Walk of Shame

by Gregory, O. L.

  "All right, let's get down to the nitty-gritty," I said.

  "Shoot."

  "Would we live in my fifth wheel, or your travel trailer?"

  "Your fifth wheel. There's more square footage because you have slide-outs. And you have higher ceilings. That'd be nicer with two of us living in it."

  "Okay. So now flash forward in time. What do we do with a baby?"

  He scrunched up his face a bit. "We can get a fifth wheel custom made. Put us in the larger bedroom with two slide outs and have it double as an office. We'll have to separate the space to keep little fingers off of cameras and paperwork."

  "What was the face for?"

  "How set are you on the idea of kids?"

  "It's a deal breaker for me."

  "How many do you have to have?"

  "I get that, especially with our lifestyle, the more you have, the more difficult life can get. I could deal with having only one, but I would prefer having two."

  "I could do one," he said.

  "If you don't want a child, then you shouldn't have one."

  "I like kids. I just don't like the idea of all the life changes that come with having one."

  "And I understand that. I do. And if you don't want to make those changes, you shouldn't have to. You shouldn't have children."

  "Yes, but one child is more manageable than two. And the years where we'd be so limited because of young ages would be less because it would be one and done, not one and then start over a couple years later."

  "So you could really do one and not resent it?"

  "As long as you can be satisfied with just one."

  I nodded. "Deal."

  We took a turn off the highway toward a small airport and I gasped. "Where are we flying?"

  Stephen laughed. "Not gonna tell you. You're a smart and well-traveled girl, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Hell, I'm sure you've been there before."

  "Then why take me?"

  "You'll see."

  We climbed into a helicopter once we got there. This time production was prepared and they had dash cams set up in addition to the two-person camera crew getting into the backseats.

  I don't know what favors or strings production had to pull to make this happen, but Stephen flew me to the Grand Canyon. And as gorgeous and picturesque as it was, I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd done a helicopter tour before, on one of my five or six trips here over the last few years. It didn't matter though, not really. If I didn't love the scene laid out before me so much, I wouldn't keep coming back.

  But then we did something I'd never done before. We dipped down into the canyon and landed on a cliff ledge about three-quarters of the way down to the bottom. There were a couple picnic tables set up and Stephen pulled a picnic basket out of the back of the craft.

  "How the hell did they get tables down here for you?" I asked.

  "They didn't. There's a company run out of Vegas that flies people over and back for lunch here. We just needed permission to use their spot."

  I must admit, it was a relaxing and peaceful place to share a meal. It was a hell of an impression to make on me, too. "How long have you been cooking this little plan in the back of your mind?"

  "Since I found out that I'd be coming on the show," he answered with a smile.

  We lifted off the ground just as the sun was setting and I got to see the sky light up with colors from above the canyon. That was a beautiful sight. And by the time we got back to Los Angeles, all the city lights were lit up and made for a pretty sight as well.

  "If you don't mind," he said after he'd shut down the chopper, "I have one more surprise for you."

  I tried not to show my disappointment.

  He didn't look happy with my fallen expression. "Do I have a shot, at all, of making it past Sunday?"

  "Of course you do. It's just that there was something I was hoping to see tonight, and it's starting soon."

  His eyes narrowed and he smiled with that same simmering intensity that had drawn me to him to start with. "What are the odds that what I plan to show you is the same thing that you want to see?"

  I let my eyes dance as I regarded him. "I'm hoping pretty high. I'm curious to know what else you have up your sleeve, but I don't want to miss out on my plans for tonight, either."

  "How would you feel about a little wager?" he asked.

  A smile spread across my face. "What did you have in mind?"

  "Well, you made it pretty blatant that I was the least favored of the five. But then I also found out that the other four have been stealing time. And, our official date time is over. Let me steal this extra one-on-one time with you, and let's see if we really have a compatible interest in certain things or not."

  "Here and done, down and dirty?"

  "If our plans match up, I don't go home on Sunday and I stay another week. If our plans don't match up, I'll go ahead and leave when we're done. I'll be spared the Walk of Shame, and you won't have to agonize over whether or not you're making the right decision."

  "You really want to do this?"

  "Yeah, because it will put me out of the misery of not knowing. Unless... you were going to steal time with someone else."

  "No. I was going to go back to the main house and drag all five of you guys out. I was going to steal a group date. But, I'm curious as hell now. You got yourself a deal."

  We shook hands and got out of the chopper.

  Stephen spoke with the driver, consulted a map on his phone briefly, and then brought over a piece of paper and a pen to me that he'd gotten from the driver. "In the interest of fairness," he said, "write down what you planned on seeing. That way there's no twisting this one way or the other about whether our plans were the same."

  I smiled at his thoroughness. "All right." I took the paper, wrote down two words, folded the paper, pocketed it, and handed the pen back. "I don't want to chance you seeing it," I told him.

  He winked at me, returned the pen, and we all piled into the vehicle. There were some twisty-turning roads involved, and a rise in elevation as we neared our destination.

  I wasn't sure how I wanted this to turn out. On one hand, in the back of my mind I'd already decided that Stephen was going home this week. But, because of our early connection, I feared that I was making a mistake in doing that. The idea of the bet was intriguing to me because if we both viewed the same thing as being a good way to pass the time, I didn't really think sending him home would be the best option. On the other hand, the thing I was planning to see might be something he hadn't even heard about and might have chosen it had he known and now would be going home, more or less, mistakenly.

  I sighed and then smiled because I noticed that the turns in the road had gotten sharper and our elevation was getting higher. We were outside the city and up a mountain. We got out of the vehicle and walked up a path that opened into a clearing. Production had a blanket spread out, and waiting for us was a bottle of wine chilling in an ice bucket.

  I was in a state of awe. I smiled like an idiot and pulled the piece of paper out of my pocket to hand to him.

  It was a little hard for him to read the paper and used the glow from his phone's screen to read it. "Meteor shower," he read and then gestured to the sky. "Meteor shower. I win."

  "Yes, you do," I murmured and leaned into him for a hug.

  He encircled me in his arms and leaned in to share a kiss.

  Wednesday

  "So," Mike said on our run the next morning, "Did Steve redeem himself last night?"

  I shrugged in deference to the idea that he wouldn't want me raving about another man. "He certainly did his best to throw down the gauntlet and recapture my attention."

  "So it's no longer a given that he's on his way out the door?"

  "No. He did exactly what Drake didn't do and should have. He heeded the warning and changed tactics. In fact, I can guarantee that he's not going anywhere this week. "

  "So do you know who is?"

  "I have absolutely no idea. There's nothi
ng wrong with any of you guys. "

  He smiled. "Well, you better find something wrong with four of us, because we aren't into being brother-husbands for you."

  I broke pace laughing at him. And I totally noticed Mike's butt as he bounded three steps ahead before stopping and turning around to wait for me to start again.

  I started running. "I have no desire to juggle that many men for the rest of my life, thank you."

  "Good." We ran for another couple of minutes before he spoke again. "So, I saw how Goldie flipped out over recognizing your father."

  "Yeah..." I said, not willing to elaborate on the why of her reaction.

  "You know whose room she's been sleeping in lately, don't you?"

  "No, actually, I don't."

  "Jared's."

  I quit running again. "That son of a bitch! He's trying to steal my dog."

  Mike laughed. "You need to put a stop to it if you're not going to end up choosing him."

  I shifted my eyes to his. "I can't possibly know that yet. Damn it," I said and started running for the main house. "I can't have her getting that attached to one of you yet."

  I ran into the house, past a smiling Phillip on his way to the kitchen, up the stairs, and barged into Jared's room. Goldie's head lifted from its resting spot on Jared's side and her tail thumped. I snapped my fingers and pointed to the floor by my feet.

  She whined.

  I snapped and pointed again and she reluctantly got up and came to me. I stepped back into the hallway as Jared was beginning to stir. Goldie followed and I shut the door before Jared turned over to see who had claimed the dog.

  "Let's go," I whispered to Goldie. I walked back down the stairs and was halfway to the door before I realized she had stopped and sat just outside the kitchen. "Goldie, now," I said.

  She whined at me and looked towards Phillip, who was looking amused over the situation.

  "Now."

  She let out a woof and stayed put. It dawned on me that her desire to be in the kitchen probably meant that the guys had taken to feeding her table scraps when she was around. That thought did nothing to quell my irritation.

  I snapped my fingers and pointed to the glass door. "Goldilocks Jacobs. Right. Now."

  Phillip and Mike started laughing.

  Goldie put her head down and growled in her grumbling way, but got up and walked to the door.

  I opened the door, she passed through, and I made her sit on one of the patio chairs with me. I took her furry face in my hands to talk to her. "You're my dog. I know you've been having your run of the place, and I'm happy you've found so many new friends. But you are my dog. Mine. You have to start sleeping with me again, girl. Almost everyone you've met here is going to disappear from your life. I have to remain your number one."

  She looked at me with her big, brown, puppy-dog eyes and suddenly lifted her head from my hands, lunged forward, and attacked me with slobbering wet doggy kisses.

  I giggled at her and tried to get my head turned far enough away to keep her tongue out of my mouth.

  I returned to the house after a shower and an unscheduled interview with Troy about my date with Stephen the day before.

  "Where are you off to today?" Stephen asked.

  I put the container holding the remaining four names on the table. "The zoo has a couple tiger cubs, and I've been invited to go play with them. They've also offered me a feeding tour. Giraffes, pandas, elephants, whatever else they'll let me feed without endangering my life."

  "And we're leaving it up to the bowl again?" Liam asked.

  "Yep. That's my story this week and I'm sticking to it. If you wanted a second one-on-one this week and don't get it, blame the bowl. If you get stuck feeding baby tigers when you'd have rather a more daring venture, blame the bowl."

  "I'll pick it," Stephen said, "my name's no longer in there."

  No one objected, so he reached in and pulled out a paper. "Jared," he read before looking up, "you're bottle-feeding babies today."

  Jared smiled. "All right! I'm ready if you are."

  I smiled in return, but I wasn't happy with the bowl's choice.

  A couple of the other guys exchanged questioning eyebrows in reaction to the expression on my face.

  Jared held his tongue until we'd made it outside. We got up to the car before he turned to me. "Do you not want a second date with me?" he asked. "Because I thought we were doing well. I know I haven't been exercising with you or jumping in your hot tub, but I thought we were building something here."

  "You guys are getting so touchy," I said. "Are they giving you guys extra testosterone in there?"

  He sighed and gave a wave toward the house. "This situation is bringing out our competitive sides. You said the game had changed and that you had an interest in each of us and now there's this edge running through everyone's attitude."

  I looked away and sighed, unsurprised that we had all gotten to this point.

  "Do you not want to go with me?" he asked.

  I looked him in the eye, to reassure him. "I want to go on another one-on-one with you. I do have feelings for you. I want to spend time with you. I just wouldn't have put you on a date with animals because that's what you do all day. I was trying to get people out of their professional lives."

  "Hey, I work with scaly things. You're talking about feeding furry things. We don't even have to walk past the reptile house if you don't want to," he promised with a smile.

  I sighed and decided to go with it. "I could still send out a text and try to get production to take us somewhere else."

  "No. You were all set to feed the cubs and that's exactly what we're going to do." He opened the car door. "Now get in here before we miss their feeding time."

  I smiled and got into the car. Maybe this whole thing was getting to me, too. Who cares that things weren't going exactly according to my plan? I was going to be able to spend the day with the yumminess of a man that was Jared.

  We met up with the guide that had been assigned to us when we got to the zoo. He took us over to the building that housed the tiger cubs and I found myself in a little piece of Heaven, holding the tiny newborn cub and bottle-feeding her. And when I lifted my eyes to look over to see how Jared was enjoying the cub he was feeding, his eyes were watching me and there was a smile softening his face.

  It was small moments like this that made me consider a future with Jared. Everything about the man made me melt inside. And he was so willing to talk about the future and describe how things could be between us. I had no complaints about the man, except for the annoying fact that he was tied to swampy marshlands. I admired his profession of ecology. I enjoyed the fact that he kept going back to a family business, when other obligations didn't consume his time, and worked to educate people about the care and lives of typically unloved creatures. Hell, I could enjoy getting involved in a business like that. I just didn't care for the location of his specialty and how much of my time would be spent there. If I could just get past that, this whole thing could maybe be tied up within the week.

  Our guide took us around to feed many other animals, including baby zebras and adolescent pandas. And the ones we couldn't safely feed ourselves, zookeepers walked us through the process and we observed the meat-eaters enjoying their lunch. Then we ended our tour by holding baby koalas.

  I couldn't care less about the dilemma of my pending decision while in the presence of such utter cuteness. But Jared brought me back down to Earth with a simple request.

  "I want to take you to the reptile house," he said.

  I took a breath and handed the ball of fluff back to his keeper. "I figured."

  "I need you to come to terms with what I do."

  "I know you do."

  "They have babies over there, too."

  "You promise?"

  He smiled. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

  I nodded and he handed me the fully-grown sloth that he'd been holding and went to speak to the guide.

  It wasn't long bef
ore I found myself looking into a tank holding hatching snake eggs. Slithering infants inside, fighting their way free. I know my face wrinkled in distaste, I couldn't help it. "I just want you to understand the supreme effort I'm making in standing here without doing the high-pitched squealing girl thing," I said to all who were in the room with me.

  "Do you want to hold one?" the keeper asked.

  "God, no," I answered.

  Jared grinned and nodded.

  The keeper retrieved one that had hatched before we got there and handed it to Jared, already having been informed of what Jared did for a living and which business his family ran.

  Jared turned to me with the squiggly little thing in his hands and I took three steps back.

  "I won't throw him at you," he assured me as he kept his tone calm and even. "Just come over here and get a good look at him."

  He waited for me, but I didn't move any closer.

  "He can't hurt you," he said. "He's not poisonous and he can't squeeze a finger off or anything. You'll be fine."

  I breathed in and out and forced myself to walk back over to him.

  "Good, now touch him."

  I reached up and touched Jared's upper arm.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I'm touching the person who's holding him, that's good enough for right now."

  He laughed. "Are you sure I can't get you to hold him?" he asked without moving the snake any closer.

  "Look, I appreciate how calm and patient you're being. It's the whole reason I haven't freaked out yet. But if you put that little baby in my hands, or if it touches me, I will scream."

  "You have a fear of snakes."

  "I have a fear of snakes."

  "Okay. What about petting a young alligator with his mouth taped shut?"

  "Now that I'll do."

  Jared raised a questioning brow to the reptile keeper.

  "We don't have any young ones right now. But we do have some tortoises you can feed, if you'd like," he said.

  Jared turned to me.

  "That sounds right up my alley."

  We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing which animals I deemed okay and which ones I didn't. It didn't turn out to be quite the date I had been envisioning, but it led to actions and conversations that we needed to have. I'd ended up putting Jared in his comfort zone and pulling myself completely out of my own.