The Cinderella Project (A Comedy of Love, #1) Read Free Page B

charming man in uniform?”
    “Because I looked like the Burger King?”
    We both laughed at my lame joke.
    I resumed. “Prince Nicholas wasted no time sweeping this girl onto the dance floor. After the most breathtaking dance of his life, he was about to sweep her into his eighty-two Datsun when the dee-jay announced that curfew had arrived with the stroke of midnight and that the lords and ladies would have to get out of the building before the janitorial crew kicked them all out.
    “As the crowd surged toward the doors, Nicholas lost sight of his one, true love. He hadn’t even gotten her name. But once again, luck was with him—she had dropped her cell phone before getting pulled into the throng. Had Nicholas not bent to retrieve it for her, our handsome prince might not have lost sight of his love. But still, he had a tie to her.”
    Then I reached the part I tended to… embellish… for her sake. “Prince Nicholas couldn’t sleep that night, knowing full well that he had no other choice but to find his true love and propose marriage to her. Before the sun had risen, Nicholas was waiting anxiously outside the classiest jewelry store in town, credit card in hand. Soon thereafter, he purchased the finest ring money could buy and returned to his royal palace of an apartment, to await the phone call of destiny.
    “She phoned him later that evening. Her wicked stepmother had been furious that Ella had lost her cell phone and had forbade her from using the home phone in order to call the cell phone and find her prince.
    “But once again, the godmother arrived to distract the stepmother and stepsister and Ella was able to escape to a local payphone, where she frantically—it was frantically, wasn’t it?”
    Ella nodded in eager agreement.
    “Right, then. Where she frantically dialed her cell number, knowing that destiny was just a call away. Sure enough, Prince Nicholas picked up the phone. The sound of her musical voice moved him nigh to tears and apparently his voice was nice enough that she didn’t assume a middle-aged stalker had grabbed her phone. They agreed to meet in a local park to declare their true love and live happily ever after.
    “The end.”
    Ella clapped excitedly for me and I bowed as best I could. Despite my overwhelming fatigue, entertaining her was always enjoyable. By now, the fireworks were in full force. I especially liked the ones that produced specialty shapes. Ella squealed and kissed me when an explosion pasted a giant, pink heart on the night sky. I laid down and she curled up beside me, resting her head on my chest as the heavens lit up in a lovely dance. Absently, I stroked her arm and felt her get goose bumps.
    “How do you still manage to do that, Nicky?” she asked in awe.
    “No idea, really,” I said. It was the plain, honest truth.
    “Nicky?”
    “Hmm?”
    “Do you love me?”
    “Of course I do,” I answered. I could already see where this was going.
    “Prove it.”
    “Um… how?”
    “Did you mean it when you said you’d marry me tomorrow if you could?”
    I blinked, caught off guard. “Well... yeah. But you know we’ve already ruled out eloping. Mom and Dad would politely kill me and I don’t know that your dad would be thrilled with it either. Besides, we still need the time to plan the wedding.”
    She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Do we?”
    I blinked again. “Um…. Did you have something else in mind?”
    She looked up at the brilliant color-bursts for a while before answering. “Nicky? I don’t think I want to get married in the winter. I don’t want holidays interfering with our anniversary. And really, I don’t want to wait that long. Let’s just do something smaller and go for October. Just think! We could be man and wife in only two months!”
    I stopped cold. Where had this come from? “Um, Ella? October is… a bit busy for me already.”
    She sat up quickly. “Why?”
    What did she mean “why”? I gently placed my hands on her