Chocolate and Chill

Time passed quickly.

Both Lydia and Lorelei settled into their own lessons. Nico continued to teach Lorelei about modern things. Sara continued to teach Lydia about being a noble. Since the maid incident about two months ago, nothing had really gone wrong. They still didn't know how the switch had started, but that didn't seem to be a problem so far. As far as Lydia was concerned, everything was fine. That was it. The End.

Well, if things did end that way, there wouldn't be much of a story, would there? That's how Lydia found herself sitting at her dining table with Nico. The two of them were catching up over dinner before Lydia went to sleep. Deep in conversation, Lydia had just asked Nico how Lorelei's lessons were going.

"Great!" Nico said, stuffing his face with spaghetti noodles. "I swear, though, Lorelei's still so. . . refined. I wish I could get her to loosen up a little."

"How is being refined a bad thing?" Lydia asked.

"Right, I forgot you've never seen her," Nico said. Leaning back, he set down his fork, noodles still attached. "I mean, being refined isn't really the problem. She's just so stiff that she seems more like a robot than a person."

"I'm sure she'll relax in time," Lydia said.

"It's been two months!"

"Oh, yeah," Lydia said. "Well, what if you gave her something she liked? Set up something nice."

"What does she like?" Nico asked. "She doesn't really talk about herself that much."

The two of them spent the next few minutes planning out ways to help Lorelei feel comfortable. Since Lydia had been pretending to be Lorelei, she knew a bit more than Nico did. After they finished their nearly forgotten spaghetti, they set up what they had planned. Afterwards, Lydia went off to bed. Tonight would be a great time, for her and Lorelei.

Everything started out great.

Lydia was laying on Lorelei's bed nibbling on chocolate. This wasn't the cheap kind she had back home, though. No, this stuff was the real deal, gourmet and everything. Lydia closed her eyes as she savored the pieces melting in her mouth.

The food had been a reward for her progress. At this point, she and Sara had basically moved from etiquette to general knowledge. In the past two months, Lydia had learned geography, history, and trends, among other things. The next lesson, if Lydia recalled correctly, had to do with understanding how noblewomen spoke or something. Or maybe it was how to handle a rude noblewoman?

Lydia was still thinking about that when a sharp knock sounded at her door. Who could it be this late at night? "Enter," she said. I sound so regal when I say that.

Bursting through the doors was Count Jason Terrtrove himself. The man looked just as insanely handsome as before. This time, he had his hair down, the locks spilling around his shoulders. His baby blues looked just as fabulous. Jason was angry though. Why was he angry?

"May I help you?" Lydia asked, feigning neutral disinterest.

"Leave," he told Sara. It didn't take long for her to make herself scarce. "What were you thinking?!" Jason was fuming.

Lydia thought about it but couldn't really find anything. Most nights, Lydia just stayed with Sara learning things. She hadn't really done anything special since the maid incident, but that was too long ago for him to be mad now. So what was it? There wasn't much Lydia could have done anyway, given how late it was.

Apparently, Lydia took too long, which only made Jason more upset. "Lorelei, this is serious!" Jason exclaimed. Suddenly he paused, taking a deep breath. "Look, I understand that you and Lady Sophia don't get along. You have every right to hate her after. . . what happened. Even so, she is still a noble. You can't treat a noble like you did today."

Well, that was a lot to unpack. First, the contractions he used told Lydia that Jason and Lorelei were closer than she'd originally thought. More importantly, this event had happened during the day, which meant that this was Lorelei's deal. Lydia would have to talk pretty carefully to get out of this one.

"And I was supposed to let her get away with no repercussions?" Lydia asked, going full improv mode.

Jason looked at her. "You dumped the whole teapot on her dress."

"And?"

"It was still steaming," Jason added.

"And?"

"If I heard correctly," Jason said. "You proceeded to call her a 'dimwit, low-life cow'. You then proceeded to retract the cow part because that would mean that she was at least good for something, is that correct?"

Good God, Lorelei, what happened? Lydia didn't need to be a noble to know that was a bad idea. If firing maids could screw up a reputation, she couldn't imagine what that would do. Regardless, she still had to get through this.

Looking straight at Jason, Lydia sighed. "Given what she did, I'd say she deserved it."

Jason sighed tiredly. "Lorelei, you can't just. . ." Good grief, that man loved to talk. Ignoring him, Lydia grabbed a piece of chocolate and shoved it in front of his face.

Jason stopped, confused. "What is this?"

"Look, I'd apologize, but I'm not sure it'd be sincere." Since Lydia was technically speaking for Lorelei, that was completely true. "For now, eat some chocolate."

"Why?"

"Chocolate makes everything better," Lydia said simply.

Jason considered the piece for a bit before eating it. Unfortunately for Lydia, he took it straight from her fingers to his mouth. He looked up at her as he chewed, nodding at the taste. To him, the whole thing was probably a normal couple thing. To Lydia, it felt more like that one scene in the romance novel. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Romance novels had a heck of a lot of drama in them.

Popping another piece for herself using her other hand, Lydia sat back again. As glad as she was that she'd gotten out of things, it still didn't make sense. Sure, Lorelei had yelled at a few people in rage, but only the ones who'd been jerks to her first, and even those people didn't have hot tea splashed on them. There had to be a reason for what she'd done. Only Lorelei could tell though, and Lydia was definitely not her.