Chapter 5

The Social Media Queen Gets Crowned

The rest of the week was a reality TV star’s dream as Celestina wrote, directed, and starred in her own series about being crowned a diplomat. Jenna approved thoroughly, helping her in any way she could.

They filmed a scene where Jenna formally asked Celestina to be a diplomat. They filmed her getting the diamond shaved into the top of her hair and Jenna affixing the crown to her scalp. Then she had a stylist do her hair around the crown and later uncovered the results with a fantastically fashionable flourish.

The footage was great mostly because Josh was a better cameraman than Jenna had given him credit for. They filmed introducing Celestina to the Sun Palace like she’d never seen it before. They even filmed her choosing her staff.

That was another thing about Celestina that Jenna soon enjoyed. She declined the PA which meant that Jenna did not have to give her Conrad. Jenna and Excelyn did not tell her the dirty secret about how the personal assistants operated, and they didn’t have to because Celestina didn’t want one anyway. She had brought a PA with her who was skilled on her tablet and Celestina didn’t seem to need more.

The next week, the stories aired on Interstellar TV, but it wasn’t until the last day that they showed a re-shot version of Celestina’s interview with Jenna. That was to be the crowning achievement of the week’s worth of work. That was where Jenna admitted that if Favel asked her to marry him, she would accept.

Less than an hour after the airing, Favel threw a tentacle over the edge of Jenna’s ocean entryway and came in with a wet slap on the marble. She had been sitting in the conservatory, enjoying something hot Smoothie made her when he rose out of the water.

Jenna considered herself very lucky that Celestina and Josh did not happen to be in the room with their microphones and cameras at that exact moment.

He folded two of his tentacles in half and rubbed the folds over his eyes. “Why did you do that?” he asked, sounding anguished. “I know you want a good relationship between our people and yours, but you’re an Adamis and Adamis find us… repulsive.”

Jenna set down her cup and dropped to her knees to be at eye level with him. “I don’t find you repulsive,” she said firmly.

“But you are in love with Sardius,” he groaned.

That keen observation took her breath away. He had every reason to think that after everything that had happened, but to have him tell her that in that blunt way made her feel like a tear had been opened fresh in her heart.

She swallowed the pain. “Favel, you are not repulsive and you know that this is not about that kind of love.”

Favel fussed and pulled at his face with his suckers. “I know. I know. I know. This is about diplomacy, interracial relations, political backing, and you paying your debts to those who have helped you. I know. I know. I know.”

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She asked quietly, “Have I made things hard for you? Do you not want to marry me?”

“Jenna…” he said slowly. “This situation is tight for you. Tighter for you than anyone else, and I know that marriage to me looks like a good method for easing a bit of that tension. I agree. It’s a reasonable move, but once we’ve reaped the diplomatic rewards, I worry that you will not like how I feel about you sometimes or how all other Adamis will see you for having married an Octavian.”

“How do you feel about me?” she questioned, suddenly very curious.

“I deliberately let myself go dry that day,” he admitted, sidestepping her question. “I wanted to see if you would notice I was dry and care for me.”

“That’s okay,” Jenna said. “I can be in charge of spooning water over you whenever you’re in my palace if you’d like.”

“That’s very demeaning for an Adamis woman,” he said gravely. “I wouldn’t want anyone to think that you were less-than because you did aquarium duty.”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “Is aquarium duty really dirty, gross, work then?”

He nodded pitifully.

“Like I care what anyone thinks,” Jenna retorted angrily. “I’ll pour water on you even if you don’t marry me.”

Favel gasped.

On her hands and knees, she went over to the gap in the floor that led to the ocean and put her hand in. Cupping some water, she poured it over Favel so the water covered his unblinking eyes and rolled down his tentacles.

He scrunched a little closer to the floor. “I’m uncomfortable with this. There’s already too much pressure. My people want this too much.”

“And you don’t? You want to marry someone else as your eighth wife and all of us were wrong thinking you’re available?”

“No. I’m available. I don’t like a lot of things about this. For one thing, I’m uncomfortable with the idea that I am your closest friend. We’re not that close, Jenna. You need another husband. I’m willing to propose and delight my people with our engagement, but I can’t marry you unless you get a real husband.”

Jenna nodded curtly. “I’m happy with that. Let’s go with that. Can we tell people that?”

“We have to tell people that,” Favel said waspishly. “How could I face my people when you basically proposed to me on live television? We have to get engaged. My people watch Adamis TV. Everyone knows what you’ve done. But I absolutely can’t marry you until we get you an Adamis man of your own. Somehow, we’ll get you a mate. Hell’s inferno!” he cursed. “It might take years! You’re so picky,” he moaned in oceanic agony.

Jenna agreed. She didn’t think they’d be able to find another man who interested her.

***

Celestina and Josh were thrilled to film the scene where Favel asked Jenna to marry him. It was a top-rated event on Interstellar TV the next week.

Naturally, it was scripted and not much like the scene where Favel pulled at his eyes and whined about all the stress he was under. But Jenna and Celestina wrote a script that Favel read and where he presented her with a ring that was a pearl large enough for a hole to be drilled through it to fit Jenna’s finger from knuckle to knuckle. He wore a tophat which delighted everyone who watched. Both Octavians and Adamis think an Octavian in a tophat is an adorable thing.

Jenna gushed when she opened the box containing the ring and when he put the ring on her finger, he cupped the back of her hand with one of his suckers.

It felt exactly the way Sardius said it would and Jenna had a moment where she missed Sardius badly, though by this point, those moments were coming less and less often. Days on top of days meant that she was getting better at coping without him. Ixy wasn’t half the PA Sardius was, but there were more people around to fill in the gaps. What stayed was a feeling that she wasn’t safe when she tried to sleep. If it was day and she had her duties to fulfill, she was fine, but once night came she found it difficult to relax. Sardius had made her feel so safe when he was watching over her.

Now there was nothing that really made her feel safe.