While I was thinking, there was a knock at the door, and it was the Princess.

“Come in,” I said.

“Tell me everything!” Princes Runi said.

“There’s nothing to tell,” I responded.

“Come-on,” Princess Runi said. “I saw Dom come in here and leave about 30 minutes later. Plus, I saw the chemistry you two have, it made you spill tea on yourself.”

“Nothing happened, seriously,” I said. “We just spoke, or rather, he apologised most of the time.”

“Dom apologised more than once?” Princess Runi asked. “He must have been really nervous. Wow, Pano, you’re blushing, I’m so happy for you. ”

“No, I’m not,” I said, even though I was blushing.

**********

In the weeks that followed, I played hard to get until it become official. I finally had my first real lover, and it was long overdue. I was too used to crushing on guys who didn’t feel the same way, and it became the best month of my life.

Dom made me feel so alive, and sneaking around made it even more fun. Princess Runi also made it easy because she would cover for me. I also helped her reunite with her lover. So we both had lovers to remind us who we were, especially with the wedding planning driving everyone insane.

A week before the big day, I invited Dom to the lake house. It was his day off, and I knew it was going to be difficult to sneak around during the coming week. When he got there, we had a lovely evening, and everything went very well. I had prepared a candle lit dinner for us.

“This is beautiful, the last time someone did something like this for me he broke my heart,” Dom said, taking a sip of the semi-sweet red wine.

“I just wanted to show you how much I appreciate you,” I responded.

“Look, Pano, your wedding is next week, and if you really love me, you’ll not marry her,” Dom said. “Even if it’s for show.”

“Dom, we spoke about this,” I responded. “I really have no choice here. It’s the throne, and if I’m ever going to be King, I need to marry her. She knows about u …”

“I don’t care if she does,” Dom said, cutting me off. “If you go through with the wedding, it’ll mean you’re embarrassed by us, what we’ve built, and yourself.”

“Are you asking me to choose between you and my family?” I asked.

“I don’t know, what do you think?” Dom responded.

“You know I can’t do that, it’s not that simple,” I said.

“Well, I guess you’ve made a decision,” Dom said, standing up and showing himself to the exit.

“Dom!’ I screamed after him.

Dom never responded, he just left me sitting alone, drowning in my sorrows. At first I was in denial, and I thought he was going to walk back and apologise. But, the seconds become minutes and minutes, and the minutes became hours. That was when I realised he was not coming back, and my heart shattered. I then stood up to go to bed, and I felt weak in the knees. The next thing I knew, I was on my knees. I was in tears, and my whole world was crashing down on me.

***

Tell us: What do you think about the ultimatum that Dom gave to Prince Pano?