The Royal Contract

"Dani, where are you?" Alex spoke up as he entered her apartment.

He could not wait to share with her what happened to him today, but that could wait after dinner. What mattered at the moment was to see her. It had been a long day.

"I'm in the kitchen," Dani answered back. 

She already gave Alex a key to her apartment so that he would not have the trouble of coming and going. The same goes with her in his apartment. It saved them the time of answering the door.

"I brought someone for dinner if you don't mind." Alex appeared in the kitchen with a man behind him.

Dani turned around from the food she was preparing and was surprised to see a friend. "Lance, welcome to my home." She quickly dropped the spatula in her hands and moved to greet him.

"I hope you don't mind if I drop by unannounced. Alex invited me for dinner, and I thought we were going to his apartment." Lance said as he gave her a friendly hug, as his eyes wandered around the apartment.

"Of course, I love to have you here. You are always welcome to visit any time." She said, glad to see Alex's cousin. "I hope you can appreciate my cooking." She warned him.

"I'm sure that it can't be worse than mine," Lance assured her that he was up to the challenge. Who was he to complain when he could hardly boil an egg?

He was the typical prince who did not have the opportunity to do other things except his obligation to his title. He grew up doing only manly duties, which included studying, the arts of war, sports, but nothing domesticated.

Unlike Alex, he was not allowed to study outside of their country. He never had the chance to live independently. Having this opportunity to stay here for a month to learn from Alex was a dream come true for him.

"Why don't you boys make yourself comfortable while I finish dinner?" She told them, even offering them a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"Maybe we could help." Alex offered as he moved closer to hug and kiss her.

"I have it covered." She replied after catching her breath, suddenly embarrassed at how they were behaving in front of Lance. "Sorry about that."

"I don't mind. I'm glad that my cousin met you." Lance stated as he poured the wine in the two glasses and seated on the kitchen counter. Still, his eyes occasionally looked in the other direction.

He wondered if Jacky would show up in this apartment, remembering that she mentioned she lived with Dani. He was hoping to see her. 

"Why don't you two catch up while I finish this?" Alex offered as he forced Dani to sit down on one of the chairs.

"Are you looking for someone?" This time, Dani could not help but asked as she kept catching him, checking her place.

If her guess was correct, she believed that she knew what was going on. Lance might be looking for Jacky, but she was out to visit Andy.

If she had known that Lance was arriving tonight, she might have stopped Jacky from leaving. She did not even know that he was coming to the country. She believed Alex failed to mention it to her.

"Just admiring your apartment. It looks neat and beautiful." Lance was surprised by the sudden question, so he came up with his lame excuse. 

"Oh, you have to thank Jacky for that. She did most of the decorations and the cleaning around here." She knew that mentioning Jacky's name would spike up his interest.

It was like hitting a bullseye. Dani saw Lance's eyes lit up in the mere mention of Jacky. She could not wait for him to follow up her statement with a question.

"Speaking of Jacky, I thought she also lives here. Where is she?" Lance asked casually, hoping that he did not appear to be too eager to see her.

Well, it was not as if he went to this part of the world only to see her. He was here to study under Alex, so he could also become a good businessman. 

But it did not mean that he could not see some of his friends during off-hours. Well, Jacky became a close friend when she went to visit their country. So, he felt that it was a common courtesy to see her while he was here.

"I'm sorry, but she went out tonight." Dani felt sad that Lance missed the opportunity to see her friend. 

She was curious if it was fate, making a move to allow the two to be closer, or fate just playing a wicked trick once again. Well, if she could do something about it, she wished to aid the first choice.

Jacky deserved to be happy for a change. Her life had been not easy growing up. Then, hooking up with several douchebags did not help either. 

But breaking up with Sebastian was a big heartbreak for her. She felt that she already had a perfect guy. But could not seem to love him to commit to him.

"Oh, maybe I'll see her some other day," Lance said with a slight disappointment in his tone, but he still maintained a smile on his face.

But maybe she would hurry back and still see him if she called her. "Until when are you staying here?"

But then again, it was rare that she had the chance to see Andy. She did not want to interrupt their reunion tonight. Maybe there was still time for the two of them to meet again.

"A month, more or less." He was not sure of the details. He might stay longer if needed.

But his concentration was not on her question as her first statement kept replaying in his mind. Jacky was out on a date. Was this a first date? Was she serious with the guy? 

"Oh, shit!" He suddenly burst out, unaware that he said it out loud.

He was so caught up with his thoughts that he found himself reacting to a situation in his mind. He was not even sure if that was the case.

"Hey. Is something wrong?" Alex, who had been busy fixing what Dani was preparing, suddenly turned to look at them.

Well, he found Dani's ways around the kitchen and how she prepared the food a bit messy. In addition, he had to fix some of the seasonings, which were either too bland or too much.

She was perfect in other things, but she still needed to work on her culinary skills. But Alex did not mind. At least Dani always tried her best to prepare something edible for him and Jacky.

"Oh, nothing. I just remembered that I forgot to do something." Lance quickly looked at them, wide-eyed as he realized what he just did.

"If it is something important, maybe I can help," Alex said, a bit concerned that he might need some help. 

As his guest, he would like to assist them with their needs, even providing them their protection and apartments. Although, Edward refused the detailed security assigned to him since he brought his own.

"Don't bother. It doesn't matter. No need to trouble yourselves." Lance continued to make his excuses, chastising himself internally for his blunder.

He was not sure where those thoughts came from or why he was even thinking about it. The last time that he saw Jacky, he told himself that she was just a friend. Then, what was he doing now?

"Come on, help me prepare the table. I think Alex is about to finish my work." Dani grabbed Lance's arm and guided him to the location of the plates. 

Lance helped her carry the things they would need into the table and also grabbed the wine on his way back and forth to the table. Dani had almost finished the table preparation when Alex brought the food they prepared. 

"Come on, let us eat." Dani offered the first dish to Lance. She was confident that it would be good, judging by the sumptuous aroma coming from the delicious dish.

"Thanks again for having me," Lance said as they all started to dig into their food. 

"Stop that. We are friends, after all. You are always welcome in my home." Dani tapped his hand on the table as she looked at Alex, who supported her words with a smile.

"I know you would love this. Dani is a superb cook." Alex said as they continued to eat.

"You can stop pretending that you did not tinker with my cooking." Dani jabbed him in the ribs, pointing out the obvious.

"Ok, you are lucky that you won't be tasting her cooking for today," Alex told Lance the truth, which earned him a glare from Dani. "What? I thought you wanted me to be honest." Alex responded to her action with his boyish grin.

"Funny, but in all honesty, this is much better." Pointing to the food in front of them. She could not help but admit that he was telling the truth.

"I'm sure that could not be that bad." Lance chuckled when he saw that Alex was making some silly sign that it was worse.

"Hey, it is not that bad." This time, she was complaining, but instead of getting mad, she could not help but laugh, realizing that it was not that good either. She had been feeding Jacky, and Alex crapped all this time. 

Well, in fairness to him, his cooking was way better. It did smell great compared to when Dani was the one cooking. It would taste perfect too, judging from its appearance.

Dani knew that Alex had been subtlety adjusting her cooking without telling her. She pretended not to notice, but she did not mind since, who did not want to eat good, delicious food. 

She admitted that she was no culinary genius like him.