I couldn't wipe off the grin on my face as I went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up to see Sha clearly bringing another woman back into the suite, from the two pairs of heels on the floor. I was glad that she was considerate enough to move it into the bedroom because I've had my fair share of seeing things I don't want to see.

I ordered room service for brunch since it was already half-past ten, and ordered for three. I freshened myself up and changed out of my pyjamas before I heard knocking on the door. I let the person come in, helped setting up the table before finally sitting down and started eating first. Who knows what time they fell asleep, plus I was hungry.

I was halfway through my charcoal waffle with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream when I heard the door creaked open. I looked up to see someone who I probably didn't want to see on this ship more than Walter. I could see her eyebrows raised in surprise as she recognised me. Well, same here. She was only wearing a bra and her underwear, plus a jacket over which I was pretty sure was Sha's.

She narrowed her eyes at me and walked towards me. "You know Sha?"

"She's my friend and my plus one," I answered her, keeping in mind that Sha was in her room. If she wasn't, I would've asked her to leave.

She nodded amusingly. "Well, I definitely didn't expect fun Sha to be friends with boring Tiana."

My mind went back to the night of the winter ball when she told me she wasn't vying for Nicandro anymore. Guess she was drunk since her bitchy attitude is back. I scoffed lightly before I saw Sha coming out of her room and quickly covered up my annoyed expression with a neutral one.

"Aw, Tiana you ordered food already!" She exclaimed and gave me a quick hug before sitting down in the middle. "I see you have acquainted yourself with Aletta already." Aletta gave me a sarcastic smile when Sha wasn't looking.

"Yeah, I have." I quickly stuffed a piece of waffle into my mouth to avoid the awkward tension.

"I was just telling her that she has chosen an amazing selection of food," Aletta spoke up and I let out a sigh of relief as she didn't bring up Nicandro. For now, at least. But the relief soon turned into frustration as I saw her reach out to Sha's hand and gave it a squeeze.

I mentally sighed. Out of all the women on the ship, Sha had to sleep with her. Why are they all touchy after a one night stand? Was the sex that good? Hell, I couldn't have known that Aletta had a thing for females...

I watched with uncomfortable eyes as Sha asked Aletta sweetly to pass her the cream cheese to spread on her bagel and how Sha helped pour the rosemary tea into Aletta's cup.

There was then knocking on the door and I thanked the lords for excusing me out of the awkward situation. I opened the door to see Perez, dressed in casual attire; a t-shirt and jeans, something I've never seen in him before and unusual to look at.

"Good morning," he greeted before his eyes drifted off me. "Is that Aletta?"

"Yeah, don't want to talk about that," I answered, closing the door behind me, only leaving a small gap. "What do you want?"

"Good job on the lip gloss and missing suit." He commended, which I gave a slight smirk in response. So it did work. "I want you to go ice skating with me. Right now." I looked at him weirdly.

"Alina is at the rink right now, so go there and shove it in her face." He explained and I nodded. "And since we are on the same side on this and are working together."

"Alright, give me twenty minutes and I'll be there." I immediately agreed. Anything to get me out of the awkward bombshell that is Sha and Aletta.

"Cool, the ice skating rink is that level two." He informed me before walking away. I took a deep breath before opening the door to see them still at the dining table, chatting away.

As soon as I closed the door, Sha practically screamed. "Oh my god! Did the prince just come to our suite?" Aletta didn't look the least bit interested, obviously.

"Yeah..." I replied, not knowing what else to say. Keeping my relationship with Nicandro with her is harder than I thought. "He asked me to go ice skating... so I'm going to change and be off."

I quickly rushed into my bedroom before Sha could say another word and changed into a pastel pink t-shirt and light blue jeans. When I got out of my room, they weren't in the living room anymore. Instead, I noticed Sha's bedroom door was closed and I heard giggling sounds.

Seriously, what's going on between them? Sha isn't one to be all cuddly with someone after knowing them for less than twenty-four hours. Whatever was going on, I hope to ask her about it once Aletta is finally out of her sight.

When I entered the ice skating complex, I spotted Perez at the rental skater boots stall, he was with his youngest brother Pascul, and I swear he had grown quite a bit since the winter ball. Surprisingly, he even remembered me.

He folded his arms. "So the surprise guest is someone who doesn't have a royal title and isn't Nicandro's girlfriend? That's kind of boring." Wow, this kid is a handful.

Perez leaned down and whispered into his brother's ear, but spoke at a volume that I could hear him as well. "That was last year, little brother. A lot of things have happened since then, so she could be Nicandro's girlfriend now."

Pascul widened his eyes with that information and looked at me with big curious eyes. "Are you Nicandro's girlfriend now?" I saw Perez's smirk on his face and knew that he did that on purpose so he wouldn't have to ask me.

He also knew I couldn't possibly lie to this adorable brother, so I answered honestly. "Yeah."

"Are you going to marry him?" The question shot out of his mouth so fast that I felt like I was hit by a huge wave. I could also hear Perez trying to contain his laughter, which I mentally scowled at.

"That is to be determined... our relationship is new so we're taking it slow," I explained to the eleven-year-old carefully.

"I'm sure when they've decided, you'll be one of the first ones to know." Perez patted his brother on the shoulders and gave me a mocking smile. "Now, go play with your friends and we'll join you later." Pascul nodded, then spotted a group of kids around his age already in the ice rink, and waved to them before walking towards them.

"About damn time you guys got together, officially." Perez gave me a genuine smile this time. I couldn't help but wonder if we could maybe become friends. It would be nice to have at least two people who like me in Nicandro's family if we were to be together in the long run.

We then had a casual conversation as I changed into skates and went into the ice rink. I had skated a couple of times before when Nikita was alive, the last time we did so was the winter when she died, it was also one of the last happy memories I had of her. It had been a few years and surprisingly, I didn't manage to fall as I skated one round around the rink.

I saw Alina with her squad and skated past her without a second glance at her while feeling her cold glare on me. I blocked out her presence, even went to chat with Pascul and his friends a little. His friends included the royalty of Sweden and Norway, thankfully I think managed to put on a good first impression. After a few rounds, Perez offered to get us drinks and snacks and I decided to skate alone for a while before joining him later on the benches at the side.

Just as I was making my way out of the ice rink, I felt someone tap on my shoulder and lost my balance when I met Walter's eyes.

He reacted quickly and held onto my arm as I regained balance. "I'm sorry that I startled you."

"It's... fine." I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I wasn't expecting to see you here." More like I hoped not to see you here.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to see you on this ship." He hesitated on if he should say the next part but he did it. "With the crown prince of Spain yesterday night, alone." Then he whispered the last part, "Which I couldn't get out of my head for the rest of the night."

I inhaled a sharp breath. "That's none of your business." A part of me wishes we were thirteen again and I could basically tell him everything that was happening in my life, but another part of me has accepted that things would never go back to the way it was.

He moved closer to me which I on instinct shifted back a little, and spoke softly. "You're right, you don't owe me anything you've got going on in your life now. But tell me this, one thing which I think deserved to know, a question that has been on my mind since we met in Singapore. All those years, did you once think about reaching out to me?"

"Of course," I answered. I've thought about you almost every single day for the first year when I was on the streets.

"Then go on a catch-up-on-each-other-maybe-romantic date with me." He surprised me by asking and gently took my hands. I laughed weakly at the method he used to try to get my attention all those years ago.

I noticed Perez had already sat down at the bench with Pascul with the drinks and food, looking in my direction. As much as I want to explain myself, I can't let him have questions about my past.

"I-I can't." I stuttered, obviously very stunned by his request. His expression immediately flashed to a hurt one. "I'm sorry, but I can't," I repeated myself with a clearer tone.

"But-" he started but I didn't let him continue.

"I have to go now, but I hope maybe we can talk sometime later?" I gave Walter a small smile which he nodded before I joined Perez and Pascul.

They already caved into their food as I arrived at the bench. Perez gestured to me to take the seat beside him, which I gladly did. "I got you a hotdog with fries and a green apple smoothie, you alright with them?"

My stomach started to grumble as I saw the meal in front of me. The brunch I had must have already been gone from all the skating I did. "Yeah, it looks amazing," I commented before stuffing myself with food. I also had some of Perez's mashed potatoes, as everything was simply delicious.

It has only been less than fifteen minutes since I sat down that I heard a voice that I had begun to hate within a short period of time. I turned around to see Alina and her squad sitting not so far from our table, clearly trying to provoke me by making her presence known.

"I hope Nicandro doesn't get forced to marry her." Pascul said with disgust. Wait, he knows about the marriage contract?

He rolled his eyes. "Don't look at me like that Alveanea. I'm eleven, not dumb."

"I'm so very sorry, your highness." I showed him my best innocent smile.

"He even scares me sometimes," Perez remarked.

"Only sometimes?" Pascul countered back.

"Alright, maybe most of the time."