“And we’re back with Miss Right, Marcy, and her Mister Right, Craig. Before the commercial break we were talking about your rocky road to love—and how your not-so-fairy-tale romance has caught on with the viewers. Now I have to ask the question everyone is dying to know—what’s next for you two? You’re still together and—Marcy, is that a ring on your finger?”
Marcy smiled her for-camera smile at Josh Pendleton and flashed the rock on her ring finger. “It is. Since we wrapped filming, Craig has been out to Murphysboro several times and I’ve been out to LA with my family as well and just last week, he finally managed to convince my father to give his blessing.”
“So when will I be hearing wedding bells?”
“Not for quite some time,” Marcy said smoothly, dropping her hand to lace it with Craig’s again. “We’re in the process of a big move to New York and Craig’s starting a new job—it just seemed like it would be too chaotic to plan a wedding on top of all that.”
“Well, you know the network would love to host your wedding, help with all the planning.”
“We’re going to go for something a little more private,” Marcy said.
“So this new place in New York—is it the loft you dreamed of when you were in Verona?”
“New York is expensive! We couldn’t afford the loft I dreamed off—even after my last book hit the New York Times Bestseller list—but we’ll be much cozier in what we can afford.”
“And Craig,” Pendleton pressed, “this new job, I understand it will come as a surprise to some of our viewers…”
“It probably will,” he admitted. “Turns out the producers of Romancing Miss Right were testing me when they offered me the anchor job. They thought Marcy deserved to know if I was going to abandon her in favor of my career, so they dangled the job in front of me to see what I would do—but by choosing love, I ended up winning both. I’m going to be a recurring guest host on the weekday wake-up show starting next Monday.”
“Twitter was wild with speculation over whether you would choose love or money. Quite the clever ruse by our production team.”
“I’ll admit I didn’t appreciate it much at the time,” Craig said, grimacing. “But now I’m glad they felt the need to test me. Now Marcy never has to wonder if I would sacrifice her for my career. We’ve already cleared that hurdle. She will always know I love her more than fame.”
“Which is very romantic, coming from Craig,” she put in with a laugh.
Miranda stood behind the director of the live reunion show, arms folded, watching her masterpiece play out. No one had missed the missing footage—the drama had played beautifully with the fight and the door slam leading straight into Marcy’s decision to choose no one and Craig’s groveling and protestations of love at the altar.
The ratings were solid—though not quite as high as last season, damn it—and audience retention had actually grown week by week in key demographics as America fell in love with the prickly pair. The woman once called the Ice Queen had become America’s Darling and Craig had gone from being hated to adored. Mostly.
All in all, a victorious season.
Miranda had even scored the next Mister Perfect she’d been hoping for.
“Well, it sounds like you found the perfect Mister Right for you,” Pendleton said, before turning to the cameras to wrap it up. “That’s all for this season of Romancing Miss Right. Join us for another edition of Marrying Mister Perfect this winter, when our very own Daniel Pierzynski meets the gorgeous Suitorettes vying for his hand.”
Miranda clapped along with everyone else until a voice called that they were clear and the crew went into action, clearing the studio audience and turning off the myriad electronics. She turned her head, catching sight of a familiar salt-and-pepper head in the shadows. Bennett, chatting with Wallace and waiting in the wings to whisk her home.
He hadn’t actually said the L word after all, but he’d made it very clear indeed that he was crazy about her. Actions spoke volumes, especially in an industry where talk was cheap.
Marcy and Craig disentangled themselves from their microphones and rose, slipping out of the bright lights at the center of the sound stage and finding a shadow together. They seemed to be one of those lucky couples who had found the balance between the public life and the private. Miranda had seen a lot of reality relationships in her time and she had a pretty good eye, after all these years, for picking the couples that were actually going to make it.
As Craig pulled Marcy away to steal another of his two thousand kisses, Miranda had a feeling they were going to go the distance.
Maybe they all were.
She did love a happy ending.
THE END