Chapter Four
Troy
“Welcome to season eight of The Stud. Last year, our Stud Andrew and single mother Felicia found…”
“Cut!!”
The show host, Fabian—an overly fake-tanned, smarmy man in a suit—had been in the middle of saying his lines when Glenn screamed the order to stop, and he glared over at the crew. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“It’s not you, Fabian, it’s the girls. Hey! You in the red dress! You keep staring at your feet. You’re meant to be excited,” Glenn said, waving his hand at one of the many Stud contestants.
I was sitting in an idling black limo nearby, waiting to step out for my big reveal scene….only this time it wouldn’t be a big reveal, because this was already the fourth take. Glenn kept demanding that the scene be reshot because every time we attempted to do it, he had a problem with something.
Fabian, you aren’t smiling enough.
Girl in the glittery blue gown, you look like you just smelled a fart. Smile, for Christ’s sake.
Troy…if I haven’t said it enough times to everyone else already…smile!
The scene started again, and Fabian plastered a big, fake smile on his face—Glenn looked very pleased at that—and began to say his lines all over again. “Welcome to…”
“Cut! For fuck’s sake!” Glenn shouted. “What’s going on over there?”
One of the women—a pretty blonde in a black dress—had begun to squirm uncomfortably in line, and the tall redheaded woman next to her called out to Glenn. “She has cramps! She needs an Advil and a tampon. We’ve been standing here for hours, stop yelling at us!”
“Christ… Eden, she’s your girl. Deal with it,” Glenn said. “Everyone else, take a break for five minutes.”
I craned my neck to see Eden racing over to the blonde girl and escorting her away from the courtyard, and then I stepped out of the limo to stretch my legs.
I had no idea why Eden had been so abrasive to me last night when I ran into her out by the trailers. Sure, I’d been a bit of a dick when I pretended not to remember her during the crew introductions, but I had a good reason for that. If I admitted I knew her, it would’ve been awkward in front of everyone, and on top of that, I didn’t need everyone knowing that I’d only come on this damn show looking for her, because it sounded insane…and I swear I wasn’t crazy, I was just still crazy about her after all these years.
Was my feigning ignorance of her really enough for her to be so nasty to me, though? After all, she was the one who dumped me back in the day by not showing up that morning and never contacting me again.
Maybe she’d recently been through a bad breakup, and seeing an ex like me had reminded her of the failed relationship, which was making her take out her bitter feelings on me. Or maybe she remembered the past incorrectly, and I was somehow the bad guy in all her memories.
Whatever the reason was for why she was behaving so nastily towards me, I intended to find out.
I made my way over to the crew to ask some casual questions about Eden, but I was intercepted by a woman stepping out in front of me; the same tall redhead who’d given Glenn shit a moment ago. I hadn’t actually been told any of the contestant’s names yet, so I wasn’t sure what hers was, but I had a feeling from her predatory gaze that she was about to tell me.
“Got a light?” she asked, pulling a cigarette out from the cleavage of her dress.
“No, sorry, I don’t smoke,” I replied.
“Really? Wouldn’t have pegged you as a non-smoker,” she said. “I’ve only ever seen photos of you out partying in the gossip columns.”
I chuckled. “I do like to have the odd drink now and then, and I do love parties, but you’d be hard-pressed to find many professional athletes who smoke. Er….sorry, what was your name?”
“Anya,” she said. Her voice was deep and throaty for a woman, and I had a feeling the show producers would be setting her up as the alpha bitch of the season.
“Well, Anya, it was a nice thing you did for that girl back there.”
She shrugged. “Not really. I made it up. I think she just needed to pee, but I wanted to take a smoke break, and nothing freaks men out more than the mention of periods. So I figured that Glenn douche would give us a break if I said that.”
I laughed at her brazen honesty. “Well, you were right.”
“So what’s your angle?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“Why are you here? Career gone to shit or something?”
“I don’t follow what you’re saying.”
She snorted. “People come on this show for one reason and one reason only, and it ain’t to find love.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, I gathered that.”
I would’ve felt guilty about coming on a show like this and leading these women on if it weren’t for the fact that they were all going to be leading me on too. Anya was right on the ball; people didn’t come on reality shows to find love. They only pretended to do so by leading each other on, all on camera, just to get publicity for themselves.
“They just want attention. For what…well, that could be anything. Could be to fix their public image, could be to advertise themselves. See that girl in the mint-green dress? She wants to promo her hair extension business to all the female viewers,” Anya said, pointing at one of the other contestants and confirming my thoughts. “And those three there…all swimsuit models hoping to gain publicity from the show for their careers. I could go on, but you already know what I mean. We’re all here for a reason. So what’s your deal?”
“I don’t have a deal.”
“So you’re telling me that you’re actually here to find love?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, in a manner of speaking,” I said, looking over her shoulder at Eden, who had just returned with the blonde.
“Well, that’d be a first.”
“What about you?” I asked. “What’s your deal?”
“Actress trying to get publicity,” she said with a wry smile. “I’ve decided to play the role of the mean girl this season. I knew from the very first meeting with the producers that they were going to make me look bad like that, so I figured I may as well play it up. Get the claws out and so on.”
“Good luck with that,” I said.
She took a step forward and put her hand directly on the crotch of my tuxedo pants, and her voice took on a purring, seductive tone. “Anyway, if you don’t manage to find the love you’re apparently looking for, I’m always available for after-hours visits. Just promise you won’t cut me in the first few eliminations,” she said. “I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine.”
Jesus…what? She seemed fairly straight-forward and honest in our conversation a moment ago, but now she was sounding a little desperate. I pushed her hand away, and as I did so, I saw Eden casting a disgusted glance at me. Great…no doubt she’d misread the situation and thought I was already trying to sleaze onto contestants.
“You don’t need to do that,” I said, looking back down at Anya. “Look, if you can have a decent conversation with me every now and then, I won’t cut you anytime soon. But don’t feel like you need to fuck me to win.”
Anya’s eyes widened slightly, and she nodded. “Got it,” she said, a trace of surprise in her voice. She was a very beautiful woman; it was probably the first time a guy had turned down her advances. “I should get back to the lineup.”
“Yeah, I need to get back to the limo,” I replied.
I trudged back over to the car, and the scene restarted with Fabian saying his rehearsed lines for the sixth time.
“Welcome to season eight of The Stud. Last year, Andrew and single mother Felicia found love, and they got married in San Luis Obispo just last month. But where will love take us this year?” he said, before pausing for a second. “Get set to watch new romance blossom, right here on our spectacular estate out at Palomar Ranch and Horse Stud, as twenty-four beautiful women set off on their path to finding true love. After all the dazzling dates and sexy parties, who will be left standing at the final ceremony?”
The lined-up women behind him, all clad in designer gowns and high heels, smiled and tittered nervously, as if they had no idea who the bachelor this season was, despite having seen me several times now in the previous cuts.
“Now, the moment all you lovely young ladies have been waiting for…the arrival of this season’s Stud! Are you ready?”
The women all screamed with excitement, and I took that as my cue to step out of the limo again and head down the path towards the courtyard. To their credit, the women were able to feign excitement and shock all over again, and one of them even had fake tears of joy in her eyes.
“Yes, that’s right, this year’s Stud is Troy Ballard! You all know him and love him after last year’s NFL championship…now get ready to love him even more! Troy, would you like to say anything to these lovely ladies?”
I plastered on a toothy smile for the cameras and began my speech. “Firstly, I’d like to say hello, and I’d also like to thank you all for being here with me tonight. I can’t wait to get to know each and every one of you. I suppose you’re all keen on finding out why I’m here.”
I hesitated, and my gaze came to rest on Eden again. As a producer, she obviously wasn’t in the shot, but I could still see her perfectly, standing to the side of the contestants.
“I’m looking for love. True love,” I continued. “You all know I have a great career, and I also have really great friends and colleagues. But I’m missing something—a family. A wife, more specifically. I want to meet my soulmate; someone who is not only my best friend, but my partner in crime.”
As I said that, I winked at the camera and then looked back at Eden, and she rolled her eyes and walked away. I simply grinned and watched her go. She wasn’t making this easy for me, but I wasn’t going to give up on her, no matter what it took.
A woman like her was worth it.