Ninth Meeting

“The prince is such a nice young man,” Lady Grey commented on the journey home.

Edward waited for his father’s response. At the castle he had appeared more open to accepting Sebastian as his future son-in-law. Now he would find out if that was true or if it had been an act.

“He was pleasant this time and seemed to have our son’s interests at heart,” was his father’s reply.

That didn’t quite sound like approval. It was a very neutral answer. Given what he had said about Sebastian in the past, it was quite an improvement.

“You can just say that you like him,” his mother sighed. “He was much better this time in every way. I have become fond of him.”

“You’re very easily swayed,” Lord Grey pointed out with a judging glance at her.

He turned the car onto the motorway and Edward knew he wouldn’t respond to anything for a while. His father was always very serious about driving on the motorway.

“I see that you two get on well,” his mother said and turned to look around at him from the front seat.

Had she seen the hand holding? Edward was beginning to feel uncomfortable under her gaze. He didn’t know why he had accepted the hand holding. It had been one sided hand holding, he hadn’t grasped Sebastian’s hand in return. He reminded himself that they had been in a completely different part of the garden to his parents, no one would have seen them holding hands.

“I found that he improved after the first two meetings,” was his diplomatic answer.

It was a very safe reply, a neutral one like his father’s. His mother nodded and seemed to accept his reply.

“I am somewhat looking forward to having him in the family. Of course, I would have liked it to be your choice. I think you two would have gotten along better from the beginning if you had met in a natural way.”

That was an interesting point. Their paths would have crossed in the future at social gatherings. They both moved in high social circles. The palace sometimes held charity events which was how his father had been there a few times. He would have eventually met the prince at some point. Then again the prince would have his public persona switched on and wouldn’t be his natural self.

Had he even seen Sebastian’s true personality yet?

His mind was confused on what to think of the prince. Sebastian was most definitely interested in him as more than a friend, the hand holding had been another clue. He still didn’t feel like reciprocating as he wasn’t sure about his own sexuality yet.

He needed to work out his feelings soon before he was too deep into royal affairs. There wouldn’t be any room to explore his sexuality when he was known to the public as Sebastian’s fiance. He needed to decide soon.

Edward made a face and put his earphones in. He didn’t want to think about Sebastian anymore. He wasn’t like teenage girls, he didn’t want to fantasise about being married to the prince.

***

“Are you free tomorrow night?” Hayden asked. “I’m going somewhere exciting. I wondered if you would want to come with me.”

Edward looked over at his best friend with interest. Hayden always had something exciting lined up in life. He was envious of him. He only had his arranged marriage in his future and he wasn’t looking forward to it. He wasted a moment thinking of how annoyed Hayden was going to be when he was announced as the prince’s fiancé in September. Hayden hated being kept in the dark.

“Where are you going?” he questioned.

He took a long sip of water. It was a hot day and he had just finished his match. Hayden had come along as a substitute and to cheer him on.

“You know that really popular nightclub in the city centre?”

“Nightshade?” Edward said.

He had yet to go to a nightclub. It was considered a rite of passage after turning 18 by some people, but his parents didn’t encourage going to nightclubs, even the exclusive ones.

“That’s the one,” Hayden replied with a grin. “I got tickets to the VIP area. Did you want to come? I’m going with my cousin and his friend. There’s a spare ticket. You can sleep at my house so you don’t need to worry about getting home at a decent time.”

Edward considered it carefully. He didn’t have any plans in the next few days. There was no planned meeting with the prince and he didn’t have any matches. A very late night wouldn’t mess anything up.

“There will be lots of cute girls,” Hayden reminded him. “Cute boys too if that’s what you’re into. Do you know yet?”

“Not yet,” he sighed.

“All the more reason to come then,” his best friend said and grasped his shoulder. “You won’t find out if you don’t go anywhere to meet different people.”

Edward made his decision then. He did need to do some exploring before the announcement of the marriage in September and ideally before he met the prince again.

“I’ll accept your invitation,” he said. “What do I need to wear?”

***

Edward’s first impression of the nightclub was noise. He hadn’t expected the music to be so loud, he could feel it pounding the floor through his shoes. The lights flickering around the dance floor were blinding at first.

Hayden said something and he struggled to hear him.

“I said, let’s get a drink first,” Hayden said loudly in his ear. “You’ll get used to the noise and lights eventually.”

Edward followed Hayden and the others to the bar area where it was quieter and much less chaotic.

“Should we get a Jagerbomb?” Hayden asked.

“I’m not dragging you home,” Edward replied immediately.

He had been to Hayden’s 18th birthday at his manor and knew what a lightweight his best friend was. It was lucky the party had been at his house as he had only had to drag his best friend up the stairs to his bedroom. He didn’t want to drag Hayden back through the city centre and to his home.

“That’s true. We’ll go with something light for the first round.”

Edward sat down on one of the bar stools with his drink and looked at the people around. There was a group of loud girls at a nearby table. One of them was very pretty yet he didn’t feel any attraction.

He looked around for different people. There was a group of boys at the other end of the bar. There were a few attractive ones and one who looked to be gay mainly because, he was giving him the once over. Edward tried to feel interest and felt nothing again.

He had undeniably reacted to Sebastian once he had become friendly though.

It was strange that he only felt a reaction when it was Sebastian.

He reminded himself that two people wasn’t much of a sample size and he had a whole evening to see other people.

“That guy over there is giving you the eye,” Hayden told him quietly.

Edward glanced over in the direction Hayden was indicating. There was indeed an mildly attractive man who looked to be his age, staring at him with interest. Edward tried and felt nothing again.

“I’m not interested,” he said.

“Okay, there’s a hot girl over there looking over at you.”

Edward checked in that direction. As Hayden had said, there was a pretty girl looking over at him. Their eyes met and he tried to feel something. Nothing came.

“I’m not feeling her either,” he admitted.

The two of them spent the next hour checking people out whilst Hayden’s cousin and friend went off to dance. By the end of the hour Edward had given up and Hayden had lost steam.

“So, do you like anyone then? Maybe you’re aromantic then,” Hayden suggested. “They don’t have romantic interest in anyone.”

That was a good suggestion that would explain his lack of attraction to anyone in the nightclub. It just didn’t explain his heart’s reactions to Sebastian.

“I might have felt interested in someone last week. I wasn’t sure how to interpret it at the time,” he explained.

Hayden put his arm around him.

“I see now. You wanted to see if you felt the same thing for other attractive people,” he replied. “Is this person male or female?”

“Male.”

“So you could be gay then,” his best friend summarised.

That didn’t feel right. He hadn’t found any man in the nightclub gay or not, attractive.

“I don’t know if that’s right either,” he replied. “I’m very confused about my feelings. I don’t have much time left to find out.”

Hayden took that in his stride.

“Right. I don’t know why you have a time limit, I’ll do my best to help though. Perhaps you’re just gay for this person then? It can happen.”

Edward analysed that suggestion. He definitely wasn’t finding any females attractive in a romantic way and the only man that had evoked a reaction was Sebastian. There was some truth in Hayden’s idea.

“I think you could be onto something there,” he agreed.

Hayden took a long chug of his drink and grinned at him.

“Of course! Do I know this person?”

Edward answered the question truthfully.

“You do know this person,” he paused. “Are you going to remember this conversation in the morning?”

Hayden downed the rest of his drink.

“Probably not. Is it someone from school?”

“No. You’ll find out who it is in two months.”

Hayden looked at him in confusion.

“I think I’m too drunk to work that one out. Let’s go dance.”

Edward let Hayden lead him to the dancefloor. The noise and lights were more bearable now that he had worked out his romantic problem.

***

Sebastian rearranged the cakes on the cake stand for the third time in the past five minutes with a healthy amount of nerves. Edward was due to arrive very soon and he wanted everything to be perfect for him.

He sat down again and tried his best to not look like he had been eagerly waiting for Edward to come.

His secretary’s head soon became visible above the bushes of heather close by and he smiled when he saw who was with his secretary.

Edward was wearing his usual smart black trousers, but this time he was wearing a green shirt that looked nice with his green eyes.

Sebastian stepped forward and bowed. He would have to refrain from hand kissing until Ryan had gone.

“Good afternoon, Edward,” he said. “Please sit down and have some tea with me.”

“It’s nice to meet you again,” Edward said with a smile.

Ryan nodded at both of them.

“I will return to collect Edward when it’s time,” he said. “I will leave you two in peace now.”

Sebastian waited until Ryan was out of sight before kissing Edward’s hand. The look on Edward’s face was unreadable this time. Sebastian didn’t know how to interpret it.

“How have you been?” he asked. “Have you parents talked about me?”

He was very keen to know how Edward’s parents viewed him now. He had worked hard to try to change their impression of him. It had been obvious that they hadn’t held him in high regard during his first visit to the Grey house.

“My parents have indeed talked about you,” Edward confirmed. “My father appears to be converted.”

Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief. He had persuaded the iron willed Lord Grey into liking him. He had pulled off the impossible. There was the matter of Edward’s lack of romantic feelings, but that was a different matter right now.

“I’m happy to hear that. You don’t know what it means to me.”

“Why does it mean so much to you?” Edward enquired. “It’s not like you really want to marry me.”