Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eden
“Are you ready?”
Troy gave me a concerned look as he squeezed my hand, and I shivered and shook my head. “No. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.”
“C’mon, it’ll be okay,” he said in a soothing tone. “Even if Glenn verbally tears your head off, you’re already expecting that, so it won’t be shocking. Aside from that, what’s the worst that could happen?”
I let out a heavy sigh and nodded as I stared at the big wooden sign which spoke to our arrival back at Palomar Ranch. It’d been three days since Troy and I had fled the cruise ship down in the Caribbean, and the first thing we’d done was fly back to California from Aruba to sort ourselves out. I’d been dreading returning to the main set at the ranch to get my belongings from my trailer—I hadn’t received word that I’d been fired, but it was pretty obvious that I would be—and late last night, I’d received a short, sharp text message from Glenn.
We’re all back at Palomar. See me in my office tomorrow. Ten A.M. Don’t be late, and come alone.
That was all it said, but I already knew what the meeting would be about—something along the lines of, ‘We’re suing you and Troy for wrecking the show, you’ll never work in television again, now grab your things and get the hell out of here.’
I hadn’t wanted to go, but Troy had convinced me that I needed to. He’d been nothing but supportive of me over the last few days as I tried to grasp what we’d done, but I was still terrified of what my future held. It didn’t matter how many contacts he had in the media; Glenn had far more, and if he blackballed me in the TV industry, then that was it for me. My TV producing career would be over for good.
“You can do this. You’re strong, smart and talented as hell, and you can manage anything,” Troy said. “Remember, you’re a badass TV producer and a badass person in general. Don’t let this get you down.”
I smiled weakly. “Thanks. I’ll be back soon.”
I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car, and as I headed towards the mansion, I saw a familiar face approaching me. My heart sank as I realized who it was.
It was Anya, carrying two suitcases. Troy had always seemed to think she was cool in the past—he’d even decided she was going to win the show over Hayley—but the hysterical tantrum she’d thrown when we’d been caught on the cruise ship seemed to suggest otherwise. She obviously hated me now, and the last thing I expected to see on her face when she saw me was a smile.
But that was exactly what I saw.
“Hey! You’re here,” she said, dropping her suitcases on the ground and rushing towards me. “I was wondering if you would come back. We were all placing bets, and I bet that you would. It’s so good to see you.”
I gazed at her in surprise. “Um...I don’t really know what to say, Anya,” I replied. “I thought you hated me.”
Her smile grew wider. “Hell no, I don’t hate you,” she said. “Wait, you’re talking about the fit I threw on the ship, right?”
I gave her an uncomfortable nod. “Yes.”
She laughed. “I was just trying to help you guys out. I was never going to win this show—they were totally lining up Hayley to win over me. I was just the bitch villain of the season; at least that’s how they cast me. I’m lucky I got as far as I did. So when those curtains dropped and I saw you and Troy kissing, I figured everyone else might be mad, and you might need time to make a getaway. So I threw an epic tantrum to cause a distraction, and it worked. Glenn needed to personally restrain me before I quietened down.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Yep. I’m an actress, remember?” she said with a wink. “And besides, I told Troy from the start—if he had my back and didn’t cut me, I’d have his back in return. And he never cut me, so I managed to get all the way to the final two. That’ll do wonders for my career, you know.”
My face began to heat up with shame. “Anya, thank you so much, but I have to tell you something. Troy wasn’t going to pick Hayley. He was going to pick you as the winner. So that would’ve been even better for your career. I kinda helped ruin that for you.”
She shrugged and waved her hand. “Eh, whatever. Like I said, I was never expecting to come this far, let alone win. We’re cool,” she said. “And don’t worry. Half the crew is on your side with this too. They think it was worth having the season ruined just to see the look on Glenn’s face when he saw you guys kissing. He literally turned purple with rage.”
I smiled faintly, unable to believe how lucky I was. Not only had Candice supported me and Troy throughout this, Anya had too, along with half the crew. I hadn’t even been aware how many other people had my back, and finding out that they did was making my confidence grow in leaps and bounds. Just because Blair had betrayed my friendship didn’t mean everyone else would, and just because I’d made one big mistake at work didn’t mean my entire career would be left in shreds.
I knew exactly what I needed to do.
Troy was right—I was a badass TV producer, and I finally had a plan to boot.
“Don’t leave just yet,” I said, gesturing to Anya’s suitcases. “I think I might know a way we can fix this season and give it a proper ending. There won’t be a real winner like there usually is, but it’s better than the show just ending its run on TV with no finale being aired at all.”
She arched an eyebrow. “What’s the plan?”
I shook my head. “I can’t say just yet. I need to talk to Glenn first,” I replied, glancing at my watch. “In fact, I’m due in his office in three minutes. I better go.”
“Good luck. I’ll tell Hayley to stay too.”
I thanked her and continued on my way to Glenn’s office, and when I reached it, I knocked firmly and confidently on the door. I wasn’t going to be meek any longer. Glenn himself had told me to grab life and its opportunities by the balls, and that was exactly what I was going to do. If it worked, then great, and if it didn’t—well, at least I tried.
Troy would be proud of me if he could see me right now, and I had to admit, being with him had been the first real boost to my confidence in years, well before my conversation with Anya a moment ago. His love for me had given me a strength I never really knew I had until now. It was because of him that I’d come up with this plan, and it was because of him that I was going to try and see it through.
A man like him was all the inspiration I needed.
“Come in.” Glenn’s booming voice carried through the door, and I stepped inside. “Shut the door behind you.”
I remained standing, and Glenn stood up too. “Well, well,” he said. “You actually showed up. I didn’t think you’d have the balls. Then again, I never thought you’d have the balls to steal my Stud from under my nose and wreck my show, either.”
“I’m sorry for the trouble I caused, Glenn. But I have an—”
“Don’t talk yet,” he said. “I’m not done. Let me speak.”
I nodded my assent, and he continued, his face getting progressively redder with each second that passed. “We almost had a full season here, Eden. A goldmine season too; the ratings were through the roof compared to last season. All we needed was that finale episode. But you took that away with your little dalliance with Troy, and now the show is fucking ruined. There’s no winner, no proposal, no nothing! And worst of all, the finale was meant to air in just two days. So now I have to explain to the network execs why our season has to be axed this far in, despite all those great ratings we’ve been pulling in.”
“I know,” I said solemnly. “I lied straight to your face, and I kept things from you when I should’ve come clean a long time ago.”
“No, you should’ve just not fucked my Stud!” he shouted, slamming his fist down on the desk. “So give me one reason why I shouldn’t absolutely blackball you from ever working in this industry again. One reason, Eden!”
I threw my shoulders back and stood up straight. “All right, Glenn. I’ll give you your reason. And it’s a pretty fucking good one, in my opinion, especially in terms of my junior producer pay grade.”
His eyebrows shot up at my response; he’d obviously expected me to run away with my tail between my legs instead of standing up for myself.
“Okay. What is it?” he said, sitting down with his forehead still lined with surprise.
“Troy and I have given you an amazing gift, Glenn. Something this show has needed for a long time.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
I nodded. “Yes. You know, when I was a kid, I used to read romance books and watch shows like this, and I’d think it was all real, and that one day I’d find my very own Prince Charming and live happily ever after. That’s the kind of love books, TV shows and movies try to sell,” I said. I hesitated and took a breath before continuing. “I lost that belief in true love a long time ago, though, and working on this show hasn’t helped. There’s no love in this place. We all know it’s manufactured horse-shit. Hell, we’re the ones who manufacture it, season after season. But then I reunited with Troy, and I realized I’d been wrong. True love is real. It is out there. And we’ve found it together.”
“And?” Glenn said, narrowing his eyes.
“And we’ve given you the best drama this show has ever had in any season, bar none. Not once has a Stud ever run off with a crew member in such a dramatic fashion. I mean, for god’s sake, we stole Tay Drake’s boat and escaped from a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean!”
Glenn’s lips curled. “Yes, and you’re lucky Tay thought it was so damn hilarious, or you’d both be sitting in prison for that right now.”
“What I’m saying is, you can’t make this stuff up, Glenn. You can’t write and manufacture anything as amazing as real love and the stories that go with it. And that’s what we have. Unlike literally every other so-called romance on this show’s history, ours is actually real. And what better story for our viewers could there be than real love for once?” I said. “You know the show was getting stale and getting a reputation for selling fake fairytale love. But we can fix that now. We can give our viewers the real love story they deserve this season.”
“How?”
“Air the final episode. You’ve got all that footage of the concert, the drama when we got caught, and us running away. You’ve also got Anya throwing that epic tantrum, among other things. And most of all, you’ve got true love. It’s all there. Just edit it together and have Anya and Hayley do post-cruise interviews, explaining how they feel about it all, and you’ll have your finale. They’ll still get the attention they want for months after it airs, even though neither of them won, because people will be talking about this forever. You know that’s the truth. This’ll be the best finale in the history of the show.”
I knew I was taking a huge risk in saying all of this, but it was all true. It would work, and Troy and I were in love. Real love. The kind of dramatic, soppy, heart-wrenching love that people write poems, books and songs about. Yes, that sounded arrogant, but it wasn’t, because we weren’t the only ones. Absolutely anyone in the world who loved someone deeply was exactly the same as us, and they deserved to have that true love recognized, rather than sitting through more fakery on reality shows.
Glenn sat and listened, his lips set in a thin line, and when I was done talking, he simply stared at me without saying a word for two whole minutes.
“So…what do you think?” I said, uncomfortable with such a long silence.
He gestured for me to take a seat. “Sit. We need to discuss the termination of your contract.”
My shoulders slumped. It hadn’t worked, and I was losing my job after all.
“You’re absolutely right, Eden,” Glenn went on.
“Uh, what?” I said, my eyes widening. I hadn’t been expecting to hear that; I thought I was midway through being fired.
He let out a heavy sigh. “I really hate to admit it, but I’ve dropped the ball on this show. The ratings for this season have been stellar, but that’s only compared to the last few seasons. If we compare it to other shows, then we’re not doing amazingly well. But this idea of yours about adding in reality—actual reality—that could change it. We could stop the obvious fakery, let real drama happen. Let real people compete, not just these hot wannabe models and entrepreneurs who say the same stuff season after season and are only in it to promote their brands. That’d really set us apart from all the other so-called reality shows, which we all know are total bullshit which couldn’t be further from reality.”
“But you’d rather I wasn’t here working with you,” I said with a nod. “I understand. I know I betrayed you and the rest of the crew, and I take full responsibility for that. I—”
Glenn waved his hand and cut me off. “Oh, stop with all the mea culpas. I’m not firing you. We’ll just need to terminate your current contract with the network so we can do up a new one for you in your new senior producer position.”
My eyes felt like they were about to pop out of their sockets. “You’re promoting me?”
He nodded. “You have a talent for this. I’ve been telling you that for a while now. It just never occurred to me that you—or any of the other producers—might actually know better than me. I really want you for the job.”
I took a deep breath as tingles of elated surprise crept up my spine. “Thank you,” I said. “I really wasn’t expecting that at all.”
“And I wasn’t expecting you to come in here and unload all that on me, but you were right,” he said. “So will you accept?”
I hesitated. “Yes, but with one caveat. I think Candice deserves a promotion too. She works just as hard as me, and she has great ideas too. I think she’s been in her junior producer position for far too long.”
“I agree. She was the other one I had my eye on for the position,” he said. “I think we can swing two new seniors instead of just one, especially given the huge makeover the show needs.”
“Great. Thank you.”
I left Glenn’s office ten minutes later with my head high and my face glowing with pride and happiness. I finally had it all. Good friends, good career trajectory, and the love of a wonderful man. What else could I possibly want out of life?
Well, maybe one more thing….