Page 79 of His Choice

Before anyone could answer, I felt two hands grip my calves.

“Let go, Mikey. I’m here,” Aaron yelled up from the basement. “I won’t let you fall.”

Cliff caught my eye, then nodded.

I released the boards and slid down against the front of Aaron’s body until my feet touched the junk that was scattered across the basement floor. Aaron pulled me tighter to his chest.

Additional floor fragments from above gave way, dropping sawdust and years of dirt on us. People came rushing down the stairs to the cellar, including the camera guy who made sure to film the entire mortifying finish.

“Make sure you get my good side,” I said, unable to find words other than a silly joke.

Aaron lightly slapped the back of my head before kissing it, despite the filth. “Stop it! You don’t have a bad side, Mikey.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Cliff

After the accident, the charity work came to a halt, but the filming didn’t. The crew tried to milk the situation for their dramatic advantage. Viewers would think the basement hazards also included venomous snakes and a raging fire by the time the footage made it out of the editing room.

While the host, Emilio, had played up the ‘heroics’ of me, the bachelor, rushing to save poor Mikey, Marv began to notice the other story that added even more interest— Aaron’s deep affection for his roommate. Every time Marv rewatched the footage of Aaron holding Mikey and kissing his head, he smiled. Marv instructed Emilio to report that a love might be brewing all right, but it was between those two.

“Are you sure they’re just roommates?” Mitch asked once all my friends and the contestants had gathered in my sunroom for dinner and drinks as a thank you for their volunteer work. To my surprise, the television crew stayed away. There were a couple of representatives from His Choice that circulated the room, though, probably to keep my guests honest on the chance one of them had learned behind-the-scenes details from other White Pines citizens during the renovation work and wanted to spill them to me.

“I’m not sure of anything anymore,” I admitted. I lowered my voice. “Since the show is ending tomorrow, I’ll share something with you guys, but do not show a reaction to what I tell you. Those goons from the program will probably waterboard you to find out what I said. There’s a secret Aaron and Mikey inadvertently communicated to James, even though their contracts forbade it. James told me, then I confronted them and they fessed up.”

Flynt’s eyebrows rose, his interest piqued. “Let’s think through what’s happened so far. What clues have they dropped?”

Adam sighed. “Or we can just let Cliff tell us, Flynt.”

“Aaron is straight,” I said.

Flynt had a ‘drats’ expression. “I was going to guess that!”

“You were not,” Josh cut in. “And I’ve been questioning the same thing as Chief Winslow. They might have told you Aaron is straight, but I think he’s into Mikey.”

I shook my head. “I know it seems that way, but that was also part of their plan.”

“What plan?” my mother asked. “There were secrets and plans, and you didn’t think to loop in the person closest to you?”

“I already said that James knew,” I replied, earning a dagger-eyed expression from her. I shook my head. “Mother, I couldn’t tell you…or any of you. I shouldn’t even be saying anything now. It’s just that the finale is tomorrow, and it probably doesn’t matter at this point. Just be quiet about it so we don’t all get in trouble.”

“Fine…after you tell us about their plan,” Simone pressed.

“Well, the producers apparently cast Aaron because they thought he was attractive and charismatic, which, of course, he is. During the individual confessions each contestant recorded an hour ago, Aaron was supposed to announce that he’s straight. The producers thought it would add drama. Had I chosen him tomorrow, it would have created controversy and had social media buzzing about the show.”

“Not in a good way,” Myles interjected.

I shrugged. “You know what they say in showbiz. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

“Hmm. Tell that to Roseanne Barr,” Simone pointed out.

Ezra glanced her way. “Or that guy who played Kramer on Seinfeld.”

She nodded and they high-fived.

I sighed. “Well, apparently these producers didn’t learn from history. Can I get back to the plan?” They nodded. “So, Aaron didn’t want to look like a douchebag who’d muck things up for the gay bachelor. He devised a plan to pretend he was falling for Mikey. He was going to make it so apparent that everyone would understand why I wouldn’t choose him in the finale. Meanwhile, he was going to alter the script of his last confession—the one he should have given a short while ago. He was going to tell viewers that his attraction to Mikey had been staged, explain why, and that because of his plan, he kept the producers from casting some other straight guy who may have tricked me into choosing them.”

“That’s nice of him, I guess,” Simone suggested.