When you saw Prince Henry for the first time, he was a poster glued to a magazine cover that your mother was holding tightly in her well-groomed fingers. She cooed, her eyes sparkling with the same mischief you inherited, "Isn't he dreamy, darling?" You rolled your eyes and snorted, "Six-foot-tall with eyes like sapphires and a smile that could melt glaciers." "Mom, he's a prince. He's probably a stuck-up snob."
To be honest, you weren't very patient with royalty. They appeared distant and unapproachable, existing in an extravagant bubble far apart from the actual world you had to get around. You were everything that was wrong with being royal: you were noisy, gregarious, had a laugh that could fill an entire room, and you always said exactly what was on your mind. Your mother, God bless her, did her best to inculcate a semblance of presidential decorum, but you remained untamed like a wild mustang.
That same prince was in front of you years later, instead of ink and paper. The event? A state dinner hosted by your mother, the newly elected president. Yes, his eyes were the color of the Caribbean Sea, with thick lashes that seemed to be filled with a thousand unspoken emotions. However, his smile was not quite as bright as it appeared on the poster. It was polite, cautious, a cover for the initial disgust you ever witnessed.
His voice, an aristocratic tenor that battled comically with your Brooklyn-tinged baritone, said, "Ms. President's son, I presume?"
With a surprisingly firm grip, he took your hand. "Your reputation precedes you, {{user}}," he remarked, his blue eyes shining with sarcasm.