Chapter 16
“So, uh… how much trouble exactly are we going to be in when we get back?” Michael asked cautiously. They were only about twenty minutes from Sydney’s house and had been fairly silent for previous hour of driving. The closer they got to Sydney’s house, the more Michael’s anxiety grew. In his mind, he had terrible scenarios of large men with machine guns ready to arrest him on spot the moment he and Sydney drove onto her father’s property.
“Oh, it’ll be fine… I doubt anyone even noticed we were gone. Besides, since technically I was the one who drove away yesterday, you’re completely not at fault. I mean, we can just pretend I held you hostage,” Sydney said with a slight shrug.
“Yeah, that’s likely,” Michael rolled his eyes.
“Could be,” she smiled. “Or we could say that I was suicidal and you stayed by me all night long to make sure I didn’t throw myself over the edge of a cliff from being forced to marry against my will.”
“Is… that what happened yesterday?” Michael asked cautiously.
Sydney nodded. “My father told me that I have to be married by the time I’m twenty-five or he’s going to pick my husband for me. And I mean… who knows I might be married by then, but he shouldn’t be so forceful about it, you know?”
Michael sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said sympathetically.
“’sokay,” she mumbled, “I’ll just deal with it.” Michael reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She squeezed his hand back before asking cautiously, “So… what’s going on here…you know, with us? I mean, I know we can’t date in the traditional sense but…I’d really like to date you as much as possible.”
“I’d like that too,” he smiled at her. She gave him a large smile before kissing the back of his hand gently and then releasing it so he could use both hands to drive once more.
Luckily, Sydney had been right and, when they arrived home, it seemed that no one even noticed they were gone. Peter was in the garage when they parked the car and he gave them a suspicious look, but said nothing. He had seen them drive away the previous evening, so he was well aware that Sydney was in control of the situation, so there was not much he could say. After giving Michael a quick kiss, Sydney raced up to her room to shower and change out of Jess’s borrowed clothes. As she was rummaging through her very large closet trying to find something to wear, a brilliant idea crossed her mind and she grabbed the bag she was going to send with Michael that contained Jess’s clothes.
“What the hell is this?” Michael asked when Sydney handed him a rather large and heavy bag with a grin on her face.
“It’s for your sister; I’m returning her clothes,” Sydney explained simply.
“Did they grow when you took them off?” Michael asked with confusion. He was utterly confused how the heavy bag in his hand could possibly contain only a sweater and a pair of jeans.
“No,” Sydney laughed, “I put a bunch more stuff in there. I mean… I dunno, I have so much stuff and I figured it’d be fun for her to wear. They should fit her and if they don’t, I’m sure they’ll fit some of her friends; tell her I don’t want them back.”
“You’re giving my sister clothes? You realize now she will worship the ground you walk on,” Michael told her seriously. Sydney laughed and shrugged her shoulders. She then bid Michael goodbye and went back to her room, where a stylist was waiting to fix her hair. That evening she was to be attending a fancy gala with her father to benefit something she didn’t remember. She attended so many different events for so many different causes it was difficult to keep track of them all. She felt bad about that, but, frankly, it was just something she was not interested it. She liked the few charities she liked and the rest…well, they were just there.
Part of the reason Sydney disliked the events were they seemed to be so pointless. It was merely a room full of people who had paid a great deal of money so that they could eat dinner in the same room as the princess, prince, or sometimes both of them as in the case of that evening. Sydney was forced to greet them all and she hated it mainly because it was all so artificial. Those people weren’t interested in getting to know her on a personal level; all they wanted was a story to tell about how they’d met the princess.
“Sydney, you look lovely this evening,” her father greeted her when she met him at the bottom of the stairs to their house.
“Thank you,” she said shortly before walking past him.
“Sydney wait! We weren’t able to finish our discussion yesterday and-”
“Dad, please, stop. Let’s just… not talk about it now, okay? I know your feelings on the subject, you know mine. Let’s just let things be for now and we’ll discuss it at a later date, okay? Who knows, I might find a husband before then and we won’t even have a problem, alright?”
“Alright, Sydney,” her father sighed in agreement.
Sydney gave him a soft smile before walking out to their car which, unfortunately, was not driven by Michael. The funny part was that, when Sydney told her father she might find a husband before her twenty-fifth birthday, the picture she had in her mind was of Michael. This, of course, was entirely presumptuous considering they had really only known each other for five months and they had only been dating for twenty-four hours. Still, the concept was not entirely incomprehensible to her. After all, she was closer to Michael than she had ever been to anyone in her life ever. She looked forward to seeing him daily and even more so now that they were officially a couple. She looked forward to getting to know him on a deeper level and hope that, since they had officially become boyfriend and girlfriend, she would be able to do that.