That's A-mor...eh? (Lottie)

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So the plan was to order a carriage from the castle for the big date night, which Henry'd had to push back because he'd forgotten to get a reservation until the last minute and had to settle for a later point. And if only he hadn't waited...

With the portals closed, Henry was completely cut off from his home world, meaning no more funding or presents from the royal budget. How was he supposed to take Lottie out to a nice dinner with his newly limited funds? More importantly, how was he going to get her there? Much as he hated to admit it, he only had a few options. Either beg someone else for money (first of all, who, and secondly, absolutely not) or arrange his own mode of transportation that wouldn't cost him.

Since they couldn't exactly walk, Henry had spent an entire day tracking down an old one-horse carriage tucked away in one of the barns, almost as though it had been placed there by sympathetic gods who knew his plight. He dusted it off as well as he could and set to the difficult task of wrestling his good (not) horse Black Charming into the harness.

Eventually it was done, and with only a little help entirely by himself. Henry rushed to get changed into his suit, the same one he'd worn to the casino. It was all he had in his closet, aside from that wretched dress outfit from the ball. He managed a quick shower, too, and was still shaking the water from his ear as he headed toward the girls' dorms to pick up Lottie.

Knocking on the door, Henry almost kicked himself for not picking up flowers for Lottie. That was exactly the sort of thing he'd been afraid of doing. Too late now. He smiled and waited for the door to open.

"Miss Lottie," he said when she arrived, "I am here to escort you to your carriage." He even threw in a bow. If he had to spend a week learning to bow, he was going to put it to good use. "Are you ready to leave? I am parked just outside." He put out his arm to escort her out to the waiting carriage, hoping that Blackie hadn't managed to pull his harness off the tie and escape.

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"Are you mental? Because there's something---" began Astrid. She paused. Was he bowing? That looked like a bow. Astrid couldn't quite recall Henry ever bowing, and she'd known him for a while now. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing that Lottie was, in fact, primping. Likely this involved copious amounts of makeup and a pink dress. Astrid couldn't imagine why she had confused that with Lottie's normal routine. It might just have something to do with Lottie primping and preparing herself like that just about every night.

At any rate, she looked back to Henry. He looked... nice. Ish. As nice as Henry was going to get, at any rate. Astrid scanned him critically, doing mental comparisons to other princes. He was no Arthur, to be sure, but you could hardly fault Henry for that.

"Seriously though, what's with the carriage? And the outfits? And the--- oooooh," Astrid turned to look over at Lottie again. Pieces were falling into place. She pointed at Lottie, then at Henry. "Her and... you? You and... her?"

The finger moved a few more times, while Astrid's brain hurriedly tried to piece together the sense this should be making.

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Lottie had been preparing herself pretty much all day. She had turned out to have lots of time to find the perfect dress since they’d had to reschedule the date once, but she couldn’t exactly just throw the dress on, and do a bit of hair and make-up for a date with Prince Charming, now could she? Her hair had required all the special products that gave it shine and volume, not to mention the time spent in curlers. She’d had to shave and exfoliate and moisturize; she’d used one of those mud masks to clean out her pores and leave her skin smooth and clean before slathering on her usual foundation and powder. She may have even scheduled a massage in there earlier so she was perfectly relaxed for tonight.

She was just putting on the finishing touch, a light, shimmering pink lip gloss, when a knock sounded at the door. Letting out a quiet but his pitched squeal, she clapped her hands and ran for the door, but Astrid beat her to it. Stopping just behind the other girl, she quickly decided it was better she not answer, it would make it all look better. Standing just behind the other girl, she gave Henry her most alluring smile and batted her eyelashes. Okay, so it was a tiny bit disappointing to see him in the same suit as before, but she could give him a pass for that for now. For her own part she had indeed chosen a pink dress. It was cut to just above the knee, sleeveless and the cowl neck dipped moderately low in the front and lower in the back. She had a matching wrap with frills around the edge and sparkling shoes of the same colour.

“Yes, him and me,” she said to Astrid, shouldering past her roommate to take Henry’s arm. “You’re lookin’ very handsome tonight,” she made sure to compliment him and kick the evening off right.

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Henry straightened, disbelief all over his face, as he heard a very familiar and completely unexpected voice. He did his best to keep a straight face as Astrid sorted everything out in her head, hoping that he wasn't flushing too much. He thought of Astrid as a fighting buddy, and he really wasn't expecting her to see him all primped like this. Talk about embarrassment.

Thankfully, Lottie swooped in before he really had to say anything. "And you look very, um, beautiful," Henry said as they started walking down the hall. He paused to glance back at Astrid for a moment. "I...do you live with Astrid?" It made him wonder what else he didn't know.

He held the door open for her as they walked outside. "Sorry it's a little rustic," he said, pointing at the horse. Blackie was pulling at the reins, but he hadn't managed to pull the hitching post out of the ground. Excellent. "I hope you don't mind if I drive?" He hoped she wouldn't be too suspicious about something like that and wonder what happened to the servant.

Handing her up into the carriage, he smiled at his date. "Thank you for coming with me tonight. Are you ready for a great evening?"

Of course, he had no idea what to say after that. He wasn't actually that good at small talk, so he was sort of depending on Lottie here to take care of most of the conversation. He suspected she would be rather good at it.

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{just gonna slide my last post in here, and I'll leave you two to your date}

"Yeah, we live together; it's called roommates," said Astrid. The two were barely paying attention to her now. Sure, Lottie confirmed Astrid's suspicions, which really just made the Viking's mind nearly explode. Since when was Henry even capable of dating? That would mean he'd have to seduce a girl, convince her he was worth taking out, and he'd have to--wait a moment, this was Lottie.

It all made sense now.

Lottie was going to kidnap a Prince Charming and force him to marry her.

It was a very amused Astrid that grinned and stepped aside, unleashing her roommate/friend upon her sparring partner/friend. She knew that one way or another, she'd hear all about tonight's events. Strange, but Astrid almost found herself looking forward to hearing it. Well, that was later. Let them "enjoy" themselves first.

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((Sorry sorry sorry, the ads ate up all the recent posts and I only saw Astrid’s reply))


Lottie smiled brightly at the compliment, that smile that she knew only enhanced her pretty features. Alright, so he still sounded a little unsure and shy, but she quickly chalked it up to him being a bit put off by Astrid who could be a little scary to those who didn’t know how to deal with him. Waving goodbye to her roommate, Lottie shifted all her focus back on her handsome prince and the fairytale date that was to come.

Unfortunately the carriage, like his suit, left a little to be desired. She had expected something extravagant, or even just the practical closed topped carriages for hire she had seen around town. This was... this was the kind of carriage they would eat for breakfast, only not because they would probably stick their noses up at it instead.

Luckily she was an expert at holding a smile even when she really didn’t feel it.

“Oh no, this is just fine! Who doesn’t like a bit of spontaneity in a date? And adventure!” Because riding in that hideous thing would certainly be an adventure. Oh, but his smile just seemed to make it all melt away and Lottie was soon just smiling back at him, not even having to fake it any more. “Well, I’ve always been a firm believer in second chances, she replied as she settled into her seat. “Ready whenever you are, sugah.”

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She didn't seem too upset with the mode of transportation. Maybe she liked open carriages? It was the only explanation he could think of.

"Yeah, sure. Adventure." That, he had found, was often used in substitution for what should be called 'the evening taking a tragic turn that seems horrible at the time and everyone tells us it will be funny when we look back on it.' He bet even people in actual adventures didn't like them when they were in the middle of it. But he didn't want to say anything rude now.

"Well I'll do what I can to make a good impression this time. Just let me know if I'm doing something wrong. I'm afraid I haven't done this sort of thing in a while." An actual date that wasn't set up by his parents or a one-time fling with a miller's daughter? Had that ever happened, actually?

He pulled Blackie's head over to the road and shouted "Gee-up!" to get going. And after a roll of his head, the horse actually started moving. Looked like he was excited to be getting some exercise. Henry hoped this good attitude would last. "Now I haven't had a chance to visit this restaurant before," he said, trying to make conversation. "Is there any unspoken rule I should be aware of?"

They somehow (somehow) arrived at the restaurant without incident, and Henry alighted from the carriage and passed the reins to the valet, who looked at them slightly befuddled for a moment. The prince, remembering his manners, lifted his hand to help Lottie down from the carriage. "Sorry for the bumpy ride," he said, scratching his ear. He was trying to keep his nervous ticks to a minimum, but the urge to rub his neck was strong. "How about we go in and try to smooth everything out?" Ha, it even came out as a pun, and completely unexpectedly!

He slipped a few dollars, all he could really afford, to the valet, and hoped he would take care of the horse and carriage properly. Then he held out his arm to walk Lottie to the door, holding it open for her with a slight bow and a grin. This much he could do, holding open doors and pulling out chairs.

"Reservation for two under Charming," he said, stepping up to the host's desk. They'd asked for his last name when he called, and it had taken some convincing to get them to accept him, but even so the host gave him a strange look.

"Yes," the man said, looking over his book. "Mister and Miss...Charming." He cocked an eyebrow, clearly not believing it.

"Well actually," Henry began, but the man was already continuing.

"You are late."

"Yes, sorry, the horse was a little slow--"

"We had to give your table to someone else. There is a waiting list, as you know."

"Yes but--" Henry felt as though he didn't know what to say. He gave Lottie a worried look. He was failing, once again, to do anything right. "Maybe there's another table somewhere?" And he tried, he really did, to make it not sound like he was whining too much.

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He really was sweet, all nervous about messing up again. Really, what could be worse than throwing up all over himself and embarrassing them in front of an entire room full of people? This just had to go better than that. Nobody could be that incapable or plagued with bad luck... right? Certainly not a prince! Especially one named Charming.

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” Lottie assured him as he got the horse moving. So it was a bit of a fib, made bigger by the bumpy ride, but there were a lot of things she could overlook and forgive for a prince and a chance at her happy ending. “I’ve never been there before either, haven’t really had anyone I was interested in goin’ out with much before.” Of course she accompanied this with her most flirtatious smile and batting of her lashes.

It didn’t take them too long to reach the restaurant, and Lottie waited in her seat until Henry offered her a hand to help her down, though she was very glad to stand up when he did. Their carriage was a far cry from the others she had been in, not to mention her daddy’s car back home. She managed to smile winningly, though, and laugh airily at his little joke. She already felt like a princess, just walking into the nicest restaurant in town on the arm of a handsome prince. this was it, it was finally happening! Two under Charming! Henry and Charlotte Charming! Even the host called them Mr. and Mrs. Charming! Well, close to it at least.

And then he told them their table had been given away.

At first she was shocked, then disappointed, but when it came to Lottie LaBouff, she didn’t take getting told no very well, and she never took it without a fight.

“Excuse me, sir,” she said, pushing past Henry slightly and pressing right up to the podium the host stood behind. “But we have a reservation, and I’m sure if you look a little closer you’ll find there’s an empty table in there just waitin’ for us, so why don’t you just do that.”

If there was one thing the southern belle had perfected over the years, it was how to somehow seem both sweet and terrifying all at once.

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Henry raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me you haven't gone out with anyone here before?" He found that a little hard to believe. He'd assumed that she had somehow already exhausted the supply here in some way or another. Or else why would she be scraping the barrel and going out with him? It wasn't as even though he had made a good impression or anything like that. "Well, I'm honored to share this with you, then," he said. Well, if she really liked him he wasn't going to try to overanalyze it. That would only get him into trouble, he was sure.

Henry wasn't exactly sure what to do in situations where your reservation was given away. He was usually in a situation where it didn't matter how long you were away, your spot was reserved. There was something about a throne that just didn't take to that sort of behavior. Either that or he was slumming it, in which case you didn't reserve a table you just sat between whichever two big grumpy guys seemed least likely to beat you up. So while he didn't like the idea that he was looking like an idiot, he was very grateful to Lottie for speaking up.

The host stepped back in the face of Lottie's confrontation and anxiously pushed his spectacles up his nose. "I will check," he said, then straightened and tried to look dignified again. "But I promise nothing." He strode off into the back.

"Thanks," Henry said to Lottie, giving her a half-grin. "I'm not really used to this sort of place. It's a little different at home, you know? Servants and all that... Not that I'm saying it's not fine here, too, of course! I mean, I like Tintagel. It's just great. I'm sure your home is really great, too. Do you have real heating and air conditioning at your home? Because really, that's the worst part about those castles is the drafts--" And thankfully his rambling was cut off by the return of the host, who coughed slightly.

"We have a spot open outside on the balcony. It is small, but I am assuming that you are not going to be picky?" He stood there, book open, and clicked his pen a few times.

Henry sighed, realizing that it was probably the best they would get. "Yes, that will be fine, thank you," he said. As they walked inside, he turned to Lottie. "I don't really like that guy's attitude. Doesn't he seem a little rude to you?" And the irony of it was completely lost on him.

Pulling her seat out for her at the cramped quarters--it was windy, so the candle smoke was blowing into their faces, but at least it was still relatively warm outside, potentially due mostly to the press of warm bodies around them--he tried to resume the conversation. "So we didn't get very far. Would you like to share more about your home?" That seemed like a fair topic to start, and he actually was interested in some of the other worlds that were out there.

"I'll have a water," he said when the waiter came by. "And whatever the lady would like." He secretly hoped she wouldn't choose anything too expensive.

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“Well, there just hasn’t been anyone I liked enough ta come here with,” Lottie replied with a smile. Not that she’d really had many invitations to this restaurant, but that wasn’t the point.

The host was clearly intimidated by Lottie, as she intended, and though he claimed to make no promises, she had no doubts a table would miraculously open up by the time he returned. Turning to look at Henry with a smile, she very much appreciated his reaction to the whole thing. Many men, if a woman stepped in to get things done that he couldn’t, would get all bent out of shape, like his pride was all wounded, but not Henry. He just thanked her and talked about how things went back at his home, which she was really interested in hearing about, since one day that could be her home too. Before she could press him for more information, though, he was asking about air conditioning and talking about drafts and boy, she was actually glad to see the host return. As predicted, he had found them a table.

“Small and cozy is perfectly fine with us,” she replied unnecessarily since her prince had already answered. Taking his arm again, she patted it gently as he talked. “Don’t worry about him, he just thinks he’s real important cause he holds tha book.”

Taking the seat that was pulled out for her, Lottie waved a hand in front of her face a moment to disperse the smoke and coughed delicately. When Henry ordered a water, she assumed it was because of what had happened the last time he had drank alcohol and was being responsible, not wanting to embarrass himself again. As a show of solidarity she did the same even though she would have loved some champagne instead. Maybe later.

“My home isn’t nearly as impressive as yours, I’m sure,” Lottie began. “The 1920s in New Orleans are just... alive. Music, dancin’... it’s hard ta be bored in a place like that.”

As much as she wanted to be a princess and live in a castle, she would miss her home. “But what about yours? It must be amazin’. I read so many stories about places like yours and just always wanted ta go there some day.”

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"Maybe I should get a book then," Henry said in mock consideration. "Or perhaps I should have just worn the crown. Do you think they would have believed it was real? It sometimes surprises me how much you can get away with if you wear a shiny hat." He was joking. He would never wear his coronet in public. He hated that thing. There was a reason it was left to tarnish on his bedpost, if gold would bother tarnishing ever.

He was glad that Lottie ordered water. A little less for him to worry about on cost. He tried not to let it show as he perused the menu for what he suspected would be the cheapest thing. He settled on a salad.

"Music?" he said, interested. "What sort of music? They have so many different types here. It's not all pipes like back home. But what do you have at your place?" He pictured something like the rock music they had here. It seemed like something you could dance to. Sort of. Maybe not the type of dancing he'd learned.

He sighed and scratched the back of his head. "It's okay, I guess. Mostly it's drafty. I mean, those castles look pretty cool, but all you have is a fireplace for warmth, and it's all sooty. Then the medicine is awful, and the food's not really that good. It's hard to get things cooked evenly, and a lot of the time we run out of fruit in the winter and have to eat fruit leather. There's not a lot of water around, so most people drink wine. The beds aren't really that comfortable and the clothes are just awful to wear. Also the toilets are pretty gross, even when the maids do their best to keep the chamberpots clean." He shrugged, then realized he had been speaking fairly loudly and looked around. "I uh, I guess that's not really dinner conversation. Sorry."

Looking around at everything here, he smiled. "Really I think it's a lot better here. People aren't always trying to kill each other, and there's not all sorts of magic spells trying to make things fall apart. Magic is always trouble, if you ask me. I'm glad not to deal with it as much these days."

He ordered the salad when the waiter came by, then turned back to Lottie. "Well, you have heard a lot about my home. What about you? You don't want to hear me talk all night. I'll just end up complaining about my family a lot." It was one of the early lessons he had learned about politics. Let the other person talk. People always want to talk about themselves. It makes them open up, you learn a lot, and they don't have to know everything about you.

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Lottie giggled at Henry’s joke, a flirty little giggle to make it clear she found him very funny and that she was so very interested, because she just could not put that out there enough. “Well, ya coulda tried it, but I’m sure they’ve seen that before. They got a place in this town to build your own swords, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you could make your own crown too.”

She certainly wouldn’t have argued had he wanted to wear his crown, though she might have felt particularly underdressed. Oh, she could just imagine the sort of beautiful crown she would get when she became a princess, gold and bejeweled and shimmering.

“Back home there’s lots’a music. And dancin’, there’s always dancin’!” Boy, did Lottie love to dance! “Mostly I listen to jazz, there just ain’t nothin’ like it.”

When Henry started describing what it was like to live in a castle, Lottie’s smile seem to fall more with each word. Terrible food was enough, but having to eat leather? She also needed a good comfortable bed or she just couldn’t sleep at night. The one in the dorm had taken a lot of getting used to, that was for sure, and it wasn’t really even that bad. By the time he got to talking about toilets her smile was completely gone and her face was twisted in a very unflattering way. Her maid always kept everything spotless, but that didn’t mean she was going to talk about it at dinner.

Lowering her eyes to her menu, Lottie pretended to be in deep concentration about what to order while she got her expression back under control. “Well I’m sure it’s not bad as all that, though this place really does make you see what your home is lacking.” It was curious he seemed to think there was so little magic trouble here, though. Then again, he had missed her Halloween party...

“Oh, I dunno, I think that depends on tha magic. Sometimes it can be good, like in tha fairytale The Frog Prince. In that a prince is cursed and becomes a frog, so yeah, bit of bad magic there, but if he hadn’t been he woulda never found his true love who was able ta break tha curse with a kiss.” She sighed then, a dreamy look on her face. “It’s just so romantic.”

The waiter arrived then to take their orders. Henry only ordered a salad, which seemed strange to Lottie, but then maybe he was nervous and couldn’t eat much, or one some kind of strict princely diet. She went for the seafood pasta herself.

“Now I’m sure your family can’t be all that bad... though it’s quite a big family, no?” she asked once the waiter had walked away. “It’s just me and my daddy at home, I just don’t know how I’d deal with all those siblings. I got one friend back home that’s like a sister to me, sorta, so I guess that kinda counts.”

Some days she really missed Tiana and wished she was here.

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"Oh yeah," Henry said. "I guess anyone could get a crown these days." But his was real. So it was completely different. But Henry felt justified again in not wearing it out of the house ever.

"Jazz, huh?" he asked, imagining it. "It sounds really nice. I like the idea of everyone dancing. But not formal court dancing, right?" A worried expression quickly replaced the contemplative one on his face as he remembered his last formal ball. He forced himself to relax. "No, I'm sure it's nothing like that."

He'd messed up with the description of the castle. Henry could have kicked himself. He should have said nothing, tried to say something nice...maybe he could make up for it some now? Maybe later. Lottie was already doing her best to carry on the conversation.

"It's romantic to be turned into a frog?" Henry asked, scrunching up his nose. "That sounds like an awful story. What prince wants to have to be a frog, even if it ends in finding a princess?" He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Sorry. I don't want to sound totally rude or anything. It's just hard to believe in love after...well. It's just not turned out well for everyone I know."

Henry took a sip of his water. "Oh really? You live with your father? That's nice. And do you miss him much?" Everyone here actually seemed to like their parents, or at least a fair number. He wondered briefly what that was like. "I have three brothers, then there's my sisters, and my cousins...we all kind of grew up in a swarm. I ended up being the odd one out, really, caught between the older group and the younger group. So it basically was me most of the time." He put the glass down on the table and rubbed his thumb over the glass for a moment before looking up with a smile. "I bet it was really nice to have such a close friend. You two probably shared a lot together, right?"

When the salad arrived, Henry crossed himself and said a quick prayer out loud before digging in. His mother had taught him manners, though that had been a while ago, but at least he remembered to use his napkin and to chew with his mouth closed. All the silverware threw him off for a moment, but he just grabbed a fork and went at the meal.

"I really was rude earlier," he said, swallowing a bite. "The castle isn't all bad. I guess I'm just so much happier here, it's easy to only look at the downside. I like some of the animals, for example. I have a couple dogs, and a hunting hawk. And I have some friends. And I've been told that some people even today really like some of the clothes from that time, even if I find them uncomfortable." There. He could be nice. And he hadn't even lied about any of it.

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Lottie beamed when Henry admitted to liking dancing. She was a sucker for it, she would dance all night once she got going, so of course her prince would have to enjoy it too. Or he’d have to learn to if he didn’t already, because there was no way she would be sitting anything out just because he had two left feet.

“Nah, nothin’ like that at all. Jazz is upbeat and fun and it just really gets your heart racin’!” she replied, almost bouncing in her seat just talking about it. Really, she hadn’t been to a good dance since she’d come to this place. Sure, she’d tried to throw one, but after the disaster that Halloween had turned out to be she just couldn’t bring herself to try again.

Unfortunately, while Henry liked dancing, he didn’t seem to keen on her fairytale. Fortunately for him it was clear that it wasn’t really the fairytale itself he didn’t like (though that did seem to be part of it) but some deep seeded doubts about love in general. Of course that was enough to set the blonde off on a whole different tangent.

“Hard to believe in love?” she repeated, completely aghast. “How can you even say that? Of everythin’ in tha whole world, love is the one thing to believe in above all else! It’s the only thing that really matters!”

If she could speak passionately about any subject in the world, it was love. Sure, she got fired up about fashion and body image and beauty and boys, but Love was in a whole category of its own.

Trying to get herself back in check, she followed Henry’s lead and took a drink of water. Right, don’t scare off the poor boy so early in the date. She could start going on about love once she had a ring on her finger.

“I miss ‘em both like crazy, Big Daddy and Tia, but I’ve been sendin’ them letters to tell them all about this place. I keep hopin’ one of them will finally grab Tia and she’ll decide to join me, but she’s just so obsessed with her job I just don’t know about her sometimes.”

Again mimicking his moves, Lottie set her glass down as well, only she followed this by setting her elbows on the table and folding her hands together to rest her chin on while she gazed at him. “That’s kinda sad, but it must be nice havin’ some brothers and sisters around.” Not that she had ever wanted any. Lottie didn’t really like to share.

Leaning back again when the food arrived, she smiled delightedly at the pasta dish. The quick prayer didn’t really phase her and she through in her own ‘amen’ at the end before they both tucked into their meals.

“It’s alright, I know this place can be pretty dazzlin’. It’s gonna be hard to go back and give up all the things they have here that just ain’t been invented yet back home. And the fashion! Maybe I should just start designin’ my own things, start all the trends.”

Though what would really happen when it was time to leave this place? If she had her way she would be leaving for a fancy castle and a lavish life as a princess, but she’d have to at least go home once before that and try to convince her dad and Tiana to go with her.

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Henry shrugged. "It's great that you believe in love. I used to. Then my older brother got married, and that kind of didn't work out so well. How can it be true love if they don't love each other forever? So maybe it wasn't true love, but does that mean the storybooks are wrong? Or does love just mean something that fades?" He took another drink of his water. He was trying to shove the whole thing off as not being important, because he didn't really want to think about how this change in perspective had altered everything he knew about his life. He was over that, really he was.

"I think I'd like to meet your friend Tia," he said with a smile. "I'd like to know what kind of person she is that she managed to gain your friendship." And keep it. Keeping up with Lottie seemed like a bit of a daunting task, as Henry was coming to realize.

He shrugged again. "I suppose. It wasn't really like they were around a lot. We all had our own lessons and activities. I only ever really spoke to...but that was a long time ago. It hardly counts. I had better friends in some of the slums." He looked up with a grin. "I sometimes dreamed about what it would be like to be an only child. I bet it was a lot of fun. No older siblings to make you feel totally stupid?"

He ate another bite of salad and nodded. When Lottie mentioned fashion, he scanned her again with his eyes. "Yeah, I can see that. You'd probably be good at designing clothes. Just make sure they are comfortable, too. That's probably the worst thing about fancy clothes." Then he realized he was complaining again, and that his eyes were drifting. He looked back up at her face. "I mean, I'm sure you'll be good at anything you do, and I'm sure it'll be great. You'll be great. Whatever. Wherever."

He wished to himself as he stabbed another bite of lettuce that he could get through one conversation without sounding like a complete idiot at some point or another.

"How's the pasta?" he asked, pointing at her plate with his fork. "You like seafood?"