WORKING THAT CATERING job with the Terrible Trio at least meant that I’d have some safety in numbers, some company and support. My closest friends I guess, Clodagh, Rachelle, and Collette were all going to be front of house. the uniforms were sharp. Black heels, white cotton shirts, short, tight black skirts, hair held up with black velveteen grips.
Fortunately, I managed to arrange it that I’d be working in the kitchen. While they were outside mingling and probably being mauled by the champagne-soaked guests, I would be in the heat, noise, and bustle making pastries, canapes, and cupcakes.
“At least I’ll be safe in the kitchen,” I told Clodagh. “If I’d had to go out with trays, I don’t think I could have done it.”
While I was putting on my chef’s whites, the others were changing into their serving uniforms.
Green eyed Clodagh gave my arm a playful shove before she pulled back her flaming red hair. “We’ve done dozens of these things, Serena. Not in the Royal Palace, I know, but we’ve catered for celebrities, the super-rich, and visiting royalty. This will be no different.”
“But he wasn’t at any of those functions.”
“He?” Rachelle’s gray eyes peered at me over her shoulder and she studied my face. “You can only mean our royal prince prong. The crown cock.” In the uniform, her pale skin and raven black mane gave her a severe look that was very sexy, in a smoky kind of a way.
“Yes.” I blushed, “Him.” His reputation was well-known. People everywhere talked about how he was all over every female within his reach. And he had a long, long reach.
“No woman is safe in his presence,” Collette said in a dreamy voice, playing her blonde bimbo looks for devastating effect as only she could. Her eyes rolled back, “and no woman ever recovers.”
“I know why you wouldn’t feel safe around. him,” the laugh in Clodagh’s voice fizzed and sparkled. “No woman can.”
“I know you wouldn’t expect him to even look at a girl like me,” I told her.
The faraway look in Clodagh’s eyes hinted that she was playing over highlights in her mind from some scandals. Stories that were either about his impossibly huge cock, or about his debauched and dastardly amorous exploits. I was certain the second kinds of stories were all absolutely true, from start to finish.
The stories about the size of his royal weapon could have been exaggerated. But not by much. I’d been near enough to know. Close enough to feel the stiffness, in fact. the heat and the insistent pulse. And the size.
And I never wanted to be that close to him again. But I had to remind myself again that this job was not optional. Between my massive student loans and all the monthly payments that I shoveled into the bottomless hole that my poor father had been swindled into, I was going to have to win a lottery to ever get out of debt. Meanwhile, I had to run fast and non-stop just to stop myself from slipping backward.
Rachell’s hand touched my shoulder, “You’re wrong to think about yourself negatively.”
Collette nodded hard. “You’re beautiful, Serena.”
And Clodagh looked in my eyes seriously as she added, “And don’t let anyone tell you different.”
That was the word that he’d used. My eyes clouded over and I turned away before Rachelle saw it. She would misunderstand. All of them would. But I didn’t want the Terrible Trio or anyone to know about that evening.
That was going to stay as my secret. Nobody else ever needed to know. He was the man who cost me my job and ruined my life. But at least I wasn’t going to be a tidbit of public entertainment over it. I wouldn’t feed the gossip mills.
The job at the royal palace ball was not optional. When Clogagh and Rachelle introduced me to the boss of the catering firm, he said that he would offer me a whole string of high end catering gigs, all of them pretty well-paid as far as catering went. But he made it absolutely clear. Anyone who didn’t work at the ball would be at the very bottom of the list for jobs from then on.
The ball was in the royal palace. That was why I didn’t want to go. He would be bound to be there, I was sure. To get myself to be able to face it, I just kept on repeating to myself that I wouldn’t see him. Even more important, he wouldn’t see me.
The ball was a huge operation. There were more than a hundred and twenty waitresses, forty kitchen staff as well as auxiliaries. The chances of me being within a hundred feet of him once through the whole night were almost exactly nil.
But I didn’t ever really have much of a choice about whether I took the job. I couldn’t afford to lose these gigs. Before I even thought about it, the boss made it crystal clear that nobody was to get sick, nobody was taking the night off. Not that night. Nobody who wanted to stay active on the books.
And the Crown Prince had already cost me one job that I couldn’t afford to lose.
My student loans weren’t going to pay themselves off. And Daddy’s debts, well, I’d had to come to a different arrangement to straighten those out.