Eigth

"My Queen, are you ready?" he asked outside. -Most of the guests have already arrived. Hurry up.

"I think he meant *most gold diggers*!"

- I'm ready! - I let him in.

When the door opens, Piter brakes the minute I turn to him, smoothing the last details of my hair. He doesn't move, doesn't blink, doesn't even seem to be breathing.

"Did it go well?" - my cheeks flush.

"W-a minute, I need to sit down!"

"Guys, he actually sat in the armchair!"

"Piter..." I start to feel bad.

I didn't choose the dress, but I had to keep my promise. Anyway, even with his scare, I still couldn't find faults that could leave him breathless. It was a pink dress with diamond stones, strapless style with a structured bodice at the waist. I confess that the way my breasts became voluminous, it really caused the impression of being inconvenient.

— I don't know what to do... - I start to get nervous. -If I don't wear this dress, Thomas is going to - - I shut my mouth, just as my security guard is up, grabbing my hands.

- Calm! He said holding my trembling fingers. -You are perfect! she snapped.

"B-but...but you looked at me so strangely..."

— I'm sorry, it's just that all my vocabulary is gone... -he said in a passionate voice. -I just needed to find a word that would convey what I'm feeling. I didn't think you would look like this.

"Then why didn't you just say so?" - I pull my hands away.

"I didn't even know what to say!" - she countered not understanding my stress. -I've never been like this before.

“Oh please, Peter! - I use irony. -Don't give me nice words, because I know you're trying to cover up the shit I heard that night.

- What? - seems to be ignorant. - Where did you get that?

I fit my heel to my foot, ignoring her pretense.

"I'm late!" - I'm firm, leaving him in the room alone.

— Mila! - he calls without believing that I turned my back on him. - Mila, come back here! - he said going after me.

"If you keep yelling at me like that, people will notice there's something weird!" - I warn him, seeing him reach me.

"There's nothing weird between us!"

"Keep it down, Peter!" I keep walking towards the stairs without looking at him.

—OK, IT'S ENOUGH! - he raises his voice, at the same time he grabs my arm and spins me around leaving our faces a few inches from each other.

"Just like you did that night in your room..."

“Are you crazy? -she said with the green of my eyes vibrating inside his.

“Fuck what they think of us. I like you and I'm not afraid to say it. I can scream from the top of those stairs if you want that I'm crazy about you. That I fell in love from the day I saw you for the first time, next to that staircase.

— Pit -

"Don't say anything please!" -she interrupted me. -Stay with me, Mila, please...

He looks at me in such a way that everything in me shakes inside.

"I can't..." I answer, moving away from the heat of his body.

If I loved him, my response would probably destroy me right now, but the problem is, I don't know that feeling, the need to have someone, or the need to live with them. I never loved a man before, my mother said when the time came I would understand. I dated a lot when I was younger thinking I would find love, just like my sisters. I saw them cry, I saw them suffer, I saw them say that they would never look into the faces of their loves again, but when the night came, there they were asking God for everything to be okay, they begged to see them again corroding with longing .

"What is longing?"

"How does it feel to feel the need for someone else's presence?"

"Why did they suffer so much when they had each other and especially themselves?"

I scoffed at it, laughed as they asked God to give back their men. It didn't make any sense to ask for something like that, as if everything in you was failing, as if you needed someone else to live. But then my father, the one who very rarely left his office, saw me fighting with them, making light of all that pain. He told me that love was like sharing your soul with another person. He said that even if I tried to run away from the feeling, my thoughts would be invaded. The air would often be missing and even the most absurd things you never imagined forgiving, you would question yourself.

I could say that loving is stupid, but in fact, it's such a pure and delicate feeling that few people are able to deal with it.

"It must be really hard having to deal with that mix of emotions!"

And what Piter and I have is just respect, affection and fun.

- DEAR! -The King appears from the other corridor, surprising us.

— O-hi! - I go to him, afraid.

"Wow, you're perfect!"

I smile in thanks.

"Come on, give me your hand!"

I look back and see my hero with a downcast face. He even tries to throw me a happy smile to make things calmer between us, except I've seen that face before, the same face of disguised sadness, like Amelia and Perla did.

I reach out my hand to Thomas and his thick fingers grip mine. At the top of the stairs, he attracts the attention of about five hundred or more guests, all of whom are very well dressed, dazzling their wealth and arrogance. The press was close to the exit, where a banner did not allow them to approach us. Many present were staring at me and I wondered if it was because of the cleavage, or something they didn't like.

Thomas is very quick with his words and I feel relieved that he is responsible for the speech. His hand remains firmly in mine the entire time and when his lines are over, all the guests bow, leaving me overwhelmed with the responsibility I finally understand I have.

Looking further down the hall and smiling at the photos at the same time, I see a single person who has not bowed to their Kings. This didn't bother me, but it clearly created a desire within me to go and meet him/her. So I manage to lose some people, trying to disguise my aim and pursuit. When I finally see behind all that crowd, there is what I can say is the most impeccable and well done work on the entire planet.

"And if you're wondering if I'm referring to a sculpture, exhibition, or any kind of art that is admired and even applauded by people, then you're right. Because a man like that could only exist on Mount Olympus. he, the fairest of all the Gods."

“Your Majesty?

Greta finds me among the guests, trapped in the corner of the lobby. Only after I hear her voice, I understand that my head is on another planet.

“Y-yes?” - I answer, but without taking my eyes off the Greek God.

- Everything is fine? -He asked. - Is the dress squeezing her?

The dress was actually tight at the waist causing a slight shortness of breath, but the reality is that I was just feeling suffocated because of that irritatingly fascinating man.

“Your Majesty? -she calls me again when I don't answer her.

“Greta! I look at her and him at the same time, not knowing who to focus my attention on. -I thought we had an agreement on the way you keep calling me!

"I'm sorry, King Thomas is nearby and I'm afraid of being warned!"

I'm heartbroken and it's only in her explanation that I realize I've been rude.

"You don't have to apologize to me..." He took both of her hands and I hold them with mine, causing her eyes to startle. -I understand your fear!

"You're so generous to me-"

The minute the man realizes he's being watched by me, he throws me a sharp look, piercing my soul with absurd intensity.

"What the fuck?"

Without any preparation, or experience, I feel my entire body weaken, looking for something to lean on.

— Mila! -she realizes.

"Can you get me some water?"

She shakes her head and goes looking for the waiter. Not feeling my legs right, I see a corner table resting my shaky arms on it.

"Where are the damn chairs?" - I fight alone.

"Love, you're not going to pass out in front of all these people, are you?"

- What's happening to me?

My heart is in my mouth, I even had to rub my hands together in an attempt to warm them up even though I was wearing gloves. And lucky for me, no one noticed my little heart attack except my friend Greta.

"Maybe I'm sick, or maybe I'm really crazy!"

"One man cannot be able to do all this..."

"It even seems like an irony of fate that we talked about love!"

No, this is not love. It has nothing to do with what my father said. I remember his speeches very well. I'm sure that to love someone, you need to at least know them first. What I'm feeling right now is something a lot like security, a kind of shelter, like I'm coming home after a long, long time.

"I don't know what that means, but surely love goes a long way from taking the other to death, as it almost did to me, just by looking at me!"

“Your Majesty? she called after me, gently touching my arm.

"Shit!"

If it's one of Thomas's investors, I'm in big trouble. I can't talk to someone in this humiliating situation. My husband would hang me if he found out I was rude to one of his gold mines.

I think if I ignore him he might realize the music is loud and give up.

"This is not going to work..." -said the little devil in my head.

"Did he already go?"

"Why do I keep my hands cold?"

If dragons exist, surely there are also men who can make us sick with just one look. There was no other explanation for why I was at this level of torment, agonizing madly inside.

"Father, if love means losing oxygen whenever two souls meet, I'd rather die alone than suffocate!"

I take from the table the only one of the three glasses that had a transparent liquid and without knowing whose it was, and what it was, the spin at once swallowing everything.

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