"It will benefit me too," he told her. "If I'm seen as taken, I won't have to spend as much time fending off social climbers, looking for princess status through marriage."
He wasn't so naïve he thought that the appearance of him having a girlfriend would stop all of that, but it would help.
"That's great for the women you don't want to date, but what if you meet someone you want to? What if Blythe changes her mind? She came back last night."
"First, if either of us meets someone we want to get to know better, we'll tell each other and do a subtle shift in our public relationship persona. Agreed?" Else was more likely to meet someone than Tor was, but he didn't tell her that.
He added, "As for Blythe, she wanted to apologize, not set up a date with me."
"An apology means she cared she hurt your feelings."
"She did not hurt me," Tor immediately denied. "She offended me. I realized that she does not know me at all."
"Well, to be fair, none of you Asgersen princes are that easy to get to know."
Tor shrugged. If Blythe had really been interested in him, she would have taken the time to learn at least some basic things about him.
She had not.
Which meant that no matter how attracted they were to each other, she wasn't interested in dating him.
He was too young. Too spoiled. Too unimportant in the scheme of her life.
"Whatever you are thinking, stop."
"Why?"
"You've got that look."
"What look?"
"The one you get when you start pushing everyone away. You did it after your mom died. You did it after your father's heart attack. You—"
"Stop with the litany of my life. We were six when my mom left. Don't pretend you remember what I was like."
"But I do."
"Right."
"People make mistakes, Tor. You do get that don't you? Mistakes they regret later."
Since he had never seen regret from anyone in his life who had relegated him to the designation of unimportant, Tor didn't agree.
Oh, he knew people made mistakes, but he was not convinced they saw the same actions as mistakes as he did, or that they regretted those actions.
His announcement at dinner went over about how he had expected it to.
At least with his father, who said he liked Else quite well and her parents were good connections to have.
Of course, the former king, approved. The Kirksons were not Tapt Oyerian nobility, but they were part of the royal set. Though Tor suspected Else's mother would be a lot happier if the family had a title attached to their name.
Tor merely inclined his head, not really concerned with his father's viewpoint on an alluded to, but fictitious relationship.
"I am surprised you're giving up your gap year," His brother, Geir, frowned. "You fought hard for that."
"I will be able to spend both years of graduate school with Else this way."
"I thought your interests lay in another direction." Geir did not look down the table at Blythe, who would be flying home the next morning. Tor's middle brother was far too sophisticated for that kind of obvious action, but the look he gave Tor was unmistakable. "I always thought you looked at Else as more of a sister."