Stay With Me 1

by Jessica Aniston

  “Hey, I’m Bobby,” he says pleasantly. “This is Courtney.”

  “Hi,” the woman says and repeats the handshakes started by her boyfriend, with a surprisingly firmer grip.

  “Karin,” Karin smiles at them and Declan says his own name.

  The other couple follows suit. Two women about their age whose outfits are not matching at all, as Karin notes, who introduce themselves as Grace and Mimi. Grace has a cute honey-blonde bob and Mimi is a ginger, wider hips and a brighter smile than her partner but equally as engaging as they raise their glasses to clink. As far as first impressions go, the four of them seem pleasant and unassuming. But of course, Karin is already cataloguing every glance thrown at Declan and her, the two pairs already scanning them for signs of deception. Eventually Declan mirrors Bobby’s comfortable waist-grip on Courtney. There’s a nice breeze coming in from the sea, which is why it doesn’t bother Karin too much that his hand is clammy on her skin beneath her crop top. She turns into him, putting her head lightly on his shoulder and giggles.

  “This is amazing, isn’t it?” She asks the group very conscious of the two cameras filming the entire exchange. “Did you have a chance to look at everything yet?”

  “We got the tour, yes,” Bobby says lightly. “Not too shabby.”

  “Of course, he’s used to it,” Courtney says on an affectionate sigh and then makes very overt eyes at him. “He’s a luxury realtor.”

  “Oh, great,” Declan says and nods. “I teach dance.”

  “Ballet dance?” Bobby asks, perking up noticeably and Declan nods.

  “I used to do that,” he tells him. “Quit before the international scene, though.”

  “Yes, I got a chance a good number of years ago,” Declan shrugs, “but it wasn’t meant to be.”

  “And what do you do, Karin?” Courtney asks.

  “I’m getting my BA in social science and I’m a waitress,” she says, a tiny bit embarrassed that she’s not a luxury realtor.

  “Waitress pride!” Chimes in Grace and holds out her hand for a high five. “Beats working in a drab office every day, like someone I know.” She laughs and Mimi nudges her in the side.

  “It’s not drabs just because it’s accounting,” she says. “At least I can pay my bills.”

  Grace sticks out her tongue and kisses her girlfriend on the cheek with a natural intimacy that would be enough to convince Karin they’re the real thing, if she needed convincing, which she doesn’t because she knows that her and Declan are the only fake thing around.

  She reacts to this thought by getting closer to him and starts drawing patterns on his back. He reciprocates by dropping another kiss on her head. She still feels like they’re messing up a school play in the face of the genuine coupledom in front of them.

  “Thanks,” says Marietta then, turning the corner from inside. “I think we got enough for the pleasantries. We’re going to shoot Karin and Declan getting their room now and then we’ll meet back here in two and a half-hour to film the big dinner where you’ll meet the last three couples.”

  With that, she extends her arm and nods to Karin and Declan to follow her inside.

  “That went well, don’t you think?” She asks them conspiratorially as soon as they reach the hallway into the left wing of the house. Gorman is running ahead of them to position himself in their room, while the other camera guy, that Marietta says is Hank, follows them.

  “We got you in the blue room,” the producer tells them as she falls behind the camera again. “third door on the right. Ground floor Ocean view, two steps from the hot tub. Feel free to react verbally.”

  It’s not as if there was any other way to react to that room with that view. Karin squeaks, actually, like a joyful little piglet at the smart and minimal decor, the king size bed and walnut dresser and the pull-out Queen sofa in the corner arranged into a chaise longue-style couch decked with a bunch of cute throw pillows. Everything decorative, like bedside lamp shades, curtains the rugs on either side of the bed a softly muted, light blue that blends incredibly well with the sight of the water from the room-high, open windows.

  “That’s a big bed,” is the first thing Declan says. “I’ll have to go searching for you in there.”

  This is the first time that Karin properly realizes that they will be sharing a bed for however long it’ll be they can fool people into buying their relationship. How is this just sinking in now? The last time they’d shared a bed had been when she was about ten and they fell asleep on Declan’s basement watching their favorite cartoon movie for the hundredth time.

  “I think you’ll find me just fine,” she says, trying to give her brain something else to focus on and drops herself onto the bed.

  “Great, hold it there,” says Gorman. “Let us just rearrange really quick.” He motions at Hank to flank them and his colleague does as he is bid. “Can you kiss again? It was a bit bumpy in the car, I want to make sure we have options for the final edit. But maybe no lip biting this time, that was a bit too sexual for 8 p.m.”

  Karin barely contains a triumphant squawk at Declan, because in the end, it was his biting that was too much, not her hand ghosting over his privates. She settles for making a face at him and he glares at her.

  “Alright, good to go,” Gorman tells them. “Can you say what you said last again so we have the pick up?”

  “Want me to sit down again, too?” She asks, trying to be helpful and does so after Gorman nods.

  “I think you’ll find me just fine,” she says, and once again let’s herself drop onto the mattress and goes on to pull Declan after her by his hand. He follows but is not very forthcoming with the rest, so she initiates the kissing for the second time that day. She holds herself back this time, though. Keeping her hands on his shoulder and knee and he kisses her back chaste and soft. But that’s a nice pace, too, she finds. She still can’t resist coaxing some little tongue from him with nibbles and grazing teeth and when his fingers curl into her hair, she thinks he might like this slow, soft thing, too. At least judging from the little whine, she thinks she hears coming from the back of his throat after a while of that.

  “Hey,” he says then, still against her lips before he turns out to the others. “Do you think you could give us a minute?”

  “Cut it,” Marietta says from her quiet observer’s spot in the corner and for the first time in her life, Karin can imagine what it feels like to work in the porn industry. The very thought that people just watched all that kissing still makes her feel strange and exposed. “Very good thinking, Declan!” Their producer praises excitedly. “Such a nice touch. Now can we get you actually shooing the guys out? Then we can end this on you closing the doors in the lens. People will eat that up.”

  “Yes, sure,” Declan says, his hands still in Karin’s hair.

  “We’ll pick it right up,” Gorman nods and Declan’s eyes flit to Karin’s for a moment, looking for instructions but she doesn’t know what he wants from her so she just shrugs and leaves him to fend for himself.

  “Yes, alright,” he says when the cameras are rolling again. “I’m going to kick you out now.” If he didn’t say it like it was a cute joke, it would sound horribly fake and scripted, but somehow Declan has a knack for this. He gets up, running his hand down her neck down to her arm until he absolutely has to let go and then he makes dismissive waving motions at Hank and Gorman, who back away until he finally closes the door in their faces, only to open it again after a couple of seconds.

  “Was that fine?” He asks into the hall as Karin slots in behind him, just in time to see Marietta give an enthusiastic thumbs up.

  “Brilliant,” she assures them. “I’ll just give you a quick tour of the house now and then you have a bit of a break to settle in, alright?”

  The rest of the house is just as extravagant and beautiful as the first glimpses of it they got. There are slick granite countertops in the kitchen, the finest finishes on every piece of furniture, and spectacular pieces of art lining the
halls of the second floor. All the bedrooms they get to peek into share spectacular ocean views and private balconies, or covered porticos. The kitchen comes equipped with modern stainless appliances and a spacious breakfast bar with bar stools. Crossing the garden and heated pool, they pass by the guest cottage which sits at the far end of the pool. The cottage also features a covered veranda, an outdoor kitchen, and a bar area that looks so catalogue ready, Karin almost cries. She takes Declan’s hand about halfway-through when she can’t help but miss their competition still lounging about, eyeing them.

  She keeps up a running commentary right along with the running of her hand up and down Declan’s arm and torso, chuckling and giggling about whatever he says when he replies, and it’s all just mindless chatter about the size of things and how amazing everything looks. The tour doubles back into the house, through the private cinema and sauna and even inside, she doesn’t let go of his hand. If he minds, he doesn’t say anything, but at the last leg of their exploration, he also stops saying stuff practically all together, which is unusual for him. He doesn’t even say anything when they go back outside and Marietta takes them to the beach, telling them that they need to wear hard shoes if they choose to go out into the water here, because they’re standing on a coral reef.

  From out on the lawn, they can walk right back to their bedroom suite as it opens out onto their oceanfront deck, nestled against manicured lawns down to the beach. Once they get there, their suitcases are already waiting for them, which Karin takes as a cue to start unpacking, agreeing to Marietta’s suggestion of Gorman filming her in the process.

  “I need to grab a drink,” Declan tells her, though, when she asks if he wants to help, and he backs out again backwards, slowly.

  He doesn’t come back until she hasn’t only unpacked her things, but his as well. She’s arranged all their clothes by colors in the walk-in closet adjacent to the en suite bathroom, so they can match quicker and easier in the mornings. It also helps immediately, when she picks up a light off-white summer dress with little blue roses and sorts out a pair of khaki shorts and a blue dress shirt for him, laying it out on the bed, ready for him to change into if he ever decides to come back. When everything down to her tampons has found a new home in their room, Karin thanks Gorman for his time, and when he’s gone, wonders what lengths Declan took to find something drinkable. She wonders also, briefly, if he meant a drink instead of just aqua and he’s off hammered by the pool. When she finally goes looking for him outside, he’s neither there nor in the kitchen.

  She doesn’t exactly want to alert the other couples that he’s missing in action and she has not a clue where he is, though, so she doesn’t ask if they have seen him and instead goes to take a shower, freshen up leisurely, and then change into her dress. He’s still not back ten minutes before they’re meant to reconvene for the first “meeting” of all the couples together, which leads to Karin actually getting to know the other three couples as they get in all by herself.

  There’s Aileen and Rickard (a finance analyst and British expat with caramel skin and model good looks), Kaidan and Kaelan (wedding planners from Scanlon) and Savannah and Iver (who are both teachers and sadly so very bland, she has trouble remembering their names). They all ask her where her boyfriend is and Karin squirms, and lies, about how ‘he’s napping’ and that she’ll go find him. There’s a special urgency to her step when she sees that Marietta is taking great note of the situation and even more so, when she is quite certain she hears Gorman’s heavy footsteps following behind her, as she makes her way back to their room. Declan, of course, is nowhere to be found. God, where is that man?

  She steps outside of her room, ruffling her hair and then there, finally, is Declan making his way down the beach and into their garden area, of course in full view of the living room where everybody else is waiting, seeing the guy she just told them was napping, prancing about the grass and waving at them like an idiot.

  Growling in frustration, she picks up her feet and half jogs to meet him before he can crash into the villa and completely ruin their entire chance at the money before they’ve even spent one night at the house and stops him at the edge of the pool. She can hear rustling behind her and knows instantly that Gorman and maybe Hank, too, have caught up with them. She curses the mic on her dress collar, curses herself that she was so eager to put it on while waiting for Declan in the living room earlier.

  “Hey honey, where did you go?” She asks him sweetly, shooting daggers at him with her eyes because those Gorman and his camera won’t be able to pick up.

  “Just outside,” Declan says.

  “But when I left, you were napping,” she tells him and he frowns at her, not understanding until she squares her jaw at him and glances down at the mic between her boobs.

  “Oh, yes, well, I woke up,” he says dumbly. “Then I just walked up the beach.”

  “You missed the others get in, Declan,” she tells him and then drops her voice to be hopefully too low for the mic to pick up over the breeze. “And I had no idea where you went off to. Do you know that that looks like?”

  “I’m sorry,” he says and sounds it, too. “I just needed a breather. I’m sorry.” He looks at her and then adds: “Babe,” like an afterthought. It’s the most fake moment of the day so far and it has her bite the inside of her cheek hard.

  “Kiss me,” she mouths at him angrily, so they can at least cover for that, if not for the cameras since they got their share of kissing in for the day, then for the others, who are probably watching from inside the house. Declan obliges and by now, she knows how he kisses and can anticipate the angles and tilts of his head and knows before he does when he’ll start to grab her head. But then what’s new is how he lets his hands wander, just after, and then deepens the kiss and grabs her by the ass and pulls her against his front.

  He pulls her up to her tip toes and for the second time that day, she makes close physical contact with his groin and can’t help but gasp when she does. It coincides with the sharp end of the kiss, courtesy of Declan. She glances up to him as she sinks down back to her full feet and raises a quizzical eyebrow at him. He wobbles his head, which he must think suffices as communication.

  “I laid out a change of clothes for you in our room,” she tells him, deciding to let the strange moment go. “Make it a quick change.”

  Declan’s big introduction to the other couples is his self-deprecating version of “Sorry, I need constant supervision,” while Karin comments fondly with her version of “Oh, he fell asleep, woke up and then wandered off to see the beach and then forgot the time like a child. That silly man, he’d lose his head if it wasn’t screwed on.”

  “That just goes to show that I’m completely lost without her,” he tells the group charmingly, and everybody politely laughs before they sit down for a semi-scripted dinner, going through pleasant conversation where they’re supposed to establish their “couple”-profiles.

  Courtney and Bobby are put forth as the well-to-do, cosmopolitan ones, Grace and Mimi are the urban, modern lesbians, Kaidan and Kaelan the adorable gays, Aileen and Rickard are the international ones, the newly united former long-distance couple, Savannah and Iver are the down-to-earth, heartland kids and Karin and Declan are the childhood sweethearts.

  Declan does most of the work for that, retelling their path from kids at the dance studio to teenage best friends to the great big story he made up about them getting together. Karin sighs inwardly, like she thinks she might do forever now, since their talk about it in the coffee shop and his strange reaction to it, but she doesn’t show it. Not for a moment. She just gazes at him all lovelorn as he speaks.

  “So, I told her that she’s always been the one,” Declan tells the group, finishing his recollection and his eyes glisten dreamily, and yes, it’s a whole thing now, that story, but she really has to commend his acting chops all the same. “And that she’s it for me. Forever,” Declan ends with a bang, turning to her, puts his hand on her neck over her sh
oulder to massage her a bit and smiles like she’s the moon and he’s a lovelorn wolf, dedicated to adoring her forever.

  He’s very convincing and no one seems any the wiser. Karin is still glad when the dinner table conversation switches to the other couples. By the end of it, she’s a bit tipsy on the wine and when Marietta and a reappeared Brody call the end of day one, she breathes a sigh of relief. They tell them to enjoy the rest of the night and to be aware that the first elimination challenge is coming the day after and will be a “Newlywed”-game of sorts and that’s that.

  For a while after, they all sit together in the living room, now camera-less, except of course for the corner cameras in all the common spaces that will film everything big-brother style and will be intercut with the high-quality footage shot throughout the day. It’s more relaxed still, their speech less rigid and refined and Karin watches Declan and Bobby become fast friends in real time, bonding over dance and then football. When the clock strikes ten, Karin thinks she has held out long enough being sociable and gently probes him in the side where they sit out on the patio.

  “I’m going to turn in,” she tells him. “Got some sleep to catch up on.”

  “I’ll be there in a second,” he murmurs and then leans in to peck her on the lips, the first kiss that day that feels natural and like they are just two people who do this regularly. That’s it, she thinks crossing the garden to get to their room. That’s the moments she’s after - the moments that feel real enough for her to pretend. She’s going to live on that, hopefully enough to blur out the chance of awkwardness when he joins her in bed.