Angel Andrada

Oh, now that was a jawline.

She’d seen pictures of Angel- bad boy club promoter of LA, the kind of guy who thought a bad reputation was better than no reputation, to be fair in his line of work he was right- but photos never quite managed to do people justice, she thought. There was always something off; the angle or the light or the distance from the photographer- all this to say he was hot. Which was a good thing for her, since she was going to spend the next months of her life immersed in the drama he’d be creating on the show. 

“Save your questions for the people you’ll be trying to woo for the cameras.” Tommie counters, eager to cut out any bullshit he might try to pull with her. She was a no nonsense chick and her life was none of his business. His life? Fair game. “And it’s not a trap, it’s an attempt to get interesting soundbites for the radio show I’ll be hosting.” She fishes her phone from her pocket and bring sup the voice recording. “So, whats your deal? Being on the show, is it about love or notoriety?” 

Angel knew better than to expect that joining this circus would make for an actual respite. The only place he’d ever been able to find that had been within the confines of high-security rehabilitation centers. As much as he would love to have a genuine interaction he knew that it wasn’t what anyone wanted from him, therefore slipping into the persona that was expected.

“It’s all about love, of course. The ink is dry on the divorce and I’m ready to move on. Allie didn’t deserve what I did, but I’ve been working on myself and I’m ready to do better. I’m just looking for someone who believes in second chances.” He managed to walk a fine line of alternating between earnesty and a hint of sarcasm, knowing that it was important to keep people guessing as to what his deal was. 

Confident that he’d given her something she could work with, he turned his focus from sounding like a inane asshole back to Tommie. “Radio, huh? Not really a face for radio.” He observed.

“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. 

Angel found it highly unlikely that anyone could, but more importantly he was pretty certain that he wouldn’t want to find anything real here. He wasn’t in a place for anything real. That was a retirement thing, or something. If he found something real now he wouldn’t be able to hang onto it even if he tried.

“I’ll see ya, Al.” He was certain that the next time he saw her the cameras would be rolling, making this a very different interaction.

“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. 

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.” 

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.”

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.

“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. 

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.”

“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. 

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.”

“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. 

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.

“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. 

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.

Allie bristled slightly at his words, feeling a little hurt and guilty at the same time, feelings that were quickly followed by a fear that he might be threatening to reveal more about her than she wanted known to the public on this show.

“Well, I’m doing pretty well too.” she said with just a hint of defensiveness, holding her chin up a bit higher. 

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.”

Allie tried not to look as surprised as she was to see Angel. She knew he was going to be on the show, but in that moment she realized she wasn’t actually mentally prepared to see him again. It had been easy to make him the bad guy during their breakup and subsequent divorce, spinning the right look behind a phone or a laptop was one of her strong suits. But seeing him here, in person, made her feel a lot of things she’d been ignoring about how much she actually cared about him. 

“Angel,” she said, unable to prevent a smile from spreading across her face. She barely resisted the urge to step forward and give him a hug. “You too.” she said jokingly. “You look good. Healthy.” she added quickly. 

Angel laughed, torn between fondness and bitterness in that exact moment. It had all been a career move, and he knew that his role in the breakup was just a part of that, but he still worried about her and wished that she’d let him aid her in getting real help.

“Yeah, the ‘resort’ was great.” He nodded, picking up a glass of juice from the refreshments table that had been set up for everyone who was arriving. “Would’ve been more fun with company, but, what’re ya gonna do.” He shrugged, pulling a flask from his pocket and dumping the contents into the glass.