10. Reminiscing.

[Luke]
"I agreed with your so-called privacy for as long as you wanted because you told me that the unveiling would be huge, how much longer do you wish to keep hiding your face." The king asked me angrily.
"The more they wait, the more anticipation, the more build-up then the more attention when I finally decide to show my face," I said hoping that I could convince the King.
He had been bugging me to reveal my face to the press ever since the charity gala and I knew why, he wanted to announce my relationship with Megan to the world and I didn't want that to happen.
It wasn't like I had any relationship with Megan.
Funny story, I once many years ago referred to Megan as a very good friend and maybe she was my best friend before I became friends with Liam.
But everything changed when we both became teenagers, she started to demand that I hold her hand in public and peck her cheeks when everyone was looking. Then it graduated to stealing kisses from me, in fact, she had stolen my first kiss and it was not something I had gotten over easily.
She was the only reason I was glad I'd left for America.
For many years after I left Denmark she made me resent women and I stayed clear of them. I even thought I would be into guys and I explored my sexuality with a friend I met in college but I realized that I wasn't.
Since then I just decided to go with the college flow, nobody really dated in college, they just hooked up and that was what I'd done till I returned back to Denmark.
No woman had been able to affect me like Claire did and that was why I was not willing to give what we had up because it was evident that I affected her too.
I just had to get over the fact that she wasn't special, she was just like every other woman.
She'd cling unto a man like Megan did and she'd use her body to get favors like Crystal did.
"I guess your plan would work, I'll give you the time but you should consider going public soon, you need to start acting like the future King of Denmark." He said and dismissed me from the study.
I didn't really take whatever the King usually said to me to mind, but something he said earlier stuck and I couldn't get it out of my head.
I was the future King of Denmark.
If I couldn't handle life as a Prince, how would I be able to handle being King of Denmark?
The King was getting older, but not old enough to retire so I guessed I still had plenty of time on my hands, I was the only child of the King so if I decided not to rule, the throne would be passed down to my uncle.
I wasn't feeling up to doing anything after my discussion with the King so I had my assistant cancel out the rest of my schedule for the day.
I texted Liam and asked him to meet me at my favorite place in the whole world.
"Hey man, got your text." He said climbing up the old water tank.
"Hurry up dude." I laughed at him as he struggled up the stairs.
"You know that we're no longer kids right?" He groaned as he reached the last step.
"That's it, you can do it." I teased him.
I missed this place every day that I was in America.
It was a huge water tank at the far end of the palace gardens. It was no longer in use but it still stood.
When I was little, I liked to run around in the garden and most times I would ruin the flowers and mess up the rose bushes, the gardener did not like this at all and he often reported me to my mother.
To solve the issue, my mother would carry me up the water tank and we would sit on the balcony and from there I could see the flowers and admire them without ruining them.
It quickly became our spot and we even began to watch the sunset together. The older I got, the less I cared about watching the flowers and the more I cared about spending time with my mother.
Sadly, she was gone now but I always felt a little closer to her whenever I was up here.
"What's going on, tell me," Liam said as he joined me on the bench.
"What makes you think there's anything wrong, I just wanted good company," I said.
"I know you too well, brother." He said and I sighed.
"What's on your mind?"
"A lot of things," I confessed. "Coming back here is not as nice as I thought it would be."
"Is this about Megan, because if it is then I'd be glad to relieve you of that duty."
There it is again I thought, my boy, did have the hots for Megan.
"Thanks, but it's much too complicated now." I didn't know how to tell him that the King wanted me to get married to the girl he had a crush on.
"How?" He asked bewildered.
"The King wants me to show my face and you and I know why."
"He wants you to marry her, doesn't he?" He asked his features were hardened.
"I do not wish to and I won't." I deadpanned.
"Is this because of Claire?" He asked and I felt a dull ache in my chest.
"No," I said and stood up from the bench. "It's because I know you like her and I think you've got a shot with her." I wanted to say but instead, I said. "It's because I don't care for her and I could never learn to care for her, I don't want to put her through that."
That wasn't a lie either, the King might've been a shitty father, but he was a good husband, he had loved my mother till the very end and she had loved him too.
Even when he couldn't make time for me, I knew that he'd always made time for my mother.
If I married Megan, she would be trapped in a loveless marriage and I didn't want that for her. She deserved to be happy and not that fake happiness she radiated off every time, but pure happiness and that was something I couldn't give her.
"What about Claire?" He asked and I gripped the railings tightly.
"She's just like the others," I said coldly.
His question took me back to the night of the gala when she'd asked me for the picture of the Prince, after acting it out with me, she had ditched me to go find another, perhaps someone closer to the Prince than a palace guard.
I was so angry I nearly went over there to beat the sh*t out of the guy she was flirting with but Liam had come on time to take me away from there.
"I saw how you stared at her and Bernard, you like her." He said and I scowled at him.
"I don't like her, I wanted her and I still do," I whispered the last part, angry at myself for letting her make me feel this way.
"She asked me if she could get the picture of the Prince, she's just like that, no good reporter."
"She's not like Crystal and you shouldn't judge every woman based on that," Liam said but I ignored him.
If I'd been smarter, if I'd known better then I wouldn't have let Crystal under my skin and she wouldn't have almost exposed me as the Prince of Denmark in America.
I had to pay her a hundred thousand dollars to keep her mouth shut.
I remembered how desperate I was to get the money to pay her back then.
"I know better," I huffed. "We should head down," I said, my mood destroyed.
"My guys got back to me and they gave me some information about her, but since you don't want to have anything to do with her, I'll just keep it to myself," Liam said.
I groaned loudly. "I know what you're doing and it's not going to work," I told him, determined to keep quiet and not ask about the information he got.
"You know, I think she's considering getting a job at the Pierson firm."
"What!" I thundered in annoyance.
"Oh, I thought you didn't want to know anything about her."
"Not now, Liam," I warned him moving closer to him. "Tell me all you know now."
You see, I was upset because the Pierson firm was run by Bernard and if she was considering a job offer at the firm, it meant she was considering getting together with that son of a gun.
At this point, I didn't care if she was a hussy, all I cared about was that she was mine and hell would freeze over before I let another man take her away from me.