The Royal Contract

"I'm counting on it." He whispered back as he placed his hands on her waist to assist her out of the elevator, answering the challenge in her voice.

He liked the way he felt when his hand made contact with her body. It suddenly felt right that he was holding her, in a way, protecting her. It suddenly seemed that he was just exactly where he should be.

"Where are we going anyway?" She asked as they settled into his car. She did not care where they went. Anywhere was good as long as it was with him.

As she said earlier, she planned to make the most of this night, whether this be the first or the last time they were together. She was not going to sulk and think of tomorrow, but only the moment.

"Oh, I think a nice dinner.. Then maybe you'd show me around." Lance said as he maneuvered on the street with ease as if he had lived here all his life. 

He could see her from his peripheral vision glancing at him occasionally. He wondered what was going through her mind as she kept quiet, looking outside her window.

"Oh, let me see." She appeared to contemplate the many options. What could be interesting with a man like him? She kept thinking as she stared at nothing.

Then, her eyes landed on the man that had his eyes on the road. He drove with precision, not speedily due to the light traffic but with smooth precision.

But then again, he was a race car driver. Driving anywhere might be a piece of cake for him, like everything else about him. He was a man who could have anything he wanted in life.

After several more moments, they were seated in a fine restaurant, eating some delicious meal and laughing at what Lance had said. To her, it was all great. A night she wished to remember.

"Ok. Your turn. What is your favorite place to go to when you are happy?" Lance asked as he sipped his wine.

There were still a lot of things he wished to know about her. He believed that what he knew about her so far barely scratched the surface of her true identity.

"I..." She tapped on the table with her fingernails as she thought of his question but failed to think of one. "I don't think I have one."

She never really went to any particular place to celebrate nor when she was sad either. It just did not occur to her to go anywhere, except probably in her room.

"What about a favorite thing to do when you are not working?" Lance found it unusual that someone like her did not go out that much.

He always saw Jacky as a bubbly person who was so alive and so much fun. He suspected that she must have a lot of friends besides Dani and would always be out with them.

"I don't know if you will believe me, but I don't go out much. I prefer to stay at home and locked myself in my room." Jacky confided in him. 

She was a homebody, but she also liked going out. But going out on her own was boring. The only fun she had in the past was dating. But she gave up that life. So, she had preferred her solitude.

"Well, I am indeed surprised, but I do believe you." Lance was not expecting her answer, but he was more perplexed with his reaction.

It was as if he was happy that she did not go out much or party all night long as he suspected before. He liked what he was hearing about her.

The idea of showing her around to places she had not been was becoming more appealing to him. It meant more time spent with her. 

A prospect that he was slowly looking forward to more and more.

"Well, there was a time in my life that I did enjoy the fast pace, the nightlife, and the fun of being young in this city." She began to tell him. "But Dani showed me a different life. A more peaceful one."

She felt like he deserved the truth about her. Not the illusion that she might have painted to him when she hid her past from him. If he would eventually like her, he had to know all her secrets.

"I..." Lance was about to react to her statement, but she continued before he could say more.

"I dated a lot of men, hoping to find the right one. But they all ended up wanting one thing from me. After the fun was over, it was over." She uttered hastily, not wanting her voice to fail her.

She was uncertain where all her courage to tell him everything was coming from, but she knew she had to do it. She could not live in a lie and make him believe that she was something else.

That was not fair to him, and she feared that if he found that out from somewhere else, and then he would hate her. She could not live with herself if that happened.

"I don't think that would matter much now, since as you said, it had been in the past." Lance took her hand, hoping to assure her that he understood.

He did not expect to hear that, but did that change his perception of her. He doubted it. They all had a past that they were not proud of, and the fact that she was strong enough to share hers was truly admirable.

"But it should." She insisted, knowing that what she did in the past had consequences that would follow her until the end, maybe even to her next life. 

"But if you think differently about me, I don't blame you, but that is who I was." She was not looking for his pity, but she wanted to come clean.

"I don't care about it." He finally concluded, pulling her closer to him on their joined seat and cradling her in his arms.

From the moment he met her, she had changed his belief about perfection. It was not how many things one had accomplished in life. Nor did it have anything to do with how beautiful one looked physically. It should go beyond that. 

Knowing what she went through in her young life and surviving it, owning to her many mistakes, and trying to stand up with her head still held high. To him, that should be the meaning of perfection.