“I was thinking, ‘Wow, what a heartless friend she is, abandoning me like this,’ and next thing I know, you’re my brother’s fiancée! I just had to come over!”
Ohhh no.
I’d been so busy lately that I’d completely forgotten about her. And Leticia, now the crown princess, had come knocking at the Dorman residence, not bothering to hide her displeasure. Also, wearing a dress completely unfit for her station—it would have better suited a simple town girl instead.
She’d definitely sneaked out. She’d definitely escaped. Again.
A while back, during one of my visits to the palace, her handmaiden Maria had complained that Leticia, despite being married, was still in the habit of practicing her escape techniques daily. And, of course, poor Maria was the one most affected—and not only by that either. Apparently, the crown princess was quite the prolific prankster as well. This thrilling routine had the poor handmaiden wanting to resign.
As Leticia strode confidently through the house, being well acquainted with the place, I had to rush to follow her. She reached the living room, then boorishly plopped onto the couch, gesturing with her eyes for me to sit across from her.
Which I did, dejectedly.
“So,” she said. “What’s going on?”
What was going on? What was going on, indeed?
I was too deep in debt, so your brother invited me to a party and asked me not only to pretend to be his fiancée, but also to act as his maid, in exchange for paying it all off.
It sounded surreal, put into words like that.
“No one told me you were getting this cozy with my brother!” Leticia said.
True. No one had told her. And that was because we were not, in fact, “getting this cozy.” Still, I couldn’t tell whether or not I should say this to her. Maybe Nadir wanted to deceive even his own sister. I regretted not having asked him earlier.
Leticia had to have heard about this somewhere. Perhaps it was because people had been talking about that incident with Abel. It must’ve been a massive deal to reach the crown princess’s ears. Hopefully the details of what I’d shouted hadn’t made it that far. Surely people would try to keep such salacious details from her, since she was a princess and all. Right? Please? No, really. Please.
Vexed, Leticia brought both hands to her face. “I can’t believe you kept this from your own friend!”
“I-I didn’t mean to deceive you or anything,” I tried to explain, sounding more contrite than intended. “I’ve simply been busy and haven’t had time to talk...”
It was true that I’d been busy.
Leticia lifted her face, and her expression of sorrow turned into one of shock as she gasped. “Wait. Did you tell your other friends?!” she said. “How cruel! You know you and Maria are my only friends!”
Why was she suddenly revealing her depressing social circle to me? Although, to be fair, mine was similarly sad.
“No,” I replied. “No one wants to be friends with someone as debt-ridden as me. Only you, Leticia.”
Her face instantly lit up. She certainly made no effort to hide her emotions. “Right, yes! You don’t seem like the type to have a lot of friends anyway!”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?!” I snapped. How rude!
Unfazed, Leticia was once again in high spirits, and asked Ben for tea. “He’s still so inefficient,” she remarked. “A guest comes in and he doesn’t even have tea ready!”
“You can’t make unreasonable demands of people when you drop in unannounced,” I retorted.
To be fair, however, Ben had just been standing there helplessly instead of doing his job and preparing tea. Her criticism was valid. But then, Ben was practically a pet, so it didn’t matter.
“So, I’ve been wondering,” Leticia began, making me freeze in place. “What’s with that outfit?”
Ah. That would be the question to ask, wouldn’t it?
It was only a matter of time before she brought it up. In her shoes, I would definitely have asked too. There was no way I wouldn’t’ve. It was really intriguing, after all—her friend was dressed as a maid!
And, yes, I was wearing my maid’s uniform. Ever since becoming Nadir’s fake fiancée and subsequently his maid, I’d been spending my days in this outfit. But to Leticia, who didn’t know about our arrangement, this had to be at the very least curious.
“Wait...” she said, eyeing me suspiciously. “Does my brother have a fetish?”
“Do I have a what, now? Don’t be absurd.”
Oh, thank goodness. Nadir was home. And Abel was with him, for some reason.
“I mean, look at this! It was clearly made for Brie to wear!” Leticia protested. “You must’ve had it made in advance, or it wouldn’t fit so perfectly!”
I’d been wondering about that too. This maid outfit was exactly my size. My bust was larger than average, so I couldn’t wear off-the-rack clothing. It was hard to believe this outfit just happened to fit just right.
Nadir brought a hand to his mouth and pondered this for a moment before saying, “We’d been discussing the possibility of her employment for some time.”
Since he hadn’t mentioned our situation at all, I caught on that Nadir didn’t want Leticia to know about it, and decided to play along for the time being.
“That’s right,” I said. “That’s why he knew my size in advance and got this custom made.”
Leticia still wasn’t buying it. “Huh... But the uniforms the other maids working here are wearing don’t have the lace yours has. He’s clearly partial to you.”
“You’re reading between the lines when there’s nothing there,” Nadir rebutted a little too quickly. His sister looked even less convinced.
She was right. My uniform was a little different from the others. Although the design was essentially unchanged, the hem on mine did have a hint of lace, and the shape of the buttons was different.
Now she had me wondering if this was a fetish of Nadir’s. Hmm. Come to think of it, he’d put an awful lot of effort into getting me dolled up for that party where I’d met Abel.
“Nadir!” I exclaimed, clapping my hands together before declaring confidently, “You’re a fashionista!”
For some reason, both siblings gave me incredulous looks.
“Yes,” Nadir agreed. “That must be it.”
“Well,” Leticia said, “that settles it, then.”
“Why are both of you acting so dismissively all of a sudden?!” And they’d been at odds until moments ago too! Now they were just in agreement, nodding at one another?!
“I get the gist of it now,” Leticia mused. “It must be rough on my brother.”
“On Nadir?!” I snapped.
“I mean, you know.”
I did not! I did not know at all!
In spite of my bafflement, the two of them seemed to have reached a perfect understanding. Must’ve been a sibling thing.
Abel patted me on the shoulder as I sat there in astonishment. “Lady Brianna, I’m your friend too!” Had he been waiting to say that this entire time? Still, I appreciated the sentiment.
Before I could express that appreciation, however, Leticia cut in. “I’m her best friend, though! Right?!”
At the word “right,” she gripped my hand, and I inadvertently nodded a few times.
Behind us, Nadir sighed. “We can’t have her escaping like this,” he said. “We should set a schedule for you to visit Leticia in the future.”
I could agree to that.