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I groan. “Let’s just move on to the next date.Please.”
“You’ve got to expect some physical affection from these girls.”
“But sliding her hand down my pants, Tiff? I’m all for intimacy, just not so desperate and not on camera.” I huff.
She shakes her head and walks off. She’s enjoying this a little too much.
The next few dates pass by in a blur and before I know it, it’s another day of filming. I can barely distinguish one girl from another at this point.
Salty water drenches me as the boat accelerates. This is supposed to be romantic, apparently.
I plaster a smile on my face and laugh. At this point I’m doing it just for Tiffany.
I did internally decide to try and make the best of it, but it’s hard.
I look at the woman at my side, laughing as she gets splashed with water. I believe her name is Caitlyn. She looks like she’sgenuinely having fun. I can’t remember the last time I had fun, that I wasn’t thinking about work.
I think about the women I’ve dated previously. The longest relationship, if you can call it that, was with Anna. She was strong, driven, a businesswoman. We were practically the same person. Ultimately we were both too caught up in our work and didn’t have time for each other. A recurring theme in my romantic life.
I wasn’t always like this.
When I was younger and poor, I fell in love with a girl named Lauren. Her family had a lot of money and I always felt out of place around them. They barely acknowledged my existence; they mentioned, right in front of me, how much better off Lauren would be with some of the rich boys around town.
Even though I loved her, and she loved me, we were from different worlds.
Maybe that’s what drove me to want to be successful to begin with; not only to help my mom, but to prove to the people that doubted me that I could do it.
I ran into Lauren’s family over Christmas one year and they congratulated me on my success, as if it suddenly made me worthy of their attention. They tried to score an invite to my now infamous holiday party, but I kept them off the list. I know it’s petty, but it gave me a tiny bit of satisfaction.
Lauren is married with kids and happy. I always have an open invitation for her, which annoys her family more. We’ve laughed about how we both enjoy pissing off her parents.
Water drenches me and I shake my head, feeling like a wet dog.
Once Caitlyn and I end up back on the dock, we sit and chat about nothing of substance. She seems nice.
We end the date with a kiss on the lips. Nothing steamy, but not exactly unpleasant.
I walk toward the camera and see everyone smiling. Tiffany looks like she’s about to do a celebratory backflip.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Michael pats me on the back.
“Y’all are acting like I just walked on water on something.” I roll my eyes.
“That’s pretty much what just happened.” Tiffany skips up to me and hugs me. “Thank you.”
I feel a twinge of guilt for everything I’ve put her through.
“Baby steps.” She lightly smacks my face and reluctantly gives me my phone back.
The only reason I didn’t have it was because of the water.
The crew looked a little bit too chipper about that.
We jump right into the next date and I’m pleasantly surprised when I see Natalie walking up. She bounces over to one of the producers who usually has a permanent scowl on his face, and he grins. Wow, she’s good.
Maybe she’s someone I could have around me. She knows how to charm people and that’s always good for business events. She could soften my image and befriend my clients. I just don’t know if it’s fair to her how absent I would always be because of work; she’d probably be lonely and resent me.
That’s of course in a hypothetical world where I was taking this seriously and if she were serious about this. Let’s be real, it’s a reality TV show. I don’t think anyone is taking this seriously.
