AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Well, like I said, I didn’t really do any research,’ he admits, sheepishly. ‘I literally only saw a trailer where they were asking people to apply, and I thought, why not? It seemed as good a way of finding someone as any.’
‘I bet they loved you. A lamb to the slaughter, if you don’t mind me saying.’
‘I’ll take your word for it. To be honest, having seen how many people were applying, I reckoned I had zero chance of getting on, so I pretty much forgot all about it. Four weeks later, they rang me up and told me they’d matched me with someone called Sarah.’
‘How did you feel when they rang?’
‘I was over the moon, but also scared. Suddenly it all became real, if you know what I mean. They gave me the option of not going ahead but, once I’d had a bit of time to think about it, I decided that I should go through with it. I think if I’d have said no, I’d always have been wondering whether I’d missed out on the perfect person for me.’
‘I’m going to let you off that remark as you’d never seen the show. So, you accepted.’
‘I did, and then we had to go for a much more detailed presentation, where we had talks on safeguarding, mental health, consent, grievance procedures and that kind of thing. Basically, the production company was covering itself in case any of us turned out to be psychopaths or rapists. That’s how I read it.’
‘Still no alarm bells?’
‘No. Working in the legal profession, I would have been quite surprised if they hadn’t done it. It wasn’t all doom and gloom.’ He smiles. ‘There were also some fascinating presentations on the allowable expenses, how to claim them and so on, as well as explanations on when the film crew needed to be with us.’
‘It sounds riveting.’ I laugh. ‘Were you all together then? What was it like looking at the women and wondering which one was your wife?’
‘No, they did the sessions for the men and women separately.’
‘I guess that makes sense. It would be awful if you really took against one of the women at the presentation and then found out you’d married her! Actually, maybe it wouldn’t be any worse than the reaction of some of the people in the previous series when they first clapped eyes on their new partner. What happened next?’
‘The first thing they wanted to film was me telling my friends and family that I was going to marry someone I’d never met. Do you have any idea how much grilling you get when you ring people and invite them over to share some important news in front of a film crew?’
‘I’ve never thought about it.’
‘My mum was the worst. She kept saying, “Just tell me what’s going on, Ed. Are you in any trouble?” and, of course, I couldn’t even give her a clue.’
‘How did they react when you told them?’
‘I think it’s best described as…’ he pauses ‘…mixed.’
‘Go on.’
‘The first thing is that everyone knows something must be up, because of the whole camera crew thing, so they’re all on edge. I think my parents were hoping I’d landed some massive job that was going to make the news, so they’d geared themselves up for that and were very disappointed when I told them what I was really doing. Luckily, my sister thought it was brilliant and helped me to talk them round. My friends and colleagues at work mostly thought it was pretty cool when I told them. Luckily, I didn’t have the camera crew with me when I told my boss, as he wasn’t wild about it at all; he thought it might bring the firm into disrepute, so I had to promise never to mention where I worked on the show. My PA, Alice, was also horrified.’
‘What’s it got to do with her?’
‘Nothing, I suppose. It just surprised me, because she’s normally one of those incredibly efficient people who just get on with the work and don’t express opinions.’
‘What did she say?’
‘She basically told me I needed someone who understood the particular pressures of what I do, was prepared to play second fiddle to my work, wouldn’t make unreasonable demands on me, and that I was crazy if I thought I would find someone like that in a reality TV show.’
‘Hm. We call women like that “doormats”. How did your boss feel about the fact that you wanted, what, eight weeks off?’
‘Why would I want that?’ He looks confused.
‘When you’re living in the flat, if you make it that far, you don’t work, do you?’
‘Yes. They only film you in the evenings and at weekends. The rest of the time is yours. I arranged some remote working as I didn’t know where the flat would be, but I made it clear when I signed up that I would need to be in the office at least two days per week.’
‘Oh. The way they show it makes you think that you’re together all the time.’
‘That would be incredibly intense and not very realistic, don’t you think? Also, I can’t think of many people who can just drop their jobs for eight weeks. It would seriously limit the pool of applicants.’
‘I suppose so. So, you’ve had the interviews, they’ve matched you with Sarah, and you’ve had awkward conversations with your friends and family in front of the camera. What happened next?’
