Cut it With a Knife

As the rolling land, lush forests and blue sky rolled past, Ash rode alongside the carriage, just feet from where I sat. It was the strangest feeling. Utterly surreal.

The man, the King, that I was falling in love with sat across from me, staring at me but trying not to—meanwhile he kept up polite chatter with the other woman who sat next to me. I was deeply aware that I sat alongside a competitor for his heart, but she was a woman I liked. And because she was already a nervous temperament, I could watch her tension slowly ticking up as she became aware of an undercurrent in this carriage that she didn't understand.

Because on top of all this, the woman who was supposed to be my true friend, who was supposed to want the best for me, who claimed that the King was going to choose me, but was also competing for his heart, sat next to him, staring between all three of us like she was uncertain if she was waiting for approval, or for one of us to start cursing her out.