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Dance practice went about the same as it had previously, minus the fact that Lena was not so harsh with where she put her feet even though she still insisted that she was one to take the lead in the dance. Samuel didn't object as he had already expected this, though he had hope that she'd notice that he had been taken some time to practice when he was back with this family. They had an old family friend who used to run a dance studio before he retired.
Samuel had initially been willing to pay him to ask for help in learning how to dance better, but the man insisted that he would do it for free as he was just excited to have someone young like him who was interested in ballroom dancing. Most of the younger kids around his age apparently had no such interest in learning as they didn't think it was something they would ever be using. Samuel had been of the same mindset as well until he met Lena. The princess's stepping on his foot none-too-gentle brought him out of his thoughts with a hiss.
"While I appreciate that it's evident you've been working to improve your ability to dance. I would also appreciate if you would stay present while we're dancing and I'm trying to talk to you." Lena told him as with annoyed look.
"Sorry, I was just thinking how I never thought that this was something I would have to learn how to do even knowing about the arranged marriage." He apologized as he tried to put his focus back on what they were doing.
"Well now that you do, I suggest keeping better focus on it. It's not something that you will be having to do often yet at least. In the future though, there'll be a lot of events we'll be attending that will require you to know such skills." Replied. She was mildly surprised that he didn't seem to be having as much of a problem with following her movements even though he had been lost in thought while she was trying to talk with him.
"What I had been trying to ask you though was if you had a preference for the music or dance that we should focus on for the engagement party?" he frowned when she asked.
"Do we actually get to chose what we want to do?" He asked.
"Yes. There's no dance that's particularly traditional to the family in terms of engagement or marriage. The preferred choice of music is perhaps limited to what would be suited for this type of dancing, but the dance itself is up for debate." The princess replied as she led him through an underarm turn. This was one part where Samuel was still awkward about it. Of course, the height difference between him and her didn't help as the turn was more awkward to do because of this.
"Is there something that you would want to do? You refer to me in a lot of this, but don't you have your own ideas about what you might want to do?" He asked instead of giving her an answer. She made a noise in the back of her throat that sounded like an objection to his question.
"I refer to you because I don't have any thoughts on the matter, and I don't know if you do." She replied. It was true, there hadn't been a time in the past where she had given much thought in what she thought having an engagement party or wedding would look like. Unlike her peers, it wasn't something that she had much of an interest in.
"I get that there are a lot of girls my age who have every little detailed planned out about what they
want, who will be attending and how things will go, but I'm not one of those people." She clarified.
"For me, I see it as something that happens as part of the process of getting married and the act of it happening is part of my family's tradition. What goes into though has always been left for the couple to decide on."
"I guess that I would need some time to think about it then. I haven't given it that much thought either because I didn't know what to expect and I can't say designing is my specialty."
"We have two weeks to figure everything out before we'll be getting pestered about what our plans are and how we intend to go about everything." She thought that giving him an outline would him to think about it more seriously.
"But that isn't actually when the engagement party will be taking place, right?" He clarified. He thought that they had more time than that and didn't think that he would be mentally prepared if they were to be expected to have the official engagement party in only to weeks.
"No we have more time than that before the party itself will be taking. That's just the timeframe to make sure that everything will be finished and setup the way we want it to be in time. We also have to get my father's approval to make sure that it isn't anything too outlandish." The princess explained. Their conversation came to an end after this because Santi decided to intervene in their dancing to critique them as he felt that their movements were becoming sloppy rather than as dignified as he was supposed to make sure that they were.
By the time that they had finished, Lena had somehow missed three different calls and a number of text messages. She had forgotten that she had muted her phone that morning because she wanted to be able to focus on other things for a while. The least important call came from her secretary letting her know that he had found a number of people he thought she would approve of to help her investigate the financial matter at work. She could look through this latter. A second call came from her father letting her know that he wouldn't be coming back until the evening, but there were things they needed to discuss later that night. The third call came from an unknown number that had left a blank voicemail.
Her initial thought was to ignore it and delete it, but a second thought made her reconsider this. The text messages were what surprised her most- Clive's wife had given birth to their daughter. It was too many weeks too early, but he assured that both his wife and child were fine. The rest of the message came from other members of staff that were included in the group chat along with one from her father. She would have to think about paying him a visit later.
The princess had been looking forward to the cup of coffee she expected to find her office when she got back. However, she was lead to disappointment when she saw that tea had replaced the anticipated dark, heavily caffeinated liquid and the note that had been placed under it didn't help fix her food.
"You're far too young to be drinking so much coffee Princess. Instead, try this tea, it'll be much better for you - Ryan.
She would have to have a discussion with him about this latter she thought with a sigh as she picked up the cup. It wasn't going to be as good as coffee, but she wouldn't let it go to waste.
