Allie ♡

Atreus glanced towards the cameras, unsure if he was supposed to be looking at them or not. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know.” He laughed nervously, trying not to second-guess his decision to be part of this. He had flown under the radar for awhile now and he didn’t want anyone looking at his past too closely. 

“But you’ve been, like, on other shows, right? Got any tips for me?” He asked curiously.

Allie nodded, remembering how brutal her first show was. It definitely felt like the producers intentionally left you unprepared, in the guise of getting an authentic reaction, when in reality they were only hoping you’d do something you’d likely regret later.

“Definitely. A lot of it depends on how long you actually want to be on the show.” she explained, “If you want to stick around, listen to the producers and/or create drama anywhere you can.” 

Bailey had abandoned what meager belongings he owned in his assigned trailer before taking off to explore the set. The miles of farmland and greenery reminded him of Burma, but he was abruptly reminded of how different it would be working in a place where he was expected to make conversation.

“Camera operator,” he corrected, turning to regard what looked to be a life-sized Barbie doll. She was just as aggressively attractive as he expected all the contestants to be, and immediately regretted turning down that Animal Planet job. He could’ve been with hippos by now. “Just taking a look around. You just get here?”

Allie felt a little stupid for assuming he was a fellow contestant, but tried to shake the feeling. 

“Yeah just a bit ago. Seems like an...interesting place.” she mused, looking around at their environment. “So when does filming officially start?” she asked, studying Bailey. In her past experience it was smart to be on the cameramen’s good side. 

Atreus had no idea what had just happened. Were they gonna send videos back? Who knew. He helped Mrs. Houghton with her Facebook but he was beginning to realize he was even farther behind than he’d thought.

“So that’s it?” He asked with a faint grin. “Like… people just watch that and then talk to each other about it? Like real TV.” He mused.

“Yeah basically. They want to know what’s going on in my life, what I’m into, who I’m into.” Allie replied with a slight shrug. “And you know this is real TV, right?” she asked jokingly, gesturing to the camera only semi discreetly hidden in a nearby bush. 

Angel bit his lip in thought, wishing that drink had been enough to do more than just take the edge off of last night’s hangover. He’d basically thrown himself a huge bachelor party in LA before flying out for this thing, building hype before he left the city again.

“I’d like to.” He shrugged to diffuse the discomfort of answering her honestly. He lied to everyone else and lying to Allie when he didn’t have to seemed counterproductive. “I don’t know.” He reached to rub the back of his neck, wondering if was insulting to imply that another fake marriage would be the same. “It was kinda nice having somebody to come home to when our schedules actually worked out.” 

“Yeah, it was.” Allie agreed sincerely. “Well, I really do hope you find someone...” ‘real’ is what she wanted to say, “..that’s right for you.” she ended with a small smile. “I should uh, go see if I can find some food.” she added, taking a step back. 

Atreus leaned into her side to keep them both well within the frame, not about to make a bad impression on whoever was on the other side of this thing. He beamed as Allie glowingly introduced him. 

“Hey guys! We’re on the show together. You guys better be watching.” He grinned, pointing at the camera.

Allie laughed and stopped the video, turning to Atreus again. “Easy. Let the fan speculation begin. They’re going to be all over this.” she laughed, realizing this show could actually end up being a lot of fun. 

Angel laughed under his breath, guilt kicking him in the gut even though they both knew that everything he intended to say about her was only part of the show. He knew from experience that it was easy to lose perspective in a life where you were performing throughout nearly every moment of daily life. Sometimes it was easier to find yourself believing in the farce rather than having to constantly act it out. And yeah, maybe he had fallen for Allie a little in spite of knowing what this was, but it could be due to the fact that she was one of the few people left who had anything genuinely kind to say about him anymore.

“You’re not gonna make this easy, are you?” He shook his head and downed the contents of his drink, tossing the glass into the garbage despite the fact that it wasn’t meant to be disposable.

“Life’s not easy.” Allie replied with a shrug. What she really meant was that these kinds of shows didn’t get good ratings to see other people have easy lives.

 “Think at least one of us will end up in another marriage this time around?” she asked curiously, half-joking and half-wondering if he was actually looking for a relationship again. 

“Oh, shit, really?” Atreus was obviously impressed by this even though he had only a loose grasp of what it meant. It sounded like fun, anyway. 

He perked up even further as she offered to introduce him to her fans. “Yeah, totally. How does it work?” He asked curiously, eager to be part of whatever it was.

“You’ll be great.” Allie assured him, stepping close to his side and turning towards the phone she was now holding up to frame both of them together. She glanced over at Atreus with a smile before pressing the record button. 

“Hey everyone! I’m checking in here from Missouri - not a sentence I think I’ve ever uttered before in my life. Anyway - it’s really nice, and I think I’ve already made a friend. He’s really cute so I wanted to show him off.” she announced in a slightly louder-than-normal voice and grinning broadly. 

Angel’s eyebrows raised as he placed her phone back into her hand. “Oh I’ve still got plenty of those on my own.” He glanced up with a teasing smile. “I’m just waiting for you to post something that deserves exposing how you drool in your sleep.”

Allie’s eyes widened as Angel spoke, wondering if he was serious at all. “Well I’ll keep that in mind.” she promised, “Now I wish I’d taken more embarrassing photos of you. You’re just so damn photogenic.”

“Oh wow,” Atreus still had no idea what kind of fame she was talking about, making a mental note that he needed to start reading Mrs. Houghton’s People magazines. Or at least look at the pictures.

“You’re a model then?” He asked curiously. “Unattainable is everyone’s type, I think.”

“Oh hardly,” Allie said with a fair amount of fake modesty. “I’m an influencer, I promote fitness and other lifestyle brands.” she explained. “Speaking of, want to be the first new friend from the show I introduce to my followers?” she asked, holding up her phone. 

Angel reached for her phone, taking it to scroll through the thumbnails of photos she had already taken. He knew she would only post a very few of them, something that had always struck him as kind of sad.

“I can’t be part of this.” He laughed. “Your people have been coming for me hard. I don’t want to give them the wrong idea.”

“Right.” Allie said, realizing she had forgotten for a moment that their storied past involved him being painted as her villainous and emotionally absent ex-husband. 

“Well, you could always wait for a bad angle or unflattering look for the picture. That’d show me.” she added with a slight smile. 

Atreus glanced sidelong towards her, a lopsided grin spreading across his features. He wasn’t oblivious to his assets, it was pretty much the only thing he could chalk his survival thus far up to, but he was always gonna be a sucker for a compliment.

“Well, I wouldn’t scrap the part about finding someone who can make you happy.” He teased, leading the way towards the barns. “Are you famous?” He asked before realizing that if she was it might have seemed rude that he had to ask. “I mean, I’m not really- I’ve been pretty much isolating out here for awhile.” He added quickly, grimacing apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it.” Allie laughed, sensing his regretful discomfort. “I’m only really known in certain circles, and my demo is really just women and guys who mostly use the internet to look at successful women they could never attain.” she explained. “But I can’t complain, I get to do what I love and I make a living at it, so it’s all good.” she added, not wanting to sound too arrogant. 

Angel nodded, his performance and defenses both crumbling at once. “Yeah, I’m good. It was- ya know, I’m fresh off of a break, ready to get back at it. Hustle, no breaks- or whatever the kids are saying these days.” He didn’t know why she was worrying about him when he was basically an expert at getting ‘help’, whereas she was the one used to giving it out.

“You’re gonna have a field day with this landscape, huh.” He laughed, gesturing to the picturesque view of the farm they had from every window.

“Oh yeah, I’m all over that.” Allie laughed, holding up her phone that she’d already taken a couple dozen pictures and videos with since her arrival. “But I could use some help getting the right lighting for a selfie sometime, you know. You were always pretty good at that.” she added, tilting her head slightly and studying Angel’s face more seriously. 

Atreus laughed, letting the door slam shut behind them. “Wish my mom had given me that speech.” He grinned, jogging down the porch stairs and into the yard. He wasn’t oblivious to the cameras around them but he did a pretty good job pretending that he was. 

“Mm, I guess… someone who is the opposite of me.” He responded after a moment. “Not that it’s really worked out for me in the past. What about you?”

“So, you want someone utterly uncharming and very unpleasant on the eyes? You might be on the wrong show. ” Allie asked teasingly. 

“I used to think I would only want to be with someone famous. You know, someone who could really boost my brand and make me happy. But I guess I’m finally maturing into realizing that isn’t very realistic.” she admitted, hoping he didn’t think she was just incredibly shallow. 

Angel snorted in response to her explanation, rocking the glass in his hand to mix its contents before taking a long sip. 

“I didn’t meet you in a club.” He reminded her pointedly, the salt behind his words cropping up automatically. He hoped they could talk at some point without the fear of being on-screen, but at this point he wasn’t even sure if that was possible.

“And we see how that turned out.” Allie pointed out, a genuine smile creeping across her face. “But for real, you’re doing okay?” she asked, figuring that if they were just calmly catching up they probably wouldn’t air it anyway. 

Atreus waved for her to follow him as he headed for the exit. “Don’t worry about it. They’re weird, but not as weird as you’d think.” He promised, opening the door and holding it for her.

“Just don’t stand behind ‘em, and try not to make any sudden movements until you get to know ‘em better. They’re more afraid of you than you are of them, and all that.” He offered, mostly pointing this out because he’d been terrified of them at first.

“That sounds a lot like the speech my mom gave me about men when I first started dating.” Allie said with a laugh, walking through the open door and wondering if everyone in this town was going to be so nice. 

“Speaking of, what are you looking for in a date?” she asked curiously after noticing the camera man lurking outside the door. 

Angel inhaled slowly when he noted the change in her demeanor, fairly certain that he was more familiar with her than anyone else at this point. His family had all but disowned him and ‘friend’ was an overly strong word to describe anyone else that he knew.

“Yeah, of course you are.” He smirked, antagonistic enough that if anyone was filming it would be obvious. “Here to fall in love with a moonshiner? You know that shit better be organic.”

“I’m open to meeting someone, but also just open to the experience of being somewhere so raw and different.” Allie replied, putting on a fake smile and deciding it was better to play nice with her ex for the moment. After all, she planned on a pretty grand forgiveness gesture later. 

“What about you? Trying to meet people somewhere other than clubs now?” she asked, not really trying to be mean anymore but still feeling defensive about the situation. 

“I travel a lot.” Atreus shrugged dismissively, far from interested into going into detail about how he’d ended up in this backwater. “I guess I was just looking for somewhere to settle down finally, and Mrs. Houghton- the woman who owns this place- she’s really sweet. She treats me like a grandson.” He beamed brightly, undeniably proud of this.

“You wanna go see the horses?” He asked suddenly, nodding towards the back door. “I can show you who the friendly ones are.”

Allie was beginning to seriously wonder if Atreus was a plant here. He seemed way too welcoming and wholesome to be real and willing to be on some absurd reality TV show. 

“Yeah absolutely. You’re going to laugh but...I’ve never actually been up close to a horse before.” she admitted with a grin.