Sweet Reality by Laura Heffernan (14)

 

The Fishbowl Couple to Split?

 

Are Jen and Justin experiencing trouble in paradise?

 

by Talky Ted, Nov. 8

 

 

Sources report that Jen, one-half of America’s darling “Jen and Justin” spent a romantic day in the Caribbean with her ex-boyfriend instead of her current love. Jen and Dominic rode horses on the beach and swam in the ocean. Rumor says the couple failed to return to the ship before it departed for the next stop. An unavoidable emergency? Or the perfect opportunity for a spontaneous lover’s tryst away from prying eyes?

 

About a mile off the shore of Jamaica, a group of twenty-somethings aboard a party ship report seeing someone matching Jen’s description on a smaller vessel nearby, headed in the direction of Grand Cayman. The young woman in question reportedly danced, cheered, waved her shirt around her head, and generally acted as if she were having a marvelous time. Witnesses spotted two men aboard the smaller yacht. One appeared to be steering, but the other matches the description of Jen’s ex-boyfriend, Dominic. A moonlit cruise for two? Dancing? How romantic.

 

The picture painted by our sources creates quite a contrast to the rather unflattering things Jen said about her ex when she appeared on The Fishbowl.

 

From the beginning, viewers touted Jen as the evil genius of the show, taking control whenever team challenges required a bit of brainpower and generally trying to organize votes and alliances among her teammates.

 

Her reputation for high intelligence and ability to manipulate makes this reporter wonder: Has Jen experienced a change of heart about her ex? Or was she playing Justin—and the American public—for a fool all this time?

 

Meanwhile, Justin remained on the Queen Kelly with a certain sultry siren who’s never made any secret of her designs on him. Is this truly a love boat? Or is this cruise ship secretly a destroyer? More to come.

 

Related Stories: Watch Joshua “J-Dawg” Adams react to not being invited on the Real Ocean: Caribbean

 

 

 

Shoving with all my strength, I sent Dominic sliding away from me. Then I lunged forward and slapped him across the face so hard my hand turned red. Without another glance in his direction, I jumped to my feet and raced after Ty. He walked quickly toward the door leading below decks as if he thought there were a place onboard to hide from my wrath.

“Stop!” I called desperately. “At least tell me you got a picture of the slap, too.”

Ty stopped and turned, chuckling. “I did not see any slap, ma’am.”

“If I give you ten dollars, will you come back? I can hit him again.” Nothing would bring me more pleasure, other than waking up in my bunk and finding out this entire day had been a nightmare.

“American dollars?” he asked.

“Yup. Let’s make it twenty.”

We returned to the spot where Dominic stood, rubbing his cheek. He dropped his hand when we approached. “What’s going on?”

I moved toward him, hand raised, but he flinched. I paused, hand hovering. He grabbed my wrist.

“What are you doing?” Dominic asked.

I ignored him. To Ty, I said, “Darn it, I can’t hit him. It’s one thing to slap someone in the heat of the moment, but the moment’s passed.”

“Perhaps he could kiss you again?” Our captain suggested. I glared at him. “Or make you angry some other way?”

“I’m very good at that,” Dominic said.

“Maybe we could stage it? I could raise my hand, Dominic could throw his head back and you could take the picture? Or I could lift my knee toward his balls.”

“That could work, but you won’t get the right expression of surprise and pain on his face.”

I sighed heavily. This wasn’t going to work. Throwing out a self-defense slap was one thing, but I wasn’t a fighter. Even to prove to Justin the kiss wasn’t my idea, I couldn’t attack my ex. No matter how badly he deserved it. My foot tapped against the pavement as I searched for a solution.

“While you two discuss the best way to assault me, I’m headed to bed,” Dominic said. “This has been a great trip and all, but it’s been a long, abusive day. I’m not up for getting slapped—or pretend slapped—repeatedly.”

I sighed. “I can’t hit you. You might as well go. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Ty lifted his camera. “No slap?”

“I guess not,” I grumbled. “Any chance I could convince you to delete the other picture?”

“Not for only ten American dollars.” Ty grinned, revealing a row of perfect, gleaming white teeth. “You cannot afford to pay me what I’ll get for selling this picture to your tabloid newspapers.”

* * *

All night, I tossed and turned, trying to come up with any way to convince Ty not to sell the picture. Throwing his camera overboard seemed the most obvious option, but he wore the thing around his neck. As much as I’d wanted to throttle Dominic for kissing me, shoving the only witness into the ocean wouldn’t make me feel better.

By the time the ship docked, pink rays peeked through the window. I hadn’t slept a wink. Listening to Dominic snoring on the other side of the cramped cabin didn’t help. With a sigh, I yanked the blankets from the bed and carried them up on deck to see if moving somewhere quieter would help me sleep.

It didn’t.

People milled around the dock, talking excitedly. In the slip to our left, three men unloaded nets of fish–early catch, apparently. On the other side, a mother tried to corral her two small children into life jackets before setting sail for a family outing.

I wandered around the deck, looking for a place to sleep. A small bench beckoned to me when across the pier, I spotted the Queen Kelly. The gangway wasn’t down yet, but maybe I could get close enough to get on their wi-fi system and send a message to Justin. Grabbing my bag, I went to find our captain.

He stood on the pier, speaking to two men with their backs to me. The shorter one wore a camera bag strapped around his upper body. The other’s lanky form I knew well after being locked in a house with him for eight weeks the prior summer.

“Ed!” My fatigue evaporated. I cheered and jumped to the ground, racing to wrap my arms around my friend. “And Connor! What are you doing here?”

“Leanna sent me to pick you up,” Connor said. “She told me to tell you the cost of your transport to the ship is one exclusive interview about your romantic night with Dominic.”

“Of course it is.” I rolled my eyes.

Ed said, “She doesn’t know I came along. I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

I pulled him to the side, leaving Connor and Ty to finish whatever they were talking about. In a hushed tone, I filled him in on my day and the evening. His eyes widened, his brow furrowed, then his jaw dropped.

“Oh, snap! Jen, what are you going to say to Justin?”

With a shake of my head, I said, “I have no idea. But I need to get to the ship ASAP before Ariana gets her hooks deeper into him. Especially since Ty over there won’t delete the picture. What do I do when Justin sees it? Worse, what if Ariana shows it to him before I can talk to him about it?”

Ed wrapped one arm around my shoulders, and I leaned against him. “Give the interview,” he said. “Be honest, but brief. Tell Connor your side of the story while I go wake up your ex. We can be out of here in five minutes.”

“Do we have to take him to the ship with us? Can’t we send him back to Jamaica with Ty?”

“I’m afraid that’s part of the deal. Don’t forget, he’s a paying guest. The cruise line won’t let us ditch him. However, Connor and I will do whatever we can to keep him away from the ship until you find Justin.”

“You’re a lifesaver.” I pulled him close for a moment, happy to have someone on my side.

“Butterscotch,” Ed agreed, winking at me. “And you’re as refreshingly adorbs as a Chiclet.”

He headed over to where Ty and Connor stood, leaving me wondering what the heck to say in my interview. And how to fix my hair. A moment later, Connor approached, camera in hand.

“Do you by any chance have a mirror?” I asked.

“You couldn’t get one from Ed?”

“Forgot to ask. How bad do I look?”

Connor took in my appearance before shrugging. “You never know. Maybe looking like you escaped from a rabid bear attack on a frat party will garner some sympathy with the viewers.”

“Ugh. Ok, fine. Let’s get this done so I can get to Justin.”

Ed returned and handed me a mirror. “Here.”

“Did you hear me all the way over there?”

“No, I saw you,” he said. I stuck my tongue out at him, but took the mirror. “Dominic will be here in a minute.”

The damage was worse than I feared. My hair stuck out in about seventeen different directions. A full day in the sun with only SPF 30 turned my face and neck the color of a ripe strawberry. No wonder every inch of my body hurt. Black circles rimmed my eyes, and a steak of mascara trailed down to my chin.

Sighing, I licked my middle finger and tried to at least erase some of the excess makeup. It didn’t help much. “Whatever. Let’s do this.”

Connor directed me to the edge of the pier, with the water as a backdrop. He lifted the camera, and Ed stepped behind him, out of the view.

“Justin and I planned to spend the day on the beach, horseback riding and touring Jamaica with Danielle, from Suddenly Single in Seattle.” I spoke directly into the camera. Nothing to hide here, America.

“That’s your boyfriend’s ex-wife, yes?”

“Danielle is my ex-boyfriend’s ex-wife,” I said, well aware that all interview responses needed to include the question for the sake of the viewers. “I don’t know what happened, but when they called roll aboard the catamaran carrying us to the mainland, Dominic appeared instead of Danielle. The passenger list only showed first initials and last names. No one but me knew something went wrong.”

I intentionally didn’t mention Ariana’s role in the mix-up. My last stint on television taught me the futility of trying to make her look bad when I didn’t have any proof. Or, actually, even when I did. Even though we weren’t competing for a $250,000 prize this time, I didn’t feel any inclination to help her gain fans. Or to make myself look like a jealous jerk. The more people who walked away from this show with a high opinion of me, especially in the Miami area, the better for me and Sweet Reality. I didn’t have the luxury of forgetting that my actions didn’t only affect me anymore.

As briefly as I could, I outlined the prior day’s events, careful to make getting left behind seem like a perfectly understandable glitch that could’ve happened to anyone. Blaming Dominic for the missed connection wouldn’t win me any favor with the fans, either. I wished I could afford to not care what America thought of me. All that mattered was what my boyfriend thought, and I needed to get to him to explain my disappearance.

“One more question,” Connor said when I finished with my boarding the Boaty McBoatface. His face was inscrutable, but I’d spent enough time on these shows to guess what he wanted to know. “I don’t want to ask, but I’ll get fired if I don’t. Take as long as you need to think before you answer. Did you and Dominic kiss? Are the two of you getting back together?”

My face grew warm. Behind Connor, Ed mimed throttling him, but it wasn’t his fault. He’d done a lot to help me so far, but I couldn’t ask him to risk his job by intentionally botching the interview. And why bother? As soon as we got to the ship, if he didn’t have the answer on tape, one of the other forty or so PAs walking around would be happy to ask.

“Yes, Dominic kissed me last night,” I said. “I did not kiss him. I pushed him away and slapped him. The only person I ever want to kiss again is Justin. Can we go now so I can find him?”

“Jen, when you say the only person you want to kiss again is Justin, do you mean forever? Are you talking about the M-word here?”

A vision of myself walking down the aisle in a white gown flashed before my eyes. Justin stood at the end, with Sarah on one side and Ed on the other. Brandon walked ahead of me, the man of honor. I imagined Justin putting a band on my finger and promising to love me forever. In my vision, he leaned forward and kissed me sweetly while all our friends and family clapped. Then I felt my throat closing up, saw myself choking on the ring, spitting into the sink. And I remembered that Justin hadn’t even hinted at any type of future since we got on the ship. What if he changed his mind?

My cheeks grew warm, and I looked at the ground before answering. “Marriage is a big step.” But I couldn’t get what had to be a ridiculous-looking smile off my face. “But, sometimes I think marrying Justin would be the best thing that ever happened to me. I love him.”

“Beautiful,” Connor said, dropping the camera. “If nothing else convinces him, the look on your face when I asked about marriage should tell him how you feel.”

Gratefully, I kissed his cheek. “Thank you so much for that.”

A golf cart carried the four of us across the docks. Ed gave me the front seat next to Connor. In the back, he kept up a steady stream of banter that probably would’ve been funny under other circumstances. Instead of listening, I stared out the side of the vehicle, chewing on my lower lip and wondering where everything went wrong. What had Justin done while I was gone? Did he spend the day with Ariana? Was he furious with me for not returning to the ship immediately? He’d never answered a single one of my texts, but I didn’t know if his phone was on and working. We hadn’t used the messaging app all week. Maybe he hadn’t seen any of my messages.

When we got to the ship, I alighted from the cart practically before it stopped moving. Dominic stepped out behind me, but Ed called him over for an interview. Good ol’ Ed. I raced for the gangway, phone already in hand. Battery dead. I couldn’t text Justin until I got to my room to plug the stupid thing in, and but I didn’t want any delays before I got to his cabin.

Instead of waiting for the elevator, I raced up the stairs to our deck. On the fourth floor, one of my flip-flops tore, making me stumble. My toe came off the sandal, banging against the step. I yelped.

For a second, I paused to look at the damage. The thin piece of plastic once separating my toes now dangled uselessly above the foam bottom. Stupid two-dollar shoes. How dare they not be sturdy?

Not willing to let poor craftsmanship slow me down, I yanked the other flip-flop off my foot and kept running. I didn’t slow until I got to Justin’s door. Panting, I rapped on the door once, twice. Then again. What if Dominic somehow beat me here? Maybe he took another staircase or found an empty elevator. My heart pounded in my chest. Glancing up and down the hall, I knocked again, louder.

Finally, the door swung open, and the remaining breath whooshed out of me. Before me stood Ariana.

In Justin’s room. Wearing a fluffy, white bathrobe.