I take the satchel, adding it to the burden I already carry on my shoulder, including my tote bag. “Thanks.”
She cocks her head, rubbing my shoulder. “Have you eaten anything?”
I nod. “A whole pint of gelato, straight from the container.” My cheeks go pink. “And a cupcake.” I pause. “And a whole loaf of French bread with butter.”
She arches a brow. “I see. Heartbreak apparently makes you eat.”
I nod. “I couldn’t sleep again last night so I just stared at the ceiling and ate a whole block of cheese.”
She grins. “Sadness-induced insomnia coupled with a little fridge binge. Got it. Honestly, I’ve heard of worse things.”
I scrunch up my face. “My stomach hurts.”
“Come over here,” she says, marching me over to a bench and sitting me down. She sits beside me, squinting up into the bright blue sky. “Have you heard anything from him?”
Her question knocks the breath out of my lungs, so I just shake my head. She heaves a sigh.
“Stellan is quick tempered, as I’m sure you’ve found out. But he’s also fair minded. I’m sure if you called him, he would take you back in a heartbeat.”
I pucker up my face like I’m tasting something sour. “That will solve exactly nothing.”
Pippa looks at me out of the corner of an eye, pushing her cheek out with her tongue. “Can I be really blunt?”
I raise my eyebrows. “I thought you already were.”
She makes a face. “I think that this was your first fight.”
I give her my most dubious look. “We fought all the time when I first moved to Copenhagen, Pippa.”
She rolls her eyes. “That doesn’t count at all. Since you guys have been all lovey dovey, you haven’t been cross with each other. Then when you did get frustrated with each other, there was so much pressure on him to settle down… and on you to say yes to being a royal…” She wrinkles her nose. “It was a powder keg, just waiting for a match to be struck.”
I suck a deep breath in, struggling not to start crying again. “I love him, Pippa. I really do.”
Her hand lands on my knee, rubbing little comforting circles in my flesh. “I know, Mags. I know.”
“It was just an insane amount of pressure,” I admit, putting my bags down on the ground. “I wanted to say yes to him. I really did. But the timeline was all kinds of fucked up.”
“Yes,” Pippa says with a nod. “I think if you two didn’t have to face his upcoming coronation so soon…”
“God!” I cry out, looking heavenward. “That really put a rush on things. I was trying to tell him to slow down… that things were going too fast for me… but I think that he just had so much pressure from his grandmother and his family that he couldn’t hear what I was saying.”
She sighs. “You’re not going to like what I’m about to say.”
I look at her for several long beats. “What?”
“If you really love Stellan, I think you should try to reach out to him.”
“What?” My cheeks heat. “No way! No. He told me not to come back.”
She rolls her shoulders. “Call it the heat of the moment. Wouldn’t it just be tragic if he feels the same way and you never know because you’re both so damn stubborn?”
I make a disgruntled sound. “What if I were to showup at the palace and he doesn’t want to see me? That would be so embarrassing, I don’t even have the words.”
She smirks. “So you do want to try?”
“I didn’t say that!” I protest.
“Okay, but let’s just say that you decide you are willing to give it a go.” She puts up a hand to stop my complaint. “We are just brainstorming here. No harm, no foul. Yes?”
