Chapter 29
“Sydney, I’d like you to meet someone,” her father said with a grin. He placed his hand on the small of his daughter’s back and led her towards their dining room. Sydney knew from the start that this was merely another set up of his, but she also noted that her father seemed to be almost giddy. He was far more excited about this set up than all the others and all it took was one look at her dinner guest to see why.
“Sydney, this is Julian; Julian, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Sydney,” Jack introduced them.
The tall, blonde haired, blue-eyed man gave a courteous bow before picking up Sydney’s hand and kissing it gently. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Your Highness. Your father has only told me the best things about you.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, Julian,” Sydney said with a slight giggle as he kissed her knuckles once more. If there had been a contest between the dozens of men her father had introduced her to over the previous year, Julian would have won with ease in the ‘best looking’ category. Most of the dates her father set her up on were decent looking, a few were hideous, a few were slightly better than decent looking, but in Sydney’s opinion, Julian was gorgeous. Not quite as gorgeous as Michael, of course, but he was easily a close second. That is, if one liked the blonde haired, blue eyed, pretty boy type.
“Shall we eat then?” Jack grinned. He gestured towards the table and the three of them approached it. Julian made sure to pull Sydney’s chair out for her before sitting across from her in his designated seat.
“So, Julian, what is it that you do?” Sydney asked as she picked up the appropriate fork to begin the salad course of their meal.
“I am a business man, Princess. Nothing too interesting I’m afraid. Merely business,” he told her.
“He’s just being modest,” her father chimed in. “He’s the best businessman in the city – maybe even the country!”
Julian laughed softly. “That’s awfully kind of you, sir, but I highly doubt that’s true.”
“Of course it is,” Jack said, smiling at his daughter. She smiled softly back.
Sydney had to admit that, not only was Julian winning in the best looking and most human-like categories of all her dates, he also won hands down for ‘best date.’ At no point during their meal did Sydney feel the urge to throw her plate across the table at him. In fact, at one point she was actually laughing. Of course, that was mostly at the sad attempt at being humorous her father made, but still, it was laughter. At the end of their meal, Sydney found out that Julian would actually be staying with them in their house for a while, at her father’s invitation.
“So what did you think?” her father asked in an almost excited manner when Julian had gone upstairs to get settled in his new room.
“He’s very nice, Dad,” Sydney said, being careful not to say anything that would cause her father to be too overzealous about her complete lack of relationship with Julian.
“Good; he’ll be your date to the Robertson’s party tomorrow night,” Jack said before walking off, leaving Sydney’s jaw agape. Sure, she liked Julian as a person, but having him as a date was quite another story, especially with Michael being the one to drive them to their ‘date’.
~*~
“Hey babe, how’d your dinner go tonight? Did you dump your salad on him or the main course,” Michael asked with amusement that night when they were talking on the phone.
“Actually, neither,” she laughed slightly.
“Whoa, you made it all the way to dessert?! Or did you guys have soup tonight?”
“No, no, Julian made it through without being covered in food. I can actually be a good hostess once in a while, you know,” she sighed.
“Julian? Sounds like an old dude with a large white mustache,” Michael laughed.
“Quite the opposite, in fact. He’s actually relatively normal. Which is definitely a good thing since Dad’s making me go to the Robertson’s party tomorrow night with him…”
“The Robertson’s party? Isn’t that supposed to be the social event of the season?” he said in a dramatic, haughty tone.
“I guess,” Sydney laughed. “It’s no big deal – just appeases dad, you know.”
“Oh I know, it just means I can’t hit on you in the car on the way over,” he said with amusement.
“You’re awful and I’m going now. I love you.”
“Love you too,” he sighed before the two of them hung up.
~*~
“Sydney, you are looking stunning as always,” Julian said when Sydney descended the stairs and walked into the foyer where he was waiting for her to be ready to leave. Her father wasn’t attending the party with them, so they would be going alone. Sydney smiled softly at him, thanked him and then took the arm he’d extended to her before following him out of the house.
Outside, Michael was waiting with the door to their SUV open. Julian helped Sydney inside before ducking inside himself. Michael shut the door behind them and then climbed up into the driver’s seat. “You know,” Julian began in his suave tone, “I’ve never been to one of these parties before. What are they like?”
“Oh, they’re loads of fun,” Sydney said in a convincing tone. Convincing to Julian, of course, since her tone caused a laugh muffled as a cough from Michael.
“Really?”
“Absolutely not,” Sydney smiled at him. “They’re terribly boring. Although, I must say, the Robertson’s parties aren’t as boring – especially when Mr. Robinson starts getting drunk and stumbling all over the place.”
“Wonderful,” Julian said with a notable eye roll.
When they arrived at the Robertson’s, Julian slid out of the car first before helping Sydney out. As she walked towards the entrance to the Robertson’s house, she noted the slightly miffed look on Michael’s face; helping her out of the car was usually
his job.
Sydney had to admit, with Julian as her companion, the party wasn’t nearly as insufferable as usual. Typically, she attended parties alone or with her father, which left no one to converse with when she was sitting alone at a table in the corner of the room, sipping on the one single flute of champagne she allowed herself. If she didn’t set a just one rule, she was liable to drink an entire bottle just to entertain herself, which wouldn’t have boded well for her in any situation. With Julian, though, she was able to talk to him and find out more about him, the
businessman without her father hovering over her and asking his own questions before she could get a word in edgewise.
“Sydney, I had a wonderful time this evening,” Julian said as he was helping her out of the car.
“Thanks, so did I….oh, you know what? I forgot my purse in the car. Go on up. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she lied quickly to him. Once she saw him enter the house she ran back to the garage where Michael was parking their car. “Hey stranger, need a place to crash for the night?” she asked with a wicked grin while hovering in the garage door.
“You sure
Julian won’t mind?” Michael muttered.
“Please Michael. I love you, remember? Don’t get all jealous on me now,” she told him.
“I’m not jealous,” he defended quickly.
“Suuuure,” Sydney rolled her eyes. Michael still looked slightly pouty so Sydney walked over to him and gave him a long kiss before taking his hand and pulling him towards the house.