Bellamy's Redemption

“Thank you,” she said. “So Emma, the thing is, I get this impression like he likes you, and I have no idea why. I just, like, don’t. It’s very, very annoying. Very.”

“You get the impression he likes all of us, right?” asked Deb.

“Would you mind if I took that vacant seat?” I asked the flight attendant who happened to be passing by. I pointed towards the back of the plane where I’d noticed a couple of empty seats earlier when I was coming back from the restroom.

“Sure, you can take it,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said. I got up to leave, but Alanna was still not finished.

“You may have some of the answers, but there are still many, many questions. I’m watching you,” she said, pointing at her own eyes with two fingers, then pointing at my own.

“Bellamy likes all of us, right? Don’t you think he’s still into all of us a lot?” I heard Deb asking again as I found my way as far away from them as the plane would allow. A producer got up and wordlessly followed me, taking a seat behind me. I sighed, put on my eye pillow, and finally got some sleep.

Chapter 28

“His family is going to hate her,” Alanna said. She was talking about Klassie, of course, who had just left our hotel room. She would be gone all day, and possibly overnight if Bellamy’s family invited her to stay.

I knew from previous seasons that spending the night at a family’s home was very rare and equally significant. It hadn’t happened as far as I could recall since 2009 when Parsley Devenshire had been invited to stay with the family of George Haberfield after a particularly successful Meet-the-Fam date. Parsley and George are now married with triplets who are all named after herbs. They have their own Hamptons-themed decorating company and they’ve started a charity for people who are struggling financially to keep their yachts. It’s called Staying Afloat. I read about it in Town & Country magazine. I should hate them, but they actually seem like wonderful people.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. If they’re anything like Bellamy, they’re too sweet to hate anyone,” said Deb.

“I’m with you, Deb,” I said. I angled my chair so I wouldn’t have to look at Alanna.

“At least she left her roller skates here. I really thought she was going to wear them to his family’s house. God, that would have been hilarious. I can’t believe the producers didn’t try to sway her into doing that. Can you believe those stupid things? They’ve been all over the world and here they are. I can’t believe they made it through customs. Have either of you smelled them? They stink. I’d like to burn them,” said Alanna. She pinched her nose and cackled.

Despite my disdain, I was secretly mesmerized by her multi-faceted personality. I was both relieved and disappointed that the perfect Alanna I’d seen on television was an unattainable character, not a person. Maybe the editors of the show would pull a one eighty, this time revealing all her snarky, whining, zit-picking glory. It was all right there if they chose to show it. I doubted it would happen though, since they’d practically created the Alanna Rutherford brand the first time around, and to expose her as an ordinary (though gorgeous) human would surely lessen audiences’ interest in her and the potential for more shows starring her in the future.

“I’ll give them a little sprinkle of perfume,” said Deb. She spritzed the roller skates with a few squirts of the lavender room spray from the wicker basket of free goodies on the coffee table.

“She’s totally going to know we did that. They’ll probably smell even worse now. I love it,” Alanna said, laughing. She rummaged through the basket for a moment, unwrapped a mint and ate it, and then suddenly began to pout. “Another day of sitting around. I wonder if anything interesting will happen today.”

“I’ll bet something interesting is going to happen,” I said. I was pretty sure that Vanessa would be turning up shortly.

“I doubt it,” said Deb. “I’m going to tell you two a story while we’re waiting. You can listen too, Bob,” she added for the sake of our favorite cameraman.

“Cool,” said Bob. His eyes lit up and he smiled. I’d noticed that he’d stopped wearing his wedding ring when we were in Europe and that he still didn’t have it on. I wasn’t sure what his deal was, but I suddenly sensed that he was very interested in Deb.

“Okay, so as you guys know, I was born in a barn. Like Jesus,” she said.

“We didn’t know that you were born in a barn,?

?? I said.

“Oh. Okay, so I was. You can imagine that I got a lot of harassment over that my whole life. You know, people asking ‘Were you born in a barn’ if I, say, left my school desk a little messy, and I’d have to say that I was, and all of that. But it wasn’t all bad. I’ve never had allergies, and I think it’s because I was exposed to all that hay as a baby…”

Just then the door opened and Catalina Cartwright barged in. “Hi girls. We’ve got a special announcement and we’re going to film it in fifteen minutes. Change your clothes and put on some makeup if you’d like to. See you in a few,” she said, and with that she was right back out the door.

“What was that all about?” asked Alanna. When Deb and I looked at her blankly without offering an explanation, she turned to Bob and snapped at him: “Bob, fill us in. I hate all these surprises. What’s up with us getting jerked around this season? Is this just how it is being on the other side? If so, I want my own show again.”

Deb froze. “What did you say, Alanna?”

“I said I’m sick of all these surprises. I feel like we’re pawns who are getting pushed around a chessboard. Giving us fifteen minutes to get ready for important airtime? Really? I didn’t agree to that.”

“No. You said you want your own show again. If you were truly here for Bellamy, you wouldn’t be thinking like that.” Deb began to cry. Not just a couple of tears, but angry sobs. “How dare you stay here if you don’t love him? How dare you? I do love him and to me this isn’t a joke, and it’s not just a show.”

“Calm down. I’m here for Bellamy. Really,” said Alanna.

“You are not,” said Deb.