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Willie took a deep breath before lifting his hand and knocking on the door to the Oval Office. After a moment, his uncle’s voice sounded dimly through the extra thick wood.
“Come in.”
Caleb Covington, 45th president of the United States and Willie’s uncle on his mother’s side, sounded preoccupied. Maybe he wouldn't have time for Willie and Willie wasn’t sure whether he would prefer that or not.
He didn’t like confrontations but even he knew he wouldn’t be able to run away from this one. And however optimistic Willie generally was, his optimism had fled him on this occasion. Because hoping that Uncle Caleb would be happy for him with no further notes was just too much to hope for.
Taking another breath, Willie finally pushed the door open and walked into his uncle’s office. It was still a little jarring, every time he entered the Oval Office, because it was the fricking Oval Office and what was Willie even doing here?
If it had been up to him, he would have been somewhere very far away from the White House, far from security officers and even further from paparazzi. Somewhere he could have been just some kid, skating at ill-advised speeds through the neighbourhood, recognised by only the people in his little corner of the world, not the whole globe, and only worrying about normal things.
Well, in some regard, his current situation was probably a normal thing to worry about because plenty of people all over the world at any minute of the day and night worried about their love life. But those people didn’t happen to be the First Nephew of the United States—an absolutely ridiculous title if you asked Willie, but, unfortunately, nobody had asked him. And they also didn’t happen to be in a clandestine relationship with an honest to God English prince!
Nope, this really wasn’t very normal after all.
Caleb looked up, an impatient frown on his face at his visitor’s silence. Confronted with his very often very troublesome nephew, the frown deepened.
“William. What can I do for you?” The smile on Caleb’s face didn’t reach his eyes. It was a very political smile, full of white teeth.
Willie winced and rubbed his elbow, closing the door behind him after a second. He cleared his throat.
“Do you have a moment?”
Theoretically, Caleb had. Even Willie wasn’t mad enough to just walk into Caleb’s office without consulting Caleb’s secretary first. Manolo was a bit of a creep but he had a soft spot for Willie and had assured him that Caleb’s next meeting wasn’t for another twenty minutes and that his uncle could probably spare him five of those.
Since Willie was very keen on getting this whole thing over as quickly as possible, he was okay with five minutes.
Ever aware of his responsibilities as a politician first and as an uncle second, Caleb frowned again and checked his computer.
“I can probably spare five minutes,” Caleb answered and focused back on Willie, who squirmed.
They’d been here before of course.
Multiple times. At least Caleb already knew it wasn’t anything really bad and was visibly preparing for something annoying but small.
If it had been anything critical, Caleb would already have been informed by an aide but Tia Victoria—who was not actually Willie’s aunt but Julie’s, even though she insisted on him calling her that, and who was also a rather important and scary person in president Caleb Covington and vice president Rose Molina’s campaign team—made him confess the smaller stuff in person.
Except this was also kind of critical, just not immediately time sensitive so here Willie was anyway.
Because Tia Victoria had made him come to Caleb and confess. Because Tia Victoria was rather more informed about his relationship with Prince Alexander of England than either of them had wanted her to be.
That she had also seen him naked in the process of finding out about them was rather a secondary concern.
His ears were still kind of ringing with all her rapid-fire exclamations in both English and Spanish on that occasion though.
Caleb leaned back and sighed. “Out with it.” He waved an impatient hand at Willie’s continued silence.
“It’s nothing bad,” Willie stammered and then immediately backtracked. “I mean, it’s probably campaign relevant which is why Tia Victoria said I had to tell you but only if someone finds out and we’re careful and—”
Caleb cut him off with another wave of his hand. He leaned forward again, piercing blue gaze freezing Willie on the spot.
“Start at the beginning.”
The beginning. Well, Willie could start with saying that it was actually Caleb’s fault, or the fault of Caleb’s team, really, for making him go to that stupid royal wedding, because if he hadn’t gone to the wedding, he wouldn’t have ended up covered in cake with Alex and consequently on the front pages of national and international newspapers, and if cakegate hadn’t happened, Alex and his forced fake friendship wouldn’t have happened which would have meant their real friendship wouldn’t have happened which would have meant no sex with a royal prince and no Willie standing squirming in front of Uncle Caleb.
Okay, maybe the last part would have happened anyway, just for something different because Willie was not known for staying out of trouble but very much known for attracting it.
In any case, Willie was sure he could almost feel his five minutes ticking past so he decided to be brief and to the point. For once. He straightened up, hands behind his back and focusing on a point just left to his uncle’s frowning face.
“I’m in love with Prince Alexander of England.”
Caleb’s eyebrows rushed up to meet his expensive haircut. “Is that so?”
The truth finally out there, Willie slumped a little and nodded. “Yeah.”
There was a beat of silence and then Caleb asked: “And does the prince share your feelings?”
Ah, that was the question, wasn’t it? Well, maybe not for this particular interview but it was definitely the number one question plaguing Willie’s brain. Ever since Paris.
“I think so?” he ventured.
“So the ‘we’re being careful’ statement means …?” Caleb let the sentence dangle meaningfully.
Willie sighed. “Yes. We’re sleeping together.” He resolutely refused to call it an affair even though that was probably the right term for it. He didn’t want this to be just an affair.
Caleb nodded and watched him for an uncomfortable second. “I’m almost impressed, William. A real prince, huh?”
Willie just nodded again, fiddling with the bracelets on his arm.
Caleb briefly glanced over at his monitor and then nodded. He reached for his phone and, after a second, said: “Clear up a half hour in my schedule this evening. I need to have a longer talk with my nephew. Oh, and order us some pizza, will you?”
This was probably good, right? No yelling at least. Although Uncle Caleb rarely yelled. He was more the stern and stony disappointment guy. But while a longer talk sounded bad, the pizza didn’t. So maybe Caleb wasn’t totally angry with him?
“I have to get ready for my next meeting but we will talk about this later. Let Manolo give you the time, all right?”
He seemed almost friendly so Willie ventured a small smile and a nod and then hurried out of the Oval Office.
A few hours later, he entered the Green Room and found his uncle engrossed in some papers by the low side table. There were two pizza boxes on the table, clashing horribly with the elegant furniture but being, in Willie’s opinion, the most delightful view in the whole room.
“Ah, William,” Caleb exclaimed and actually grinned at him, shuffling his papers and putting them aside.
Apprehensive, Willie closed the door behind himself and walked up to his uncle who clapped him on the shoulder and gestured towards the table.
“Take a seat.”
So Willie did.
Following his own words, Caleb settled down in one of the chairs and pulled a pizza carton closer to himself.
“Now, I want to know everything that happened.”
There was almost a gleam of excitement in Caleb’s eyes and Willie got even more nervous but he dutifully pulled his own pizza box towards himself and checked the contents briefly. Pineapple, jalapenos and mushrooms. Perfect.
Haltingly at first, Willie told Caleb the whole story. Or at least the important cliff notes version with plenty of gushing over Alex on the side. Caleb kept his comments brief, just munching on his pizza and nodding and smiling every now and then.
It seemed he really wasn’t angry with Willie for once. Some overheard remark floated back to Willie’s mind, about how his uncle was really just ‘a gossip loving bitch at heart.’ Since nothing bad had happened yet that would jeopardize his campaign, Caleb seemed content to just listen to Willie spilling the tea.
Once Willie had finished and finally paid proper attention to his pizza, Caleb dabbed at his mouth with a napkin and leaned back in his chair, his own box empty before him.
“I’m not surprised you’ve fallen in love with the prince. I imagine a lot of people are head over heels for him. Being a literal Prince Charming and all that. Although I’d always thought you didn’t like him.”
Willie, chewing and with his mouth full, just shrugged.
“I’m glad that getting to know the prince improved your opinion of him. It’s usually the other way round with celebrities, in my experience.”
Willie, mouth still full, nodded.
Caleb rubbed his temple and sighed. “Unfortunately, Victoria was right to make you tell me. Even though you’ve managed to be careful so far, these things have a habit of coming out, sooner or later. So it’s important you make a decision now.”
Willie gulped his bite of pizza down, pushing the rest away from him. He suddenly no longer felt hungry. His stomach was too full of buzzing bees.
With another sigh, Caleb leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and looking intently at Willie. “Just to make it clear, I’m less worried about my reelection campaign here than I am worried about you, William.”
Even though his mouth was empty now, Willie gulped again, fidgeting in his chair. He wasn’t quite sure why he’d have preferred it if Caleb had been more worried about his campaign but something told him that he could have taken Caleb less seriously if he had.
“What do you mean?” he croaked and then cleared his throat, trying to keep eye contact with his uncle.
Caleb leaned back again, mercifully releasing Willie from the intensity of his gaze. “Well, your sexuality is no secret so the revelation that you’re having an affair with a man is no threat to the campaign as such. Of course, given the subject of your affections, there will be quite a lot of interest regardless but more for the columns of gossip magazines. There will be some concerns, I guess, about having such intimate relations with a member of royalty from a foreign country but with Prince Alexander only being the younger prince and your own interest in politics being well documented as,” he paused, tilting his head slightly, “ slim , I think only the conspiracy theorists will try to make a big deal out of that. The rational part of the population, which is admittedly smaller than one would like it to be, will realise that the affair doesn’t threat an undue influence of foreign powers on our politics.”
Willie had been nodding along to his uncle’s words but he kept fiddling with his bracelets, eyes cast down. He didn’t like how his uncle kept referring to what Alex and he had as an affair. He also didn’t like how he seemed so sure that the whole thing would come out. True, Willie didn’t have to fear an unwanted outing of his sexuality to the world but he hated even thinking about the kind of attention that would bring him. And, of course, Alex was not out and with everything he’d told Willie, it would devastate him and bring the wrath of his family and, as he imagined, of the nation down on him.
“What I’m trying to say,” Caleb said, unexpectedly gently, “is that you should better be absolutely sure about how you feel about that boy. Because this relationship, whether it endures or not, will come to be a defining part of your life. So I guess the question is, do you truly love him? And does he truly love you?”
Willie swallowed and finally looked up at his uncle again. “I … I don’t know.”
The sympathetic expression on Caleb’s face was familiar and well used but Willie usually only saw it when there was a camera and/or reporter and/or voters involved. He fidgeted again.
“We agreed to keep it casual but … I thought there was something more happening in Paris.”
“Paris, huh?” Caleb’s eyebrow rose as the corner of his mouth dipped into a grin.
Willie bit his lip and shrugged. “I … I know, city of love and all that stuff, but I really thought we … that there was more.”
He blushed a little as the memories started flooding in. The memories of warm skin and whispered words and unhurried kisses.
Surely it hadn’t all been in his head?
“But afterwards, I don’t know. Alex …” Willie sighed and brushed a strand of hair out of his face. “It’s like he wants to make extra sure now to keep things casual.”
Other memories crowded out the soft ones. Of Alex the next morning. How the tone of his messages had shifted from the easy, open way that had first attracted Willie and made him think there was more to the prince. These days, Alex’s messages had become … guarded. He still bantered with him, still responded. Willie couldn’t really put a finger on it but he could feel that Alex was holding something back that had been present before and it made Willie want to scream.
He looked back up at his uncle, who was humming thoughtfully, stroking his chin. “Maybe you’d better break it off in that case and—”
“No!”
Caleb looked a little startled at the vehemence in Willie’s voice and Willie ducked his head apologetically.
“I can’t,” he whispered.
His uncle was silent for a long moment and then sighed. “I see. I wish you’d come to me earlier with this whole thing. Then, maybe, it wouldn’t have gotten this far. But I guess you’ll have to learn your lesson on your own. It’s an unwise relationship to begin with and it seems like you’ll get your heart broken eventually, if nothing worse happens, and I wish I could spare you that experience. But … it’s up to you.”
Willie nodded, back to playing with his bracelets. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Maybe that Caleb would forbid the relationship, in some Victorian patriarchal way. Or be more angry with him. Curse his stupidity. Somehow, the sympathy and concern were worse.
And yet. Willie couldn’t lose Alex. Despite all the very rational arguments his uncle was making.
“Thank you,” he croaked eventually and took a deep breath.
Caleb shrugged. “You’re an adult and free to make your own decisions. I can only advise you.”
“I know. But still …”
Caleb nodded and waved his hand, which Willie took as a dismissal. He piled up the pizza boxes and turned towards the door but Caleb’s voice stopped him.
“Do try not to drag this out for too long. It’ll only make it worse in the end.”
Willie nodded, not looking at his uncle, and finally left the room. Once he’d disposed of the leftovers, he made his way back to his room and flopped down on his bed, instinctively reaching for his phone. His fingers almost moving on their own accord, he swiped to his picture gallery and to the folder holding all the pictures and selfies Alex had sent him over the months and, finally, the picture they had taken together in Paris.
Two grinning faces were staring back at Willie but Willie only had eyes for one.
What the fuck had he done wrong in Paris?