Chapter 81 - Bad Mood

Samuel and Jeff were both waiting in the car that Lena had come in that morning. Romeo told Samuel That it would be safer for him to stay there while he waited to see what was going on with Lena.

The car was parked in a different location that than when he had come with the princess to work a few days ago. The spot that it was parked in now seemed to be a more private area of the garage.

"Heads up, it seems like your princess might be in a bad mood." Jeff warned when he caught her, Romeo, and James walking towards the car out of the corner of his eye. Samuel had to lean forward in his seat to see where they were at, by he couldn't deny that Lena did look rather pissed. Why was the question though? He didn't think it could simply be because he hadn't obeyed her when she said to go to the retail store and start without him.

Jeff had shifted into his more professional and less laid back form when he saw that Lena looked upset. There were few times that he had seen her look upset and he didn't want to do anything that could trigger it into becoming worse.

"Jeff, you're safe to go home. Romeo will give you the keys to the other and he'll be taking us since he's here." The princess ordered, noticeable tension in her voice as she spoke. She then looked over at Samuel as she got into the car. She only felt mildly better seeing that he was indeed safe as Romero had said he would.

"I thought I told you to go ahead to the retail store and I would meet you there?" 

"I was worried because you're never late for an appointment and I wanted to come make sure that you were okay." Samuel explained, keeping a level gaze with her. He couldn't deny the fact that her aura due to her bad mood was rather intimidating but despite the harsh way she was talking, he could tell it wasn't fully directed at him.

Jeff had silently left the vehicle while the princess was getting inside and talking to Samuel which just left Romeo in the driver's seat who was waiting for the directive to go ahead and start heading towards their destination.

"I told you everything was fine. I just had a business meeting that ran late thanks to an annoying client looking for a business partnership." Lena buckled her seatbelt and gave a nod of her head towards Romeo to let him know he could start driving before turning her attention to Samuel. 

"It's just from training. Clarice hit me a little harder than she had meant to one of the times when I didn't block properly. It isn't that big of A deal." He told her even though he still felt a touch of soreness in his cheek whenever he moved his face too much. 

"I guess I should presume based upon that that progress is being made slowly?" The princess asked as she loosened some of the buttons on her black suit jacket. There was no reason for her to maintain her professional image now that she was away from work. 

"I can't really say. It's only the first week of training. Clarice doesn't think that I'm making bad progress though and I'm already deciding on what goals I am wanting to aim for."

"And what goals would those be?" She asked rather interested to hear what he had decided on.

"For a short goal, I want to be good enough to defend myself and fight back in the next three weeks." He paused for a section before he said the second part. He was wondering whether she would take him seriously or not if he said it.

"For the more long term goal, I want to be on the same level as you before our engagement party." At first after he said this, the princess looked at him with a rather blank expression as though process what he said. It wasn't long however before the corner of her lip twitched, but rather than smirking, Lena actually laughed. It was a rather soft and low laugh like one would expect of someone who couldn't believe what they had just heard.

"Clarice is certainly a good mentor, but I'm not so sure about that goal you have there Sammy-boy. Especially considering you don't even know the scope of what I'm capable of." She smirked as she said the last part. At least it suited her better than the dark look that was previously on her face had.

"It's not an impossible goal to have if I'm good at picking things up quickly." He reasoned glancing out his window to see that they were now getting closer to the part of city where the retailer was located.

"Perhaps. But if we ever actually did spar, I think you would be quick to change your mind about that." The princess replied just as she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. Somehow she wasn't surprised to see that it was a call from her father. James must've reported to him what happened since Romeo wouldn't have had the chance to.

She decided to decline the call rather than answer it and texted her father to say that everything was fine and she would talk with him about it later that night since she was busy with her fiance. It wasn't like it was anything that he needed to worry himself about anyways. She could handle herself just fine. 

She would though need someone to look into who that man really was and how much trust she could put into him because right now her gut was saying she couldn't trust him farther than she could throw him and nothing good would come out of a partnership.

"Are you that much stronger than Clarice is?" Samuel's question brought her out of her thoughts and back to the present. 

"Hmm. I couldn't actually say anymore. It's been years since we've seen each other thus I'm sure a lot has changed. It perhaps would be interesting to ask her for a sparring match while she's here." Lena couldn't honestly say which one of them would end up being stronger.

Clarice certainly had years upon years more experience than the princess did, but Lena had also put a lot of time and effort into everything that she had been learning. It would be an interesting match though the princess wouldn't openly admit that she would most likely be on the losing side of it.

"A match I could watch right?" Samuel then asked.

"Perhaps if it does take place you can, it could be considered as part of your training." Lena confirmed. 

"The schedule would be flexible for that. Also, I'm glad that you seem to be in less of a bad mood compared to before." Samuel's unexpected comment made the princess realize that her bad mood had pretty much subsided.

She was still annoyed over the situation that took place and the thought that if anything had gone different Samuel might've been in trouble.

"That's because I told you it was due to an annoyance with having to deal with an annoying person looking to create a business partnership with the company." Lena replied. She wasn't one to give away too much. Plus she already knew that her father was going to have a lot of questions once they were home. 

Samuel wanted to ask another question about what had happened when he noticed that Romeo was pulling into the parking lot of a building called "Decorama Boutique". Just from the outside look of the building Samuel could tell that it was someplace he would like never be able to afford to visit on his own dime.

"We can talk more later. Right now we just need to focus on getting this taken care of. Even though they had time to shift the appointment for us, they can't put their other customers off too much either." The princess told the other as she undid her seatbelt. This was one of the few times that her influence became beneficial as they were willing to put of their other appointments for a short period of time. 

"They'll measure you first and then they'll probably ask what kind of ideas you had in mind for the design. Being honest about what you think would be good. It's for our engagement party afterall and we can afford it." Lena finished speaking as she stepped out of the car. Samuel wasn't far behind her, but he was definitely more daunted over the prospect of having to go inside.

The things that caught him off guard were usually worth some amusement to the princess and that was what was making her now give him as nudge in the lower back to get him to move forward. He could be in awe of everything later when they had the time for it.