I wore a hunter green dress with black leggings and boots paired with a jean jacket and a red scarf to combat the increasing chill of the Areganan October. I looked myself over in the mirror and felt grateful for my good hair day. My hair curled into loose barrel rolls and hung over my shoulders and down my back.

Let's go see Luke.

I left my room and took a flight of stairs up to Luke's floor, when who should I run into but Prince Freakin' Coleman halfway up the stairs.

OF COURSE! I thought angrily.

Prince Coleman caught my eyes in his emerald green ones, and a flashback of those very same eyes glancing at my lips flicked through my mind.

No! I chided myself. Bad thoughts! Bad thoughts!

I expected him to make some query about my casual attire and to demand to know where I was going, but he didn't say anything. He just quickly averted his gaze and rushed past me without so much as a word. And honestly, I was quite relieved. I didn't need his interrogations nor did I need to be around him when things felt so awkward. I also took comfort in the fact that maybe he himself felt strange about our almost-kiss as well.

Either that, or he'd lost interest in me since I'd shown a little interest in him.

If so, he truly was every bit the pig that the tabloids made him out to be.

He's the worst, I thought, sticking my nose up in the air. Thank goodness we didn't kiss. It would be a kiss with my mortal enemy!

I arrived outside of Luke's door, as we had arranged, and took a moment to cleanse myself of Prince Coleman's disruptive presence. I then knocked on the door, and only a moment later, it swung open to reveal the beautiful Lucas Prescott himself. He wore a long-sleeved red checkered shirt under a puffy black vest with a hood attached to the back and a pair of jeans.

"Cassie!" He smiled.

Gosh, I loved that smile.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

"I am!" We started walking away from his room and made our way to the servant's parking area. "You know," I said. "There was a lot of stuff I wanted to buy when I was with Prince Nikolas, but I resisted so as not to inflict his Princely judgment. So I've brought my money and I'm ready to spend it!"

"Well, a lot of rubbish gets sold at the festival, but you can find some gems within it," Luke said. We soon made it to Luke's bright red convertible. He opened the left-side door for me, and then climbed into the driver's seat. He drove out smoothly onto the road, so of course I had to tell him my disastrous driving story of how I almost killed Prince Nikolas on accident, which made him laugh. We drove further than I had with Nikolas, past the throbbing heart of the capitol, and finally stopped on the outskirts of the city. Luke quickly jumped out of his seat and rushed to open my door.

He's so nice to me!

Ahead of us I heard the din of the crowd and saw booths and warm lights inviting us closer. We beckoned to its call and entered the charming market. The road was clean and quaint, and while a fair amount of people milled about, it wasn't nearly so crowded at it had been the previous day when I accompanied Prince Nikolas. In my opinion, this seemed to be about a thousand times better.

"This is awesome!" I said. "Yesterday it was crazy crowded!"

"Where did you go with Prince Nikolas, exactly?" Luke asked.

"Ancell Street," I said. Luke's face twisted in horror.

"Oh, never go to Ancell Street. It's awful there. The crowds are absolutely mad. You can hardly see a thing!"

"I know!" I said. "It was super congested."

Luke shook his head. "You're quite the amateur, Cass."

"Hey! Give me a break! It was my first festival!"

Luke looked down at me and smiled mischievously. "Well, first thing's first, I'll have to buy you a headband."

"Really?" My eyes lit up.

"Of course. They're like Disney World's Minnie Mouse ears—though probably even more prominent than those. You simply don't go to the festival without a headband."

"Oh man. I had no idea. Prince Nikolas and I didn't have headbands," I admitted.

"Well, it's not that big of a deal, I suppose. I'm sure you two just looked like silly tourists who had no idea what was going and that everybody took advantage of you," Luke grinned.

               "Oh great," I groaned.

               "There, there," he said with a laugh. "You don't have to worry about that anymore, because you're with me now."

               I quite liked the way that sounded. You're with me now. I noticed a ting of pink stain Luke's cheeks, he smiled sheepishly, then led me to a beautiful booth. It held an array of beautiful headbands, and to my surprise, I found the gorgeous scarlet and gold leafed headband like the one in Ancell yesterday.

               "Look at the leafy one!" I pointed out to Luke. "They had that one yesterday. They said it was one of a kind," I laughed. "Prince Nikolas bought if for Princess Calista, since I thought that was the prettiest one."

               Luke leaned forward on the flat top of the front of that stand and looked at me with his gorgeous crooked smile. "Do you want to try it on?"

               "Yeah!" I said.

               The vendor, a kind-looking plump man, eagerly grabbed the headband and placed it on the wide wood board in front of him. Luke pushed himself off from the stand, took the leafy crown, and carefully placed it on my head.

               "How does it look?" I asked him.

Luke didn't say anything for a moment as he gazed at me intently. "It looks beautiful," He finally said.

"I have a mirror here!" The vendor interrupted, passing it to me to look into. I quite liked how it looked on my head. The vendor then engaged with another customer, and Luke asked me if that headband was my favorite.

"Yes, I really like this one," I answered.

"Well, then that's the one I'll get you," he determined.

I beamed. "Thank you." I pulled out my wallet, "but, this is kind of expensive. I don't want to make you pay for it. It's 30 crona."

"30 crona?" Luke laughed. "Please tell me you didn't pay that much for it."

I merely smiled sheepishly in response.

"Oh, Cassie! They got you so good."

The vendor finished with the other customer and returned his attention to us.

"That headband will be 20 crona," the Vendor told Luke.

My mouth dropped, and Luke laughed. "You're American," he told me. "People know they can take advantage of tourists." He then diverted his attention to the Vendor.

"I've got a budget of 20 crona for headbands today, but I still don't have one," Luke told the vendor. He pointed at a crown just like mine, but with the colors inverse. Golden leaves with red metal plating. "Throw in that second crown and 20 crona is yours."

"Two headbands? For 20 crona?" The vendor scoffed.

Luke then shrugged, and turned to me and spoke quietly—but not so quietly that the vendor couldn't hear—saying, "let's go look at some other booths, no? We can find headbands for us somewhere else."

The vendor frowned deeply.

Luke and I started to walk off when his "wait!" pierced the air.

And so, long story short, Luke got two crowns for 20 crona.

Luke paid the vendor, and then carefully placed my red-leafed crown on my head. "There," he said, looking at me carefully with his warm brown eyes, now alight with dancing golden specks from the lights of the festival. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of me before showing me the photograph.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"I love it," I said, peering at his phone. "And I think it's time for you to put on your own leaf crown." Luke agreed, and I helped place his crown on his head and took a picture of him, and then we took a selfie together before a kind passerby asked if we wanted her to take a photo of us. After our pictures were taken, with our festival headbands in tow, we began to explore the booths around us. As we walked together, our knuckles kept brushing past each other. Each and every time our hands brushed each other, my heart beat quickened. I tried to pretend that I wasn't noticing every single time they nicked each other, but I really couldn't say how successful I was. A couple of times I looked at Luke to gauge his reactions, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Cassie?" He asked after we finished looking at another vendor's products.

"Yes, Luke?"

"Can I—" he paused, and a pink tinge warmed his cheeks. "Would it, uh, would it be alright if I, uh...well, can I hold your hand?"

A flood of happy endorphins swarmed my body, and a huge grin rose on my face. In response, I intertwined my left hand with his right, our fingers interlocking, our hands fitting perfectly together.

"You may," I said, beaming up at him. That gorgeous crooked smile rose on his face, and it was basically the nail in my coffin because my heart was beating so fast I was sure it was going to explode and I was going to die.

But at least I would die happy.