“Yes, we’re alone now.”
“Children behave, that’s what they’ll say when we’re together,” I say.
“Wait a minute. He said he shut the camera off,” I mutter, my heart pounding a little in my chest. A minute later, I can hear myself belting out a Tiffany song completely off-key. I let out a gasp. “Dear God, no.”
I grab my phone and dial Dylan’s number, tapping my foot on the carpet while I wait for her to pick up. I get her voicemail and hang up, then call one of the VP’s of Unscripted at ABN, Kira Taylor. No answer.
In the background, I can hear myself admitting to having yucky feet. “Why is this being filmed?”
I dial Will’s number, knowing it’s useless. I wait until the beep and leave a message, “Hey, babe, listen. Slight problem with the show. I guess you forgot to shut the audio off because I just heard us singing ‘I Think We’re Alone Now,’ which happenedafteryou said you were shutting the camera off. Call me,” I say, trying to sound breezy.
“I’m not ready to sleep just yet. I want to stare at this until I know I’ll never forget it.”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” he asks. “People go their whole lives without seeing the earth and the sky for what they really are. They just stay stuck in their boxes from the moment they are born until they die.”
“I’ve spent my entire life in a box. A very grand, luxurious, safe box,” I say.
“Is that why you came, Arabella? Because you can’t stand being confined anymore?”
“I needed to get out. I felt like… I might…”
“Die if you didn’t?”
“I know it sounds horribly ungrateful. For someone like me to feel any sort of discontentment when my life is one of incredible privilege.”
“Not to me, it doesn’t. To me, your life sounds really sad.”
“I don’t know if it’s sad,” I say. “But it comes with a list of dos and don’ts that could fill up that whole night sky.”
“How did you convince them to let you do this?”
“I didn’t. I approached Kira Taylor in private, then I had to sneak out of the palace without my security following me.”
“Are you serious?”
“My grandmother plays poker once a month with the guys who work in the garage. One of them was into her for a lot of money, so I was able to offer him a nice wad of cash to hide me in the boot of his car and take me straight to the airport.”
“Okay, can I just say how impressed I am?”
“You may,” I say in a regal tone.
Oh no, why the regal tone again? People are going to think I’m serious.
Dylan comes back on. “You may,” she says, imitating me. “Must be nice to have handsome men offer to wash your feet. Clearly, based on her tone, she’s grown to expect that kind of service. Anyway, that’s it for our show tonight. Stay tuned as Nigel Woods and Hannah Gable, of Will’s Wild Fangirls fame, join me on the couch to dissect tonight’s episode. And there is a lot to talk about!”
Text to Will:Call me please. Issue with the editing or something. I need to talk to you now.
I stand and start pacing the room, then walk over to the bar and pour myself a glass of red wine. “He wouldn’t have secretly filmed me, right Dex?”
I down the drink and pace some more, my mind racing. I’m about to help myself to another drink when the door opens. Arthur and Tessa walk in, her in a lovely black gown and him in a tux.
Arthur looks at my drink. “You do know you’re babysitting the future queen?”
Tessa glares at him. “And her brother.”
I ignore the exchange and launch into an incoherent explanation of what happened, right from the start of the episode to Will taking such good care of me to our horrible singing. The words spill out non-stop and I don’t even take a breath until after I ask, “It must have been an accident, right? I mean, if he did secretly video me, he really should have told me by now, shouldn’t he have?”
In the background, Nigel Wood is saying, “And is it me, or did that conversation sound a lot like Arabella was trying to get Will to feel sorry for her? I mean, the whole bit about living in a luxury box? Come on, people!”
