“He’s going to be planning my wedding as well.”
“Oh, wow.” So much was going on below the surface without her.
“How do you feel about surface life?”
“Conflicted,” Iris admitted.
Because, yes, there were many things she missed about the ocean, but she had fallen in love with just as many things about the surface.
It was to the point that she was considering even staying after the engagement broke off.
Without her mother’s good graces, she would need to find her own way. She could do like all the other surface-dwellers did: get a job, an apartment, build a life. One free of any sort of royal or political responsibilities.
“What is it, Iris?” Juna asked. Her voice was gentler than Iris had ever heard it.
“What do you mean?”
“You seem … unhappy.”
“I’m conflicted,” Iris repeated.
“About your engagement? Or your fiancé?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Has he not been good to you?”
“No. No, Finn has always been thoughtful and kind.”
“And yet?”
“There is a part of him that I have begun to really like. But the other part of him, not so much. And I’m beginning to worry that the other part of him is bigger than the part I have grown fond of.”
Juna gave that the usual amount of careful considering Iris knew her for, before speaking. “I know it’s hard to see while in the thick of something, but it really hasn’t been very long. If there are parts of him you’ve come to like, don’t you think that more time would make you like him even more?”
“I don’t have a lot of time. The wedding is being planned as we speak.”
In fact, Arden had been texting her pictures of various options for their reception dinner. She needed to pick one so the two of them could go and do a tasting menu in the next few days.
“I’m sure you can find time to carve out for just the two of you. I’m sure Finn is a busy man, but surely his campaign manager can give him an evening off here or there.”
“The power is in Finn’s hands. It’s his choice to go to all these events.”
“Perhaps. But have you expressed your desire to havemore alone time with him?” Iris’s answer was her silence. “Maybe start there,” Juna suggested. “It might help you make up your mind once and for all.”
“You’re right,” Iris agreed. If she wanted to make an informed decision, she needed more than some fantastic sex and one interview where they vibed. “Thanks, Juna.”
“Of course. I just want you to be happy, Iris. I know you’re worried about Mother’s opinion, but …”
“But?”
“But you deserve to find your own happily ever after. With someone you like all the time.”
With that, they ended their call. Iris sucked in a deep breath and made her way back to the building, her big sister’s words still swirling around in her head.
“Oh, good,” she said when she entered the apartment to find Finn standing at the kitchen counter. “I was hoping I would run into you.”
“You were?” Finn asked, his tone hopeful.
