handed me a pink helmet and threw his leg over the side of the bike. I hesitated. I knew this was a great opportunity for us, but my safety-scared father would die if he knew I was getting on one of these things. I shot Floressa a look. She was giggling.

“Never mind. She’s scared. I totally want to see this.”

Barrett revved up the engine. “See you in fifteen minutes, babe. And have the chef take those nasty beet salads away and make us some real food. Something with meat. You’re too skinny.”

Floressa stuck her tongue out at Barrett. I squeezed in behind him and wrapped my arms loosely around him “You’re going to need to hold on tighter than that,” he said. I could barely hear him over the roar of the motorcycle. “Just pretend we’re on my tandem bike touring Sproutville.”

It was the perfect thing to say. This was exactly what I needed to do and where I needed to be. I squeezed Reed harder, and we were off.

Floressa blew a kiss from the driveway. Reed waved, then turned the corner. “There’s a park a few blocks away,” he said. “Let’s go there and it’ll give us some time to talk.”

“Yeah, I have news,” I said.

“So do I.” Reed leaned into the right turn as we drove uphill. “I might have found our lost sub.”

A few well-dressed kids toddled through the sandbox while their nannies fed them organic snacks. Reed and I sat on the swing set, a seat apart from each other, in case a roving paparazzo spotted two royals together who were actually
together
with other people.

Reed managed to keep Barrett’s usual bored expression on his face as he shared the details. “So I looked online and hired a detective to find all the women named Caprice in Hollywood who are also actresses.”

“Seriously? We’ve only been here for an hour or so.”

“I’m not the one babysitting Floressa. It was easy. I also figured Caprice needed to be between twenty-five and forty-five if she subbed when Meredith was a Watcher. And Meredith said the sub was Italian, right?”

“Yeah, Caprice left Italy after Façade kicked her out. Not that she remembers that.”

“Well, we found four girls named Caprice who fit that description.”

“That’s awesome!” I jumped off the swing. “Let’s go visit them now.”

Reed shook his head. “They live all over the valley—we wouldn’t have time to see one. Besides, Façade’s going to get suspicious if we’re running around meeting a bunch of girls with the same name. We have to get them together somehow.”

A kid kicked a ball by us, and his nanny came over to retrieve it. She had a magazine in her hand. I’d bought the same copy. Barrett was on the cover with Floressa. She bent over, picked up the ball, and when she looked up at Barrett, froze. “You’re a prince,” she squeaked.

Reed grinned. “Guilty.”

“Did you buy a home here? Oh my gosh, my employer loves you.”

“Just visiting.”

“Can you sign my magazine?”

Reed patted his leather jacket for a pen. “Sure.” He scribbled his name across the top. I had no idea what Barrett’s signature really looked like. That was a good thing for a Match to practice.

He handed the magazine back to her and she clutched it to her chest. “This so beats meeting that soap opera star last week. Everyone will die of jealousy when they hear I met a prince!” She ran over to the other nannies, who looked up sharply at Barrett and me.

“Guess we should go,” he grumbled.

“Hey, wait. Think about what she just said.”

“That I’m a prince. Yeah.”

“No, bringing the Caprices together.” I smacked my leg. “I’m supposed to add people to the wedding guest list for Floressa. So I’ll add all these Caprices too. It’s a party hosted by an Academy Award winner. A struggling actress would kill for that invite.”

“Brilliant.”

I gave a mock curtsy. “I try.”

“I can’t believe Floressa put you in charge of something like guest-list additions.”

“It gets worse,” I lowered my voice. “She wants me to ruin the wedding.”

Reed’s eyes bugged. “You’re kidding. Why would she want you to do that?”

“Because she doesn’t want to go live in Tharma, among other reasons.”