by Sapphire

“Please, you choose.”

There is nothing quite so infuriating as a man determined to be agreeable. Prince Marus refused to state any kind of opinion on anything! I asked what he wanted to see of the city.

“Whatever you like,” he said.

I asked what kind of food he’d like. If there was a restaurant he’d like to visit.

“Whatever you’d prefer.”

Honestly, I’d have preferred to be home eating cookie dough and watching romantic comedies. I’d have preferred to be giving a concert somewhere, in summer heat, with my makeup beginning to smear because it’s so hot and I’m moving around so much, with my fans screaming and a roadie named Bruce holding a towel for me to mop off the sweat when I have a chance. I’d even have preferred to be chasing Foxbat around City Hall in the midst of a vanilla pudding attack. But we’d already taken care of that problem.

“We should do whatever you enjoy doing,” he said. Then he smiled, sphinx-like, and watched me squirm. I’m sure he enjoyed it.

“Fine,” I said and smiled sweetly at him. “We’re going shoe shopping!”

Before he could say anything, I headed out of City Hall. I figured it would be up to him to keep up.

Hearing him behind me, I leapt off the first step and began to fly. “This way!” I glanced at him over my shoulder. He had a frown knitting his brows together, instead of the usual obnoxious smile. Good.

And off we went to the mall. Which turned out to be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I do love shoe shopping. And it’s nice to have a man along to carry all of your purchases – I have to admit, I was totally looking forward to piling him high with boxes to carry. On the other hand, all of the women in the mall were just drooling over him. As if they’d never seen a bare-chested underwater superhero prince before.

It was bad enough walking through the mall, with all the women ogling him. It’s not that I’m unfamiliar with crowds, or getting lots of attention. I’m used to having to make my way through an adoring throng whenever I got out shopping. But I’m used to that throng adoring me. It was as if I wasn’t even there! Teenage girls looked at him and giggled. One business-suited female executive took one look at him and dropped her purse. And he, the cad, picked it up and handed it back to her with a smile!

But then we got to the shoe store. I swear, every woman in there just clustered around him, like bees around a flower.

“Excuse me,” I said to one of the employees. “Excuse me, I’d like to try on some shoes.”

She ignored me.

Marus touched her shoulder, “I believe my companion would like to take a look at some of your wares,” he said to her.

“Oh. Oh. Of course!”

Fortunately, when we got down to the issue of actually trying on shoes, she was all business. She showed me thigh high boots (which I’m rather fond of), and close-toed stilettoes, and jeweled flip flops. Through it all, Prince Marus stood there, with a rather blank smile pasted on his face.

You see, it works every time. Take a man shoe shopping, and he will completely zone out and wish he were nearly anywhere else. Some of them get grumpy. Some, like Marus, are determined not to let you know how annoyed they are. But that was fine with me. It was much nicer than carting him around town and hearing him be so agreeable.

“Well,” I said, stretching out my leg to show off the latest strappy sandal I’d tried on, “what do you think?”

“I think it looks –“ he began in a bored voice, and then he actually looked at the shoe. “What?!” He grabbed hold of my ankle. “Where did this come from?” He was furious.

“Woah, relax. I didn’t realize you had something against strappy sandals-“

“Where?” he demanded, dropping my foot. He turned to the shop assistant. “Where did you get these?”

The poor woman cowered.

“Good grief, Marus! Stop terrifying the girl.” I stood up and put my arm around her shoulders. “And where do you get off getting angry about my shoes?”

“I don’t care about your shoes!” he said, advancing on us.

I pushed the girl behind me and stood, nearly nose to nose with him. “Then why are you angry?!”

He froze, staring into my eyes. I have to confess, I felt fully alive at that moment. Facing down this angry, intense man was invigorating. He was so close, I could feel the heat from his skin.

He broke the gaze and stepped back.

“My apologies. But the metal on those shoes, it’s Oricalchum. Atlantean Orichalchum. I need to know how it got here…”

I stared down at my feet. The green tinged links were beautiful. Oricalchum? The mystic metal, so rare and precious wars had been fought over it?

“How in the world did it get into a pair of shoes?” I said aloud.

“That’s what I need to find out,” Marus said grimly.

To be continued…