Malee wanted to protest but before she could say anything, she was in the George’s room. It was still messy as ever with papers lying on the floor as both Mary and Malee were out shopping with Georgia. Malee reminded herself to clean the room in the morning as she was pulled to the table behind the drawing board.

“Sit. Tell me everything. What happened today?” asked George.

Malee took a deep breath in and told him of all that she had encountered that day, including her finding out that he was a prince. George smiled.

“You didn’t know?” said George. He must have thought his face was everywhere in the slums around the country. In fact, he was indeed popular as he imagined but hardly anyone had seen his face before. A lot of people would be surprised to know that they were living only a few streets away from a real-life prince and princess. Malee wondered George was asking her all those questions because he wanted to know what happened after he left the beach villa or he was bored of not able to talk to anyone for the whole day. He closed his eyes for a few moments before asking an another question to Malee.

“You know they are arranging me to marry a princess from Europe right? What do you think?”

“I think, I think it is fated.” replied Malee. She wasn’t too much into religion before but after seeing how much better George and Georgia’s lives were compared to most of the people she had seen, she began to have more faith in fate. George could have killed her right in that spot and yet nobody would ever find out about a missing servant girl from the slum. It was an encounter between a boy who could have anything he commanded and a girl whose life was no more than a figure in the government statistics.

“You have never seen her before?” asked Malee. Surely, he must have seen her photos or paintings?

“No. I can’t find her picture anywhere on the web as well.” sighed George. Malee wondered what web he was talking about but decided to ignore it.  George continued his speech.

“What if I don’t like her?” said George. Malee finally understood why George seemed down and frustrated those days. He was frightened of being with someone he wouldn’t like.

“But George, I am sure you will like her after you are married. I am sure she is like …” said Malee before stopping. She wanted to say the princess would be like his sister, Georgia , but she wasn’t sure someone like Georgia would suit George. George didn’t like being controlled and George would like nothing more than giving orders to everyone she met with. She was more like the mistress, but George, from what little Malee had heard, was more like his  biological mother, an independent person. After all, he went to the slums and then police station to help a mere servant girl.

“She is like?” asked George, looking at Malee’s eyes, waiting for her to complete the sentence. Malee tried to think of how she could complete the sentence without making the situation worse but thankfully for her, the door opened with Mary standing in front.

“What are you two doing? It is 1 in the morning.” said Mary, rubbing her eyes. She must have been worried that there was no sound of Malee coming back to her room after answering the phone and then seeing the light under George’s room when she came up the stairs.

“No nothing. I was bored so I asked Malee to talk to me for a while. Good night.” replied George in a hurry as he retreated into the inner room, leaving Mary wonder what was the conversation between Malee and him. But she was too tired and sleepy from the day activities to ask further questions and quietly left the room with Malee and went back to their respective rooms for a good night sleep. It was only when the alarm rang that morning that she woke up and went into Malee’s room, wanting to ask her about the events in the previous night. But the bed was empty and Malee was nowhere to be seen in the room.