The Princess Problem (11 page)

“Thank you.” She brushed past him as she walked by and felt herself flush at his nearness. She headed into the family room to find Tate discussing something with Willa in low tones, but when the old guy noticed her, he straightened and left the room.

Willa jumped to her feet. “Alicia. You’re here! I’m so excited to see the commercial.”

Alicia smiled. “I can’t wait to see what you think of it. May I?” She gestured toward the DVD player.

“Allow me.” Jonas moved forward and took the DVD from Alicia and started it up. They all watched the screen, Willa and Jonas expectantly, Alicia with her heart thudding painfully in her chest.

Fade in: The commercial opens with a prince in regal dress including cape, crown, and tights. He’s looking for a princess, but she has to be a real one. The prince devises a bed that will test whether a princess is real or not. He makes her a bed, then places a pea underneath it. If her delicate skin can feel the pea under the mattress, then she will, indeed, be a real princess.

Deeming the pea insufficient, he places everything he can think of-- screwdrivers, wrenches, golf clubs, his crown, a bowling ball, a polo stick—and also the kitchen sink. He stacks mattress after mattress on top to conceal all the stuff he’s putting in the bed, until the bed has grown too tall and he’s run out of mattresses. He needs one more, and uses his own, the newest Highborn Premium Select Mattress on the top. Finally satisfied, he goes looking for a real princess to test it out on.

He finds Princess Alicia sitting on a plain-looking mattress in a rose garden, bemoaning the fact that she hasn’t gotten any sleep lately. He thinks this is a good sign. She’s probably a real, and very delicate, princess. But he’ll need to test her just to be sure.

The prince approaches her. “Hey, fair maiden, do I have a mattress for thee.”

The princess is on the bed and it’s morning. She’s waking up, bright, fresh and pretty. The prince comes in looking frazzled. He didn’t sleep well. He wants to know how she slept?

“I’ve had a wonderful night’s sleep. In fact, I can’t remember ever having slept so well in my entire life.”

The prince scowls. “You’re kidding.” He shows her all the junk underneath the mattress and accuses her of being common.

The princess claims that no one, commoner or princess, should have been able to sleep with all that junk underneath the mattress. Curious, she flips back the top mattress and it is revealed to be a Highborn Premium Select Mattress.

The prince quickly realizes that his mattress is the reason she slept so well and he wants it back.

She won’t give it up. So he has to buy another one, or marry her so she’ll share it with him. Their wedding is set in the rose garden, with both Prince and Princess looking more enamored of the mattress, set off to one side, than of each other. Fade out.

As the short commercial ended, Willa smiled and clapped. “Alicia, it’s wonderful. I love it.”

Jonas stood with crossed arms against a wall, watching Alicia.

“Jonas? What did you think?” asked Willa.

He shrugged. “I like it. It’s good.”

Alicia nodded once. “I’m glad you liked it.” She took a breath and blew it out slowly. “The thing is, I actually have one more commercial for you to see.”

Willa’s brows rose. “There are two? But why? This is wonderful. I love it. It’s exactly what I’d envisioned.”

Taking another breath, Alicia dug out the second DVD and decided to let the project speak for itself since her throat was clenching, anyway.

Alicia held it out to Jonas, and he studied her closely before moving forward to take the second DVD.

Fade in: Jonas appears on camera, looking gorgeous, standing next to Alicia, and glaring at the princess bed. “It’s too high.”

Alicia, looking beautiful in her princess garb, glares back. “It’s not too high. It’s perfect. In The Princess and the Pea story there are twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. So the few I have here are not to be touched.”

“Forty in all?” Jonas snorts. “You’d have to tie them with ropes to get them to stay in place, Princess.”

“Well, be that as it may, you aren’t touching this bed.”

“Let’s test it out.” Jonas grabs her and sets her on the bed. She gasps, then settles, crossing her ankles, and setting her hands primly on her lap. She gives him a superior look. “See. I’m fine.”

He gazes up at her. “Yes, you are.” He says it like he means it and reaches up to set a hand on her leg. She slaps it away and he laughs .

She grins back at him, then looks around “What time is the prince coming?” she asks, speaking to someone off camera.

“You have a prince?” asks Jonas.

“Of course.

“What is the prince wearing?” His eyes narrow. “He’s not wearing tights, is he?”

“Yes. Why?”

Jonas shakes his head. “You sold me on a girl being a good selling point for mattresses. A guy’s going to feel good about buying a mattress that has a pretty girl spread out on it. But a guy in tights? What’s wrong with jeans?”

Alicia shrugs. “A guy in jeans isn’t going to say, ‘hey, fair maiden, do I have a mattress for thee.’”

Jonas smirks. “Those are his lines?”

“And what lines would you give the prince? Please,” she waves a hand, palm up, in a gesture fit for a princess. “Enlighten us.”

“I’d say, hey, this is my family’s mattress company. We make really good mattresses. Come on down and get a mattress from us. We make the best in the industry and we don’t overcharge like some of the competition.” He gestures toward the audience. “These are some of our employees and they work very hard for you. Same with the employees over at the factory. Any mattress you purchase from us will be very comfortable, and of such good quality, that it will last you for years.” He gestures toward Alicia. “And for you guys out there, if we could give away girls that look like this one, we would, but, since she’s not included, you’re on your own there, buddy. You’ll have to put in the work like the rest of us.”

Jonas bows slightly to Alicia. “That’s how you sell a guy a mattress.”

“Let me remind you that it’s women who make most big household purchases.”

“Do you honestly think she wants fairytales?”

Alicia leans forward. “Women do, in fact, want the fairytale. We also want comfort, a fair price, and quality, but also the fairytale.”

He crosses his arms over his chest. “Explain.”

“The reality may be that when a woman goes to bed at night, the guy next to her is an overweight, unshaven slob. But he’s her slob, and she still wants the romance. She hopes that the guy she’s with, even if they’ve been together for years, still wants to look into her eyes, and still worships the ground she walks on.” She held out her hand. “Look at me like you’ll die if you can’t accept my invitation and join me.”

Jonas reaches up and she slaps his hand. “Look at me.”

With a growl he reaches up, pulls her off the mattress and into his arms, lowers his head and kisses her. When he breaks away, she looks flushed and flustered.

“What did you do that for?”

He helps her stand upright. “I thought you wanted romance.”

“So you grabbed me like a caveman?”

A female voice from off camera says, “I thought it was romantic.”

“Me, too,” says another female voice.

Alicia rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

Voice over: buy a Highborn Premium Select Mattress. Then you, too, can have a little romance in your life. Maybe. Faster Voiceover: A mattress fit for a prince, yet soft enough for a princess. Princess not included. Fade out.

No one said anything for a moment, then Alicia finally worked up the guts to look at Jonas. “I know it’s nothing like the first one, the one I was contracted to do. And, of course, you can still use that one if you want to stick to the original idea.”

Willa’s mouth was parted as she looked between the two of them.

“Mom,” Jonas said, never taking his eyes off of Alicia. “Will you excuse us for a moment? I need to talk to Alicia alone.” He wrapped an arm around Alicia’s shoulders and herded her unresisting form out the back door.

* * *

Jonas pulled Alicia into the rose garden. They needed privacy to talk. He walked her to the reflecting pond, never easing his grip for a second. When they arrived, he spun her around to look into her face. “Alicia.”

She looked at his chest and he made a sound of frustration and reached out and tilted her chin until she met his gaze. “How can you make that film and not see…not
know
we are heading toward something real?”

Her face crumpled and tears filled her eyes. He grasped her shoulders, barely keeping himself from hauling her into his arms. “What? What is it? Talk to me.”

She shook her head.

“Well at least tell me why you made the second commercial.”

She took a shuddering breath and nodded once. “I was watching us on film. Seeing how we are together. And it made me laugh, you know?” She glanced up at him, then away again. “Remember how you mentioned how much laughter there was between your parents? Well, same with mine. And it made me, I don’t know, realize that I’m… that I’ve missed you the last few days. I wanted you to see how much.”

He gently shook her shoulders. “Then why shut me out the way you’ve been doing?”

She shook her head and then lifted her hands to hide her face. “It sounds so stupid.”

“Not to me. Not if it’s making us miserable. Let’s get this out in the open.”

She took a sharp breath, lowered her hands, and looked up at him. “I’m feeling insecure, okay?” More tears filled her eyes. “I feel like if I fall for you that you’ll eventually break my heart, just like my other boyfriends. Only this time it will be worse, and I might never recover.”

Jonas blinked. He opened his mouth to say something, shut it, then tried again.

Alicia glared at him then raised her hands and shoved against his chest. He didn’t let go of her. “How can you…” He tried again. “What do you mean by--”

“Are you happy now that I’ve humiliated myself in front of you? Happy that you know all my doubts and fears? It’s your own fault for digging. No doubt you want to run far and fast in the other direction now, so go. What are you waiting for.”

He smiled at her, then laughed.

Her eyes narrowed. “I open my heart to you and you laugh at me?”

“I’m just so happy to see you again. You disappeared for the last few days and I didn’t recognize the frightened ghost walking around in your place.”

She shoved him.
“Ohhhh!”

He laughed again, then when she jerked away and walked in the other direction, he easily captured her from behind and pulled her back against his chest. She tried to elbow him but he captured her arms and crossed them in front of her, holding her wrists and trapping her effectively. “Now it’s my turn. You get to listen to me for a minute. Do you think I’m not feeling a little insecure, too? Most girls see me as some sort of meal ticket.”

She looked over her shoulder to give him an incredulous look. “Yeah, right, I don’t think so.”

He chuckled. “I’m flattered that you see me differently. But then you are different.”

“Is that an insult? Because if it is--”

“Stop protecting your heart.
Give it to me. Or at least give me the chance to win it. I’m scared here, too. I’m taking the same risks you are.” He took a breath. “Can’t you see that what we have is real? Can’t you see we belong together? Where am I ever going to find another girl who can give back as good as I give? Who laughs with me and makes me crazy?”

She stilled and turned to study his face. Whatever she saw had her gradually relaxing in his arms. He let go of her wrists and turned her around to grasp her shoulders again. “I have to know, too. Am I alone in this? How do you feel about me?”

Her mouth parted as she searched his eyes. He didn’t try to hide anything from her.

“Jonas, why did you give me the pink rose? The love-at-first-sight rose?”

Jonas, his hands firm on her shoulders, his thumbs rubbing her upper arms, looked directly into her eyes. “As you were leaving that night, I couldn’t believe how I was feeling. It was so dark the first time we met, that I never really got a good look at you. But I couldn’t get you out of my head, anyway. By the time I gave you that rose a few days later, I already knew I was a goner. I knew it was too soon to say anything, but I couldn’t help myself. I had to let you know, even if I couldn’t say the words yet.”

“Oh, Jonas.” Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked rapidly. “I do have feelings for you, too. I was just scared. Then after I backed away, I wished I’d had more courage. I wished I’d taken a chance on you. Even if I ended up getting hurt.” More tears filled her eyes. “But I was hurting, anyway.”

He grinned and she glared at him. “You like me miserable?” she asked.

“If it’s because you’re missing me, then yes,” he admitted. “So you’ll try? You’ll trust me not to hurt you? You’ll take a chance on me? Put me out of my own misery?”

She looked at him for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll try. I really will.”

He looked into her beautiful face and tried to gauge her sincerity. Finally satisfied, he gathered her close, lowered his head, and kissed her.

Epilogue

June. Nine months later.

Willa sat in the shade on one of her favorite benches in her rose garden, holding Katie’s baby in her arms. Katie, Alicia’s Maid of Honor, was arguing with a handsome young man by the tea roses and Willa thought she recognized him as a business acquaintance of Jonas’s, but couldn’t quite place him. She hoped the two of them didn’t spoil the day.