Chapter 203 - The Day Before

The day before the engagement party was slightly less stressful for Lena as the things that she had to focus on was stuff that she was familiar with for past events. The only difference was that it was going to be focused on her this time rather than another family member. 

Meals took a while longer to be ready as Ryan was away setting everything up for the event and making sure that he had all the pieces he needed which meant that it was up to the rest of the kitchen staff to take care of meals. Having always had someone in charge of them to instruct them what to make left them feeling a little lost on how to do the menu for the first day.

The chef remedied this quickly by leaving them a list of ideas to refer to that hadn't been on the menu rotation yet. Samuel had offered to help as it had been a while since he had last been able to cook for the princess. They kicked him out of the kitchen however as they thought it would be unacceptable for the fiancé to be doing so much the day prior to his engagement when there was likely more important things to focus on. 

He didn't quite know what he should be focusing on however. Everything had already pretty much been taking care of ahead of time beyond getting the venue ready. He head already reviewed a number of the guests that he knew would be coming and Zane had went through with him who out of list would the most important ones to remember. 

The unspoken part that he understood was that a number of these people within the mafia families were rather intimidating individuals who he would best not get on the wrong side of if he didn't want to have to face consequences. That would require a lot of work on his persona not come across as too laid back and friendly. 

He might have held a high position within the Vedova Nera, but none of the people who would be attending the party would know that. They'd just knew he was one of the one family members which would leave him open to facing repercussions if he wasn't careful. 

Considering the event, there would be more grace given to Samuel's side as other families would be expected to be on better behavior because of how special it would be. Afterwards however, things would change and offenses weren't easily forgotten or forgiven even if they happened on accident. 

Jovani had done his best to prepare the other for a number of things. Some things though could only be taught through trial and error even if some of the lessons weren't that savory to have to deal with. The older cousin partly knew though that there wouldn't be much that he would have to worry about considering how Lena was. He had a good idea that anyone would have to go through her before they could touch her fiancé regardless of whatever offense he had committed. 

Lena had been in her father's office with him going over a few things when Samuel knocked on the door and entered. The princess didn't bother looking up at him, but Zane did. 

"Is there something that you need?" He asked the younger man who came to sit down next to his daughter. 

"I just wanted to make sure that nothing else is being forgotten on my end or something that I should do before tomorrow." He replied. He felt rather left out still even though he was more a part of the family than before as it seemed likely everyone else was doing something except for him. 

"There isn't really anything for you to do, except that make sure you have everything on-point and ready for tomorrow." The other replied as he handed another card to Lena. They were going through to make sure that they had all the thank-you cards ready since they knew that there would be a large number of gifts coming through tomorrow and it was part of the tradition within the Red Scorpions to exchange a card of thanks for the gift to let the other family know it was well accepted. 

"Since this is your first time doing something like this, the important thing is for you to watch everything that's going and learn so you can handle events like this in the future." Zane explained as Lena sealed the card and set it off to the side with the rest. 

"You'll be working towards taking over the Vedova Nera family which means you'll be having to orchestrate a number of events like this in the future for that family as well." He continued before looking up at the other. 

"Don't worry if you feel like you're out of place or there's so much going on around you yet you're not doing anything. You don't have the same job nor are you expected to do as much as everyone else." 

"I'm just used to things being different for events within my own family. It's more of a intimate thing so everyone takes part in what they do." Samuel explained. It was at least how he remembered things working out when his cousin had gotten engaged. Everyone did their part to put the event together. 

"You'll have to wait for that for when the wedding happens. Most of it will between us to figure out how we want to do it and what we want it to look like." the princess told the other, leaning back in the chair as she took a break from getting the cards together. 

"There will be far less people involved outside of true family beyond those who are considered close enough friends to be family. You'll have to be the one to decide on all of that though. I don't think that will be something I'll much more interest in." 

"You'd be okay with anything that I chose to do?" Samuel asked, getting a 'don't push it' look in return from the princess. 

"Within reason.." She replied before turning her attention away from him, missing the small smile that was on his face.