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Gale was usually quite comfortable on the phone. He called people up all the time with questions or just to check in on their lives. He didn’t understand the modern trend of texting every thought when the phone was right there and often much faster.

This conversation was not comfortable at all. It set him pacing around his flat, one hand cradling his cellphone to his ear, the other flat against his forehead.  

“I appreciate your offer, sir,” Gale said, smiling even though he was on the phone. “But I’m not sure I’m the right fit for a show like Matchmakers.”

“Have you seen the show?” the network executive asked. His real name was Mr. Balduran but everyone at the company just called him “the Emperor” because of how much power he wielded over the programming. Gale had visited the man’s office once and thought the Emperor’s desk must have been worth more than Gale’s car.

“I’m afraid I haven’t,” Gale said. “I don’t usually watch uh…reality dating programs.”

“Oh, it’s much more than a dating program. It brings together contestants from all of the Tadpole network’s programming slate and demonstrates what they all have in common at their core. The show is about strategy and human drama. Of course there are relationships but how can one understand the human condition without love?”

“I suppose that’s true,” Gale said cautiously. He had never watched Matchmakers but the trailer sometimes autoplayed on his Tadpole app and most of the contestants seemed to be wearing bathing suits in every shot and yelling at each other. “I’m just still not sure how I could fit into a show with quite so much human drama. You know that my previous experience was on a baking show.” 

Gale had done pretty well on Greatest Bakes. Came in fifth, he was quite proud to say. No swimwear involved though.

“It won’t be as large of a leap as you’re anticipating,” the Emperor said blithely. “Last season, one of the finalists was a contestant from Timber, our competitive carpentry program. You’ll do fine, Gale, I promise. And as one of our veteran talents, you'll be quite handsomely compensated for your appearance.”

That was certainly appealing. University professors weren’t paid much. University professors on sabbatical after getting divorced from their department heads were paid even less. He could use another television appearance fee, especially one with a pay bump.

Still, Gale tried to think, to slow this conversation down. The Emperor’s calm, smooth manner of speaking had a way of altering the thoughts of anyone who tried to negotiate with him. People walked into his office for pitch meetings and didn’t realize they had signed over most of their show’s profits until they were driving back home.     

“Could I have some time to consider?” Gale asked. 

The executive’s answering sigh sounded loud through the phone.

“I didn’t want to have to bring this up,” the Emperor said. “But your contract with Tadpole binds you to one additional media appearance at the network’s discretion. We would love to still bring you on to serve as a guest judge on Greatest Bakes but unfortunately one of our Matchmakers contestants has had to withdraw unexpectedly and we need to activate that clause in your contract a bit sooner than originally planned.”

Now this all made sense. Gale was a last minute substitution, his casting an act of desperation. He wondered if he should consult with an attorney before he remembered that attorneys cost money.

“How long is the shooting schedule?” Gale asked tentatively.

“Four weeks. We’re anticipating ten to twelve episodes and I’ve been authorized to double the pay per episode you earned previously.”

Gale stopped dead in his pacing. He felt a bit faint. 

Double the pay per episode. He tried to quickly calculate how many months of rent that was, how many weeks of groceries, how likely it was that his cat would eat something she wasn’t supposed to and need an emergency trip to the vet. 

“Gale? Gale, have I lost you?”

“No, I’m still here,” Gale said quickly. His car had recently started making an odd noise when it started. “I was just thinking about my schedule but -” he pinched the bridge of his nose and winced. “I think… Matchmakers sounds like an interesting opportunity. I would be honored to be a contestant.”

“That’s fantastic news, Gale. I’ll have my assistant email you with some of the details and a new contract. Try to have it back to us by the end of the week, won’t you? Have a wonderful time in Panama.” Then Gale heard the distinctive clatter of a phone landing back in its cradle.

Panama?

He looked at his phone screen but it was dark, his call with the Emperor now ended. The executive had taken just enough time to convey what he needed - I’m sending you to Panama for a month or I’m suing you for breach of contract - before unceremoniously hanging up. Maybe having his ex-wife as his boss wasn’t so bad. 

Tara, Gale’s long haired tabby, meowed at his feet before bumping her tiny forehead against his shin.

Gale sighed. “Now I need to find someone to look after you.”

-

Evie knew she looked good when she walked into the Matchmakers villa.

She had paid for a stylist to blow out her long blonde hair and apply her makeup before they would become Evie’s sole responsibility for four weeks. She selected her favorite flower print bikini and a diaphanous bathing suit cover up that she wore completely open so that it actually covered very little. The sheer robe skimmed the floor and flowed out behind her like she had a personal fan on her every time she took a step. 

The concept was colorful and bright with miles of bare skin, like a very sexy, slightly poisonous tropical flower and Evie knew she had nailed it. The camera crew had only filmed her walking up to the front door once instead of making her back up and pretend to do it over and over which told her just how on point her look was.

As she walked through the front door of the house, she noticed a gathering of other similarly dressed gorgeous people all standing by the bar and holding the same white plastic wine glasses (opaque, of course, so the levels of their drinks wouldn’t change from shot to shot when the show was stitched together later).

A quick head count told Evie that she was the last to arrive and she couldn’t help the little flush of pride that brought her. Last in this scenario was a place of honor. The producers were expecting the audience to feel something when she walked in and wanted to spotlight her. 

“Hi, everybody!” she said brightly as she strode into the villa, steps confident even in her tall heels. The rest of the cast were all laughing, amused and surprised by her presence. One of the women had covered her open mouth with her hand and made astonished eye contact with the woman beside her. Evie didn’t recognize every face here but they definitely knew her.

“Oh my God, Evie!” A slight woman with white blonde hair exclaimed with a laugh. “I should have known you’d be here.”

Evie and Nym were on different seasons of the same show and had met at a few get-togethers for other Tadpole network cast members who liked to travel and party. Nym gave her a hug and pressed a plastic cup into her hand. Evie took a sip from the blue silicone straw and tasted rum and coconut.

She went around giving out hugs and hellos. A little bolt of lightning zipped through her when Wyll freaking Ravengard stepped close to greet her.

“Hi, Wyll,” Evie purred as she hugged him, making sure to press all of her body against his.

“You recognize me?” he said with a bashful laugh.

“Of course I do, I follow your Instagram,” she said. 

Wyll had been on Forever at First Sight, a show where people basically speed dated through a wall and proposed before ever meeting in person. For some reason, that show made a great pool of contestants for Matchmakers and Evie was fascinated by the kind of person who would appear on both.

“Sorry the show didn’t work out for you,” Evie said and squeezed Wyll’s well muscled arm. “But I’m glad you’re here.”

“Then I’m glad I’m here too,” Wyll said. 

Ugh, that smile. He was so hot he made Evie all fluttery and nervous. She laughed and touched his arm again. They all had to match with someone by the end of the first night and Wyll was going to get snapped up fast. Evie wanted to make sure she laid some groundwork before then.

There was one man who hadn’t come up to say hello, instead lingering on the edges of their gathering. He seemed older than the rest of them. Evie could see a bit of gray in his dark brown hair and his beard. But he was wearing a linen shirt and holding the same plastic cup as the rest of them. And he was here which meant he was here to flirt and be flirted with and Evie intended to do her job.

She held her drink out to the side and wrapped her other arm around the stranger’s neck to hug him. “Hi, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

He stiffened in her hold and made a little sound of surprise. He touched her back but didn’t use it to pull her any closer. “Er - no, I can’t imagine we have.”

He smelled nice, clean but still sharply masculine. Evie appreciated that she could only smell him this close, with her face beside his neck, instead of from several feet away like Aradin, who seemed awash in cheap cologne. 

“Alright, guys, can everyone start gathering over this way!” A producer wearing a baseball cap and a large headset waved his arms towards a circular table that must have recently been placed in the dining area since it was way too big and obtrusive to live there full time.

Evie swept her hand down her castmate’s arm as she pulled away. “Guess we’ll save the introductions for later.” She winked and flounced away before he could answer. 

As the cast approached the table, Evie noticed a box in the center with a small handle on top, like it was meant to be lifted up to reveal something underneath. This all had the air of some sort of physical challenge or quiz. Starting early apparently.

Before she could determine the nature of the challenge, the front door opened again and their host Volothamp Geddarm leapt into the room with his arms spread wide.

“Hello, my lovers in paradise!” he called out as the cast all reacted loudly to his sudden appearance. 

Evie had seen Volo host several shows across the Tadpole universe of television. Forever at First Sight was ostensibly a serious show about marriage so he appeared in finely tailored suits but for shows like Matchmakers his look could best be described as “beach dad.” He came striding up to them in his loose flowery shirt and boat shoes like he was about to invite them to a game of shuffleboard out on the starboard deck.

The producers had already gathered chairs and sofas around Volo’s mysterious challenge table and it took a few minutes for everyone to take a seat. Mizora and Lae’zel were asked to switch seats on the couch to “balance the shot,” whatever that meant. Evie had her own wicker chair and relaxed into it like a throne.

“I’m so delighted to see so many familiar faces,” Volo said jovially. He always sounded like he was about to burst into song. Evie had met him off camera at a few network events and he seemed to just be “on” at all times.

“Wyll, can we anticipate any new proposals?” Volo asked and the cast laughed while Wyll ducked his head and smiled shyly. “Gale, perhaps you’ll make your leap from the kitchen to some lucky contestant’s arms? They say the fastest way to someone’s heart is through their stomach!” The man Evie had pulled herself away from looked pinched and uncomfortable as he raised his cup in recognition of all the attention on him now.

Oh, Gaaale. Riiiight. Evie didn’t recognize him without an apron but that was definitely the same guy. They were casting people from the cooking shows now? This was only the third season of Matchmakers, were they running that low on contestants already?

Volo clapped his hands together and continued. “Well, whatever paths you’ve taken to get here, I’m delighted to have you and to help you all make your best matches. You’re here to mix, mingle, flirt.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively at that and a few people tittered. “By tonight’s end, you will match with someone here in the house and spend the night together to begin your new relationships. Tomorrow morning your bonds will be put to the test in a series of challenges that measure your compatibility and prove how you compare to the other couples. The most compatible couples will win the power to enter Cupid’s Den, where they may invite new singles into the villa and pair them with anyone else they choose.”

An “ooh” rippled through the cast. 

“At the end of this experience, you will vote on which couple you believe is truly the most compatible but I hope all of you will leave this beautiful retreat having made a match,” Volo said. “But before all that, before making matches and meeting new singles, I want you all to get to know each other. So I’ve devised a little game.”

He lifted the lid on what had been hidden on the table.

It was three large dice, a bit bigger than basketballs, sitting side by side in a neat row. One block had pictures of the men in the house and their names. Another had the women. Evie’s smiling face was right on the front. And she couldn’t see all of the third die but the side facing her had the words LAP DANCE printed on it. Evie tilted her head back as she laughed.

She had to hand it to the producers. They had timed this game perfectly, when everyone had finished one drink, buzzed enough to be bold but not enough to be sloppy. They were also giddy from meeting so many other good looking people, finally getting to show off their outfits and their bodies. It was a very receptive audience and they screamed and cheered for every act.

Lae’zel rolled both of her dice together and landed on Rolan and KISS NECK, which Evie thought she might actually balk at, until Lae’zel yanked his head back by his hair and went at his neck until a producer had to remind them of the time. Aradin gave Lakrissa an abbreviated lap dance which she seemed to find more funny than arousing. She covered her eyes and cackled through most of it.

Evie landed on a relatively tame activity, truth or dare with Astarion. 

“Truth,” he said but the tone made it sound like “dare.”

Evie knew the kind of questions production would want her to ask. “What’s your favorite sex position?”

Astarion raised one brow and smirked at her. “Whatever you ask me for.”

It made Evie smile back at him, not because his answer was flirtatious, but because he had wormed his way out of answering and they both knew it. Maybe he was another potential match. She had her sights set on Wyll but she felt aglow with possibility as she sat back down.

Gale never volunteered and had to be called on by Volo like an underperforming student being called up to the board. Evie had noticed he didn’t seem to be having as much fun as the rest of them, not unhappy but certainly reserved. She noticed him clapping politely at Aradin's lap dance and turned her head away to giggle.

Gale stepped up and rolled the contestant die first.

“Evie!” Volo called out, pointing at her. Then the activity die came up BODY SHOT.

A production assistant pushed a padded bench closer to the group and Evie strutted over to it like she was being called down to receive a prize. She hadn’t done a body shot since her university days and it felt like a thrilling opportunity to be introduced to the house.

“Hi,” she said to Gale with a big smile. 

“Um, hello,” he stuck his hand out towards her. “I’m Gale.”

Evie laughed before her face froze in an awkward smile. Astarion had greeted his partner by sucking their toes and this guy was shaking her hand. She slowly reached out and shook it. “I’m Evie.”

“Lovely to meet you, Evie,” Gale said before his brow furrowed. “Uh, I’ve never performed a body shot.”

“Yeah, I guessed that,” Evie replied. She meant to poke fun at him but Gale just laughed, albeit a bit nervously.

An assistant handed Gale a shot glass made of the same hard white plastic as their cups.

“Here, you can take it out of my belly button,” Evie said and laid down on the bench.

His eyes fell to her bare stomach before shooting back up to her face. “I see. Is that why you already have your midriff out?”

“I like to be prepared,” she said with a sly grin. The rum seemed to compel her for a moment as she lifted her arms above her head, all of her body stretched out for him now. Gale’s jaw shifted and Evie bit her lip against a smile. She liked the way his dark eyes took her in even as he continued to hesitate. 

“I’m not sure all of this drink will fit in your navel,” he said.

“You have to slurp it!” Lakrissa called out to general murmurs of agreement from the others.

“Alright,” Gale made a groan of effort as he knelt at Evie’s side. “Then I suppose it’s just -”

The tequila wasn’t cold but it still sent a little shock through Evie as Gale poured it into her belly button. It immediately began to dribble out and down her side but Gale leaned in and caught the falling trails of liquor with his tongue.

A surprised “oh” escaped Evie as Gale traced the tequila up to her navel and closed his lips against her skin hard enough to drink from it, but Evie didn’t think anyone would hear her sound over their own loud cheering. Gale’s facial hair scraped over the sensitive skin of her stomach as he chased the liquor racing over her abdomen up towards her chest and all the air whooshed out of her lungs in a sudden rush. She curled her fingers above her head so she wouldn’t put them in Gale’s long hair.

When the tequila was gone, Gale sat back on his heels with a startled laugh. “My word,” he said breathlessly. “That is remarkably inefficient.”

Evie lay there for another moment in trembling silence before she started laughing with everyone else. Gale made another uncomfortable groan as he stood but he rushed to be up first so he could hold his hand out to Evie and help her up from the bench.

“What a gentleman,” Evie said even though this gentleman’s saliva was currently drying on her skin.

“Look at how red she is,” Mizora said with a simpering laugh and Evie replied with her own mocking smile but she could feel the heat radiating off her cheeks.

Volo spread his arms joyfully. “I would say the ice is now officially broken!”

-

The rest of the night was blocked out for a mixer which meant a lot of milling around, drinking, flirting, and eventually matching. It felt like a high stakes, sexually charged version of musical chairs with each person wanting to land somewhere acceptable for the night.

The villa opened out into a large pool area with plenty of brightly colored chairs and cabanas draped in gauzy fabric for couples to sit and chat. Last season’s house had a nice looking lawn around the pool but Evie noticed the women tottering around uncomfortably as their heels sank into the earth and she was grateful for the stone walkways and leafy potted plants instead of grass.

The pool water was a cool, tempting shade of blue but no one would be swimming in it tonight. In fact, they were only allowed in the pool every few days and only for a set amount of time because they couldn’t wear their microphones while they swam.

Lakrissa gathered everyone around the bar for a round of shots and then they were off, spreading around the house and the lounge chairs, each group or pair trailed by someone holding a heavy camera on their shoulders.

Evie felt calm and confident as she flitted from person to person at the mixer. Talking to people, getting them to like her and listen to her, had always come easily and her talents seemed tailor made for a situation like this.

“You’re quite famous here,” Astarion said as they sat across from each other on matching lounge chairs. “Everyone says you’re a bit bad.”

“Do they?” Evie said. “Are you a bit bad then as well?”

He grinned at her and Evie got the sense that they were both playing a part. It was fun to lean into it with someone else who clearly understood how the game was played. They had the potential to go far together, maybe even all the way to the end.

She didn’t see the same potential in everyone though. Evie knew Aradin was on some sort of physically taxing game show and another contestant had been kicked off after getting so angry at Aradin that he punched him in the face. After a few minutes of chatting, Evie understood the impulse.

“Our eyes match perfectly, so…” Aradin trailed off with a little affected shrug.

“Yeah,” Evie said flatly. She didn’t know if he meant they had the same color eyes (they didn’t) or that their eyes complemented each other (which was stupid but at least it was unique and stupid).

He leaned in close to talk right into her ear and a shiver of revulsion passed through her. “Be honest, how underdressed am I?”

“You’re fine,” Evie said with a tight smile.

His eyes passed up and down her body. “I feel like you know what you’re doing.” He swayed towards her ear again, already tipsy. How embarrassing. “These are my best clothes. Don’t judge me for not being as well dressed as you.”

“Okay,” Evie said. She flinched when his nose brushed her cheek.

“You know, it doesn’t bother me that you’ve dated women,” Aradin said. “It’s very attractive actually.”

Evie knew every sound she made was being recorded but she couldn’t help muttering a disgusted, “Oh my God.” She started walking towards the bar. “Sorry, my drink is empty.”

“I can get you one -” he started but Evie just kept walking.

She stood beside Nym and poured herself a drink from the big pitcher that production had labeled MARGARITA.

“How was Aradin?” Nym asked.

Evie glanced up, saw most of the camera operators were busy, and mimed shooting herself in the head. Nym huffed a laugh into her own opaque cup. 

“Figures,” she said airily. “There always has to be one that the audience loves to hate. Doesn’t matter that the cast is miserable while they film with them.”

Evie took a sip of her drink. It was heavy on the lime. “As long as I’m not the asshole.”

“Of course not,” Nym said with an easy wave of her hand. “You only play one on TV.”

“Hey, have you talked to Gale yet?” Evie asked. She noticed him standing by the pool alone, looking thoughtfully down into the water. 

“Not yet. I think he’s a bit shy.”

“Yeah,” Evie said idly, stirring her drink and thinking. It did something strange to her to watch him alone like that, this twinge of anxiety that made her keep tapping her long fake nails against her cup.

She knew very well that the way people appeared on TV could be manipulated but Gale seemed nice. Too nice to be here actually. His presence didn't really make sense which was probably why people were avoiding him. He wasn't one of them.

She could see the way this might be edited. Gale alone, then cut to everyone else flirting and laughing. Maybe even confessional audio, plucked from any place in time, of Gale expressing loneliness or disappointment or longing. 

“I’m gonna pull him for a chat,” Evie said.

Nym shrugged. “That’s literally the whole point of this.”

Evie checked that her tits were still secure in her bikini top, fluffed up her hair at the roots, and put on a big winning smile before walking up to Gale beside the pool. 

He did a double take when he noticed her standing there.

“Oh, hello,” he said.

“Hi, can I steal you away for a second?” Evie asked sweetly, even though Gale wasn’t talking to anyone.

“Does the crew need us for something?”

“No, I just wanted to spend more time with you. All I know about you right now is that you like tequila and you hate conventional stemware.” 

Gale chuckled but his smile seemed more like a wince. “Perhaps we should talk then. Hopefully I can leave you with a better impression.”

She looped her arm through his and walked them over to one of the cabanas with a comfy looking white couch. Evie arranged her coverup artfully around her body before patting the space beside her.

“Come, sit, sit, I want to have a chat.” From the corner of her eye she spotted two different cameramen trained on them, anticipating something important.  

Gale sat with her and blurted out, “I’ve been meaning to apologize to you.”

“To me?”

“Yes, for earlier this evening with the - the, erm -”

“The body shot?” Evie offered.

“Right, that was it,” Gale said sheepishly. 

“Oh, that’s sweet of you and completely unnecessary. We were all just having a bit of fun, nothing got out of hand. I’m just glad I didn’t get Lae’zel. Rolan is walking around here with the biggest hickey I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“I appreciate you being so gracious,” Gale rotated his plastic cup in his hands. “I must admit I do feel like something of an odd man out. I’m the only one no one knows.”

“You were on Greatest Bakes,” Evie said immediately. “You made those yuzu petit fours and kept saying ‘oh dear’ when your oven door fell off.”

Gale blinked, startled. “You've seen my show?”

“Of course. I like cake.” Evie gestured broadly to the other contestants lingering nearby. “Don't you like fun?”

Gale chuckled nervously. “Not that kind of fun, I’m afraid. I’m not sure I recognize any of our fellow cast members.”

“You don’t know who I am?” she asked and Gale shook his head. “That makes sense, I can’t imagine it’s to your tastes. I was on Look But Don’t Touch, that show where every time the contestants kiss or have any sexual contact, the pot of prize money gets whittled down. I probably lost us a quarter of the money on my season.”

“Oh,” Gale said simply, as if Evie had told him she worked as a bank teller. “I, uh - I can’t say I’ve seen that one. Well…at least you had fun.”

“Not really,” Evie said with a shrug. “I lost a lot of it from touching myself.”

Gale choked on the next sip of his drink and Evie smirked while he recovered. She could already see that moment playing in the show’s trailer. She was trailer-worthy.

“But enough about me, where are you from?” Evie asked.

“I live in London right now,” Gale said, voice still a bit strained.

Evie gasped softly and shifted closer. “So do I. Does that mean I could come over?”

“Oh. Sure, I suppose. I would have to clean some things first.” Then he looked at her seriously. “Are you allergic to cats by any chance? I have a long haired cat and she tends to shed all over the house.”

She stared at him for a moment and then laughed when he didn’t recant. Gale seemed a bit befuddled about why she was laughing but he chuckled too.

“No, I love cats,” Evie said. She was usually an expert at these first night on a dating show conversations. The kind where people assessed how likely it was that they would sleep together in the next few days or maybe even the next few hours.

Gale seemed to have some kind of “anti-Evie flirting” forcefield around him that neutralized whatever games she tried to use. It was a bit exciting to not know what the rules were. She had no idea what he might say next.

She continued down the typical checklist for these types of talks. “So what are you looking for here? What’s your type?” 

Gale lifted his brows and let out a big sigh. “My type. That’s - hmm. I’m not sure I’ve ever attempted to quantify it before. I guess I might say…someone curious. Passionate about their interests. Maybe someone exciting that still appreciates staying in from time to time.”

Most men Evie talked to would have rattled off a list of physical traits. Short, tan, brunette. Curvy, blue eyes, long hair. A lot of them tried describing her traits to her which, honestly, Evie thought of trying on Gale, but then he had answered so genuinely that it felt sort of cheap. 

“That sounds nice,” Evie said, stirring her straw around her glass. “I like to stay in sometimes and cuddle in front of the TV.”

“You do?” Gale gave her an appraising look and Evie felt warmth spread up from her chest and across her cheeks. If they weren’t playing a game then Evie didn’t know what he might be looking for or what he might find. “Forgive me for pre judging you. I just thought you might find nights at home a bit…dull.”

“Why? Because I said hello to you and then let you drink tequila out of my navel? I have hidden depths, you know. Sometimes it’s vodka.”

When Gale laughed it felt like something real. Like he was enjoying himself and not laughing because he was so uncomfortable he didn’t know what else to do. She liked the way it sounded.

“So what about you?” Gale asked. “What are you hoping to find here?”

Evie hummed thoughtfully, a bit lost for words now that there didn’t seem to be any pieces to move across the board.

“I like people that make me laugh,” she finally said. A banal thought but one that still made her tense with anticipation until Gale nodded and smiled.

“Of course. A compatible sense of humor is important.”

Evie went for another sip and found her cup was empty, all of the lime and tequila floating through her system now. She kept hold of the empty cup like a shield, something to do with at least one of her hands.

“So are you a professional baker?” Evie asked.

“No, that’s just a hobby,” Gale said. “I’m a professor of philosophy.”

“Ah, like, are we real? Is this all a dream?”

Gale frowned thoughtfully. “More like, why are people the way they are? Why is the world the way it is? Unraveling the mysteries of humanity.”

“And have philosophers found the answers yet?”

“No,” Gale said. “Which is frustrating and endlessly fascinating. And it keeps me employed - well, I’m currently on sabbatical but mostly employed.”

The way he tried to rush through the words told Evie there was some sort of exposed nerve there and she wasn’t interested in pushing Gale to reveal more of it. 

“What do you do?” he asked.

Independently Wealthy Social Media Influencer and Part-time Reality Show Villain sounded...rough, so Evie usually thought of some more palatable way to describe her life to people who weren’t in the same boat.

“I do some modeling,” she said. She had a manager. When you fielded that many sponsorship deals and worked with a company as big as Tadpole, you sort of had to. “I do some of this.” She gestured vaguely to the space around them. “This is sort of like my office.”

“It’s a fine place to work,” Gale said. “My office at the university can only fit a pool half this size.” 

The cabana had been decorated with warm lights that gave Gale a flattering, golden hue, like he was always being lit by a sunset. He looked good here but he still didn't seem to belong here.

“This must feel a lot different from Greatest Bakes,” Evie said. “How did it go when you filmed your first confessional?”

The cast had all arrived in the villa in the afternoon after spending the morning apart and filming private confessionals. The producers had peppered Evie with questions about her time on Look But Don’t Touch and what she hoped to find in the Matchmakers house. Evie thought her answers had all been appropriately breezy and bitchy. The show didn’t end how she hoped, she was excited for love, blah, blah, blah.

“It wasn’t ideal,” Gale said after considering a beat. “I’ve never been in a relationship on a show like this so when they asked me to speak about my past I ended up going on at length about being divorced.”

Evie gasped and froze like a startled deer. “Oh, Gale. You didn’t.”

She could already see the way they might cut the footage together. Gale telling a presumably sad story about falling in and out of love, the sentences being cut to fade out and fade back into later ones, as if he had been droning on and on for ages about how tragically lonely he was. But when it was edited like that, it would seem funny. His real pain would be a joke.

What she wanted to say would sort of break an unspoken rule but Evie didn’t know how to convey it to Gale without just saying it. She touched his knee with her fingertips. “You don’t have to talk about that on camera if you don’t want to.”

“I know,” Gale said a bit sheepishly. “But it’s meant to be reality, isn’t it? Or at least an approximation. And being married before isn’t something to be embarrassed about.”

It wasn’t but the producers would try to embarrass him anyway. Just like Evie was quite certain she was The Bitch, The Villain, Gale would get his own labels.

The Divorced One.

The Loser. 

His only crime was being fairly normal in a sea of reality TV people. Christ, the man had never done a body shot before today, he didn’t belong here. He was going to be eaten alive.

Clarity struck Evie like a glass of wine to the face as everything suddenly added up. Getting eaten alive was exactly what the producers wanted.

Evie sat up a bit straighter, an idea forming. She knew the network heads, knew they looked at Gale and smelled blood in the water the moment they saw him. Unfortunately for production, they were always completely confident that they were the only sharks.

“Hey, you seem like a really sweet person,” Evie said. “Do you want to match with me tonight?”

Gale’s mouth popped open for a moment before he seemed to realize and snapped it shut. “Oh! Well, that's - yes, I suppose we do need to match with someone tonight.”

Evie scoffed. “I was hoping for a bit more enthusiasm than that. ”

“No, no, I'm just a bit surprised.” For the first time during their conversation, Evie noticed Gale’s gaze drift down to her body and she wondered how long he had been holding back from it. “You're the most beautiful person here and you asked me to partner up with you.”

Another of Evie’s flirting attempts bounced off his forcefield and struck her instead, stunning her into silence for a moment before she could recover with a bright laugh. 

“Well, I think you’re quite handsome. We make a very good looking pair,” she said, which was true but it was also much kinder than saying, You have absolutely no savvy for this and you’ll be embarrassed on national television without me.

Evie wasn’t worried about being stuck with Gale. The first night couples never made it long anyway, not after new contestants were added to go on dates and stir up drama. She could guide Gale through the first elimination or two so production couldn’t have their sacrificial lamb and then, even if he was sent home soon after, he could avoid the indignity of being the very first to go. The audience would think he did surprisingly well, say they wouldn’t mind if he stuck around a little longer, but ultimately forget about him. Then Evie could sail on to her next match, knowing she had protected a fledgling dating show contestant for as long as she could. 

Gale seemed to realize Evie wasn’t playing with him, at least not entirely, and he laughed. “Oh no, I’ve succeeded on this show based entirely on my looks. I can already feel it going to my head.”

Evie smiled too and leaned in a little closer. “And I want to get to know you better.”

If he was anyone else, she might have expected him to seal their new alliance with a far too aggressive kiss. Instead he just kept smiling at her softly. “I would also like to get to know you better. What happens now that we're matched?”

Evie took Gale’s hand and stood, leading him along with her. “Now we get to go to bed at a reasonable hour while these loveless freaks fight it out until four in the morning.”

The rest of the cast were stunned when Evie announced she had matched with Gale and they would be taking their leave soon (they had to linger at the mixer so production could move their suitcases to their assigned room).

Upon hearing the news, Mizora froze while pouring herself more red wine and accidentally filled her cup until it leaked over the top.

“Alright, well done, Gale,” Wyll said, giving him a friendly slap on the arm. “The first round draft pick.” 

Astarion looked Gale over with a confused pout. “I thought you were a member of the crew who got lost.”

-

Evie exhaled a great sigh of relief when she and Gale walked into their bedroom. The ground floor of the villa was entirely open in the back so it could flow out towards the pool area which meant only the bedrooms upstairs could be air conditioned. The cold air instantly made Evie’s sweaty skin feel sticky and tacky but at least she could breathe again.

She turned at the entryway and blew a little kiss to the camera before slamming the door shut on both it and its operator. Of course there was still a camera in the room. It was hard to miss since it was attached to a pole that went all the way up to the ceiling, with a bright TV set light sitting at the top. This one was motion activated which was still annoying but it was better than pretending a whole other human being wasn’t also right there pointing a camera at them.

There was definitely an air of awkwardness as Evie and Gale prepared for bed. They kept bumping into each other at the sink or as they trailed in and out of the bathroom, always jumping backwards with nervous laughter. 

They were both very aware of each other as they slowly took off the day, becoming smaller and softer as they removed layers of makeup, and clothing, and sunscreen. Gale wasn’t particularly tall but neither was Evie and when she took her heels off she had to look up much farther to make eye contact and she felt a bit pinned every time he focused on her.

She caught Gale in the mirror while he was pulling his shirt over his head in the bedroom and she accidentally dropped her toothbrush out of her mouth and into the sink.

He was surprisingly muscular for a philosophy professor. Softer than someone like Astarion, who seemed carved from marble, but there were definitely a lot more smooth planes and angles than she had expected. Gale glanced up and found her eyes in the mirror. He shyly crossed one arm over his chest and Evie scrambled to recover her toothbrush and ignore the fact that she had been staring.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Gale was wearing a loose t-shirt but Evie kept picturing the curves of his arms and his chest beneath it.

He smiled uncertainly. “I’ll take the daybed then.”

Evie was forcibly yanked from her hazy, margarita fueled fantasies when Gale’s words landed. “What?”

She looked where he had pointed and noticed a small couch tucked into the corner. It didn’t even look like it pulled out.

“That’s not a daybed,” she protested. “It’s like - a bench. Just sleep on the bed with me, there’s plenty of room.” 

A muscle in Gale’s jaw flickered when Evie knelt on the soft duvet, her knees spread wide. Even she couldn’t be bothered to wear sexy pajamas on these shows but beneath her own loose shirt she was only wearing a pair of underwear and Gale’s eyes briefly fell to her bare thighs. 

She wasn’t sure why she did it. She had no interest in having sex on camera and she didn’t think all of the Look But Don’t Touch prize money would have made Gale interested either. But even after their day he still seemed so buttoned up. She couldn’t help wondering what would make him bend, even a little.

Gale sat tentatively on the edge of the bed. “I don’t expect anything from sharing a bed with you.”

“I appreciate that,” Evie said. “Though I’d be more worried about your virtue than mine.”

The air conditioner was turned up high, filling the room with cold air and a constant hum. This was Evie’s favorite way to sleep, a cold room and a heavy blanket. The handsome companion didn’t hurt. But the best part was that once they were under the covers, Evie and Gale could finally unclip the microphone packs from their clothes and set them aside. 

The camera in the corner had a microphone but it wasn’t as sensitive as the ones that were attached to them all day. It was meant to pick up ruffling sheets, moaning, and not much else. It would probably capture their bedtime conversations but poorly enough they wouldn’t be worth replaying. 

Evie sighed when they finally turned the lights off, alcohol and exhaustion making the blanket feel even heavier. 

“You survived your first day,” she said.

Gale huffed a laugh. “Survived is an apt description.”

“Is there anything you're worried about for the next few weeks?”

He didn't answer right away and when he did his voice was tender. “That activity with the dice today was a bit intimidating.”

Evie rolled on her side to face him. “These shows don't attract the average person. It's completely normal to be shy about sex.”

“I'm not shy about sex,” Gale said easily and Evie felt an alarming stuttering of her pulse in her throat, like she had swallowed her own heart. “It's just going about it all so…flippantly. And with people I haven’t had time to know yet.”

He turned to face her too and now it wasn’t just the camera watching Evie. Gale was looking at her too, absorbing things about her even with the lights off.

“You know me now,” Evie said. She felt like she had to speak quietly in the dark.

Her eyes had adjusted enough that she saw a smile tug at the corner of Gale’s mouth. “I know you a bit.”

“I know this environment can be a lot to handle,” she said. “If you wanted to get past the first one, we could kiss here. Where it’s not part of a game. Where it’s quiet. Just the two of us.”

“Oh I -” Whatever light was in the room reflected off of Gale’s eyes as they darted around her face. “I do recognize the kindness of that offer. I just don’t know if I like the idea of kissing you for the first time like this.”

That opened up the question of how he would like to kiss her for the first time which made warmth rush through her. She shifted closer on the mattress until she could feel the heat of his body. There was a lot of tequila in her blood right now and it made her want to bury her face against his neck and inhale the way he smelled again until Gale and the alcohol were both coursing through her. 

“Those dice won't be the end of this,” she said. “They’ll just keep trying until something sticks. It’ll be truth or dare, or flip cup, or spin the bottle, or the producers grabbing our heads and pushing us together like Barbie dolls. At least like this you have some control over it.”

Gale considered that and his silence made her ache. She forgot how strange this all was to a normal person.

“Will they put it on TV?”

The way Gale asked, gentle, unsure, placed an odd pressure on her chest. 

“I don’t know,” Evie said honestly. “This conversation isn’t very good television so probably not.” She knew saying that increased the probability this moment would be cut. Production didn’t like them talking too much about how they were on a show and aware of what was happening.

She could see Gale’s eyes peering right into her own. “But they’ll still have the footage, won’t they?”

Evie sighed softly. “Yeah. It’ll still be there.”

They lay there together for another few moments, suspended in darkness and the soft rattle of the air conditioner. When Gale curled his fingers around the back of her neck, Evie worried he would feel her racing pulse but if he did he didn’t tease her for it. He just eased her chin up a bit higher and kissed her. 

He didn’t push for too much, just pressed his lips to hers for the span of a few heartbeats before slowly pulling apart. He lingered close by and shifted his hand until his fingertips sank into her hair and kissed her again, a bit deeper this time. A muffled, needy sound escaped Evie when she felt the warm pressure of his lips again. She worried Gale might laugh, feeling cocky that he’d made a woman want him. Instead he gave her a brief parting kiss before he pulled away and swept his thumb over her cheek, his eyes still bright in the dark.

“Thank you,” he said. “It is easier with just the two of us.”

“Happy to help,” she said weakly and tried not to move too much as she pressed her thighs together.

He chuckled wryly and pat her hair before he rolled away from her. “Goodnight, Evie.”

Evie’s body seemed to throb with every beat of her heart, all of her now a blinking light in the dark. She rubbed her cheek against her pillow, pulled the blanket tighter around herself. “Night.”

She spent a few moments staring at the way Gale’s sleep shirt stretched across his back before squeezing her eyes shut and turning away.

Chapter Text

Gale woke up the next morning with a bit of a headache and Evie’s head nestled against his shoulder. Her arm was wrapped around his, hugging it tightly so he felt the gentle rise and fall of her breaths against the length of his arm. His first instinct was to pull away but then he remembered the pitcher of margaritas Evie drank last night and thought maybe he shouldn't disturb her rest.

He tried watching her sleep for a minute but felt a nervous fluttering in his stomach even without her amber eyes looking back at him.

Last night was the first night he had slept next to someone else in more than a year. He couldn’t remember the last time Mystra shared a bed with him. Near the end she had started coming home later, staying over with friends more often, until one day when she said she wouldn’t be coming back. Their last night had already happened without him realizing.

He wondered what Mystra would think if she could see him like this, sharing a bed with a model in Panama. Then he remembered she could - even now he was being recorded by a camera that would preserve this on television for years. Then he remembered that sharing a bed with beautiful, young models in Panama was usually an indication of a man in crisis.

But Gale was too young for a midlife crisis, wasn’t he? He hoped so. The lumbar pillow he had brought from home wasn’t very promising.

The sun seemed bright around the edges of the curtains in their room but there was no clock to tell him the actual time. Before they left the mixer, an assistant had explained that someone would be around to make sure they didn’t miss their call time for the challenge but otherwise they could sleep as late as they wanted. Something about that didn’t sit right with Gale. He would just add it to the list of questions he had for Evie when she woke up.

It had been kind of her to match with him last night, to appear to him like his scantily clad savior and whisk him away from an evening of slowly watching people pair off. But it would be naive for Gale to interpret that kindness as genuine interest. Gale didn’t know much about this arena of reality television but it was clear that Evie was operating on a completely different level. She had been raised in the language of these shows and Gale was still a novice, fumbling around for something that seemed familiar instead of being able to adjust to something new.   

He told himself to move. Just inch his arm away. She probably wouldn’t even wake up if he did it slowly enough. In the time it took to decide, Gale must have drifted off again because he opened his eyes when he felt Evie sweeping his hair back with her palm.

“Morning,” she said sleepily as her fingers trailed down over his cheek.

_

The first compatibility challenge wasn't until after lunch so Evie and Gale cashed in on one of their opportunities to go in the pool. They huddled in the shade of a cabana and slathered themselves in sunscreen first. 

“I’ll get your back,” Gale said without an ounce of flirtatiousness.

Evie could feel the places in their conversation where Gale would accidentally tee her up for a line, a suggestive one that production would eat up (“Do you want to get my front too?” ). Instead she just smiled and said thank you and closed her eyes while Gale’s strong fingers pressed against the stiff muscles in her neck and shoulders.

She imagined she could still feel the path of his hands as she reclined on one of the inflatable pool rafts and Gale swam a few laps. Her eyes were hidden by her large sunglasses so Evie let herself watch Gale swim for a while. She knew what those muscles in his back felt like now, warm and firm, as sunscreen melted between her hands and his body.   

“This was a mistake,” Gale said to her, his breathing heavy from exertion. “Now that I’ve felt the joy of the pool and know that I can’t use it I’ll be despondent.”

“That’s the point,” Evie said. “There can’t be too much time to blow off steam. We need to have nothing to do all day but talk to each other, and get sick of each other, and kiss, and drink, and argue. It’s designed to make us all insane.”

“Is that why there aren’t any clocks?” Gale asked. “So we're detached from time as well?"

Evie smirked. “Good work. Yes, it’s just another way to make you crazy. Now you’re sleep deprived and hungover and that bitch Isabella is making a play for someone you just kissed so now you’re more likely to fight with her on camera. You turn into a caveman. Overrun by your base desires and looking at the sun trying to figure out what time it is.”

“Is Isabella real?”

“Well she’s dead to me so it doesn’t matter.”

Gale drifted through the water to stand closer to her. “You’ve survived a show like this before. How did you stay sane through it all?”

Evie gestured to the pool float she was lounging on. “Stay above it. Treat it like a game you’re playing instead of one where you’re a pawn.”

Gale’s pout tugged right on her heartstrings and she felt a rush of protective sentiment. Thank God she had scooped him up before production could begin to sink their claws in.

“If it’s all a game then is anything real?” he asked.

“I mean - there are real things that happen. You do actually scream at people even if you didn’t mean to. And sometimes people find real relationships. Two of the earlier cast from Look But Don’t Touch just had a baby. It’s just important to be aware of the producer’s strings and keep yourself one layer removed at all times.”

She placed a quick, mollifying touch to Gale’s shoulder, then held on because her lounge was starting to drift away. “But there are more immediate rules I should tell you about before we run out of time. You already seem aware of the first rule which is sunscreen. You’re going to be half naked by the pool for hours so you need to reapply like mad.”

“Of course,” Gale said. “Daily sunscreen use of at least 15 SPF can reduce your chances of developing skin cancer by 40 to 50 percent.”

“Right,” Evie said slowly. She was vaguely aware of preventing skin cancer as well but she was much more concerned with still being carded for alcohol when she was 40. “Have the producers asked you for any interesting facts about yourself? Or silly stories about exes?”

“No.”

“They will. And they’re going to take those facts and use them for some kind of ‘getting to know each other’ game but it’s not a game. It’s a way to make you look stupid. Or pathetic, or desperate, or whatever they’ve decided you are. So be very cautious about the stories you share or flat out lie if you have to. Don’t be one of those idiots talking about how embarrassed you feel that a secret you willingly shared is on television now.”

“Then won’t people believe things about you that aren’t true?” Gale asked.

“Ideally,” Evie said. “Oh, and if you’re afraid of heights don’t tell anyone or they might make you skydive.”

“I thought this was mostly drinking too much at a resort but you make it sound quite difficult.”

Evie shrugged a shoulder and the plastic beneath her squeaked as she moved. “It’s work.”

Gale looked off thoughtfully and smoothed his hands over his hair, slicking it back with the water. He had a lot of hair. He seemed to have a lot everywhere, which Evie could admit that she liked. She let herself look at the dark hair on his chest while he was lost in his own thoughts elsewhere.

“I wonder if this is good for all of you long term,” Gale said. “Guy Debord said that constant spectacle subjects human beings to -”

“That’s great,” Evie waved her hand flippantly. “But I’m De-bored of this now and I have to prepare for the challenge. If you could float me over to the stairs, that would be lovely.”

She had already noticed this look that Gale sometimes got when he was focused, this intense calculation that coiled hotly inside of Evie whenever it fell on her. He ran his mental appraisal of her before he touched the side of her inflatable.

“You seem to put a lot of effort into staying above everything.” He tipped the lounge so the side closest to him sank an inch into the water. “I wonder what you would be like down here with the rest of the hoi polloi.”

“Gale -” Evie sat up as far as she could but the lounge shifted precariously beneath her. “I have to be camera ready in an hour. Don’t put me in the water.” Gale’s face remained impassive as he placed his other hand on the edge of her float. “I had a blow out yesterday, don’t -”

Evie shrieked as Gale pushed down hard on the side of her lounge and sent her plunging into the icy water, the cold contrasting sharply with her sun warmed skin. She surfaced with a gasp and saw Gale inching away from her and laughing.

“You’re insane!” Evie shouted. “Now I have chlorine in my hair!”

She tried to tackle him but the water was up to her shoulders so she ended up bounding towards him slowly like she was chasing him on the moon. Tackling him was impossible anyway. Evie just ended up with her arms around his neck like she was hugging Gale instead of trying to drown him.

“You’re supposed to be the gentleman here, not the one who throws girls into pools,” Evie grumbled. She felt Gale’s laughter as it leapt through him and his arms lifted around her back.

“You’ve taught me too well, I’m afraid,” Gale said. “This is the beginning of my villainous turn.”

He took a few steps in the pool and Evie settled her legs around his hips to make the walk easier. The least he could do now was carry her. 

“Can we unmatch before the challenge?” she asked. “I want someone new.”

Evie didn’t realize how close they were to the side of the pool until Gale’s hands were on the concrete deck behind her, caging her in with his body and pressing her back against the cool tiles. Inhaling brought more of their bodies together and breathing suddenly required a great deal of Evie’s attention.

“I’m afraid you’re stuck with me,” Gale said, his voice sinking just deep enough to rumble through her.  “Call me old fashioned but I believe matching on a reality show should still mean something.”

A bead of water trickled down Gale’s throat and Evie instinctively swallowed when it passed over his Adam’s apple. 

“You never have to kiss me when you don’t want to,” she said suddenly. “We’re not wearing microphones and there’s no human operated cameras on us, so if you did it now they probably won’t even want the footage.”

Gale tilted his head but the act felt more challenging than inquisitive. “Is that another rule? You’re only meant to kiss people when the cameras are on?”

Now that Evie had adjusted to the temperature of the pool, she could feel how warm Gale’s body seemed pressed against hers. “It’s just a best practice.”

“And when the cameras are there?”

“Up to you. I don’t mind it and as far as the show is concerned we’re sort of dating now.”

Gale blinked. “Is that what being matched means?”

“Oh, honestly, Gale,” Evie pushed him away and he floated back through the water. “Would it have killed you to watch the show?”

“I did,” Gale insisted. “I saw the first episode where everyone matches. I thought they just lived together afterwards.”

Evie rolled her eyes as she climbed the pool ladder. “Will you at least fish my sunglasses out of the pool before you come inside?”

“I will,” Gale crossed his arms and rested them above water on the pool deck. “You know, if this is your chosen career path, you should actually consider reading Debord's work. It's D-E-B-”

Evie scoffed indignantly. “Oh my God, I know who Guy Debord is, I went to fucking Princeton.”

She was already a few steps towards the house when Gale called out to her. “Evie, was that a real fact or one you made up for the show? Evie?”

_

“Grateful” felt like an odd way for Gale to describe his feelings about Evie kissing him last night but gratitude was still the emotion that rose to the top as they all stood on the beach and listened to Volo explain the first compatibility challenge. 

“Kissing can reveal so much about chemistry and compatibility,” Volo said while wearing a summery straw hat. “So through five rounds, everyone will have a chance to kiss their partner and everyone else!”

Even as his pulse skyrocketed, Gale recognized the bullet he narrowly dodged. What if this ridiculous game on this ridiculous show had been the first time since his divorce that he had kissed someone? He might have grabbed Evie and asked for a quick peck just so it would be with someone he trusted.

“Ladies, you will be standing on these platforms to my right.” With a sweep of his arm, Volo indicated five small platforms, all rising a few inches out of the sand and painted a different bright, cheerful color. “Every contestant will wear blindfolds and noise-canceling headphones. We wouldn’t want you getting distracted from your technique. Afterwards, you will judge the kisses on a scale of one to ten with ten being the highest score. The couple with the highest combined score for one another will be today’s winner. They will also win a private date outside of the villa and the chance to visit Cupid’s Den tomorrow.”

In the few moments they had before the challenge began in earnest, Gale turned to Evie in alarm.

“I haven’t dated in some time but this can’t be a representative example of the current state of finding someone,” Gale said.

Evie seemed much more blasé. “Oh yeah, I forgot they do something like this every season.”

“And you didn’t think to forewarn me?”

“I didn’t have time to make a syllabus, professor ,” she said. “It’ll be fine. You got through doing a body shot and that was brand new. I know you’ve at least kissed people before.” 

“Not five in one day.” Gale ran a quick hand through his hair and reconsidered the platforms. “He said we would kiss everyone but it seems like only the men kissing the women.”

“Well, you can make a same sex match later if you want,” Evie said. “That’s why the rules are just that five rooms have to be filled at the end of the night instead of rules about who has to be in them. But I’m not in the mood to kiss eight people right now so this is more than enough.”

“Who’s the one you would like to kiss?”

Evie shielded her eyes with her hand as she looked up at him. “Sorry?”

“There’s ten contestants,” Gale said. “You and nine others. But you don’t want to kiss eight of them which means there’s one remaining.”

“Okay, Gale,” Evie waved her hand impatiently. “I enjoy our conversations but you’re just, like - talking so much right now and I need to strategize.”

He was about to ask how she could possibly strategize for something like this when the producers called all the men away from the abominable kissing platforms. 

They spent some time filming quick reactions, asking the contestants on camera how they felt about the upcoming challenge.

“Apprehensive,” Gale replied.

"Did you kiss anyone in the house last night?" a producer asked behind the camera.

He was struck by the memory of Evie laying beside him in bed and the soft tremor that passed between them when she moaned against his lips.

He swallowed hard. “No, I haven’t kissed anyone yet.”

It seemed Volo gave out the staged version of the instructions and then producers swooped in and gave all of the important but mundane ones.

“No touching hair.”

“No groping.”

“No removing your blindfold.”

Then a bored looking PA came around with blindfolds and headphones.

“Okay, I’ve got white noise or, uh -” he held a pair of headphones up to his own ear. “Sounds like ‘La Cucaracha.’”

Gale stared at him quizzically. “White noise. Please.”

White noise was meant to be quite relaxing but standing there blindfolded while it drowned out all other sound, Gale felt more tense than he had ever felt in his entire life. This seemed more like an elaborate psychological experiment than a silly kissing game.  

They placed Gale’s hand on another contestant’s shoulder, had someone else touch Gale’s shoulder behind him, and chained together like that the men were all paraded back to where they had started. Gale’s steps felt heavy in the sand. He told himself that the noise in his headphones was just the sound of the nearby ocean and tried to focus on the cool, salty breeze.

He tried to remind himself why he had come here on the show in the first place. To avoid being sued, certainly. But also for a change. A chance to do something new after a year of every day feeling exactly like the one before it. And well, this was…definitely something new. He was certainly still unsuited for this type of show but he didn’t want to be caught on camera being too nervous to participate at all.

No one had told Gale how to start this. They had just unchained him from the rest of the group, turned him to the right, and left him to stand there. How far away would his partner be? The platforms had given the women a few extra inches of height - should he just lean in towards her then?

Whoever he was meant to kiss had remarkable aim because her hands landed on his shoulders and a moment later her lips were against his. 

Gale inhaled sharply through his nose as his body became rigid and tight. He was so shocked by the sudden touch, the sudden kiss, the constant white noise playing in his ears, that he could only tolerate it for a few moments before rearing back, ending the kiss prematurely.

“Sorry,” he said out loud, even though neither of them could hear it. He did not think he would be getting a high score from her.

Okay, he tried to reassure himself as a producer took his arm and led him to the next person. That was an acclimating kiss. A ‘first pancake’ kiss. I’ll be prepared for the second one.

His next partner spent a moment placing her arms around his neck before drawing him in and promptly trying to slip her tongue into his mouth. He cringed as she pulled back and bit his lower lip, her hands rough against his face, trying to bring the intensity to a ten from the jump. When he couldn’t respond the way she wanted, she yanked her head away and pushed him back like she was annoyed, definitely knocking several points off the kiss in her mind. 

Gale was still dazed as they brought him over to the third contestant and he realized he was going to need a serious recalibration before he kissed her. He didn’t want to feel like he was just fumbling in the dark even though that’s quite literally what they were asking him to do. 

He took a few deep breaths and pushed them out slowly. He could do this without losing his head. He wouldn’t normally be looking at someone while he kissed them anyway.

He reached out and bumped into a pair of hands also searching for him. Their fingers briefly tangled together before she took his hands and laid them against her arms. There was time for Gale to breathe before he kissed her, to map out the shape of her as he slid his hands up over her shoulders. When he cradled her jaw, he could feel her quick intake of breath.

She’s just a person, he thought. She’s probably nervous as well.

The angle was off when he leaned in to kiss her but their noses bumped, giving him a rough approximation of her face. He couldn’t hear but he felt the way she laughed against his lips before tilting her chin up a bit more and properly kissing him. 

She moved slowly against him, just a warm press of her lips, then once more, easy and soft. There was time for Gale to adjust instead of hearing a blaring alarm in his head telling him this was ridiculous. His mouth sank against hers more firmly and he felt her hum against his lips. Warmth settled in his stomach as she kissed him back, as they fell into a thoughtless push and pull. Gale had been so nervous about the kisses going poorly that he hadn’t made room to consider any of them going well.   

The blindfold that had once bothered Gale now made it easier to lean into the moment, to actually block out the rest of the world and only feel her. He placed a hand against her lower back and pulled her in until their bodies were pressed together and he felt her bare stomach against his. Her chest rose as she gasped and Gale worried for a moment that he had gone too far before she was pressing in eagerly to reconnect their lips. A few of the women had been passing around a container of chopped up pineapple earlier and the tart sweetness of it lingering on her tongue.

The headphones continued playing white noise but Gale only heard his own heart pounding in his head. He couldn’t see but he could feel the little sounds and sighs from his partner as they rippled through her body and into his hands. A groan escaped him and his partner’s nails pressed into his shoulders as her hands gripped him tighter. Then her arms were around his neck, tangling her and Gale even further.

They were both breathing heavily when they finally eased apart. Still almost touching him, he felt her smile again, laugh a little, and Gale couldn’t help smiling back at her, hoping she could feel it too.

_

Evie sank deeper and deeper into her Adirondack chair as more of the contestant’s top kissing scores were revealed. Six. Seven. Seven. A rather unkind four from Astarion.

She and the rest of the contestants had talked a bit while they waited for production to finish tallying their scores and setting up this seating area for the results scene. As Evie assessed the vibe from everyone else, she began to realize they hadn’t enjoyed the challenge very much.

“Everyone was so cautious and boring,” Lae’zel said.

“It was like a pack of clueless teenagers,” Astarion told her. 

“Bit more than I could take, honestly,” Wyll admitted sheepishly.

And now their top scores reflected their indifference. Wyll had given out the highest score so far, a nine, but it was for Evie (naturally). He had only given his partner Lae'zel an eight. Lae’zel giving Wyll a seven still put them in the lead with fifteen points.

Production had come to the beach prepared with large wooden boards for each couple. While the cast milled around the beach, assistants wrote the kiss scores on the board and covered them with tiny panels that Volo could unveil whenever he wanted to increase the drama. 

The boards had recorded the highest score each contestant had given out, the lowest, and what they had given their partner. The only numbers that actually mattered, the ones that actually counted, were the scores the partners had given to each other, but the rest couldn’t be cut because that was where the real meat of the challenge lay. Who in the group was the best kisser? Who was the worst? Who had given their partner a five while giving a different contestant an eight? Who could be heightened and who could be humiliated? 

Evie and Gale were the last couple to have their scores revealed. They stood up next to a pastel purple board with EVIE ♡ GALE printed in bold white letters at the top.

“Let’s begin with your top score,” Volo said to Evie, his hand primed above the secret panel. Her stomach clenched, knowing what was coming. “Evie, your favorite kiss was - a ten! Our first ten of the day!” The cast cheered and laughed. “It seems like maybe you enjoyed this challenge a bit more than most.”

She glanced over her shoulder at the ocean but the shoreline seemed calm and not like a tidal wave was about to wash over them, killing them all and wiping out the camera footage the way she hoped.

“Evie, what do you recall about that kiss? Why was it a ten?”

“It was passionate,” she said with a shy laugh, like she was still giddy and giggly from how well she had been kissed. Not too specific. Not too revealing.

“Well let's find out who this ten out of ten kiss belongs to.”

Volo pulled the panel away to reveal the picture underneath - Gale.

The kiss recontextualized itself in her mind as a kiss with Gale and Evie felt a warm flush across the tops of her arms as blood rushed to her extremities. There were too many physical indicators to be too confused about who you were kissing but Wyll and Gale both had facial hair which threw her off. One of them had cautiously brought her closer by her shoulders and given her a warm, competent kiss. Sweet but very reserved. The other had kissed her like she was water in the desert, like her body was a succulent fruit to sink his teeth into and, frankly, Evie didn’t think Gale knew how to do that.

It deserved a ten but this certainly wasn't how she would have chosen to tell anyone, especially Gale. She resisted the urge to cross her arms and make her body smaller.

This was only going to get worse. The producers already knew the results which is why they had placed Evie and Gale last. They knew she had given Gale a ten and wanted the disparity between her score and his to make her look ridiculous and needy. She had just given Gale a lecture on saving face and then immediately been tempted off course by a kiss.

“Gale, let's find out your top score.” Volo pulled the panel away. “A ten!” Even louder cheering now, frenzied with possibility. Evie was very aware of her pulse in her temples. “What can you tell us about that kiss? Why was it so special?”

Gale swayed a bit beside her, thinking. “She made me feel very comfortable. Even though I couldn’t see her I felt connected to her.”

Volo touched a hand to his heart. “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard from such a group of degenerates. And I have yet to mention that that kiss, my boy, was the longest recorded kiss of the day!”

Ah, so this was how they planned to humiliate her. Make light of the fact that Evie had given Gale a top score while he had given a different contestant the same high mark. All while making Evie listen to him describe his marathon, ten out of ten, make out with someone else. It was diabolical. Production never would have dreamed of treating her like this on Look But Don’t Touch but maybe she had been too good of a villain and now they knew the audience would want to watch her suffer.

“Let’s do some calculations!” Volo declared. He had to declare everything, he could never just talk. The curse of a TV host. “Currently our leaders are Wyll and Lae’zel with fifteen points. If Evie’s picture is behind this panel, then she and Gale will be today’s winners. You know what that will earn you. You will spend tonight on a romantic, private date and tomorrow you two get the chance to go to Cupid’s Den and play matchmakers, bringing two new singles into the villa. There is quite a bit riding on what’s behind this door. Are you ready?” 

Jesus Christ, couldn’t they just put Evie down humanely instead of making her sit and listen to a bunch of garbage she had already listened to before?

She braced and clenched her fists when Volo removed the panel with a flourish -

“Evie!” Volo shouted. “Twenty points! That means you two are the winners of today's compatibility challenge!”

Evie was used to pretending to be shocked for the cameras but she wasn't planning at all for the way her jaw dropped as the rest of the cast shouted and clapped.

Gale chuckled as he hugged her from the side. “Oh, we won. That's fun.”

_

Evie yelped and startled laughter sprang out of her when she popped the cork on their beach picnic champagne. Immediately, the bubbles began to spill from the top and Gale knew he should do something to help her but he was stuck for a moment just watching the way she giggled. He knew Evie was a professional at this but her laughing felt real, a pause in whatever character she seemed to be playing, and seeing it made Gale feel flush with victory.

Eventually he recovered the brain power needed to hold up their champagne flutes so Evie could pour them both a drink.

She held her flute delicately by the stem, turning her glass and considering the bubbles. Then she held it up to Gale. “To making matches.” He tapped his glass against hers and they maintained eye contact while they each took a sip.

It was nighttime but production had put up so many set lights that their little blanket on the beach felt like it was in the afternoon sun. The ocean provided a soothing, repetitive roar nearby. Huge ships and barges floated by on the water, reduced to pinpricks of light on the dark horizon.

“Okay, okay,” Evie said. “So this is a pretty untraditional way to go on a date with someone. How would you have tried to flirt with me if we met outside of here?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Gale said. “I wouldn’t.”

“Why not?” she asked teasingly. “I’m a nice person, as far as you know.”

“You’re lovely,” he said and his heart thumped when she smiled. “But I don’t typically approach anyone. I’m not sure I’ve ever been involved with someone I didn’t already know.”

Evie laid a perfectly manicured hand over her heart. “That’s adorable.”

“Ah, it’s -” Gale shook his head. “It feels…sentimental, in an environment like this.”

“It’s sweet to fall in love with your friends. I’m certainly not marrying that guy I met in a club in Barcelona who offered me $15,000 for pictures of my feet.”

“Fifteen thousand?”

Evie shrugged. “They were Canadian dollars, so…”

“I see. Why bother at that point?”

“Exactly.”

Whichever PA had set out the picnic was clearly only choosing foods for the way they looked. They were drinking champagne but they had been served a sharp cheddar with nary a brie or camembert in sight. Evie selected a few red grapes and popped one in her mouth. She had changed into a short dress for their date and the skirt and her golden hair fluttered with the wind off of the ocean.

“So why philosophy?” she asked, eating another grape.

Gale smiled a bit as he thought. “You know, there are plenty of students who attempt an introductory philosophy course and immediately find themselves frustrated. They realize that the questions never end and decide the whole field is pointless but I find that rather exciting. That there is always more to explore and there are always different ways that people are looking at the world. And that the different ways they view it can actually change the real world. To me, the interrogations never end but that doesn’t mean the questions aren’t worth considering. It means our knowledge is always expanding and changing and that only adds to the awe and the mystery.”

He had gotten lost somewhere while he spoke, looking out over the black ocean. He turned to Evie and found her staring back at him, her eyes round, her lips slightly parted.

“My apologies,” Gale said. “I tend to ramble if left unattended.”

“No,” Evie said quickly. “No that was - that was interesting.” She took a large drink from her champagne flute, quickly halving it. 

“What about you?” Gale asked, realizing he hadn’t asked her anything about herself. “Did you study any philosophy at Princeton?”

She looked a bit puzzled. “I went to school in Australia.” Then she blinked at him innocently over the top of her glass. 

“My mistake,” he said slowly as a grin tugged at his lips. He wondered if the obfuscation was for him or the cameras. 

“Anyway, I never found my way to a philosophy class,” Evie said. “I was more interested in the arts. Theater, music, that sort of thing. Maybe I would have broadened my horizons if my university had philosophy professors as good looking as you.”

He had started to wonder if Evie used her most obvious lines when she was deflecting but she was so breathtaking that they made his heart stutter anyway, especially when she laughed and touched his leg. 

Somewhere between talking about his cat, and London, and feeding each other grapes, and eating tasty but improperly paired cheeses, Gale had the thought that if this were a normal date in the real world, he would want to lean in and kiss her. Here, in this half-real, half-structured television set, he wasn’t sure if he could or should.

There were three other people standing nearby with cameras and boom mics, and several more further up the beach sitting under a pop up tent and watching the live footage on monitors. Evie said she didn’t mind, that kissing should usually be on camera, but Gale found that he couldn’t close the distance between them. The desire for it felt too real for whatever they were all doing there.

He carried that tension to their room when he and Evie prepared for bed, hovering around each other nervously as the layers between them and the show became their most vaporous. Everything they did had started to feel like content, even just brushing their teeth and putting on pajamas. 

When Gale and Evie laid down under the covers and removed their microphones, Evie laid on her side facing him, clearly not intending to sleep.

“Hey, are you adjusting alright?” she asked. “I know it can get a little weird after the first day high wears off. And that challenge was - insane.”

“I’m alright,” Gale said. “Just a bit tired. We were out in the sun for a long time today.”

“Okay. Well - you know I’m your TV buddy. If you need anything, you can tell me.”

Gale knew he had a problem with carefully considering situations. He either thought about them for so long that the moments passed him completely, or he rushed in head first without thinking.

“I just felt a bit odd during our picnic,” he said. “I knew I wanted to kiss you but I couldn’t manage with so many cameras.”

Head first apparently.

Evie was silent for so long that Gale began to feel he had overstepped, mistaken her charity just as he had feared he would, until Evie pulled the blanket over them like a shroud and wrapped her arm around his neck to pull him into a kiss. Gale felt all of the day’s suspense seep out of him as he placed a hand on her back to hold her closer. He could finally kiss her with no blindfolds, no games, no cameras. Under the blanket in near total darkness, it felt like the first time he had ever been alone with her.

“Gale,” she said softly and the sound of her voice saying his name sent a fizzy rush straight to his head like he’d taken another sip of champagne.

“Yes?” 

She let out a slow exhale before she spoke. “I don’t want to have sex with the cameras around.”

Gale’s heart slammed against his chest. He hadn’t even thought sex was on the table, hadn’t even considered asking, although now he was very aware of the fact that they were pressed together in a bed they shared.

“I feel the same way,” he said. “Completely.”

It was too dark under the covers to make out Evie’s features but he felt her gaze anyway. She watched him in silence for a moment before touching his jaw and kissing him again, warm and unhurried. After she pulled away, Evie removed the blanket draped over their heads, placing the all seeing eye of the camera on them once more.

_

“Cupid’s Den” was filmed in a small studio space about a half hour’s van ride away from the villa. When Evie and Gale stepped into the studio, they were greeted by a space that was part carnival tunnel of love and part sci-fi spaceship. 

The walls had been adorned with metallic squares that seemed like an attempt at a futuristic aesthetic. They were back lit by soft pink and purple lights that reminded Evie of sunsets and cotton candy. In the center of the room, a large screen seemed to have been mounted onto the top of a table and hastily covered up at the sides so it looked like some massive tablet. Currently, it displayed a blank, light blue screen.

“It’s almost like an arcade table,” Gale observed. Evie didn’t know enough about arcades to dispute him. 

“Hellooo!” Evie and Gale both let out startled shouts as Volo seemed to teleport directly behind them. He came striding out of nowhere to stand on the other side of the table across from them with his huge TV presenter smile. “It’s such a pleasure to see you here. Our first winning couple and the first two to play matchmakers! Are you excited to sprinkle a bit of spice onto the villa?”

“Absolutely,” Evie answered with a smile.

“Fantastic!” Volo exclaimed. “Now let me explain your job as today’s matchmakers. On the bottom of the board, you will see the other couples who were less compatible than yourselves.”

He gestured to the side of the screen closest to Evie and Gale and portraits of the rest of the cast faded in. Each circular picture overlapped slightly with one beside it to indicate those two people were matched.

“At the top of the board are four new single ladies, eager to join the villa and have their own chance at finding love.”

As he spoke, four pictures faded in at the top of the screen, each labeled with a name: Karlach, Lia, Jenevelle, Minthara.

Volo spent a minute introducing each woman and the show she had appeared on but it was entirely for the benefit of the audience and Gale as Evie recognized all of them. She moved her head from side to side, considering them. An interesting crop.

“Now Evie, you may be familiar with some of these contestants,” Volo said. “Perhaps you can use that insight to make a match for them.”

“Maybe,” she said nonchalantly but she felt pinpricks sweep up her arms. Volo was just doing his job but he had still openly attempted to poke her which felt invasive and strange.

“Now you have the ability to bring two of these singles into the house and send them on a date with anyone of your choosing,” Volo continued. “Which now presents you with several options. Will you use this opportunity to make a match for someone else? Will you attempt to break up a couple that you view as a threat? Or, will you take one of these women on a date yourself?”

“Excellent, we’re ready,” Evie said for the both of them.

With a quick “good luck” and a “goodbye,” Volo was off to whatever resort he was probably relaxing in all day and producers began setting the scene the way they wanted.

They asked Gale to walk around to the top of the board so it separated him from Evie and spent a few moments demonstrating to them that the board was actually a large touch screen and they could move the pictures around at will to match up contestants.

Gale stared down at the board intently, his dark eyes flashing across every face.

“If we add two new people there will be six potential couples,” he said. “But there are only five rooms.”

“Exactly, the two people who aren’t matched by the end of tonight are eliminated,” Evie said. “You honestly couldn’t just watch the second episode? They’re not even sixty minutes.”

“Ooh,” Gale said slowly as the full scope of the game finally became clear to him. “This is…malevolent.”

“Welcome to the big show.” Evie crossed her arms and studied the screen in front of them.

Minthara would be difficult to live with but would also make for great television. Of course that meant she might outshine Evie, which wasn’t ideal. Evie had only met Karlach once but she was fun and boisterous and probably wouldn’t be interested in the same contestants as her. 

Selfishly, she wanted Jen to be there just so she would always have someone to talk to. Later, Evie knew she would film a confessional about not knowing that her best friend was coming on the show but that wasn’t true. A four week work trip to Panama wasn’t exactly something they could hide from each other.

“Once again, I’m afraid I don’t recognize any of these people,” Gale said.

“Well, Jen was on my season,” Evie said, pointing at her face on the table. “We lost $10,000 in the hot tub together. That episode won the show an Emmy.”

Gale lifted his eyes to hers in shock. “Really?”

“No. But The A.V. Club said it was the closest thing to pornography that the network had ever aired.”

“Ah. I see.” He looked at the table again, then back up to Evie. “What was your program called again?”

“Ha ha,” Evie said dryly. 

“Kidding aside, maybe this is serendipitous,” Gale said. “If you once had an emotional connection, you could bring her in for yourself.”

He dragged Jenevelle's portrait into the middle of the screen and when he did the picture began to move, a looping video of her smirking and tossing her long black hair over her shoulders.

Something inside of Evie tightened painfully. Trying to take her relationship with Jen into the real world had nearly been a disaster but they were friends now and Evie didn't want to complicate that by going on a date. Even a manufactured TV date. Maybe especially a manufactured TV date.

Besides, Gale still clearly needed her. He was treating this like an opportunity to actually make good matches for the other couples instead of sowing discord. For God’s sake, he was trying to make a better match for his own current match. So smart but still so naive.

“Jen would be a good person to bring into the house, but not for me,” Evie said. She dragged someone else into the middle of the board with Jen. “I'm not sure how happy Wyll seems in his match.”

Chapter Text

“I could get you something else for your drink,” Gale offered. “All you have now is gin.”

Evie shrugged. “It’s a martini.”

“I think there’s a bit more to a martini than -”

“Oh,” Evie abandoned her dirtbag martini on a table and took off as fast as her strappy heels would carry her. “They’re here!”

Wyll and Jen walked through the front door of the villa together, both smiling shyly as the rest of the cast cheered for their arrival. They weren’t holding hands but that wasn’t always an indication of how these types of dates had gone. She could easily see Wyll not wanting to make a public display during Jen’s first moments in the house.

She had to wait for Jen to say hello to everyone so they could introduce themselves and size her up as competition. Evie practically elbowed Larkissa out of the way to throw her arms around Jen. They squeezed each other tightly, both giggling as they held on.

“You're here, ” Evie cooed. She held Jen at arm's length to take in her outfit. “I love the hot goth look.”

Jen stood out from the rest of the women in their bright bathing suits and flower print dresses. She looked dark and mysterious with her dramatic eyeliner and tight black dress with plenty of straps and cut outs.

“Thank you. You're looking quite modest today,” Jen said sardonically.

“What do you mean?” Evie pointed at the hem line brushing her ankles. “This is a maxi dress. A knit maxi dress. I’m practically a nun.”

“It's a mesh knit. Everyone can see all of your underwear through it.”

Evie glanced down at her body. “So?”

Jen smiled. “It’s so nice to see you.”

Evie wrapped an arm around Jen’s waist and steered her towards the bar. She wanted to squeeze in a chat before everyone descended on them again, clawing and scratching to make their matches for the evening.

“How was the date? What did you do?” Evie asked while she poured them both gin and tonics. Well - she poured an unclear amount of tonic water and gin into two white plastic cups.

“Paddleboarding,” Jen replied.

“Do you know how to paddleboard?”

“Vaguely. But Wyll was quite athletic.” She sighed dreamily. “I would have been content to just watch him in the water while I ate our picnic.”

“Well, get some elbow pads because everyone in the house is trying to land him. Including at least one producer.”

“And including you?”

“Of course,” Evie said and she probably would have gotten away with it if she were trying to sell the idea to anyone else. Instead, she laughed, and the moment Jen heard the sound her eyes widened. Then her lips curved in a smug smile.

“Who are you after, then?” she asked. “You must be matched with someone already. What show are they from?”

“Gresakes,” Evie mumbled into her cup. 

“What?”

“Greatest Bakes,” she said clearly.

Jen tilted her head quickly. “Really? So do they have any grandchildren?”

“Stooop,” Evie whined. “Gale needed me to match with him, he isn’t used to shows like this. I’m like - his mentor.”

“His mentor,” Jen repeated, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Which one is Gale?”

Evie lifted her chin towards the other end of the pool. “The one talking to Wyll.”

Jen brushed her dark hair over her shoulder and used the movement to turn her head and look at Gale. She poured so much subtly into the act and then dashed it all by spinning back around towards Evie with a gasp.

“And did he qualify for this mentorship by being handsome?” she asked.

Evie laughed even as her stomach flipped. “He’s cute but he’s completely dorky. He’s a philosophy professor which is - lame. And he has a cat .”

“He’s employed and he likes animals,” Jen countered. “Is he boring?”

“No. He’s…interesting. And he’s really nice. And a good kisser.”

Jen grabbed Evie’s wrist just as the front door opened again and Astarion walked in with Karlach, the other date Evie and Gale had arranged.

“We are not finished here,” Jen said as everyone flowed towards the front of the house for another round of greetings. “I’m securing a room for the night and then I need several words with this baker.”

Karlach greeted almost everyone in the house by wrapping them in a tight hug, except for Mizora who held both of her hands up in front of her and wrinkled her nose like a queen being asked to hug a commoner.

“Good to see you again, Barbie,” Karlach said after she hugged Evie so hard that her back cracked. “Heard you sent me on a date today.”

“I did,” Evie said. “How did I do?”

“Not bad, not bad.” Karlach winked. “I kind of like the ones who think they’re bad boys. Makes me want to cuddle ‘em until they want to be good boys, you know?”

A startled laugh burst out of Evie. Karlach was definitely a good choice.

When Evie turned away from the introductions, she almost bumped into Gale lingering behind her. He placed a hand on her arm to keep them from colliding.

“Hello there,” he said. “I believe I’ve been invited to confer with the men about how their dates went today.” 

“Have fun then,” Evie said. “Bring back lots of intel we can use for the next time we’re in Cupid’s Den.”

Gale chuckled and seeing him smile made Evie smile too. He moved his hand from her arm to her back and Evie took a step closer even though he hadn’t pulled her in. “I’ll take notes. I also brought the lady the rest of her martini.” He was holding Evie’s abandoned glass of gin and tipped it into her new cup.

“A lot of booze for a school night,” Evie said.

“It’s a party,” Gale said before turning towards the men’s post-date conference that seemed to be organizing over near the snack table.

Evie stood there feeling her heartbeat all over. It was good that other people were being nice to Gale but she hadn’t really had to share his attention yet. She told herself they could just talk later but later kept getting pushed back as she and Gale kept just barely missing each other. Evie pulled herself away from a conversation only to see a PA fixing Gale’s microphone and then she was immediately roped into some gossip with Nym. Then she got wind that Karlach and Wyll might be matching for the night and it was vitally important that Evie and Jen sat nearby to try and analyze their body language while they spoke. 

She finally had to just interrupt a conversation Gale was having with Rolan but the show wasn’t called Friendmakers and Evie felt entitled to a little time with her match. Maybe Rolan had been attempting to make some moves for himself but if anyone was going to steal Evie’s match out from under her she didn’t think Rolan had the guts to try it first.

“Can I borrow you?” she asked Gale, leaning towards him and looking up at him through her lashes. 

“Of course,” Gale said and his smile thudded in her chest. 

When they were alone, Evie wrapped her arms around his neck. They swayed together as Gale’s hand came to her waist and he pulled her closer.

“Hi,” Evie said softly, tipping her face up until their noses almost brushed.

“Hello,” Gale said. “You seem to be in a good mood.”

“I am.”

“Because your friend is here now?”

“And because you’re here.” She slid one of her hands down over his chest and pressed against him a bit, feeling how solid and sure he was. Gale covered her hand with his own, holding it there. All the gin was making Evie’s cheeks warm, the heat creeping down her throat and over her chest and pooling in every place she and Gale were touching.  

“Do you mind if we call it an early night?” he asked. “A producer informed me that the only true deadline for these elimination nights is the sunrise and I would like a full eight hours before tomorrow’s next surprise. Well, I hope it will be eight hours, there’s really no way of knowing.”

She thought it would be fun to party more with Jen but bed suddenly seemed incredibly appealing, the best actually, ground-breaking, genius.

“I could go to bed,” Evie said. “But I think you need to make it official.”

Gale chuckled as he dipped his forehead to hers. “Will you match with me tonight?”

Evie answered by leaning in that last bit and kissing him. To her relief, Gale didn't flinch away, even with a cameraman so clearly beside them. He was clearly losing some of the early-show shyness, beginning to accept the cameras as a fact of life. Gale’s hands spread against her back as they kissed, bringing their bodies together. His teeth scraped her lower lip. She was reminded of their blindfolded kiss on the beach and her body thrummed pleasantly.

Technically, Evie had now accomplished the only thing she set out to do, to prevent Gale from going home during the first elimination. But now that that time had come her initial deadline felt too hasty. If Evie were really being kind and really looking out for Gale then she should probably steer him through the next elimination too and save him from becoming an early out instead of just the first out.

“I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen you smiling so much,” Gale said to her before they ascended the stairs up to their room.

“I’m just thinking about how lucky you are that I’m here,” she said, linking their arms.

He chuckled. “Well, you’re certainly right about that.”

_

“ - once all the bids are revealed, you will have the opportunity to raise your bid. The highest bidding couple will have to complete that task.”

“What is he talking about?” Evie whispered to Gale.

He tried to focus on Volo but the host’s instructions seemed to wrap back around on themselves in his mind, defying rational explanation. Every time Gale thought he understood the challenge, Volo would add some additional component.

“ - the highest bidding couple does not complete the task, then they are eliminated. If the lowest bidding couple -”

“I think we’re bidding…tasks.”

“What does that mean?” Evie hissed.

“Um…” Gale began before trailing off. For God's sake, he was a university professor getting confused by the rules of a reality dating show.

The couples had all been arranged inside the villa behind their own brightly colored tables with a similarly colored small chalkboard. The props they used for these challenges were always vividly colored like the contestants were a group of school children. Gale and Evie stood at their own mint green table and continued to be confounded by the instructions.

“Now let’s begin!” Volo announced.

Gale and Evie exchanged looks of panic before Evie shrugged and snatched up the chalkboard in front of her.

“Ladies,” Vola began. “How many push-ups do you believe your partner can complete with you on their back?”  

Evie immediately set to writing on her board and Gale felt his chest constricting.

Outside of here, Gale was fine with his body and the way that it looked but some of the other men here looked like they were up for leading parts in the next big superhero film, like they could do pushups with two of the girls on their back. It was hard not to compare himself to them, especially knowing he was never meant to be here. He also felt awkward on days like this where the dress code was swimwear. Standing around in his swim trunks with his shirt off made him feel a bit sleazy, like he was about to go around soliciting unwanted back rubs from the cast.

After pulling away from a huddled conversation with Wyll, Karlach stuck her hand in the air.

“Can I do the pushups with Wyll on my back?”

“Yes!” Jen piped up.

Someone behind one of the cameras gave Volo a thumbs up.

“Well, if the rest of the group agrees,” Volo said leadingly and received a chorus of yeses from the cast. 

After another few moments of furtive writing, Volo had them reveal their bids. Evie flipped her board around to show she had written 20 and turned the zero into a smiley face. 

“A room full of confidence, I see,” Volo said as if this situation were truly sumptuous and he couldn’t get enough of it. “Would anyone like to increase their bid?”

Evie reached for her eraser but Gale touched her wrist. “No, don’t raise it.”

“But I think I can start a bidding war,” Evie said, pouting. Astarion had already badgered Jen into adding two more. 

“Trust me,” he said.

Evie still looked put out but she slowly set her eraser down, leaving them with the lowest bid, almost certainly sacrificing the challenge. 

They received almost no attention though as Karlach had set the leading bid of twenty-five push-ups and everyone was busy counting out each one, getting louder and more excited the closer she got to the finish line. Some in the cast seemed less than thrilled by the feat of human achievement as Karlach finished her last push-up and Lae’zel, Wyll’s previous match, snapped her chalk in half in her hand.

“Incredible!” Volo shouted after the cheering had subsided. “Well! With that decisively settled, Evie and Gale, as the lowest bidders, you are eliminated from the game. You may take a seat back there on the loser’s bench.”

“Loser’s bench?” Evie muttered as they walked to the benches far away from the rest of the contestants and took their seats. 

“Thank you for that,” Gale said quietly as the producers moved some of the cameras and lights around.

“For what?” Evie asked, studying her thumbnail at different angles.

“For saying that you thought I could complete twenty push-ups.”

“Why - do you think you couldn't? Are the muscles just for show?” she asked and then her hand was splayed across his bare stomach, her touch light and warm.

“N-no,” Gale said as everything clenched beneath her hand. “I just had something of a weak heart as a younger man.”

“Oh,” Evie pulled her hand away and Gale felt guilty for the chastened look on her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“I’m alright,” Gale assured her. “Things are much better now, a clean bill of health. I just don’t know if I’m ‘exercise with an adult woman on my back’ healthy.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Evie said easily. “We just went on a date so if we won another, people would start trying to conspire against us. We’ll fly under the radar this week.”

“Yes, I…wouldn’t mind not being noticed for this,” Gale said. “I’d prefer not to be compared physically to the rest of the cast quite so publicly.”

Evie frowned like she was genuinely confused. “Why not? You're hot.”

The words burst brightly in Gale’s mind like fireworks and he laughed shyly. “Ah, thank you but I'm not really one for vanity.”

“Thinking you’re hot seems vain to you? Am I vain?”

Gale considered. “A bit.”

Her gaze narrowed but then she smirked and Gale's whole body heated, cheeks and chest and arms all flushed and warm. 

“And look how happy it makes me,” Evie said. “You can think you're attractive without being in danger of wasting away next to the pool because you saw your reflection in the water. You're hot. Just own it a little.”

Evie went back to looking at the challenge, her face impassive like what she said didn’t matter even though it was echoing repeatedly in Gale’s head.

He knew the thing that Mystra appreciated about him most, the thing that drew her to him, was his intelligence. She and Gale could talk for hours but very little of that talking was devoted to the way he looked. If he were dressed up for some faculty event or dinner, she might say he looked “smart” or even joke mildly that he “cleaned up well.” She seemed attracted to him but Gale rarely felt admired for his appearance and that suddenly felt - imbalanced. Odd.  

They watched the game for another few minutes before Gale gasped and grabbed Evie’s knee.

“Evie, they're bidding on how many countries they can label on a map and the highest bid is only twelve.”

She wrapped a consoling arm around his back and leaned against him. “I know, sweetheart. You were robbed.”

_

A loud crack came from the kitchen, a wrenching, splitting sound, and Gale spun towards the source. “Evie - what's going on in there?”

She glanced at her hands, each one holding a fistful of spaghetti, then gave Gale a puzzled look. “Cooking?”

“Why did you break that pasta in half?”

Evie seemed completely befuddled by this line of questioning. “My pot is too small.”

Gale walked into the kitchen and saw the sorry state of Evie’s mise en place. A small saucepan, full of barely simmering water, one bowl, one fork, and a jar of premade tomato sauce. “Something tells me you didn’t grow up watching much Nigella Lawson.”

She sighed, exasperated. “You know, you’re the one who yelled at me for drinking too much on an empty stomach, but now I’m trying to eat more and you’re picking on me.” 

“I never yelled at you.”

“It felt very pointed,” Evie said primly.

Lunch and dinner were usually catered by a local company but every few days the crew brought in food so they could make breakfast and small meals. Most of the food consumed in this house was bowls of cereal and dried pasta since the cast seemed completely intimidated by any kitchen equipment beyond the coffee maker and the toaster.

“Here, I’ll make you a deal,” Gale said. He eased the broken noodles out of Evie’s hands and slid them back into the box. “We’ll save these for another time. I will make you something to eat if you wash some of the dishes.”

Evie looked between the pile of dishes in the sink and some of the rest of the cast currently splashing around in the pool, clearly weighing how hungry she actually was.

“Where did you place on your show again?” she asked

“Fifth,” Gale said. 

“Hmm.” Evie glanced at the pool one more time. “Fine. But only some of the dishes. There’s ten people here, they can wash their own mugs.”

“I agree to your terms.” He moved to walk past Evie to get some more supplies but she took a step into his path and lifted herself up onto her toes. “Can I help you?”

“Kiss me,” she said with a pout, like it was something they had agreed upon beforehand and now Gale was trying to weasel out of it.

“Oh - yes, certainly.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips, like this was something they always did. Just the two of them, moving around the kitchen together, cooking, and tidying, and exchanging kisses as they went. It was far from their first kiss but something about this one made Gale feel like shoving his entire head into the fridge when he opened it to cool down.

There was only a jar of pre-minced garlic here instead of fresh cloves but it would have to do. Gale took the jar and a half empty container of cherry tomatoes back to the stove. He dumped some of Evie’s pot of water into a skillet instead, added salt because she clearly hadn’t, and let it begin to boil.

“What are you doing there?” Evie asked warily as she scrubbed the inside of a bowl. 

“Cooking the pasta in a skillet,” Gale said. “It requires less water than you would need to fill a larger pot so the starch from the pasta will be more concentrated. It helps when bringing the sauce together at the end.”

“Okaaay, nevermind then,” Evie said. “You just keep doing your magic over there as long as I get to eat it afterwards.”

Gale smiled to himself as he bent to pull another skillet from one of the cabinets. “I could teach you a few things, if you like.”

“Better men than you have tried and walked away frustrated,” Evie replied. She set a mug into the drying rack. “I survive just fine on take out back home.”

They continued working in tandem, Gale cooking, Evie washing dishes. Gale scooped some of the jarred garlic into a skillet of hot olive oil and Evie’s head whipped towards him a moment later.

“Oh, that smells good,” she said, looking at the pan longingly. Gale tucked his chin to his chest and grinned. Alliums in hot oil were the quickest way to a compliment but Gale wasn’t above an easy win.

He poured all of the tomatoes from their container into the pan of garlic and oil and after each one had burst from the heat he added the cooked spaghetti as well, tossing everything together with the salty pasta water until each noodle was coated in glossy sauce. It wasn’t much but he took his time twirling the pasta into small nests in Evie’s bowl.

“Bon appétit,” he said.

Evie hopped up onto the counter and accepted the food with a smile. She spun a dainty amount around her fork and then hummed pleasurably when she took the first bite. Her heels drummed on the cabinet beneath her.

“Oh my God, you made this?” she asked, gathering a much larger portion of it onto her fork.

“It isn’t anything too gourmet,” Gale said. “It’s missing herbs and the only parmesan we have here comes out of a plastic container you would have to shake so I thought it best to skip it.”

“Whatever you did, it’s the best thing I’ve eaten here. Thank you, Gale.”

Fondness swelled in his chest as Evie spun a far too large amount of spaghetti onto her fork, attempting to devour it as fast as she could. It felt good to be appreciated but it also just felt nice being nice to her. 

It was then that Lae’zel padded into the kitchen, still dripping from the pool. All of Lae’zel’s clothing, from swimwear to more formal, seemed to be an elaborate series of straps criss-crossing her athletic body and even though there was quite a bit of fabric to her bathing suit, it still showed plenty of her skin.

“Why does it smell good in here?” she asked.

“Because the sink is no longer overflowing with dirty dishes,” Gale said.

“And Gale cooked!” Evie said happily.

“Nothing we eat here smells good,” Lae’zel said. “I want some.”

“No!” Evie insisted, curling her body away to shield her bowl. “Gale made it for me .”

“I could show you how to make the dish,” Gale said. “It’s quite simple.”

Lae’zel sneered, looking absolutely repulsed. “Forget it.”

-

The cast received two gifts during their next compatibility challenge. First, it was a beach day, which was always popular since every trip out of the house felt like the first time any of them had ever been outside. Secondly, they got to sit down, each pair sitting side by side in beach chairs instead of leaping into a foam pit or getting water dumped on their heads. After weighing those benefits, it didn’t bother Evie so much that the challenge was still sort of lame.

The problem was that these producers always wanted to reinvent the wheel, which in their profession meant trying to reinvent The Newlywed Game, adding new rules and layers of complication to the classic format.

Volo read from a card with the Matchmakers logo on the back. “Which of your fellow contestants has been in a fivesome? Goodness, that must have taken quite some coordination!”

Evie leaned in to whisper to Gale. “You know, we aren’t eligible for points if the fact is about one of us so I guess you sort of screwed us this round.”

Gale chuckled nervously. Evie wanted to reach out and feel the flush on his cheeks with her hand. “Not to cast aspersions but I suspect Halsin is probably the best choice for this.”

“Duh.”

Gale wrote Halsin’s name on their small chalkboard.

A few moments later Volo announced, “All of you who wrote Halsin are correct!” Evie held her hand out and Gale tapped it in an extremely gentle low five. “Oh, this is an interesting one. Which contestant traveled the farthest from home to attend university?”

“You know, we aren’t eligible for points if the fact is about either of us,” Gale repeated back to her.

Evie pushed some sand over Gale’s bare foot with her own. “Just write Wyll.”

Shortly after, Volo revealed the answer. “Wyll! Now, Wyll my boy, exactly how far did you travel for that education?”

“A fair few thousand miles,” Wyll said. “I - wanted a bit of space from home so I studied in California.”

“Dad troubles,” Evie muttered to Gale.

“I figured Australia was a bit further from London than California,” Gale said.

“Oh, come on, Gale,” Evie said. “I’m a professional reality TV show instigator. I didn’t go to university anywhere.”

She liked the way his focused gaze fell on her now, intense and challenging. After a moment of study, the corner of his mouth tilted upwards and Evie’s stomach somersaulted. She bit her lip against a smile.

“Alright, continuing on,” Volo called out to them. “Which contestant broke up with a partner via fax? ”

“What is fax?” Evie heard Lae’zel ask Wyll beside her.

Evie watched in disbelief as Gale wrote his own name on their board. Something about that story felt - strange. There were plenty of things she didn’t know about Gale but avoiding a face to face break up didn’t seem to be his style. She imagined the end of his relationships to be tender, tearful affairs. And the fax machine seemed too silly. It sounded like something that would happen to Carrie Bradshaw on one of the weaker Sex & the City episodes.

It almost sounded fake.

She couldn’t blow up Gale’s spot in front of the cameras so she could only communicate to him silently.

Evie arched one brow. Really?

He shrugged, smirked. I just did what you told me.

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t fully contain the proud smile tugging at her mouth.

-

Evie very quickly lost track of who was matched. People popped up for one night and disappeared before sunrise without a match. Couples split up to see other people and ended up back together again in a few days.

She definitely remembered a period where Karlach and Wyll were together but then at one of the compatibility challenges, he was with Lae’zel again. Then Dammon entered the house and his muscles and blue eyes and fucking blacksmithing job (Evie had no idea you could do that full time), threw that entire triangle into disarray. Evie thought she heard whispers of some sort of “wife swap” situation but could never get the relevant parties to confess any details.

Halsin had a habit of saying yes to anyone who wanted to match with him which kept breaking matches and reforming new ones. He set the record in the house for somehow going on three different dates in a row. Minthara was the first person to get to Cupid’s Den and send herself on a date with one of the contestants but she decided not to match with them later that night which led to an evening of yelling and pleading from a contingent of those facing elimination. 

The mixers seemed like absolute chaos. Evie would look up from her drink to see two people at the other end of the pool in tears or people she had never seen together suddenly making out in a hammock. At least things in Evie’s very small circle seemed stable enough. Jen was always around, occasionally matched with Astarion in some sort of flirtation/alliance and Gale was always there to keep Evie removed from the mayhem.

At first, Evie assumed Gale was imperiled at every turn but no one sent them on dates or tried to tempt her away from him. Eventually, Evie stopped looking for the right time to unmatch with Gale and figured she would just recognize it when it arrived. Instead of playing the game, he and Evie would sit under a cabana or linger at the bar on matching nights and talk about their families, or films, or Gale would spin off on something like deontology and Evie would do her best to keep up.

Some part of Evie was aware during these conversations that she wasn't exactly providing good TV, but she was certainly having a good time. The rest of the cast could carry a few episodes, matching and unmatching and kissing and throwing things. She knew the camera wouldn’t be able to resist her for long.

-

There was a time when Gale assumed drinking games were exclusively the purview of university students but almost every night in the villa seemed to devolve into a steady stream of alcohol that was most often consumed as a prize or a punishment in some sort of game.

The cast all taught Gale how to play something called “beer pong” which he was terrible at.

“Gale,” Evie wrapped an arm around him and leaned up to speak right beside his ear. “I’m switching beer pong partners. It isn’t personal but you’re absolutely slaughtering me.”

He couldn’t blame her. After a few rounds of watching his ball uselessly roll away, Gale realized how loose and floaty his limbs felt, like he was buoyant and sitting on the surface of their pool. There was no way to really judge how much he had to drink during these games and the effects snuck up on him quietly. 

They moved to sit around the large dining table for their next game, truth or dare. Or rather, Karlach had a conversation with a producer and then announced to the group they should play as if it were her own idea. Gale sat at one end of the table in one of the wicker chairs and Evie sat beside him on one of the benches lining the table. She looked over at him when Gale started laughing.

“What?” she asked with a cautious smile.

“This is just - silly,” Gale said, referring to the game and the even larger game around them. He was sitting here so far from home, drunk, being filmed for a reality show, amongst this group of preternaturally gorgeous people all trying to date one another, and it was all so patently absurd but that didn’t stop it from happening.

“It is silly,” Evie agreed. She leaned over and squeezed Gale’s leg above his knee. “But I’m glad you’re here.”

Unsurprisingly, most of the cast favored the dare option and most of the dares were some variation of be intimate with another contestant.

“Lick chocolate syrup off of Lae’zel’s neck,” Mizora said.

“Remove one article of clothing,” Astarion said.

“Lap dance!” Karlach demanded.

When it was her turn, Evie leaned her elbows on the table and turned to Gale with a sultry smile. “I dare you to kiss the person you fancy the most in the house.”

An odd test but one that Gale didn’t particularly mind since he knew who he would choose.

“Come here then,” he said.

Surprise flitted briefly across Evie’s face which Gale didn't understand. Could she possibly think he was interested in anyone else here? 

He pushed the wicker chair back from the table so Evie could sit sideways on his lap. He looked up into her amber eyes, saw her golden hair tumbling over her shoulders, her warm smile. She reminded him of honey, like if he kissed her she would dissolve into sweetness on his tongue.

He wrapped an arm around her back to keep her balanced and his other hand sank into her hair to cradle her head and pull her in for a hungry kiss. Gale had been nervous during practically every on-screen kiss so far but the alcohol and the sheer ludicrousness of his situation gave him courage and he eagerly parted Evie’s lips with his own. Her hand was at his cheek, his fingers curled tighter in her hair. Gale was strangely aware of so much else outside of their kiss. Aware of the eyes of their castmates, and the producers, and the ever present gaze of all of the cameras.

A soft sigh breathed out of Evie when she pulled away and Gale managed to hear it over the room’s loud cheering. He laughed against the side of her neck, feeling ridiculous and light, and held Evie close to feel her own laughter against his body and her warm skin beneath his hands.

They all huddled around the bar to take tequila shots after the game and now Gale’s blood was really humming. Evie seemed to read it on his face from the sly smiles she kept giving him and the way she giggled every time he swayed towards her.

She led him upstairs and as soon as she closed the bedroom door, Gale pressed her against it, crowding her back against the wood and bending down to kiss her. She didn’t dissolve but she still tasted sweet and her fingers twisted into Gale’s shirt, their breathing picking up speed as her chest curved up against his.

“Having fun?” Evie asked breathlessly.

Life hadn’t been fun in so long, even before this past interminable year, before the end of his marriage, the end of life as he had known it. It took a moment to recognize the feeling.

“I believe I am,” Gale said before kissing her again.

-

The villa was relatively quiet as Gale relaxed in one of the shaded cabanas by the pool. Half of the cast had been taken to film their confessionals, where they would reflect on the previous few days while they were still fresh in their minds. Evie was away along with some of the troublemakers so the cast who were left behind were relaxing in peace, strewn about the house in various states of repose.

They were allowed to bring one book into the house and Gale was rereading the same paragraph about contractualism for the second time when Jen approached him.

“Hello, there,” she said with a wave. She also appeared to be relaxing, dressed in comfortable athletic wear instead of a revealing bathing suit. Jen’s long hair was pulled up into a braid that Gale had watched Evie help her with before leaving.

“Good morning,” Gale said politely.

“Can we chat a bit?” Jen asked.

“Of course.”

“Over here?” Jen pointed over her shoulder.

He quickly realized the change in location was so they could talk in front of a camera, one of the tripod mounted ones, with a boom mic operator nearby and a tall stage light. Gale had come to understand that even if the conversations they had were real, many of the circumstances were contrived and carefully arranged.

There were two hammock chairs, sturdy woven seats stuffed with cushions, suspended from a chain so they shifted gently when Gale and Jen sat down in them. They had all been given steel water bottles with their names printed on the side and Jen took a sip from hers before tucking it into the cushions beside her. 

“I’m glad we could finally catch up,” Jen said.

“I am as well,” Gale said with a nod. He was sweating and not just from the Panamanian heat. He had a feeling this wasn’t a flirtatious conversation about swaying him into a new match.

“Don’t look so nervous, this isn’t an interrogation,” Jen said, smiling faintly. “Though I can’t say I’m not…curious about you. You are involved with my best friend after all.”

Gale understood now that, using the language of these shows, he and Evie might be considered “dating” but it still made his heart leap to hear Jen say it. Everything moved so fast here.

“Well, I believe you’ll find me to be an open book,” Gale said. “It would be a pleasure getting to know you as well.”

Jen studied him, her green eyes bright and focused, attempting to peel back his layers by sight alone. She tapped her nails against the metal cap of her water bottle. The tips were thinly lined with black polish. 

”So are you really divorced or are you one of those men in a state of constant argument with his wife and he swears he’s going to leave her any day but he never does?”

Right into the deep end then. Okay, he could handle that. “I am one hundred percent, legally, completely divorced.”

Jen hummed placidly. “You could make quite a bit of money printing that on a t-shirt.”

“I’m not sure I want to encourage the type of person who would wear it.”

Her laugh was small and reserved but it seemed genuine. Some of Gale's nerves unwound.

“So now that you’re free, you must be enjoying yourself here,” she said. “You can date whoever catches your eye, not get too tied down to any one thing.”

“I suppose I could,” Gale said. “I've never quite seen the appeal.”

“Then why are you here?”

Gale wasn’t sure if he was allowed to discuss the real reason, that he had been strong armed into being here. Instead he said, “To find love. Isn't that what we're all doing?”

Now Jen’s laugh was loud but sharp, almost disbelieving. “Yes, I suppose it is. And are you succeeding in that mission so far?”

This may not be an interrogation but it was certainly interrogation adjacent. He could see the traps she set out for him, the ropes she casually lengthened and then stepped back from to see if Gale might hang himself with them. He wondered what Jen might already know about him.

“I like Evie very much, if that's what you're asking,” he said.

“I don't recall asking that but I'll certainly pass along the message,” Jen said.

“What about you?” Gale asked. “Are you finding love?”

“Oh, unlike you, I am proudly here to date around and have fun.”

“And are you succeeding?”

“Quite well, thank you,” Jen said with a feline smile. “Of course I don’t want to do this sort of thing forever. Most of my - esteemed colleagues are happy to jump from show to show and party when they’re not filming. And don’t misunderstand me, that life certainly has its perks. But I think it might be nice to have a quiet place to settle down someday. One of those tiny cottages that looks like it should only exist in a watercolor painting. And I’ll have just enough room to raise some of my own chickens, and garden, and let all of my dogs run in the yard.”

Gale was a city dweller through and through but Jen painted a darling picture. “That sounds lovely.”

Jen sighed wistfully. “It will be someday but not just yet.” She sank a bit deeper into her chair, getting more comfortable. “I…grew up in a very strict household. Very religious. The kind of religion that ends up on the news for getting into standoffs with police and having members kill themselves en masse.”

“God,” Gale said, taken aback. Jen merely shrugged, either beyond that pain or pretending to be.

“I used to think that was the only life I would ever have,” she said. “That my hometown was the only place I would ever see. So I want to see more of the world and meet plenty of people before I start thinking about settling down in one place.”

Gale nodded to himself. “That’s admirable. And why not have Tadpole pay for it?”

“See, you understand perfectly,” Jen said with a laugh and her whole face brightened with it.  

He could see why she and Evie were close. They were similarly sharp and witty, two peas in a catty pod that became much softer with their friends. 

Gale liked Jen. He wanted her to like him. It was a bit strange to be working and spending time with someone Evie had dated on her previous show but everything about this environment was already so unusual that he might as well just add this to the pile instead of letting it slow him down. He and Evie had already kissed half of the people here by their second day.

“What about you?” Jen asked. “Are you ready to settle down?”   

“I’m certainly ready to never try finding a relationship in this manner again,” he said confidently. 

“And do you think you’ll ever get married again? Be in something that serious?”

He knew the answer but it still felt a bit like unearthing the information for the first time when he said, “Yes. I think I could be married again. Not that I’m planning on marrying Evie.” His brain jolted and words suddenly began pouring out of him. “Of course that isn’t to say that she wouldn’t be a wonderful person to marry! Perhaps just not so soon.”

“But in the future?” Jen asked.

“Yes,” Gale said. Then quickly, “No. Well, I only meant - it’s just - she’s…lovely. Evie is lovely. Married or not.” 

He was flailing in one of Jen’s traps and she seemed quite pleased to watch him struggle. She pulled one leg up onto her chair and left her other foot on the ground so she could gently push herself, smiling contentedly. 

“I like you, Gale,” she said. “You don't seem to really fit in here and that makes you sort of perfect.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I think.”

Jen grinned. “Trust me, it’s a good thing. Almost no one belongs in a place like this and you wouldn’t want to meet the people that do.”

“You and Evie seem to belong here.”

“We’ve adjusted well,” Jen said. “And it can be fun here, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.” She flashed a smile and Gale’s face flushed as he quickly replayed some of the things she would have been present for. “But we’re all just human, even if certain parts of our personalities are enhanced when the cameras are around. Like - Evie sometimes gets an unfair reputation for the way she appears on TV but if you called everyone from our season, they would all tell you that they’re friends with her. Oh - except Isabella. Evie pushed her into the pool.”

Gale couldn’t help laughing. “I can’t imagine there were some extenuating circumstances in which Isabella deserved this?” 

“Well…” Jen’s voice trailed higher and higher as she drew out the sound.

“That’s alright, I believe I know the answer.”

Her face softened as she looked at Gale. “I really hope you don’t take this conversation as if you hurt my friend, I’ll kill you because I find that all very tedious and dull. I doubt you have any truly nefarious intentions and Evie would be smart enough to know if you did. I…I only wanted to tell you that -” Jen hesitated, tapping her nails against her water bottle again “- she’s very sensitive. Underneath it all. And certainly not immune to the kinds of emotions a place like this can stir up.”

Her words settled heavily on him. They were on a television set but Gale, Evie, Jen, all of the cast here were just people. A producer may have told you to push someone into a pool but that didn’t make them any drier once you did it. Gale was free to match with whomever he pleased, to play the game as it were, but if he treated Evie like a game piece, a real person would be the one getting hurt.

“I understand,” he said.

Jen tilted her head, gazing at him fondly. “I know you do. Can I just ask you one thing?”

“Please. Anything.”

She sat forward, her hammock chair swinging with her. “The catering here is terrible. Could you make me some of that pasta you made for Evie the other day? The kitchen smelled amazing for hours.”

Production had recently completed a fresh grocery run, including two bulbs of garlic that Gale had asked for, so he quickly assembled the pasta for Jen. He tried to demonstrate that he wasn’t doing anything more complicated than cooking tomatoes in olive oil but she waved her hand and said she didn’t need to know how it was made to want to eat it.

They sat across from each other at the dining table and chatted about mundane things like Gale’s job, Jen’s recent travels, topics good for whiling away their long hours but terrible for TV. Jen’s bowl had been empty for a few minutes when the missing cast members finally returned. Evie walked in wearing the same ivory colored dress she had to wear for all of the confessionals so it would be impossible to determine when any of the footage was from.

There was a soft, dreamy quality to the few moments Evie spent lingering by the door, stepping out of her tall heels, looking around the room without knowing Gale was already looking at her. It reminded him of cooking for her, a normal moment removed from all the chaos of their circumstances, where time was slow and shapeless and no one tested their compatibility like it was a thing to be measured.

Evie’s face lit up in a bright smile when she saw him and Gale’s heart thumped as she came padding over in her bare feet.

“Hi, guys,” she leaned down to hug Gale from behind, slinging her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek to his. “I talked about you both so much today. Really lit you up, it was sort of uncalled for.” When she stood up straight, she left her hands on Gale’s shoulders, subtly angling him back into her body.

“It’s our turn tomorrow,” Jen said. 

“Yeah, but neither of you - heeey, ” Evie jostled Gale. “Did you cook whatever was in that bowl?”

Gale tilted his head back and it pressed against Evie’s stomach when he looked up at her. “She forced me, it was rather violent.”

“Mine had fresh garlic,” Jen said, preening.

Evie sat on the bench beside Gale, her hip flush against his, her arms wrapping around his body. “You can only cook for me, you’re my match. Also you have to cook for me because I don’t know how.”

“Neither do I,” Jen insisted. 

“Fine, you can cook for Jen but you can’t put as much love in it, okay?” Evie propped her chin on Gale’s shoulder and blinked up at him with wide amber eyes. He felt the crushing need to kiss her pout but held back since Jen was sitting right across from them.

“I promise,” he said, and pulled Evie into him with an arm around her shoulders.

-

“Fucking shady piece of shit,” Karlach muttered.

She came over and sat at the end of the long L-shaped couch that Evie and Jen were already on, bringing the dark cloud of an argument over their relaxed chat.

“You alright?” Evie asked cautiously.

Before Karlach could answer, Mizora was striding up to their couch, heels clacking loudly on the floor.

“You don’t have to sit here,” Karlach said.

“I don’t feel that we’re done speaking” Mizora replied, seating herself on the shortest length of the couch and crossing her ankles demurely. “You just said your piece and walked away.”

“Maybe that was a fucking clue I was done talking to you,” Karlach answered. Evie exchanged a furtive glance with Jen. She knew Jen was probably wondering the same thing - if they could get out of this without drawing attention or maybe just be swallowed up by the couch and disappear.

“I can’t change the fact that you feel so threatened by me,” Mizora said.

Karlach snorted. “Please. I’m not threatened by some yapping Chihuahua. You’re a shady bitch and I’ll tell you right to your face. If you wanted to talk to Wyll, you should have pulled me and told me that instead of doing it behind my back. But you didn’t because, like I already said, shady bitch.”

Wyll? Were they back together or just flirting? Evie realized she couldn’t remember.

“Oh my God,” Mizora said like she was so horrifically offended. “You’re calling me names now? We’re all here to date and make matches. Aren’t I entitled to speak to someone that I kissed? ”

“Kissing during a challenge doesn’t -”

“Aren’t I entitled to have feelings for people? ”

Their voices started overlapping and Evie stared straight ahead while she took a sip of her vodka and cranberry. She was a little uncomfortable with the volume and intensity of their argument but it was objectively very delicious drama. As long as she got to stay on the edges, she could sink a spoon into this moment like it was a lush chocolate mousse and indulge in it.

“If anyone made a pass at Gale, Evie would have the exact same reaction,” Karlach said and Evie’s pulse leapt at the sound of her own name. “Anyone who really cared would be exactly as fucking pissed at you as I am, so don’t you -”

Jen tapped Evie’s arm and whispered, “Run.”

They stood up cautiously but Karlach and Mizora were completely lost in their own fight, which had evolved to include a lot of hand gestures. Jen looped her arm around Evie’s and they slunk away before breaking into a run and giggling.

“Oh my God,” Evie said, panting, falling into Jen while they laughed. “That was insane . Why did Gale and I have to get pulled into it? You were sitting there too.”

Jen’s smile faltered a little. “Oh. Are you - doing a bit?”

“No, why?”

“Aw,” Jen tilted her head and touched Evie’s cheek. “Well…at least you’re pretty.”

-

Evie often complained that too many of the challenges were incomplete thoughts but they all felt fairly overwhelming to Gale. The rules always started simple and became byzantine by the third twist. The producers seemed to design the challenges so that at least half of the cast would be very wet by the end, either from falling into water or having it dumped on them.

His shoulder was still bothering him after the last challenge, an absurdly physical one that involved a shallow pool dug into the sands of the beach, heavy sponges attached to their bathing suits, and wringing out the water on trampolines. He had a few moments to appreciate the water coursing over Evie’s chest and the way she had to jump into his arms to squeeze the sponges attached to them both but by the end they were laying together in a sopping wet, gasping heap on their trampoline. There was no matching mixer that night so they both took two painkillers and went to bed early, too tired for anything more than a goodnight kiss. 

Gale was hoping for an easy challenge after that but he seemed to be out of luck. The dress code was “athletic” so they all arrived outside wearing shorts and running shoes. Different colored yoga mats had been placed a few inches apart and producers directed the couples to choose one and stand behind it. Volo was already waiting, a bit of unblended sunscreen on his cheek.

“This will be quite the challenge for every couple,” he told them once they had all set up. “It will require strength! It will require endurance! Heart! Passion!”

Gale sighed, anticipating the next perplexing activity they were about to be subjected to.

“Hey,” Evie whispered and rubbed his arm bracingly. “Maybe it’ll be something athletic but easy, like table tennis.”

“Have you seen the way people play table tennis in the Olympics?” he asked.

“Who the hell in this house would be an Olympic level table tennis player? Unless -” Evie turned Gale towards her and squinted at him suspiciously. 

Volo called them back to attention. “Now to begin this challenge, you will of course see that there are several mats on the ground in front of you. Firstly, you must arrange yourselves beside those mats in order from most compatible to least compatible couple. Truly look inward and decide ‘am I filled with passion for the person beside me?’ Ask yourself what true connection should look like.”

Karlach raised her hand. “What if we don’t agree?”

“Every couple will have to be placed somewhere,” Volo said with an unsympathetic shrug of his shoulders.

“Gale and I are first!” Evie declared, grabbing Gale’s hand and walking with him towards the leftmost mat.

To Gale’s surprise, no one else in the cast attempted to stop them. Instead they all gathered in a cluster in the middle, voices immediately rising, content to argue for second place. 

Wyll and Lae’zel were able to place themselves relatively easily at the second mat, claiming they had been together the longest despite any pauses. Then quarreling arose over who should be last. Jen didn’t think it was fair that she and Halsin should be at the bottom simply because they were the newest couple.

“You honestly think we belong after Astarion and Minthara?” she asked. “They don’t even like each other.”

Halsin touched her arm and said, “Our place doesn’t matter as long as we are together.” That made Jen roll her eyes but there was still a shadow of a smile on her face as she withdrew from the argument and moved to stand beside him at the rightmost mat.

“Excellent!” Volo clapped his hands together. “Now it seems you have agreed unanimously to place Evie and Gale in the catbird seat, as it were?” There were general murmurs of agreement from the cast and Gale felt a bit abashed and pleased. “Now, why do you two feel that is?”

Evie put her hands on her hips, energized, ready to defend their spot. “I think they recognize that we have an honest connection that’s based on how much we enjoy each other. We’ve been together since night one and we’re still happy and having fun.”

“Gale?”

“I’m usually content to agree with anything Evie says,” he replied, which earned him a big laugh.

“A good man!” Volo said. “So are you all ready for today’s challenge?”

They cheered, clapped, even Gale managed a small whoop for their host even though he grimaced immediately after. He remembered Evie’s hand on his arm, felt her invigorating presence at his side. He could get through it as long as she picked him up afterward.

Volo held his arms out and smiled impishly. “You have just completed the challenge.”

Gale went completely rigid. Evie gasped then paused.

“We won? ” she asked.

“Indeed, you did!” Volo said. He launched into some diatribe about love but Gale didn’t hear it over his own rush of relief and the sound of Evie screaming happily as she jumped up and down beside him. She leapt into Gale’s arms and he held her tightly, laughing into her shoulder, so overwhelmingly grateful for the producer’s seeming lack of ideas. 

Some of the cast applauded politely, absolutely seething, but Gale didn't particularly mind their disdain. He felt he could handle anything this show threw at him now as long as it wasn’t another trampoline.

-

There was a pathway of beige stones leading away from the villa that they usually weren’t allowed to use but later that night, Evie and Gale were led down the path and into the trees by a camera crew. At the end of the path, a wooden pergola appeared, set atop the same stones as the pathway, all cut together to form a neat square in the grass. It would have been a nice spot for some patio furniture, maybe a cocktail party or a reception when the main part of the property wasn’t being used to film a raunchy reality show.

Evie and Gale lingered beyond the bounds of the stone flooring while production finished lighting candles. They were surrounded by the trees around their villa and the bugs were loud tonight, a constant stream of chirping. One PA walked by towards the set with what seemed to be a rolled piece of canvas tucked under his arm.

“It looks like we actually have an activity date,” Evie said. “Most of the dates are just picnics with extra set dressing.”

“I liked our picnic,” Gale said plaintively.

Evie felt herself blush. “So did I. But we eat and drink together all the time. We need to seize these moments when they give us something to do.” She watched an assistant placing metal canisters on a small table set at shin height. “And it’s definitely going to be a sexy activity.”

Gale turned to her quickly, half of his face lit up by the set and the other in partial shadow. “What would give you that idea?”

“They told us to wear bathing suits after dark and we’re not on the beach.” Evie said. “That means they want skin and it’s not for swimming.”

“Well…let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Gale said.

“Would it be such a bad thing?” Evie asked, a bit annoyed. Surely he hadn’t considered everything they had done before today to be a chore, and if he did then surely he wouldn’t tell her right before a date.

Gale turned all the way to face her this time. “Sorry?”

“If the date were something sexy,” she continued.

He seemed to retreat to consider this. “Bad wouldn't be a proper descriptor,” Gale said eventually. “Perhaps simply - awkward.”

Evie hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe the way through the awkwardness is just…leaning into it.”

“Leaning into it?” he repeated.

“Yeah,” Evie shrugged. “I’d rather have a little fun than bumble and stutter through it like we're two strangers. It's not like we've been perfectly chaste this entire time. And it would be one of those scenes that's mostly for the cameras. You know how actors say that sex scenes aren’t sexy to film because there are so many people around? It’ll probably be something like that.”

“Exactly how intimate do you see this date becoming?” Gale asked.

“There’s a decent chance we stay clothed the entire time,” she said and Gale raised his eyebrows. “I just mean - we’re sort of like actors here and this is just part of our jobs. It probably won't be worse than what we might get up to during truth or dare and I vote we have fun with it.”

She could be Gale’s mentor through drinking games and relationship drama but something like this required a little bit of buy-in from him too. She didn’t want to push Gale to do something truly uncomfortable but she didn’t want to be alone out on that stage either, tossing her hair and putting on a sensual show while her scene partner stumbled and forgot all his lines. 

They were supposed to be doing this together. She wanted some proof that he wanted to be there. 

He stood up straighter, examining her with those dark eyes. She could have been wearing a winter parka and that look would have made her blood sizzle just the same as it did now with so much of her body exposed. “And how do you propose we lean into this?”

“Just do whatever the date requires to its fullest extent,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I recall someone saying he wasn’t shy about sex.” Evie fluttered her eyelashes and smiled. 

Gale looked at the crew flitting around, lighting even more candles and rolling out the large piece of canvas on the stone floor. He seemed to be trying to deduce the nature of this date to decide exactly how much he could give to it. 

“And this is what you want?” he asked. 

Saying it was something she wanted felt like taking too much ownership, like she had planned this instead of just trying to make the best of it. “I think it's a good course of action.”

He nodded once. “Alright. Then I promise you that I will approach the date with an open mind and attempt to meet it on its own terms.”

“Okay,” Evie nodded too, wondering what exactly she had just brokered. “Me too.”

“Though - I do wonder how you’ll fare during the experience.”

Evie blinked. “Me?"

Gale tilted his head, stared at her calmly. “If this is an intimate activity, I suspect you’re going to be the one who walks away from it flustered.”

She let out a little squawk of disbelief just as a producer approached them.

“We’re ready for you over here,” he said. “We’ve got a card set out explaining everything if one of you could just read it for the camera.”

Evie managed to school her expression into one of neutrality before taking Gale’s hand and walking with him beneath the pergola the producers had been tending to. The canvas was about the size of a twin bed when laid out on the ground like this and beside it the producers had set out several metal canisters with lids on top of a short table. The stage lights and groups of lit candles gave everything a warm, romantic feel.

She picked up the card that had been propped up against one of the canisters on the table and read it aloud. “Use this paint and turn your partner into a master work of art.”

She slapped the card against her open palm and smiled at Gale. I told you. Gale looked at the canvas and her, weighing and evaluating and thinking like always. 

When she pulled the lid off one of the canisters, Evie was greeted with a bright pink liquid that flowed slowly to one side when she tilted it. Paint. She was struck by a wave of nostalgia when the smell of it wafted up to her. It reminded her of the kind of paint children used to create misshapen ladybugs and structurally unsound houses. There was a whole array of vibrant colors here for them to use.

“I guess this will have to go,” Evie said, tugging on the hem of Gale’s t-shirt.

Instead of blushing and stuttering like she might have expected, Gale stood straighter, strengthening his resolve and said, “I believe you're right,” before pulling his shirt up and over his head without complaint. Apparently the battle of who would be walking out of here more flustered had already begun. 

Fine. Her white bikini would probably be ruined but she was willing to sacrifice it to prove her mettle. Evie took her container of pink paint and sat on the canvas.

“Come here then,” she said, letting her voice get a bit breathy and touching the space in front of her where she wanted Gale to sit. “Let me paint you first.”

She dipped her fingers into the pink paint and spread it between both of her hands. She leaned forward on her knees and placed both palms against Gale’s abdomen, feeling the muscles contract beneath her touch. Slowly, she smoothed her hands up over his stomach, up to his chest, until he had to lean back on his hands to stay upright.

Gale glanced down at her work. “You seem to be in an abstract period of your oeuvre.”

“This is obviously post-impressionist,” Evie replied.

He pulled a jar of daffodil yellow closer. “Are you sensitive anywhere?”

Evie smirked at his blatant attempt to shake her. “My neck,” she said like she was proud of it.

Gale dipped his index finger into the yellow paint and reached over to paint an X just beside the hollow of her throat. “So I don't forget. Wait -” He moved his hand higher and Evie tipped her head back a bit so Gale could paint another mark right above her pulse. “There too.”

“And what era is your work in?” Evie asked.

Gale grinned to himself, looking down at his paint. “Romantic.”

She was about to roll her eyes but then his hand was at her collar. He drew a slow, steady line down from there, his finger just grazing the inner curve of her breast, bending slightly as if tracing it. When he reached her bathing suit, he withdrew his finger to cover it with more paint, and drew a matching line on the other side. Partway down, Evie’s breath stuttered and she saw Gale’s hand move with her chest as it rose. 

He chose not to press this advantage and merely continued on his path. This time he skipped over the fabric of her bikini and continued drawing down her stomach to her navel, mapping the outlines of her body.

“Oh. I shouldn’t forget here either,” Gale said and with great intent he painted an X on her inner thigh.

Evie’s knee jerked upright involuntarily, jostling Gale’s hand away from her. He hadn’t touched her with more than one finger and her skin was already tingling. She needed to gain the upper hand. 

Instead of touching Gale, Evie started at her own neck, on the opposite side of the X’s Gale had drawn, and slowly spread pink paint down the side of it, tilting her head back slightly as her hand passed over her chest.

Gale tracked the movement with his eyes, his lips parting slightly. “Isn’t that meant to be my job?”

“You were going so slow,” Evie said. “Thought you needed a demonstration.”

He took the pink paint back and spread it between his palms, then held her above her elbows and slowly dragged his hands up her arms all the way to her shoulders. Evie took the orange paint from the table and wiped it down over Gale’s chest, her fingers spreading wide over the warm skin. They put paint wherever they could reach, blending the colors across their chests, their arms, their legs. Gale spread paint down Evie’s wrist and massaged her palm when he reached her hand. He stretched his legs out in front of him and Evie dragged blue paint over his thighs, fingertips skimming up beneath his bathing suit, and making a show of bending over in front of him.

She could see how this could have been a silly, goofy date. How they could have slapped paint against each other’s bodies, giggling as they painted on mustaches and exaggerated fake muscles. She wondered if that’s how it would have played out if she hadn’t said anything. Then Gale’s hand found the marked spot on her inner thigh again and any notion of lighthearted fun was lost for good. 

Evie tried to laugh as his hand kneaded her flesh there but it left her as a high, breathless sound, dangerously close to a moan. Everything inside of her seemed to be rattling, trying to shake loose. She could feel Gale’s phantom touch against her throat as her pulse thudded beneath the marked locations. She thought he might be flushed but it was hard to find the pink blush beneath the paint. 

“I remember the first time I saw you,” Gale said suddenly.

Evie exhaled unsteadily as she tried to grin. “Yeah it was like two weeks ago, I remember it too.”

He smiled warmly and Evie felt very aware of every place they were touching, her leg against his, Gale’s hand over her knee. “I thought you might be the host for a moment, some celebrity they had thrown money at to be there. You were glowing. And quite intimidating.”

She leaned in closer, tilting her head as if she might kiss him. “And what do you think of me now?”

Her brain immediately generated a list of likely replies. Fun. Loud. Reckless. Sexy.

Gale dotted her cheek with one spot of purple. “I think you’re sweet.”

Something caught in her chest, pressure tightening until it unstuck, and then whatever imaginary scoreboard Evie had been holding onto in her mind disappeared, scattered like fluffy dandelion seeds.

She crawled into Gale’s lap, her knees bracketing his hips, cradling his jaw as she pressed her lips to his. Her bikini top was only held up by a small string tied behind her neck and as Gale’s hands pressed against her back, she imagined him tugging one end of the string and the entire knot falling apart. She had never been turned on like this during a TV date, probably not on a normal date either.

Unfortunately, there was only so much she could do with those feelings in front of the cameras. Things were still foggy in her mind when the date had to end and they went back to the villa, some part of her still lingering back on the canvas. 

The producers made them walk around the building so Evie and Gale could enter through the front door.

“Oh my God!” someone exclaimed when they walked in covered in paint. Evie could feel it sticking to the end of her ponytail and creasing between her fingers.

“Anyone want a hug?” she asked. She moved towards Karlach with her arms open but the other woman fended her off with a barking laugh. 

“Don’t sit on anything!” Karlach said.

Everyone was laughing. Evie and Gale were laughing too, their colorful shoulders bumping together. 

Jen sidled up beside Evie with a knowing smirk. She spoke quietly, just for Evie and her microphone. “Seems like you had a good time. There's two blue handprints on your bum.” Then she hooked a finger into Evie’s bikini bottom to snap her waistband. Evie batted her hands away and Jen spoke again, loud enough for everyone. “Get in the shower before you ruin our lovely home.”

Evie and Gale left their amused castmates downstairs to clean themselves up in their room.

“They just don’t appreciate the arts,” Evie said as she closed their bedroom door.

“Philistines,” Gale agreed.

There seemed to be some kind of spell on their bedroom that changed every molecule of air whenever the door closed with Evie and Gale alone behind it. Evie felt the tension inside of her as the air shifted and became both warmer and harder to inhale. If Gale noticed the difference, it didn’t show on his face. He ran a quick hand through his hair, messy but happy, and his smile lodged something bright and hot in Evie’s chest.

She walked into the bathroom first, looking at Gale in the mirror while he examined the extent of the paint on his hands. A little thrill fluttered through her as she watched him without him knowing she was looking. For once, no one was looking at her either, since the only camera was in the bedroom. In this one small corner of the house, she could do whatever she wanted. 

Evie turned around and pushed herself up onto the countertop beside the sink before she could consider whether what she wanted was a good idea.

“Gale,” she said softly and he looked up, so genuinely curious about what she might say. Her fingers curled around the edge of the counter. “Come here.”

The weight of the moment seemed to finally register with Gale as his eyes swept over her sitting there. He stepped closer until he lingered in the doorway, one hand touching the frame. “Is this…leaning into the date? For the cameras?”

She swallowed hard. Shook her head slightly. “There aren’t any cameras in here.”

He crossed the bathroom floor slowly, still debating behind his eyes when he stood between her knees. Then he pulled her to the edge of the counter by her hips and kissed her fervently like there had been no break between their date and now. Evie kissed him back without hesitation, her mouth opening easily for him, her legs wrapping around his hips. His hands curved against her spine, cradling her to his chest. She let him press her into the mirror as her nails dragged over his shoulders. Her fingers sank into his hair as their loud breathing echoed off the bathroom tiles.

As Gale shifted his hips closer, electricity zipped up Evie’s spine and a heaviness settled between her thighs. She rolled against him the way she had wanted to outside, gasping at the friction between them, at the reality of Gale, hard and eager between her legs. This wasn’t their date for the cameras, no audience to perform for. It was just instinct, knowing it felt good to be near him and wanting as much of him as possible.

He ducked his head as if he might kiss her neck before stopping himself. He laughed roughly against the hinge of her jaw and she shivered.

“I want to kiss you everywhere but you’re covered in paint,” he said.

“Then get in the shower with me and kiss me when I’m not covered in paint,” Evie said.

Gale groaned, somewhere between pleasure and pain. He pulled back enough for Evie to see how conflicted he looked and she lamented not letting him feel her up more before making such a big offer.

“It can be just like this,” she said. “We wouldn’t have to go any further. We’d just be - wetter.”

He laughed breathlessly. “I cannot picture any possible scenario in which getting into that shower with you doesn’t escalate considering I’m barely holding it together as is. You know that I…that I enjoy our time together.”

“Oh no, not the rejection,” she pretended to wince.

“No, no, not a rejection.” He touched her arms where they were draped over his shoulders. “Something like that would just be - fast. For me. What I’m used to.”

Evie knew very well that this experience was a lot for him. It was the whole reason she had matched with him in the first place. She couldn't explain that to the butterflies in her stomach but they would have to cope.

“Is this okay?” she asked, placing her hand over two pink stripes on his jaw that lined up with her fingers and tilting his mouth back towards hers.

He answered with a nod before leaning in to kiss her again. They weren’t clambering for each other now but Evie’s heart was still racing when he touched her, his hands trailing down her sides.

“If you don’t want to shower with me, does that mean I out-flustered you?” she asked, close to Gale’s lips.

“Oh. I nearly forgot about that,” Gale said. “If that's been on your mind this entire time then I would think you were the more flustered party.”

She put her hands on Gale’s chest and pushed him away. “God, get out of here. Your punishment for annoying me is waiting while I shower first.”

The room felt colder without Gale slotted between her legs so Evie turned the shower on when she was alone to warm things up. She dropped her bikini onto the floor, hoping to salvage it later, and stepped into the warm spray of water. She bathed herself slowly, closing her eyes as her hands retraced the same paths Gale’s had taken to paint her. Pink and blue and yellow swirled around her feet until the water ran clear.

She wondered if Gale was thinking about her in here, imagining the water sliding over her naked body, doubting if he had made the right choice. Evie was certainly thinking about him and what they would have done. How he might gather her in his arms, press her against the wall, his mouth against more and more of her skin as the paint washed away, turning down the water temperature after the heat and their hands started making them both dizzy.

There had been a buzzing beneath her skin from the moment Gale touched a paint stained finger to her body and the need became incessant now that she was alone. 

She bit her lip, thinking. Slowly, she leaned her back against the cool tiles and propped one foot up on the edge of the tub, seeing how it felt, if she might change her mind. Evie trailed her fingers down between her breasts, her mouth falling open as she continued down over her stomach, against her inner thigh, leaving warm pinpricks in every place she touched. She could justify this as something physical, just satisfying a base need. It couldn’t escalate things between them if one of them wasn’t even there.

She exhaled softly when she let her hand drift between her legs, just slick even with all the water around her. It was entirely outside the bounds of the show, the cameras, their date, and she needed this one thing that no one would see.

_

The next day, Evie felt deliciously relaxed all the way down to her toes. It was the kind of contentment that made everything around her seem better. She and Astarion were laying on lounge chairs beside the pool and the warm sun felt like it was the perfect temperature, the lemonade sitting beside her had the perfect sweetness, even the pool seemed particularly blue.

“You sighed again,” Astarion said without turning towards her.

“Did I?” she asked.

“Yes, you sound as if you're moments from bursting into song. You had a good time on your date, you don't need to rub it in everyone's faces.”

Evie tipped her sunglasses down and looked over at him. “Weren’t you eliminated last week?”

Astarion scoffed. “Do you even know what’s going on in this game?”

“I guess not,” Evie said, pushing her glasses back up.

“Of course you don’t care,” Astarion said. “You’re winning.”

Chapter Text

Evie was blindfolded. She thought bitterly that the producers must have spent a fortune on these blindfolds because they seemed to keep incorporating them into whatever scenes they could manage. At least this time she could hear but so many people were shouting to their partners that it was almost impossible to pick out Gale’s voice from the wall of sound. The hay bales she was supposed to navigate around actually hurt quite a bit to walk into so her steps were small and tentative.

“Evie, put it back!”

She released the foam block in her hand but she wasn’t sure why. The whole point was retrieving the blocks and bringing them back to Gale. 

She was hungover. Pressure throbbed behind her eyes in the darkness of her blindfold. It was hot today and they were out on the beach with no shade. Sometimes Gale’s voice shouting directions lifted above the others but she mostly heard a din of “Go left!” and “Turn around!” She touched the arm of another blindfolded contestant and wondered which of them had gone more off course. 

A whistle finally blew, thank God. Evie took her blindfold off and realized she wasn’t even in the right lane anymore. Gale waved at her from the platform she was supposed to be heading towards but had wandered off from. With a great sigh, Evie stalked over towards him and the pathetically small pile of purple blocks she had managed to retrieve.

“I couldn’t hear you,” Evie said and hated how whiney she sounded. The challenges didn’t even matter. They were always overly complicated or else half an idea. But she was hot, and tired, and the hay had scratched her bare legs. She was breathing heavily even though the challenge hadn’t been very physical.

Gale smiled at her. “It’s alright, darling. Here -” He held his hand out to her and helped Evie up onto the platform with him. “It’s okay.” He wrapped an arm around her back and Evie leaned towards him like a plant seeking the sun when he touched her cheek and kissed her warmly. It was the kind of easy, casual kiss between two people used to greeting each other this way. 

“Sorry,” Evie said, pouting up at him.

“No, no, don’t be sorry,” Gale kissed her temple and turned her body towards Volo so they could listen to the results. Right - they still had to film the show. “Astarion didn’t manage to bring back anything.”

-

“And then Gale said his name would be Won't, ” Evie said, touching Jen’s arm to balance herself while she laughed. “Because Wyll. So the - the opposite would be Won’t - do you not get it? You're not laughing.”

“Hm?” Jen turned away from the mixer and towards Evie as if only just now beginning to pay attention. “Oh, that’s because I’m not in love with Gale so I don’t laugh at everything he says. Especially opposite names, whatever that is.”

“Okay, first of all, it wasn't ‘opposite names,’ it was evil doppelganger names which proves you weren't listening at all,” Evie said. “And secondly, I don’t have to be in love with Gale to appreciate the fact that he’s funny.”

“Right. And what was that absolutely ridiculous thing you said about him the other day?”

“That he had a perfect neck?”

“That's the one.”

It made sense in Evie’s mind, if only abstractly. His neck was just an excellent place to kiss or to tuck her face into. Plus, his neck led down to his shoulders and his chest and all of that firm muscle and warm skin, and it led up to his jaw and his beard and his mouth. Whenever he wore a low collared shirt, she felt the urge to put her teeth on him, even more than when he didn’t wear a shirt at all.

Jen looked away again and Evie finally turned to see what was drawing her attention.

“Ohhh,” she said knowingly. “You're not listening to me because you're daydreaming about Halsin.”

He was on the other side of the pool, chatting amiably with Lae’zel even though she was looking at him with a firm scowl.

“I was just curious about what he was doing,” Jen said primly, the words echoing into her cup as she took a drink.

“I’m sure you were, Miss Matched-With-Halsin-Three-Mixers-In-A-Row.”

Jen wrinkled her nose. “That would be hellish to fit on a name change form.”

“Jennifer!” Evie said emphatically.

“That isn’t my name.”

“I know! You’re being downgraded to Jennifer until you can be honest.”

“What about you, Miss Perfect-Neck?” Jen said. “Which is the most insane thing I’ve ever heard, by the way.”

“And completely disprovable.”

“Good evening.” Halsin had come striding up to them, his shirt flung wide open, a gentle air of ease about him. He laid a hand on Jen’s back and she seemed to be fighting a smile as she looked up at him. “Am I interrupting anything serious?”

“Nope, nothing at all.” Evie smiled at him. “Feel free to steal Jen away.”

He chuckled warmly. “Oh no, you two continue your conversation. I was just checking to see if you needed anything more to drink.”

“I’m fine,” Jen said.

“I’ll take my leave of you then,” Halsin said and then he touched Jen’s chin and tilted it up to kiss her. 

Evie made a face as he kept kissing her, eventually placing his other hand against the small of her back and holding her close. Halsin and Jen were one of those couples that always kissed goodbye like one of them was leaving for six months on a boat voyage even if they were only going to another room. Jen had to blink away the starry look in her eyes when they eventually came up for air. 

They were both still grinning at each other until Halsin excused himself and Jen turned back to see Evie’s smug smile.

“Oh, don’t start,” Jen said, out of ways to defend herself after that display. 

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Evie replied. “Just wondering if you two will match tonight, I couldn’t really tell.”

“Says the woman still sleeping with her first match every night.”

Evie shrugged. “You know how this game works. No one has tried sending us on any dates so why split ourselves up?”

Jen’s brows shot up in disbelief. “No one has sent you on any dates because you’re the established couple this season. Even if someone cared enough to steal one of you away, there would be no time since you're always attached to each other.”

Evie tried to laugh even though her body felt like a pinball machine, full of flashing lights and something pinging around wildly in all directions. “If you don’t want to talk about how your match is going, I’m sure Halsin will be more forthcoming.”

“Evie -” Jen started but Evie had already taken a step backward. “Evie, do not go talk to Halsin.”

Even in her extremely short skirt, Evie was too quick to stop and she was out of arm’s reach before Jen could finish her sigh.

Halsin didn’t drink very much so when Evie caught him at the bar he was in the process of opening a can of lemon-lime seltzer.

“Oh, hello again,” he said. 

“Hi there,” Evie smiled up at him and held out her cup. “Refresh my drink?”

“It would be my pleasure.” 

“I just wanted to chat a little,” Evie said as he topped off her glass from the margarita pitcher. “Plus the longer I sit with you, the more Jen will think I’m telling you embarrassing secrets about her.”

Halsin grinned. “And do you have any embarrassing secrets about her?”

“Dozens. Ask her about the time we were on a yacht with one of the Twilight vampires.”

“I don't think I'm prepared for Jen to end our match just yet.”

Halsin seemed like a decent guy from what Evie had seen of him so far, somehow staying calm and gentle in this house of chaos.

She knew he had competed on a survival competition show called Endure the Outdoors which he won. After finishing his show, he had gone off into the Alaskan wilderness to imitate the Into The Wild guy, and instead of dying he eventually returned home just because he felt it was time. Evie would have preferred dying to camping but she could see Jen exploring the outdoors on one of her many travels.

“So are you two thinking of settling down soon?” Evie asked. “You know Tadpole will probably pay for it if you agree to get married on TV.”

He had this deep laugh that made it feel like he was throwing a friendly arm around your shoulders every time he was amused.

“I don’t believe either of us are the type to bind ourselves to any one person or place for too long,” he said. “But we are enjoying this moment we have right now.”

“That already puts you two above half of the people here.” Evie took a sip of her drink and smacked her lips. This was a particularly tart batch.

“You and Gale seem well suited,” Halsin said.

She thought of what Jen said, that she and Gale were the couple of the season, the one no one approached nor felt threatened by.

“Yeah,” Evie replied shyly. “We’re having a good time.”

“You’ve been matched since before I arrived. Have you explored a relationship with anyone else in the house?”

“Nope. We’re a night one pair.”

“That is a wonderful connection for you to find,” he said. “Of course, if you ever change your mind and are curious about exploring things with additional participants, I would be happy to join you both.”

There wasn’t any margarita in her mouth but Evie’s body decided to choke her anyway. She coughed and then swore around a rough exhale. 

“Um, ha - wow. That would be great. Really great. Like - best day of my life great. But I don’t think Gale would be comfortable with another person. Definitely right now, possibly forever. We -” she paused before deciding Halsin would probably be the least likely person to poke fun at her - “We’re taking all of that pretty slowly.”

“I understand,” Halsin said warmly. “And I assure you, there is no pressure. Your relationship should bloom in the conditions best suited for it.”

She wasn’t really sure how to handle the most polite threesome negotiation of her life beyond touching Halsin’s arm and offering her thanks.

-

It surprised Gale how quickly Evie’s presence began to feel inevitable.

He was no longer alarmed to find her beside him at the start of every morning. Many members of the cast had to live out of their suitcases, spending one night with one person before packing everything up and shuffling into a new space. But this room and this bed had started to feel like theirs in Gale’s mind.

Evie was always checking in with him when they spent the night together. She would lay her head over his heart, or throw her leg over his and look up at him with those dark honey eyes and ask, “Is this okay?” which was unnecessary but very endearing and he couldn’t bring himself to tell her to stop. He would always just say it was absolutely fine before giving in to the temptation to touch the bare skin of her arm or sweep her hair from her temple. Then she would sigh with satisfaction and settle in closer.

She smelled floral and citrusy, like bergamot tea with a spoonful of sugar.

She had a very small tattoo, a delicate flower along the outside of her left wrist, and said her two older sisters had the same one in different spots. 

All of the women had long nails. Evie explained they were some combination of acrylics and hard gels so no one would have to repaint or file during the show’s run. They were cuddled up close on one of the couches when Evie’s long nails paused while scratching his scalp. 

“I like your hair,” she said, gripping the strands for a moment and sending a bolt of heat through Gale’s abdomen. But there was a cameraman standing ten feet away from them so Gale wasn’t sure if she meant it. 

He couldn’t forget her advice about staying above the producer’s games and he wondered how far she extended that wisdom herself.

During his first few days in the villa, Gale thought often of Baudrillard and his writings on the simulation of the real world through media. This villa certainly seemed to fit the criteria for a hyperreality, a world in which everything banal had been replaced in favor of ecstasy and excess.

He stopped trying to deconstruct the show when he was alone with Evie in their room, or rather he lost the ability to focus on much except for her warm body pressed against his and her soft breathing against his collar. It suddenly seemed to matter very little about what was real and what was a simulacrum when she was straddling his lap and kissing him on their shared bed in the dim lamplight.

They hadn't been intimate yet, mindful of the camera's eye, but some gravity still drew them together. A pull towards one more kiss, one more soft sigh against the other’s lips. He had grown accustomed to kissing Evie in front of any person or camera out in the villa but he much preferred it in the semi-privacy of the bedroom. Where he could see Evie be tender, sometimes unsure or shy. Where no one might dare her to touch him, where there was no one to impress and nothing to gain from getting closer. 

They were past the halfway point of this experience and Gale could feel himself growing tired of the constant attention. He wanted to go home and sleep in his own bed and see his cat. 

But he also wanted to keep cooking Evie breakfast and feeling her soft hair slide between his fingers. He wanted to see the indents from her pillowcase along her pink cheek. He wanted to lay with her in a bed that didn’t have a camera trained on it and see who she was when she wasn't considering so many outside forces.

When he found himself drifting into fantasies like that, he tried to remind himself this could all be an invention for the show. He already saw flashes of it in Evie. Not insincerity or deceit but a guard, like she only wanted the cameras to capture Evie the character, the brand. Not the Evie that drooled on his shoulder while she slept or kept dipping her little squares of chocolate into the communal peanut butter.

Evie was gorgeous. Her smile was like summer and good lord could she wear a bikini. But she was also his safety net. His best friend in the house. Perhaps his best friend in the world now that every close colleague had pulled away from him, sensing their professional success might highlight how far he had fallen. 

He didn't want to lose his friend by puncturing the reality show bubble they were in and revealing just how much he liked her. And he knew of no particularly polite or level headed way to inform his friend that he wanted to have her underneath him.

He considered her advice - to always remain one layer removed - but Gale had never been any good at that. He obsessed over the questions that intrigued him, he gave completely to people he loved. He knew that every touch made things more complicated and yet every time Evie tipped her face up towards him, he eagerly kissed her back, no matter where the camera was.

-

Gale was the one blindfolded this time. A bright blue rope was tied to both of their waists and Evie was supposed to lead him through the field of wooden poles on the beach and the maze of the other contestant’s ropes to untangle him and reach the finish line at the end of the course. 

They laughed even as they became more tangled and confused, as Evie instructed Gale to step over ropes and duck beneath others. His hands were always wrapping around her wrists, searching for her, grazing her body. He was always touching her and trusting her to guide him. He smiled even though he couldn't see her.

They fully collided at one point and Gale grabbed her hips to keep them both steady. The warm air from his laugh traveled down the side of her neck. The challenge was surprisingly demanding and Evie could feel his quick pulse in all the places they were touching.

“Are we winning?” Gale asked.  

A loose section of their rope had become hopelessly tangled around Evie’s arm. There was sand stuck to their legs after kneeling and getting up again to wind their way through the obstacles. “I don’t think we’ve moved this entire time.”

“Is that alright with you?”

There was a thin sheen of sweat on Gale’s bare chest which rose and fell with his slightly labored breathing. Evie’s skin prickled along her arms. She wanted to remove his blindfold so he could look at her this way, taking in and cataloging every detail of her body.

“Of course not,” she tugged on the part of the rope connected to Gale. “Get moving. I heard a rumor this week's date might be horseback riding.”

-

When Gale opened the bathroom door, he brought a rush of steam and warm clean smells into the bedroom. 

“I'll certainly miss this rain shower when I'm home again,” he said sadly.

Evie smiled as she knelt upright on the bed and Gale stepped closer and into her arms. He was still warm from the shower beneath his soft sleep shirt and his hair was dry but faintly damp at his nape.  Last night, a cameraman stayed in the room with them for nearly an hour, filming their entire night time routine for B-roll and making it impossible for them to relax. Evie had been looking forward to their usual evening wind down all day.

She had determined that Gale’s soap was what made him smell so enticing though she had trouble describing it. She kept trying to pinpoint the notes of that plain looking white bar but she had no vocabulary for scents so every time she buried her face in Gale’s collar she only got hot guy. She woke up every morning with that masculine scent on her clothes and clinging faintly to her skin.

Her arms slid from around his neck as she sat on the bed, moving over into her designated side. “Maybe you could move in here and keep the shower. I heard this place will be empty soon.”

“Bit big for what I need,” Gale said as he got into bed beside her and sat against the headboard. 

He smiled over at her and Evie’s skin warmed.

She wasn’t stupid. She knew settling in for the night with Gale, talking gently side by side, wasn't interesting. It was sweet and it was calming but it was also a cardinal reality TV sin. 

Evie had almost certainly been hired to be a troublemaker. To try and kiss people who promised they were loyal to their showmance partner. To sit in her confessionals and say into the camera I always get what I want before smiling viciously. Certainly not to cuddle up beside her match in their soft pajamas and chat.

You’re the established couple this season.

When two people were perceived to be in a genuine relationship on a show like this they usually received the “couple edit,” meaning they were excised almost entirely from the footage like Soviet dissidents. Matchmakers claimed to be about finding love but no one actually wanted to watch two people cuddle and enjoy each other all day. They wanted arguing and crying and people in unsteady pairings being stolen away from each other by new contestants in tiny bathing suits.

She wondered how moments like this one in their bed might be edited, if they might be used at all or deemed too boring to air. Maybe she should confront Ellyka on camera for starting a rumor that Evie had gotten her boobs done. That might win her some air time.

Gale swept his fingers over the delicate underside of Evie’s wrist and she startled, forcibly pulled from her calculations. 

“Is something on your mind?” he asked. “You have that far away look you get sometimes. Usually when you’re editing the raw footage of the show in your mind.”

“I don’t do that,” Evie said unconvincingly. “And you’re the one who always looks like you’re analyzing the show. Like we’re some sexy alien species you don’t understand.”

His touch lingered near her hand, drifting over her fingers. “I’m only attempting to keep up with you. You always know the proper things to say and which cameras to play to. You’re the expert here.”

“I’m only thinking about whether or not I look good on camera.”

She turned her hand up on top of the blanket and he traced the lines of her palm.

“I wouldn’t concern myself too much with that,” Gale said. “You’re always beautiful.”

Outside of here, Evie had become quite bored with people talking about the way she looked. Whenever Gale complimented her, it made her so happy it almost looped back around into making her nervous. Her heart beat too quickly, everything ran too hot. 

She snuggled into his side and Gale lifted his arm to accommodate her and pull her in closer. 

“I had an interesting conversation at this evening’s mixer,” Gale said. “With a confidential informant.”

“Uh-huh. And does this informant have bangs and a carefully constructed air of apathy?” 

She felt Gale’s hand run along the length of her ponytail, curling the end around his finger before letting go. “Jen told me you did attend Princeton.”

Evie shrugged and lifted one hand up in a big deal gesture. “So did one of the Menéndez brothers. Don’t bring it up on campus though, people really don’t like it.”

Gale didn’t laugh and Evie tilted her head up to look at him. He was studying her, like he was waiting for something else she was supposed to say.

“What?” she pulled back a bit to look at Gale without leaving his warmth. “You knew I was teasing you about school, didn’t you?”

His gaze narrowed slightly but it felt like he had focused enough to read her thoughts. “Why don’t you want people to know you’re intelligent?”

There was a jolt through Evie’s whole body, like being in a car that suddenly stopped short. That was not the sort of thing they typically asked each other during their in bed, off mic conversations, the ones where they joked and recapped the day until they slowly fell asleep.

She scoffed, stunned and stalling for time. “I’m - not. My parents can just afford to send me anywhere. And I don’t care if people know where I went to school. I just don’t talk about it because it doesn’t matter. Especially not here.” 

“What makes you think it doesn’t matter?”

“I haven’t exactly done anything they’d want to print in the alumni newspaper,” Evie said. “I was only out of school for a few weeks when a Tadpole producer messaged me on Instagram to see if I would be on one of their shows. And now that’s my life.”

“Not your entire life,” Gale said. “I can’t imagine you studied reality television. Was it true you were interested in the arts?”

“Gale -” Evie said his name with an exasperated sigh. She began to shift further away on the bed, no longer feeling cuddly, until Gale touched her arm.

“Wait - Evie. I apologize. It wasn’t my intention to make you uncomfortable. You’re under no obligation to share something private. I…I only wanted to know you a bit better.”

She frowned. “Why?”

Gale stared at her incredulously. “Isn’t that what we’re here to do? To spend time together and understand our compatibility?”

Sometimes Gale said something so genuine that Evie wasn’t sure how to make sense of it within the carefully constructed and controlled reality of the villa. She thought he understood the show a little better now. That its reality only existed for these four weeks within these four walls and all of the people inside of it would change when they got outside. Other times, she wondered if he realized which side of the mirror he was on.

“I guess so,” Evie said. At least that was ostensibly true.

“Then would you stay up and talk with me a bit longer?” he asked. 

His expression was as earnest as his words and utterly disarming.

“Fine.”

Evie stretched out on the bed above the blanket, leaning her cheek on her pillow and peering up at Gale until he lay beside her. His beard had grown in a bit thicker since the beginning of the show, the extra hair actually making it feel softer when Evie touched his face. She held his jaw for a moment, scraping her fingernails lightly below his ear before pulling back.

“You should be a producer,” Evie said. “If you’re so interested in getting reality TV contestants to tell you about their lives.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re quite cynical?” Gale asked. 

“I’m practical. So you should ask me something before I decide to save everything for my confessional and get myself a few more seconds of air time.”

“Oh, blanket permission. I’ll have to think for a moment.” He draped his arm over Evie’s waist, pulling her in and shifting closer until their knees bumped and their thighs nearly pressed together. His warmth was tantalizingly close but Evie resisted the urge to lean into it. She would almost certainly be too comfortable and fall asleep in the middle of their conversation.

“Alright,” Gale said after considering. “So if you weren't on reality television, what career would you pursue?”

Evie groaned. “Nothing, it's - stupid.”

“Not to me.” 

“I -” she sighed. “There was a point in time, when I was much younger, where I thought about becoming an actor.”

The corner of Gale’s mouth tilted upward. “I think you would be well suited for it.”

“Well not anymore,” Evie said. “No director is going to want the audience to look at their Ophelia and see the girl who convinced three different people to kiss her on the same night.”

“Maybe they’ll appreciate your enterprising spirit,” Gale replied, still smiling as if he still liked her. 

“Anyway,” Evie said quickly. She didn’t like lingering on her hazy future. “You asked me something so I should get a chance to pry some information out of you.” Something Gale had mentioned at the very beginning suddenly pinged in Evie’s mind. “You said you were on a sabbatical from work, right?”

She felt Gale take a short, quick breath like he was bracing himself. “Yes. I am. My…ex-wife thought it would be best.”

“She can do that?”

“She’s…essentially…something of my direct supervisor.”

“Ohhh.” Evie propped herself up on her elbow. “Can’t you just - quit? Shouldn’t you probably quit? How have you not quit?”

Gale sighed and turned to gaze up at the ceiling. “Oh, who knows at this point? Terminating my contract would be mildly tedious but…I think it’s just too difficult to admit that that part of my life I thought might last forever is over. And that it can never be repaired.”

“You’re…trying to repair things with her?”

“No,” Gale looked at her quickly. “No, not - no. I don't think that would be a wise path for anyone.”

“Good,” Evie said, then rushed to add, “For you, I mean. It’s not healthy to live in the past.”

“Hmm, no. But it’s quite tempting.”

Evie sank back down to her pillow, staring at Gale’s familiar features in the soft light of their bedside lamp. “Does it still feel that awful?”

“You asked two in a row,” Gale said.

“Indulge me.”

He sighed, taking a long time to exhale all of the air in his lungs. “It’s - the sort of thing that I’m not sure ever really leaves a person. Like a strange kind of grief. But lately…I’ve started to realize my life didn’t well and truly end when my marriage did. And if I’m still continuing on then maybe it’s possible for good things to happen, for life to feel exciting again.”

“Is the show exciting?” Evie asked.

“Certain parts of it,” Gale answered and his fingers drifted below the hem of her sleep shirt. They felt cool against her bare skin. “I hadn't even kissed anyone since my divorce until you, so that was a rather significant development.”

The information struck Evie like it was striking a crystal glass, echoing clear and bright.

“Oh,” she said but her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. “That’s - good then. That you feel up to it. I uh - I know it’s hard to recover from breaking up with a colleague.”

Of course he already knew about her and Jen. The first thing she had ever told him about Jen was that they had once felt each other up in a hot tub, a decision that only seemed strange now because of everything that happened after.

“Right. Was it during the show?” Gale asked.

“No,” Evie said slowly. “It was after.”

He nodded and took a moment to consider that.

“Are you mad?”

Gale’s brow furrowed. “Why would I be angry?”

She shrugged one shoulder. She still felt like a struck tuning fork after Gale’s confession and now she had one of her own. “Just - that we were serious about each other. At least enough to see each other in the real world.”

“Evie, my last relationship had to be legally dissolved. You don’t need to carry a scarlet letter for having been in love before.” His hand moved in a soothing pattern against her back now. “Would it help you to talk about it?”

When she first arrived in the villa, Evie didn’t think she wanted to talk about it. Ever since Volo had tried to bring it up on camera - to throw her off balance and capture her reaction - she had been trying hard not to even think about it. But ignoring it didn’t erase it from her memory.

“We were just…young,” Evie said. It felt like they had crossed into a sleepover conversation, the ones that only happen while the world is hovering half way between night and morning, and anything can be said freely. “And I thought that if I was so used to existing on the internet that I would know how to exist in front of television cameras but I don’t think I did. Especially when Jen and I paired up. Like…I had dated some women at school but it was really strange being out to that degree, you know? Like so publicly where all these people I would never meet would know about it.”

She had started testing out the edges of the word bisexual when she was in her second year of university, weighing the implications of it, testing how it sounded coming out of her mouth, until it started to feel comfortable.

Her parents and sisters knew but there were also dozens of people she wouldn’t exactly ring up to tell. Now they would all know, in addition to millions of strangers.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about all of the people looking at me and looking at Jen,” she said. “And wondering if I was like - being gay properly while at the same time all of these television producers were trying to make it my main personality trait.” 

Gale shook his head. “I can’t even imagine. I hadn’t found the proper time to mention it yet but - I’ve been involved with other men before.”

Evie sighed. “You don’t have to tell them that,” she said as if reminding him of something she had already said many times. The show doesn't deserve the real you.

“I’m not telling them. I’m telling you. Because I trust you.”

Evie’s heart thumped. Trusted her. He was so ridiculous and so sweet.

“But people made quite a few assumptions about me after being married to a woman for so many years,” he said. “It was…uncomfortable. And it certainly gave me a strange sense of my own self for some time. I couldn’t have parsed those feelings at your age and certainly not on television.” He smiled crookedly. “It’s brave of you.”

She grumbled. “You make me sound like a pride month PSA. I’m just a person. And a mean person too.”

“Awful,” Gale said but his voice was so fond and his eyes were so soft when he said it that Evie felt warm and glowy inside like she had her own internal source of light. “Still, I’m sorry all of that pressure was placed on you.”

“Ah, I don’t even think that was what ended things,” Evie said. “We just never had time to be normal, even on set. They want to catch you so badly that we could never relax. We never got to be ourselves together until we went home. And then outside - things were just different.”

She and Jen were no longer living in the same house with nothing better to do than look at each other and talk about their feelings. They had to make time to see each other, and then actually follow through on their plans. They had work and other friends. They had to maintain their social media followings, full of people trying to know them completely from a few pictures. They had to compromise and listen and do the dishes.

“It felt like our relationship didn't belong to us anymore. It all belonged to the show. And the parts of our relationship that had been on the show were the parts we could never get back.”

Eventually, removing the romance was the only way to remove the pressure.

Once their season aired, dozens of low effort articles went up online with titles like “Look But Don't Touch Season 5: Which Couples Are Still Together?” and each one reported EVIE AND JEN: NOT TOGETHER.

And the articles were weird, and she had to turn off all of her Instagram comments for about a month but eventually that level of attention subsided and the feeling of constant, low-grade sea sickness faded. Her behind the scenes pictures and promos from the show were pushed down her feed. She and Jen spent time together with no expectations on how they should behave. They were happy together, even if they weren’t in love.

But Evie wondered what would have happened if they had just met like real, normal people. And there would never be an answer to that.

She told Gale all of this, stripping some of the deepest emotions to hold onto for herself. She wondered if he might feel strange, hearing her talk about being so intensely involved with someone else, but at the end of her retelling Gale only seemed sad.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a soft frown. “That must have been very hard on you both.”

“It was,” she admitted. “It felt like there was this thing I cared about that suddenly didn't belong to me. Other people just - took it.” She opened her mouth and closed it again, trying to express her next thought by just running up on it. When she finally spoke, it felt like she too was part of the audience, watching herself say it from the outside. “I don’t want that to happen again.”

Not to you. Not to this. 

This show would end - soon, in fact - and Evie didn’t want to watch him slowly fade from her life. She just wanted to stay right here, on this night, in this bed, in his arms, until it all replaced the reality outside.

Gale’s throat bobbed and he stared at her, measuring her with those dark eyes. He reached up to cradle her jaw with a gentle hand and Evie realized how quick her pulse was when it thudded against his palm. She heard a roaring in her ears as he tilted her chin up higher. 

“What do you want instead?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she breathed. If she tried to say one more word about him, she wasn’t sure what might come out. “I just - don’t want my life to be edited into something else. I want to be me.” 

He hummed and the sound rumbled through her. “I think who you are now is perfect.”

Evie leaned across the final few breaths of space to kiss him. He tasted like the cool mint of his toothpaste and he moved his hand to touch her hips, the small of her back, gathering the fabric of her shirt in his fist and pulling her body into his. Gale’s knee bumped against her and Evie lifted her leg so he could slot his thigh between both of hers.  

His arm tightened against her lower back and Evie shifted her leg up higher around his waist as their kiss deepened, pressing their hips together tightly. The warmth of his body no longer felt soothing, inviting her to cuddle up and sleep. His skin was hot beneath her hands and every desire she had been feeling since their body painting date rushed to the surface.

She pulled away long enough to roll onto her back. Some of the blanket bunched up beneath her and Evie sat up to shove it away, leaning back into the sheets that were unevenly warm and cool from her own body. Gale shifted above her immediately, bending in to kiss her again, and Evie sank her fingers into his hair as his body settled against her and she felt the hard line of his cock through the thin layers of their underwear. There was no mistaking how they felt, what they both wanted, and it felt more honest than what Evie could offer with her words.

She pushed up the hem of Gale’s shirt and when she had gotten it up beneath his arms he sat up to pull it the rest of the way over his head. There was so much warm skin beneath her palms as Gale kissed her again and she dragged her hands over the curve of his shoulders and the expanse of his back. She was so close to that clean scent that lingered on his skin.

“You smell so good,” she said, almost like the idea frustrated her.

Gale chuckled softly and the low sound rumbled through her. “So do you. Especially here -”

He pressed his lips to her throat, right where she had told him she was most sensitive and she arched up against him as his teeth scraped over the spot he had memorized. She took his hand and slid it up high beneath her own shirt. He only faltered for a moment before his hand curved around breast, teasing her nipple with deft fingers as he continued to kiss her neck.

“I love the way you sound,” Gale said hoarsely.

Every breath left Evie as an audible, needy exhale. Usually she was a bit embarrassed about how loud she was but knowing that Gale liked it made her want to give him more, to show him exactly what he made her feel.

“Touch me,” she breathed and rolled her hips up against him. 

He settled himself on the bed beside her, still warm against her, to give himself more room to touch her, for his hand to drift down her body and over the quivering muscles of her abdomen. She felt a flare of heat across her cheeks, knowing Gale would feel she was wet through the soft cotton of her underwear but he didn’t tease her for her eagerness. His forehead dropped to hers as his hand spread across the damp fabric and he let out a shuddering breath against her lips.

“God, all I want is to please you,” he said softly.

“Please,” Evie sighed. 

She wound her hand around the back of his neck and kissed him hungrily as his fingers slipped beneath her waistband and through her slick folds. Everything inside of her pulled taut and she exhaled roughly against his mouth as he moved in slow circles, his touch firm but unhurried, not bending to her clear desire to rush. He kissed her throat again and Evie sank into the warm pressure of his mouth and his hands.

In that brief moment of relaxation, Evie heard something beneath the hum of the air conditioner and the thudding of her own heart.

She heard a soft mechanical whirring and realized it was the sound of a lens focusing.

“Shit, stop -” she shoved Gale’s wrist away and her body clenched in protest at the sudden loss of his touch. She pushed his shoulders and Gale pulled away from her abruptly.

“Evie - my God, I’m-I’m so sorry -”

“You didn’t do anything, it’s the camera. ” Evie sat up, her elbows on her knees and her hands against her face. “Sorry. I just - I can’t.” Her heart was pounding but in a frightening, anxious way now. “Not with the camera.”

God, the camera. How did she forget about that fucking camera? 

“Please, that's alright,” Gale said soothingly. “Don't apologize. You don't have to push yourself. Not for me and certainly not for the show.”

He touched her back over the worn material of her sleep shirt and her thoughts began whirring down slowly even as her pulse kept up at a screaming pace.

“You’re sure?” she asked.

His shoulders slumped like he was bending beneath a heavy weight. “Of course. We both agreed at the beginning of this whole experience. I also have no interest in giving an enterprising editor at Tadpole any raw footage of us with our clothes off.”

Us. Not footage of Gale naked or caught having sex. He was thinking of her, of them.

“That would have been a few thousand dollars on Look But Don’t Touch, ” she offered weakly.

He chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck, his fingertips in her hair. “Thank heavens for small mercies then. At least we haven't lost any prize money.”

She felt unsteady, the muscles in her arms and legs still trembling as if from exertion. It wasn’t just the way he kissed her and how good his body felt against hers. It was how sincere he seemed, how kind. It was the person that she felt she could be when she was with him.

“Come here,” Gale said softly. He sat back against the pillows and pulled her legs over his lap. She leaned into his arms to kiss him slowly. She couldn’t be with him the way she wanted in front of the camera but she didn’t want to part from him either.

A question lodged in her throat that she couldn't summon the strength to ask. Would it be okay if this had happened with me? Would you regret it if I was the first person after so long?

Gale had slotted into her life so effortlessly that Evie almost forgot they had only just met. There was so much about him she still didn't know. If he hadn’t even kissed anyone since his divorce, how must he be feeling about all of this?

His fingertips skated along the outside of her thigh as he kissed her, moving from her knee down to her hip, where his fingers suddenly curved into the soft flesh as he gripped her tighter. She leaned into him and they sank a bit further against the pillows and blankets. Evie splayed her fingers across his chest and her lips parted more with every kiss to follow his lead, to taste him and feel him want her back.

“Oh - no, nope, sorry,” Evie sat up quickly, her whole body buzzing. “If we get even one more inch horizontal there is no way I will be able to control myself.”

“Right, of course,” Gale scrubbed his hands down his face. “Could you -” He indicated his shirt which had been tossed aside earlier. Evie handed it to him and slid off the bed.

“I’ll be back in a minute, I just -” she gestured sheepishly towards the bathroom. “Need to do this alone.”

“Oh! Please, um…take your time.” He shook his head, almost in disbelief. “God, all of this secrecy and sneaking around to escape the cameras. Is this how you felt on your previous show?”

“Pretty much,” Evie said but that wasn’t true. She had never felt this way in her life.

Chapter Text

In the mornings, Evie liked to sit outside with some of the other women to drink coffee and trade gossip.

Karlach seemed melted onto the couch, her legs stretched out far in front of her and one arm slung up over her head. “I know this is like a fun, sexy vacation and all that but I’m so tired after a day of filming it’s like I don’t even feel horny, you know?”

Lae’zel rubbed her forehead, displaying a rare moment of fatigue. “Wyll always wants to cuddle and kiss me and talk at night. I don’t want anyone to touch me after midnight, I need that time to sleep.”

There were general murmurs of agreement and Evie hummed sympathetically right along with them even though she was so worked up she felt like she was about to snap in half. 

She tried to think about something other than Gale but there just wasn’t enough to do (the preferred design of reality television producers everywhere). Every few minutes she would get these flashes of memory: sitting on Gale’s shoulders in the pool, Gale kneeling above her in their bed, Gale’s lips against her throat, his hands against her lower back, pulling her in until their bodies connected. Her brain was completely useless for any of the higher level thinking she may have needed to strategize. All of her thoughts revolved around tequila and warm skin.

She had watched Matchmakers before. She knew the purpose was to capture drama between the contestants, to have one long, drunken crossover episode for Tadpole. The idea of sex was omnipresent but the actual act wasn’t typically featured. There was very little footage from the bedrooms and what they did use wasn’t much more than some kisses and cuddles.  

But any one act, or prelude to an act, she committed with Gale could end up on TV and she wouldn’t even know which ones had been chosen for months.

Look But Don’t Touch had been much more centered around surveillance. They needed cameras in every corner of the house to capture desperate contestants as they tried to skirt the rules without losing money. There were cameras placed at angles she didn’t even know about until she saw it on TV with the rest of the world. She remembered a horrible, nauseating moment watching the show when it abruptly cut to an angle directly above Evie’s bed, looking down on her and Jen plainly in the middle of a pretty intense rule break.

Later, she wondered if she could have sued for not being told about the bed camera but she was so young and the thought of doing something like that - and all the attention it would bring - had completely overwhelmed her. Instead she had just called her oldest sister and cried. 

Evie tried to dispel those memories with a sip of her coffee before wincing at the taste. They ran out of milk before she got her coffee so she had used some cream of coconut that had been sitting open in the fridge. The cast turned into scavengers when food wasn’t catered or prepared by Gale and they usually just powered through the resulting mess. 

“What about you, E?” Karlach bumped Evie’s knee with her own. “Is it true what they say about the nerdy ones? That they’re wild in the sack?”

“You know that Gale is a gentleman,” Evie said primly but she was already flushing as she remembered the weight of his body on top of her, how easily her legs fell open beneath him. All I want is to please you. She took another sip of coconut coffee to suppress a shiver. The taste was growing on her.

Karlach gasped. “No way - you ain’t seen it yet?”

“You’re the one who just said you were too tired.”

“Yeah, but I stay up late for the important stuff,” Karlach insisted. “You've at least gotten up to ‘everything but -’ right? Hand stuff, mouth stuff?”

Evie tried not to outwardly react as she reeled from the mental image of Gale looking up at her from between her legs, his hands rough on her hips, her body curving up under the heat of his mouth.

“No one is going to ask about Halsin?” Jen leapt in. “Not even the least bit curious about whether he's proportional?”

“It is pretty impressive that you're alive,” Karlach said, attention shifting.

Evie hoped Jen could read the thank you in her eyes. She clutched her coffee mug tightly and tried to think about famine instead of Gale’s hands beneath her clothes.

-

Gale knew something important was happening when the producers asked if he and Evie could leave the dining table where they were playing gin rummy and linger instead in the living room. They both laid their cards down forlornly, reluctant to abandon one of the only forms of entertainment that they were allowed. Production had recently brought in a few decks of cards and puzzles and the cast descended on them like a pack of hyenas with fresh meat. 

They sat together on one of the living room couches where some other cast members were already lounging around, pretending it was all their own idea to sit in this room at this moment. Gale lifted his arm automatically to place it around Evie’s shoulders and she leaned into him while they waited.

“Dammon and Karlach should be home from their date soon so I’m guessing this is about them,” Evie said, just to Gale. “Do you think something bad happened?”

Gale considered for a moment. “They had a couple’s massage date. And they’ve both developed an allergic reaction to the massage oils and need to go home immediately.”

“Ooh, I like that,” she said. “I think…helicopter sightseeing date. And they’ve crash landed in the jungle somewhere.”

“Evie, that’s awful.”

“I know,” she shook her head sadly. “But Tadpole needed the ratings bump.”

There was a typical chorus of cheers and greetings when Dammon and Karlach finally walked through the front door, both grinning from ear to ear. 

“No rashes,” Evie whispered to Gale.

“How was your date that should have been ours?” Jen called out. She was still smarting after coming in second during the challenge that day.

“Amazing,” Dammon said. “Very romantic.”

“Very romantic,” Karlach agreed. She stood up straighter and suddenly had the air of an orator making an announcement, confirming Gale’s suspicions that something unusual was indeed taking place here. “And we wanted to give you all a bit of news. During our date - Dammon asked me to be his girlfriend!”  

There was a brief burst of sound as people began cheering and cooing and celebrating but beneath it all Gale heard Evie’s weary sigh. He looked over at her and she quickly rolled her eyes and smirked, like they had both seen the same gauche display and were now silently mocking it together.

Wyll gave Karlach and Dammon great big hugs and a beaming smile. “That’s amazing, you two. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks,” Dammon replied bashfully. “I just knew I had found my person.”

Evie made a soft sound of disgust, and quietly muttered, “Oh God.”

She stood and offered both hands to Gale. He let her pull him off of the couch, puzzled.

“Uh - Evie,” he glanced over his shoulder at the small group around Dammon and Karlach but continued following Evie to the bar. “Are you feeling alright? You seem - less than thrilled about that announcement.”

“I’m not mad,” she replied with a short laugh like Gale was being silly. “It’s just - well it’s not real, is it? Ten days ago, Karlach was completely convinced she was in love with someone else and now she’s thrilled to be Dammon’s girlfriend? Plus she lives in Los Angeles. Dammon lives in Scotland. There’s no way those two are still together by the time the show airs.” 

She poured a small amount of tequila into one of the white plastic cups and drank the whole thing before wincing and pouring herself some more. She gestured towards Gale with the bottle but he shook his head.

“I must say I admire their optimism given the circumstances,” Gale said.

Evie set down the pineapple juice she had begun pouring into her cup and looked at him tenderly.

“Of course you do,” she said. “You’re so sweet.”

She stood on her toes to kiss him and Gale gladly bent closer to meet her. After their near miss the other night, he worried Evie might be uncomfortable around him but she still leaned into him with ease and every bit of affection she offered thrummed pleasantly beneath his skin. 

He felt like there was something more to say about Dammon and Karlach but he wasn’t quite sure what and Evie had gone back to mixing her drink like they were finished anyway. 

If Gale had been asked to define his relationship with Evie, he didn’t know how he would respond. Girlfriend felt too juvenile but she was certainly something more than a pal. At least he thought so. His heart beat uncomfortably fast when he thought about how Evie might describe their connection and realized he had no idea what she would say.

He had heard other couples making plans to visit one another after the show, something he and Evie had never discussed. For a brief moment, he saw Evie in the dining room at his mother’s house but leapt back from the idea before its edges could become too defined. After seeing how she reacted to two contestants making a commitment to each other, he didn’t even want to think about her meeting his family, lest she somehow read his intention on his face.

God, but she would be adorable with Tara though, wouldn’t she? Evie could curl up in that couch by the window, her golden hair catching all of the sunlight, idly reading a book or scrolling through her phone while Tara stretched her paws out and went to sleep on top of her. 

“Let’s finish our card game,” Evie said, yanking Gale back into the present.

He cleared his throat but his voice still came out strained when he said, “Yes, let’s.”

-

No one liked the new girl. During every conversation with Orin, she seemed to switch from not listening at all to an intense, almost creepy level of attention. She asked probing questions about why certain couples had broken up, who was a contestant’s “second favorite” in the house, and then shrugged when people became annoyed with her.

“Oh my God, I was just making conversation,” she would say and flick her long, pale hair off her shoulder with a huff.

Evie felt sort of sad that Astarion was sleeping next to her but he insisted that Orin was “interesting” and “just eccentric” when asked.

Evie was watching them from afar during a mixer, like they were wild animals she wanted to study without getting too close, when Jen wandered over. She looped her arm around Evie’s neck, swaying slightly against her, and suddenly Astarion and Orin were much less interesting.

“Hey, doll,” Evie said as a smile tugged at her mouth. She lifted her arms around Jen’s waist in a loose hug. “How’s the party?”

Jen leaned in close, pressing her warm cheek against Evie’s. “Not good. I’m going home.”

“It’s a long walk back to your place from here.”

“No,” Jen pulled back and her green eyes were bright and glassy. “I’m going home. I’m done with the show.”

Evie tried to pull away but Jen stumbled without Evie to support her so they ended up holding onto each other’s arms.

“Jenny, you’re drunk,” Evie said soothingly. “Why don’t you just sit here for a minute and I can get you some water?”

“No, I already talked to production,” Jen said. “It’s me. I'm - one of the ones. One of the losers. I’m out of here for good.”

Evie kept waiting for Jen to say that she was just joking or for this moment to somehow not be happening but Jen stayed silent and time moved stubbornly forward.

“That’s - crazy,” she said. “You and Halsin are obsessed with each other. Did you two get into a fight? I didn't notice -”

“No,” Jen said insistently. “He's going to see other people, I’m going to go home. It’s all fine.”

“Wh - he dumped you?”

“Ugh, God,” Jen pulled away from Evie’s arms. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I have to go film my exit.”

Time was moving forward too quickly now and Evie felt like she was trying to hold it all back but it kept slipping through her hands like sand. She called out to Jen again but she just waved Evie off without looking and continued towards the house. Evie turned to leave and yelped when she almost walked right into a camera that was inches from her face.

“Excuse me,” she muttered darkly. The camera’s operator followed her as she walked around the pool in search of Halsin.

Jen’s bags were already being brought downstairs by the time Evie found Halsin alone in one of the hammock chairs. He had one of the show’s plastic white cups clutched to his chest as he rocked back and forth slowly.

“Evie,” he said wonderingly and stood to greet her, suddenly towering.

She threw her arms out angrily. “Hey, not to sound accusatory but what the hell did you do? Jen’s going home?”

His brow knit together. “She is? You're certain?”

“Yes,” Evie said hotly. “Did you tell her you wanted to see other people?”

“No, not at all,” he said with a frown. “I care for Jenevelle very much. I would have been content to stay with her as long as she wanted but she told me she was interested in exploring her connections with others. She is not bound to me so I told her to follow her heart wherever it led.” Halsin sighed and suddenly seemed too weary for this place. “I only wished for her to be happy. I had no idea it would lead to her elimination.”

Evie scoffed in disbelief, stunned. She knew Jen was a wanderer, still acting as though she was escaping her past with every new day. But she wandered in search of a place to settle. She wanted stability and peace. Love.

Halsin was sturdy. Dependable but not possessive. He had that stability Jen seemed to both crave and shy away from. But the pressure of all the cameras and lights prevented Jen from telling Evie that it was becoming too much for her. And Evie’s own distractions had stopped her from checking in more with her friend. She forgot this wasn’t a natural environment for anyone, even the supposed pros.

“Sorry,” Evie said against the sudden pressure in her throat. “Jen is - hard to hold onto.”

Halsin nodded solemnly. “I see that.”

When she went to bed that night, Evie closed the door to the bedroom and immediately pulled Gale in for a hug, sagging against him and trying to focus on what it really felt like to hold him so close. She noticed where his hips met hers, how far he had to bend to rest his chin atop her shoulder.

“I’m sorry Jen went home,” he said.

Evie shook her head and squeezed him tighter. “It’s okay.”

Gale cupped her face. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She knew that if she said yes Gale would listen patiently for as long as she wanted but that suddenly seemed like too much to ask from him. His kindness suddenly felt like something she had taken from Gale rather than something he had given. She didn’t want him to examine more of the bad things inside of her anyway, her guilt and her fear.

Tonight's mixer had jolted her from whatever haze she had been in for the last few days. This wasn't a vacation, it was a television set. Evie felt like the camera in their room was pressed up against her cheek instead of sitting in the far corner.

“Not tonight,” she said. “I’m tired.”

They lay beside each other in bed but Evie spent a long time staring up at the ceiling in the dark instead of sleeping. She waited until she was sure Gale was asleep before wrapping an arm around him and molding herself against him, her chest to his back, knees behind his, feeling the soft movement of his body as he breathed.

-

The mood of the entire cast was off when they returned home from their latest compatibility challenge. They had played a game called Cute or Cringe where Volo described some sort of unusual dating behavior and the contestants had to decide which category it fell under. Partners who wrote the same answer were awarded points and differing couples were penalized.

Arguments broke out immediately. Lae’zel objected with a great deal of emotion when Wyll said that referring to jointly owned pets as “fur babies” was cute, a disagreement that spread through the rest of the cast.

Then for the prompt “saying ‘I love you’ on the first date,” Gale had answered cute while Evie wrote down cringe.  

Gale laughed it off (“Not that I have done that,” he said with a smile) but the mismatch made Evie quite flustered. Suddenly she was thinking of Gale saying he loved her, or maybe not saying it because he thought Evie wouldn’t want him to. And then she fantasized about walking into the nearby ocean with rocks in the pockets of her short shorts and wasn't very useful for the rest of the game.

And finally, just to solidify the day as a disaster, Astarion and Orin won.

“She's gonna do something shitty in Cupid’s Den,” Karlach said and laid her arm over Dammon's chest as if Orin were about to snatch him away from her right then.

“Yeah, probably,” Evie said idly. She was wondering if Karlach and Dammon had ever said they loved each other. 

The cast had been instructed to wait in the living room for Astarion and Orin to return and lay down their dating decree. Korrilla offered a perfunctory, “I wonder who they’re going to test,” but a few people were still bristling from the challenge and most of them were sick of looking at each other at this point so none of them joined in her speculation. Evie sat with her shoulder pressed against Gale’s and studied her nails. The tips were all painted a different bright color and the pink on her ring finger had begun to chip.

Orin walked into the house first to a mild reception. She was already tall and often wore very high heels as well, giving her lanky frame uncanny proportions. Her smile was all red lips and sharp teeth.

“Hello, everyone,” she said in that breathy voice of hers. “Oh, today was such a difficult decision, I truly commend anyone who has gone into Cupid’s Den and tried to make thoughtful matches.”

Evie crossed her arms with a huff. It felt like some of the foam she and Gale had to jump into when they lost the challenge was still stuck to her skin and she wanted to get this over with so she could go wash up again.

“The two people that Astarion and I chose to send on dates this afternoon seem very happy with their matches,” Orin continued. “And since we’re so close to the end, we felt it was a good time to test those relationships and make sure they have something lasting before heading home. So our first choice for a date is Wyll.”

“Shocking,” Lae’zel said coldly. After a distressing argument during Orin’s first night, it had been obvious to the whole cast that whichever woman got to play matchmaker first was going to sabotage the other.

Orin smiled wider but otherwise ignored Lae’zel. “And the second person we’ve chosen is Gale.”

The shock didn’t hit Evie right away and she had one more blissfully unaware moment before the reality of the situation lanced through her. She felt Gale draw in a quick breath just as she did, both of them freezing in sync. The sounds of other contestants gasping and exclaiming suddenly felt like jeering, like they were all pointing and laughing at her. 

“Okay,” Evie said weakly, as if she was the one who had been chosen.

“Now go get ready!” Orin said brightly and waved her hands to dismiss them.

I don’t care, Evie thought. I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care.

“I’m not sure what to wear,” Gale said with a nervous laugh.

Evie whipped her head around to look at him. “Am I supposed to help you with that?”

I don’t care, I don’t care, it’s just a game, I don’t care. The cast were dispersing, cameras were moving around, they were all being so loud. The open plan ground floor suddenly felt so claustrophobic that Evie had trouble breathing.

Gale’s face fell abruptly. “No - sorry. Poorly timed joke.”

“Gale,” one of the producers with a clipboard cut in. “We’ve only got about twenty minutes before we need you changed and in the car. If you could just -”

“Yes, of course, uh -” he gently touched Evie’s wrist and more pressure crowded into her chest. “We’ll talk after, alright?”

“Whatever,” Evie said forcefully, aiming for indifference and landing far afield somewhere in the territory of agitation.

She didn’t look at Gale as the producers led him away, didn’t say goodbye. She didn't care, she didn't care.

Orin appeared on the couch beside her so suddenly that Evie almost shouted out loud.

“Oh my - hi, hey, what? What do you want?” she asked.

“Evie,” Orin simpered. “Can we chat for a moment?”

“Sure,” Evie said even though she was thinking about strangling her.

Orin leaned far too closely into Evie’s personal bubble to speak to her. “I just wanted to let you know there was nothing malicious about my decision.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

She realized no one had really come after her so far, tried to purposefully push her buttons and rile her up for drama. It filled her with a queasy sort of adrenaline and her heart fluttered uncomfortably like it was struggling to work.

“I just wanted to help you,” Orin said. “I heard some rumors that Gale wanted to explore connections with other people.”

“Gale wouldn’t say something like that,” Evie replied too quickly. 

Gale never used any of the terms reality TV contestants used to skirt around saying they thought someone was hot. In no world could she picture him describing his feelings for another person as “getting a vibe.” And he wasn’t interested in casual “exploration” with beautiful strangers.

At least that’s what she thought. Gale hadn’t dated in a long time. Maybe he didn’t even know what he wanted. 

“Maybe it wasn’t those exact words,” Orin said with a gentle wave of her hand. “But he certainly seemed to show some interest.”

Evie laughed in her face. “In you? ”

Orin’s lips quivered before she plastered on another predatory smile. “I just noticed how chatty he is with some of the girls here. He was in an awfully long conversation with Jen on my first night.”

“Yeah, Gale and Jen are friends,” Evie said. “He has lots of friends here. People actually like talking to him because he’s not an evil, scheming bitch.”

Neither of them smiled now. There was no need to pretend this conversation was anything other than what it clearly was.

Orin’s nails had been filed into points like talons and she tapped them so they clacked together while she glared murderously at Evie. “Yes, this house is full of such horrible little beasts. I wonder if Gale is sick of the one sleeping next to him.” She leapt up from the couch and did a delighted little twirl as she walked away. “I suppose we’ll see!”

Evie stood up as well and stalked over to one of the sound guys. “My mic pack is too hot, I think something’s wrong with it.”

He unclipped the battery from her hip and weighed it in his hand. “Hmm, it feels okay to me.”

She scoffed as she began unwinding the microphone cord from her body without asking for permission. “Okay, well, it’s like burning me so can you take another look at it? I need to use the bathroom anyway.”

Before anyone could object, Evie stormed off without a microphone. She went upstairs and locked herself in her bathroom, leaned her hands on either side of the sink and tried to even out her breathing. She just needed a few minutes in this pocket of the real world, one in which no one was recording her voice or her movements.

This was all part of the show, she reminded herself. Gale could date as much as he wanted here. The whole point was to be forced into new matches and see what flowed out from it. 

Except - Evie had held him back from that. This show had been his first chance to date around, meet new prospective partners and instead he had been with her the whole time. She only meant to help him through the first few eliminations but had kept him firmly at her side instead. He hadn’t dated anyone but her since the end of his marriage. He hadn’t even kissed anyone before her. And it was a kiss that she initiated. 

Evie could feel her heartbeat in her fingertips. She drew a shuddering breath and pushed it out slowly, focusing on the fact that no one else could hear it waver.

What did she really expect from Gale anyway? Go from a divorce to marrying her? Did Gale even want to get married again?

God, she had to get off the “married” track. She needed to shoot “married” in the back of the head and bury it in the woods. Gale was going on one date for Christ’s sake. He wasn’t going to marry some stranger he went on one date with and certainly not before he married someone like Evie.

“Oh God, ” she squeaked pitifully and buried her face in her hands.

-

As Gale was driven away from the villa, it occurred to him that he had no idea how these kinds of dates were structured. He had been a matchmaker twice but his participation ended at the touchscreen. Evie always delivered the news of who they had chosen, two people left, four people returned, two more went home. He much preferred being the one at the touch screen to what was happening to him now.

Evie was easier to read than she thought, at least in Gale’s opinion, and the bewildering hurt that flashed across her face after the date announcement had been obvious. He thought he could have said more to reassure her before being led away but everything that came to mind was blindingly sincere and completely inappropriate to just blurt out before leaving for hours. His knee bounced nervously as he sat in the back of the van and he wished he were being whisked away to a date with her instead.

Production drove him out to a small bay with a marina full of tall, elegant sailboats. It looked like some charming table at a bistro had sprung up overnight beside the water, complete with potted plants and a white rug set beneath the table and chairs. It seemed wildly out of place now but Gale understood that the camera would only capture the boats and the late afternoon sun and no one would care about where the date actually took place.

A pretty woman with vibrant purple hair and a long bohemian skirt was already waiting beside the table. She came right up to Gale and hugged him which was no longer surprising. The cast of this show were quite a physical bunch.

“Hi,” she said brightly. “It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Alfira.”

“It’s lovely to meet you as well, I’m Gale,” he said and shook her hand.

“So formal,” Alfira said with a giggle and returned the handshake. “Here, have a seat. We've got some wine today.”

They sat in their chairs in front of two flights of stemless wine glasses with a mix of reds, whites, and one rosé placed right in the center.

A wine tasting! Gale thought about Evie’s statement that most of the dates were little more than picnics and thought about how he might tease her about being sent to a real activity until he considered the circumstances and realized this was a picnic with a few extra steps. He smiled to himself as he anticipated telling her. 

“I hope this doesn't feel stalkery but - were you on Greatest Bakes? ” Alfira asked.

“Ah, yes, that's me,” Gale replied.

Alfira clasped her hands together happily. “Oh, I love that show! I was on Forever at First Sight, but we didn’t even get to the altar. Total disaster, best left in the past.”

“Well, you’re in good company,” Gale told her. “There are plenty of people from your program who are finding good matches here.”

She caught her bottom lip in a nervous smile and quickly released it. “Good. Hopefully I can be the next one.”

Gale tapped his fingers against his legs beneath the table. Nerves fluttered around in his stomach but they felt like garden variety anxiety rather than a crush.   

“So you're a baker?” Alfira asked. “That's so fun.”

“Oh no, I've kept my day job. I'm a philosophy professor in London.”

“London is such an amazing city,” Alfira said. Gale was beginning to wonder if it was possible for her personal ranking to ever dip below amazing. “I was just there playing a gig, I'm a musician.”

“Oh, that’s an interesting profession,” Gale said. “I must admit I’ve never been celebrated for my musical prowess. What sort of music do you play?”

“Sort of folksy, poppy, singer-songwritery.” She made a series of winding motions with her hands that conveyed the difficulty in categorizing her sound. “Like - Phoebe Bridgers plus Joan Baez meets Sabrina Carpenter.”

“That’s quite the medley,” Gale said even though he didn’t recognize most of those names. He wondered what sort of music Evie liked. They weren’t allowed anything that played music in the villa so he hadn’t thought to ask her yet. “Hopefully your engagement at least inspired some new songwriting material.”

“Only about ten albums worth,” Alfira said. “I should have brought my guitar to serenade you for our date.” 

Gale smiled but didn’t otherwise reply. He couldn’t imagine a more awkward situation than being romantically serenaded by a stranger.

Alfira’s eyes suddenly lit up with an idea and she leaned forward. “Hey - when’s your birthday?”

Gale blinked, caught off guard. “Uh, the twelfth of May.”

She gasped. “You’re a Taurus. That makes so much sense.”

“Does it?”

“Totally,” Alfira insisted. “You have that easy-going, dependable energy. Classic male Taurus.”

“Oh,” Gale said simply. “That’s - nice.”

Evie was a Pisces. She said she didn’t place any stock in astrology but she still sometimes wore a necklace with a gold pendant of two fish curving around one another. Gale had held it between his fingers while the gold was still warm from her skin, felt the chain pool against his chest as Evie leaned over him.

“Tauruses are also quite loyal,” Alfira said. She leaned her chin into her hand and smiled softly at Gale. “So how are things with your current match?”

Some part of Gale had wondered if he might feel a spark on this date, if any part of what he felt on the first night in the villa had come from the fact that attention from attractive people just felt nice to receive sometimes. 

But there were no thrilling butterflies, no flash of alignment within the universe that made him feel his life was going to be different from now on. He missed Evie’s bite and her sharp edges. He missed talking with her until she offered a glimpse of something real and honest, something he wanted to keep chasing.

“Alfira…you seem like a lovely person -”

“Oh wow, we haven’t even tried the wine yet and I’m getting shot down,” she said with a strained chuckle.

“I’m sorry, I mean it completely sincerely,” Gale said. “It’s just - I don’t believe I should have been sent on this date. I’ve been matched with the same partner since the first night here, a lovely woman named Evie.”

Alfira flinched. “Evie like - blonde Evie?”

He felt a sudden rush of protectiveness when he thought about how people might speak about her in the outside world. Was it really that bad to push one person into a pool? 

“That’s probably her,” he said. “And I’m certain that I’m not looking for anyone else here. My heart already belongs with Evie and it isn’t fair for you to be set up with someone who isn’t available to reciprocate any interest.”

She looked thoughtful as she dragged her fingertip around the edge of a glass of red. “If you’ve only been with one person this whole time, how can you be sure she’s the right one?”

Because Evie hadn’t been with anyone else either. In all of the chaos and upheaval in the house, Gale never felt that she was looking at anyone other than him.

“I’ve tried quantifying it,” Gale told her. “I’ve tried over and over to place this whole experience into a framework I understand. But I haven’t found any texts or concepts that have helped me sum up the way I feel about her. I just - know.”

Alfira’s eyes were soft as she gazed at him and her smile was just as delicate. “That’s really sweet, Gale. I appreciate you being honest with me. I guess I’ll just take my chances in the house tonight.”

“Actually…I have some thoughts about that if you’re amenable,” Gale said and Alfira tilted her head with interest. “When we return to the villa for tonight’s mixer, I think you should try to match with a man there named Astarion. He’s handsome and witty and he’s currently in a rather terrible partnership that I imagine he’s looking to end. Then if Evie and I win the next challenge, we can go to Cupid’s Den and select someone for you to go on a proper date with. And Evie knows practically everyone. If you tell us the kind of person you’re interested in, I know she could find the best one of the group.” 

Alfira’s eyes creased with the force of her beaming smile and Gale thought she was really quite endearing and also utterly wrong for him.  

“I think I would like that very much,” she said.

Gale breathed out a great sigh of relief and couldn’t help returning Alfira’s smile. He was pleased with himself for having formed an actual strategy for this game. Maybe he was alright at this after all. He thought Evie might be proud.

“Wow, Evie…” Alfira said softly, almost to herself like she was weighing something about the name. “Oh, wait, that actually makes a lot of sense. Were you born early in the morning by any chance?”

-

It took Evie more than an hour to choose an outfit for the night’s mixer. Her first instinct was whatever was sluttiest before thinking that might read as desperation.

She stood in front of the full length mirror in her room wearing different skirts and bikinis and crop tops and hating them all until she slumped against the glass with a pathetic whimper. Some horrible, unstoppable process was happening inside of her, like she was slowly turning into a werewolf or succumbing to a painful poison. Jen would have plucked the perfect dress out of Evie’s suitcase and told her everything would be fine and Evie would have believed it. But Jen was gone and there was nothing for Evie to do with her thoughts except let them grow terrible claws and teeth.

She finally settled on a mid-length dress with abstract splashes of orange and yellow that covered some of her skin but still emphasized the shape of her chest. This was Matchmakers, she wasn’t going to be entirely un-slutty.

When the mixer officially began downstairs, Karlach tried to console her. “Babes, Gale isn’t into shiny new things. I know the show’s all about trying to turn people’s heads or whatever but Gale isn’t like that. He’s a good guy.” 

Evie couldn’t help noticing that Karlach was the one who had fretted over Dammon going on a date and being tempted by some new and gorgeous contestant. Karlach had been that shiny new girl and briefly separated a couple here. Evie stabbed her straw into her ice hatefully and gave non-committal answers.

She lingered around the snack table, trying to eat something but feeling vaguely ill every time she put food in her mouth. She had just bitten into a carrot stick when Astarion sidled up beside her.

He spoke with an affected air of casualness. “You know, for what it's worth, I wanted to send Dammon on a date. I thought it was the more interesting choice.”

“Cool,” Evie said indifferently. She put a chicken skewer onto her small paper plate and then stared at it like she had no idea what to do with it.

Astarion huffed. “Look, I didn’t exactly have a choice in this.”

“You should have sent yourself on a date,” she said.

“And risk being eliminated for breaking up my own match?” He asked as if she were being ridiculous.

“Yes! Exactly!” Evie was suddenly heated. “Winning doesn't matter, Astarion. Orin sucks and she doesn't care about you. People you date should be nice to you, like, bare minimum. They should make you feel good about yourself. You should want good things for them. God, you should want more for yourself than whatever the hell this is.”

She threw her plate down onto the table, abandoning it and the conversation. 

Evie didn’t recognize the panicky, penned-in feeling coursing through her as she wandered around the house. When Look But Don’t Touch was winding down, she had felt completely in control. She was one half of a power couple that certainly wasn’t going to win the money but would absolutely win the most attention which was better than the quick cash. Now she felt disoriented and observed. She was standing beneath a giant microscope, looking up at its huge unblinking lens and completely unable to see who was staring at her from the other side or understand what they expected of her. 

A sudden swell of voices alerted Evie to an arrival at the front door and she spun around to see who everyone was greeting. Everything inside her seemed to stop moving, waiting to see who had arrived before restarting, but it was only Wyll - and Mizora.

“Fuck,” Evie whispered to herself. 

Mizora had definitely gone home. Evie remembered because she and Karlach had done shots to celebrate. Eliminated contestants returning to the dating pool certainly explained the revolving door of people that she had noticed before but now it filled her with new worry about who Gale could have been sent on a date with. 

Was it someone they already knew? Had Orin made that comment because she had sent him out with Jen?

Evie flexed her fingers at her sides, trying not to let her swirling emotions show on camera. Jen wouldn’t make a move on Gale. Right? No, definitely not. Right? 

The certainty that Gale and Jen were going to fall in love and ruin her life sat like a cold, heavy stone in Evie’s stomach and she was so deep into a vision of the two of them running off together to some place like Paris that she startled when the front door opened again and the real Gale walked through it. 

She sort of hoped Gale would have changed into something unflattering for his date but he looked so handsome that her cheeks still warmed at the sight of him, the anxious butterflies in her stomach going mad with the desire to be near him and touch him. He was standing quite apart from his date, a very pretty woman with purple hair who Evie remembered from Wyll’s season of Forever at First Sight. The name Alfira floated up to Evie’s mind and she made the snap decision that Alfira wasn’t a good match for Gale and also that she hated her.

Evie stood frozen at the edge of the crowd as the other contestants greeted Gale and Alfira, pulling them in for hugs and kisses on the cheek. She didn’t want to push through, especially if Gale didn’t want to see her anymore, but his eyes found hers and suddenly he was moving people aside, coming closer until he stood right in front of her. 

“Hi,” she said lamely.

Then Gale’s arms were around her, pulling her into a solid embrace, all of her pressed against all of him. Evie wrapped her arms around his neck and inhaled his warm, clean scent as they swayed from side to side.

“I missed you,” he said with his face tucked into the curve of her neck so the words rumbled down through her chest.

Evie closed her eyes and squeezed him tighter, feeling so stupid for feeling so much. He pulled back to kiss her cheek and his touch was so fond that she had to blink quickly to dispel the sudden moisture in her eyes. 

“Can I have a moment alone with you?” Gale asked.

“Maybe later,” Evie answered, suddenly unprepared for this moment she had been picturing all afternoon. “After we’re settled.”

His dark eyes looked down at her, reading something in her own eyes, before he nodded. “Of course. When you’re ready.”

Unfortunately, separating from Gale made Evie vulnerable to a sneak attack from Alfira. The other woman found her at the bar while Evie was pouring herself a margarita like some sort of manic pixie jaguar approaching its prey while they paused at a watering hole.   

“Hi!” Alfira said enthusiastically. She turned her body like she might be going for a hug but pulled her arms back in close when Evie didn’t reciprocate the gesture. “You must be Evie, I’ve seen your show. It’s so fun meeting you in person.”

Oh good, she was bubbly.

“I saw your show too,” Evie said. “Sorry, it was awful the way things ended for you.”

Alfira blinked, her smile only briefly faltering. “Right, well - who among us hasn’t been dumped in a hot tub on a yacht?”

She laughed, leaning in closer, and Evie chuckled mildly as she put another step between them. She really had no interest in making new friends at this point in the game or pretending for a moment that she felt otherwise.

“Have you talked to Gale about the date?” Alfira asked suddenly.

Evie fought to keep her face neutral. “No, not yet.”

“That’s okay,” Alfira said. “I don’t know if I would even call it a date, there wasn’t anything romantic about it. He made it very clear he was only interested in you. He likes you so much, it was really sweet.” 

The vicious thoughts that had been gnawing on Evie’s bones paused for a moment, distracted by this new information. “Oh. I…good. That’s nice.”

“I was hoping it would work out because he really seems like my type,” Alfira said. “And he’s so easy to talk to and so cute. But I guess that’s just the nature of this experience.”

Evie’s grip tightened around her drink. Just when she was beginning to feel too mean. “Yeah, it's a shame you’re joining the show so late, after everyone is all paired up,” she said. “You must be terrified that no one here will want you.”

“Oh no, not at all,” Alfira laughed demurely. “It’s nice to meet so many new friends. I would love to find someone but I’m just happy to be here.”

“That’s so cute,” Evie said with a brittle smile. “I’m going to talk to some other people now.”

“Oh! Um - sure. Have fun!” Alfira said but Evie was already turning away and taking a long pull from her drink.

-

She could only avoid an on camera conversation with Gale for so long. Karlach and Lae’zel were both livid about seeing Mizora again which had been quite enthralling for a while but the night kept moving onward and eventually Gale came to find her.

“Do you have a moment?” he asked as his hand settled easily against the small of her back.

Some part of her brain whispered danger, leave but her heart kept saying him, him, him so Evie simply nodded and said aloud, “Sure.”

She sat with Gale on one of the outdoor couches, the kind with that rough woven polyester on the cushions so pool water and the elements wouldn’t stain them. She held her elbow with her opposite hand, crossing that arm protectively over her abdomen.

Gale shifted closer and laid his hand over her knee and now her brain and heart and everything else only said more.

“How was your afternoon?” Gale asked with a small, knowing smile.

“Good,” Evie said. “Uneventful. Relaxing actually.”

Gale’s thumb rubbed back and forth over Evie’s leg and warmth spread out slowly beneath his touch. She wanted to crawl into his lap and forget about everything that wasn’t his mouth and his hands. 

“How was your date?” she asked. Her mouth felt dry.

Gale shook his head slightly. “I thought about you the entire time.”

Hope struggled to beat its wings in Evie’s chest. “Really?”

“Of course,” Gale said. “I told Alfira honestly that I wasn’t interested in meeting anyone else here. I don’t want to be sent on other dates, I just want to continue spending time with you.” 

How would he even know that? Evie wondered. It was easy to say he didn’t want to date anyone else when he hadn’t dated anyone else. And hadn’t done it because of Evie, because of her stupid scheme to help him. 

They were a ridiculous pairing when Evie really looked at it. He was a professor, someone with a career and a real life. Evie was a reality television also-ran who was already aging out of her profession. How long might this thing between them continue before Gale realized he had tied himself to someone he actually wasn’t suited for?

“Gale -” His name felt rough and abrasive. “Do you think we’re matching every night because we’re just comfortable?”

He tilted his head, surprised by this response. “I want to be comfortable.”

“But do you even know what you want?” Evie asked abruptly. “When was the last time you dated someone you weren’t married to? You might get out into the real world and realize there are hundreds of other people you might like and you haven’t given yourself a chance to meet any of them.”

His brow furrowed. “I - believe I understand your intentions,” he said slowly. “But the type of relationship I want simply isn’t something you can decide for me.”

“I should have some say in whether or not I’m your rebound,” Evie snapped.

He reared back and instantly Evie could see a future just like this, one where he was always getting further and further away from her. She shifted her leg so his hand fell away and she felt cold.

“Evie, I have feelings for you,” he said. “And they aren’t part of a game or a competition. I had no expectations that I would find anyone here. I was quite certain I would be eliminated during the first round - I wasn’t even meant to be here at all.”

Evie blinked, stared at him. “What do you mean?”

Gale rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish expression. “I'm not even sure I can tell you about this but - I wasn't the producer's first choice for this season. Another contestant dropped out of filming at the last minute and they asked me to take their place. They basically had to threaten me with the terms of my contract to get me to come but I’m glad they did because it means I met you.”

The world shifted, tilted, a new alignment with this new information.

None of this had been Gale’s choice. The producers made him come here. Evie made him match with her. When the veneer of the show was gone, would Gale even recognize the person she was outside? Would he recognize who he had been while he was here? He had only ever known the camera ready Evie. Would he still like her when she was in a bad mood? Or sick? Or wearing sweatpants instead of a bathing suit?

The real world had ended her relationship with Jen, even though Evie’s feelings were honest. And this very show had ended Jen’s relationship with Halsin even though that seemed genuine too. 

What were the odds Evie would get to keep Gale?

She stood suddenly from the couch, her skirt swirling around her and her cheeks blazing hot.

“This is just a job for you,” Evie said around the tangle of emotions in her throat.

“No, of course it isn’t.” Gale stood too, alarmed but still trying to be gentle with her. He had this well of goodwill for her that never ran dry. The thought used to make Evie feel special but now it filled her chest with a dull, throbbing ache. 

“You just said you don’t even want to be here.”

“Well - no, I can’t say I pictured myself on a dating show while toiling in academia,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter because I did find someone I care about.”

“Gale, I know what this place is like and you don’t,” Evie said. “It heightens everything, it makes all of your emotions seem more important. It can make you hate people but it can also convince you that you’re in love.”

She drew a sharp breath like that could pull the words back. Christ alive, how could she be the one who said love first?  

Gale’s jaw flexed as he studied her and his gaze made her feel more noticed than every camera in this house.

“Why are you so sure my feelings for you aren’t real?” he asked.

“Because I made you feel them!” Evie blurted out. “I made you match with me, I was just trying to help you.”

“Help me?” He took a step closer and Evie crossed her arms so she wouldn’t reach out for him. “You didn’t want me to be myself in front of the cameras. You gave me guidance on how to be dishonest.”

Evie scoffed but it sounded almost like a sob. “You want me to be honest? I felt bad for you the first night. I knew you wouldn’t fit in here and you were going to look like a joke so I asked you to match with me so you wouldn’t completely humiliate yourself.”

She saw the words land on him, the way his eyes went wide and his chest jumped as his breath froze inside of him. She told herself this was better than the other option. She could stop everything here where it was still part of a game instead of watching him slowly drift away in her own bed, her favorite bench in the park, her parent’s house. All of the places in her life where she used to find comfort slowly being stained with heartbreak and his absence.

She couldn’t do that again. But she could do this. What she knew, the thing she was best at. A big blow out for the audience. A spectacle.

“Did you even come here to find someone?” Gale asked softly.

“Did you? ” Evie replied.

A camera operator shifted in the corner of Evie’s vision and she was so startled she flinched and stumbled back from Gale, further and further apart.

“This isn’t a couple’s retreat,” she said. “If we’re not participating and we’re together because that’s just how we’ve always been then we shouldn’t keep doing this.”

She wanted him to yell at her but he just looked disappointed and that crushed her even more.

“Doing this,” he repeated, nodding slowly, seeing her truly for the coward she was. “If that’s really how you see this then - what can I even ask of you? You wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

All of her limbs felt heavy as Gale walked away, like Evie was in a dream and had no control of her body.

He was going away, getting further, just like she had expected. 

Going away because you pushed him, she thought. 

Ending their match was supposed to be easy, normal, but this didn’t feel like a clean break. It felt jagged, something inside of her wrenching itself apart, resisting separation every step of the way. 

The pain welled up in her eyes and Evie swiped angrily at a tear that slipped down over her cheek. She absolutely refused to cry on camera and have her sadness played over and over by people all over the world who were half paying attention to her sobbing and half paying attention to their phones. 

She sniffled and set her hands on her hips with purpose as she looked out at all the other people and cameras. She waited for a plan to form, some path forward but all she saw were people she didn’t recognize. Could she really spend the night looking for a new match, going up to each vulnerable person and saying, I know I haven’t shown an ounce of interest in you for weeks but you’re totally my type, let’s sleep in the same bed.

Could she really stay in this house if Gale was still here too?

She looked around and saw air-tight couples like Karlach and Dammon, too wrapped up in each other to look twice at her. She saw people who hated her like Orin. She saw people she hated like Mizora. 

All of her close friends were gone. Anyone she might have considered matching with was gone. Gale was gone. 

Evie fought another wave of tears as the only choice became obvious. It was time for her to go too.

They wouldn’t just let her leave. The producers wanted to film both of tonight's losers walking out together so she had to wait another half hour, pacing in the living room, avoiding any looks and whispers from the pool area, until that other person was chosen. 

Eventually Astarion appeared with a scowl and a general air of malcontent.

“Getting eliminated all by yourself, handsome?” she asked.

She remembered the first day, wondering if she should make a strategic match with Astarion so they could terrorize the rest of the cast and look great while doing it. She thought they would combine their knowledge of these games to win the whole thing. It turned out this was a game neither of them were any good at.

Astarion glowered at her.

“I'm sorry,” Evie said, hoping her apology covered him being eliminated and her being an asshole.

“Well…you were right at least,” he muttered. “And aren’t you so glad we - wanted more for ourselves? ” He said it with a little flourish of his hands like he was saying something delightful but his tone dripped with sarcasm.

Evie laughed humorlessly. “Yeah. All my dreams are coming true now.”

Stepping over the threshold of the house, Evie was struck by the knowledge that her story here was over, the last of her footage already handed over to the cameras. There were no second chances to write a better ending and she had screwed up the arc even worse than she could have possibly imagined.

Outside, the producers pulled her aside for a quick interview.

“How does it feel to be leaving right now?” one of them asked.

Evie felt white hot, everything trembling and tense. She put her hands behind her back to hide the fact that they were shaking. “It fucking sucks.”

She looked down at her body and wished she were at least being eliminated in a bikini.

Chapter Text

He didn’t think Evie would actually go home. He thought they might talk again after they cooled off. Or that she would snap her fingers and have half of the house running to come match with her, thereby sending Gale home.

Instead Karlach asked, “Holy shit, is Evie leaving?” and by the time Gale had extricated himself from pouting in a beach chair, the front door was already closing. 

Time moved strangely as part of Gale resisted the forward march of seconds and tried to remain in a past where Evie was still there. Why didn’t the producers say anything? Why didn’t she say anything? Where was she actually going? When would he see her again? 

Why did he walk away as if there were nothing left to say? There was still so much he hadn't told her.

A small group began to coalesce around Gale as they all realized what had happened but their attention made him feel anxious instead of consoled. His instinct was still to turn to Evie for comfort, the person who had steered him through every other uncomfortable moment on camera so far. His friend.

Gale pressed his hand over his eyes to staunch the tears that had suddenly formed there, shocking him with their appearance.

“Heeeey, mate, it’s alright,” Karlach rubbed her hand against his shoulder in a soothing motion. “What happened?”

“We - had an argument,” Gale said, unsure of how to describe the conversation without making it seem like an end to everything.

“Aw, shit, I'm sorry, Gale,” she said. “It gets so crazy in here, things move so fast.”

“I’d like some air,” he said, even though they were standing outside. 

He stepped away from his concerned audience. He needed to find one of the higher up producers and tell them he needed to leave as well. They could let the contestants be uneven, change the rules, slap Gale with a huge fine for violating his contract, as long as all of this would finally stop. 

The weeks of alcohol and little sleep all seemed to crash like a wave against his midsection, threatening to take Gale’s feet out from under him. He missed Tara again.

“Gale,” Lae’zel burst into his path at the villa’s threshold, startling him backwards. “You can stop weeping. I have a plan.”

He huffed, irritated and in utter disbelief. “Plan? Lae’zel - I don’t want to be part of any schemes for the show. I want to go home.”

“You can’t,” she said firmly. “If you try to leave they may want to even things out and ask me to leave since I have no one else to match with.”

Gale rubbed his eyes against another wave of hot, angry tears. He tried to make sense of anything Lae’zel was saying but his mind kept repeating she’s gone she’s gone I have to go.

“How could you possibly have no one to match with?” he asked.

“Wyll is - easily swayed,” she said darkly. “I don't intend to spend my evening watching him attempt to make a decision. I will outlast him on my own instead. I'll win everything.”

Gale looked at her incredulously. “You think we can win the show together?”

“No,” she said. “But it will buy me one more night in this house and I will continue earning one more night at a time until I have found my way to the finale.”

“I’m sorry you're adrift but this game doesn’t interest me,” Gale said. “I shouldn’t even be here.”

“You have to do this,” Lae’zel blurted out, briefly stunning Gale and herself into silence. “I…am not ready to be sent home. And I believe you are the only person here whose intentions I can trust. Help me stay for one more day and then do what you must.”

Gale was struck by the earnestness in her expression. He forgot that this show mattered quite a bit to some of the contestants. 

It may have already been ruined for him but could he bear the burden of ruining the experience for someone else? Especially someone he thought of fondly? Someone reduced to begging by the same forces that had wounded him? If Gale was only planning to wallow, perhaps he could at least wallow while assisting a friend. 

“I can help you,” he said tiredly. “For one day.”

Lae’zel held her hand out and Gale took it with a weary sigh. She didn’t thank him, only nodding to seal their agreement.

-

Gale wondered what would happen to Evie’s bags but when he and Lae’zel entered the bedroom he saw they were already packed, her suitcases already zipped closed. She had already prepared herself to leave while Gale was out with Alfira. Thinking about all of her clothing stacked up and put away in those bags made him want to cry again. 

The crew came and rolled her suitcases away and then it was like Evie had never been there at all. Someone had even made the bed, smoothing out the rumpled sheets that she had slept in.

The bathroom seemed unfamiliar as Gale prepared for sleep. Evie’s vast collection of skin care bottles was gone. That blasted loud device she had, like a hairbrush with an engine, was also missing. The space felt sterile and empty. It only felt like his space when it had been theirs. Without Evie, it was just another vacation rental. Temporary.

Lae’zel’s night time routine seemed to consist of a lot of grumbling to herself and violently throwing her clothes from her open suitcase but when Gale left the bathroom she appeared to have used up her righteous indignation and was sitting on the edge of the bed. She glanced up at him and the way her eyes darted away felt like an act of shame. She suddenly seemed very young without the dark makeup that usually ringed her eyes.

Feeling as though he had nothing left to lose, Gale sat beside her instead of second guessing the act.

“Lae’zel,” he said. “Can I ask why you came here? To this show?”

She scratched one arm as she shrugged. “I enjoy challenges and I enjoy winning them. I enjoyed winning my last show and I intend to win this one as well. But -” her jaw worked as she thought, her hands curling into fists in her lap “ - but…I am accustomed to challenges of combat and endurance. Not…relationships as a challenge.”

Even in the middle of his own pain, Gale’s heart suddenly ached for her. “Perhaps the challenge here is allowing yourself to be vulnerable.”

She made a gagging sound and turned to glare at Gale, intense even without severe makeup. 

“Will you be alright?” Gale asked. “May I give you a hug?”

“You absolutely may not.”

“Fair enough.”

They sat in silence for another few moments.

“You can hug me with one arm,” Lae’zel said. “I will not hug you back.”

Gale put one arm around Lae’zel’s shoulders and she grumbled as soon as he squeezed her to him.

“Alright, enough,” she said as she dislodged him. “It’s time to sleep. I intend to win the challenge tomorrow, even stuck with you.”

They stood from the bed and Gale began to pull back the blanket to lay down.

“Ah,” she said to stop him. “I sleep on the right. You can sleep here as long as every part of you stays on your half.”

Unwilling to argue, Gale ceded the right side of the bed to her but found it difficult to get comfortable in this new location. This was Evie’s side of the bed. He didn’t even think of it as the left side, only hers.

It felt like a sandbag landing squarely on Gale’s chest when he realized his bed conversations with Evie were also over. She wasn’t there to tease him and talk to him as their eyelids grew heavier and their speech grew slower, drifting off with at least one part of their bodies touching. Tomorrow morning she wouldn’t slide her hand beneath his shirt and lightly scrape her nails over his skin while she cuddled up closer.

Evie had tried telling him several different times that every action taken here was in the service of good television. Gale thought he had retained her lessons but then she would lay her head in his lap and gaze up at him with her cheeks flushed pink while she bit her lip and everything that wasn’t kissing her became a bit muddled. 

When she opened up about her relationship with Jen, she told Gale she didn’t want something like that to happen again. Of course Gale had taken the romantic interpretation - that Evie cared about him and didn't want the artifice of the show to damage the real and delicate thing between them. But maybe she meant that she didn’t want to commit to something on television ever again. Maybe she would avoid that pain by keeping every interaction surface level and staged, never committing to a label or a life beyond the cameras. 

He looked up at the ceiling in silence and wondered if this was all an invention for their audience, examining his memories of Evie for a crack in her facade.

He remembered laying in the dark with her, in this room, in this bed. Often nervous. Sometimes very bold as the spaces between their bodies shrank to nothing. He remembered drifting through the waters of the pool with Evie wrapped around him, her skin warm even when the water was so cold.  

He remembered her giving him advice, joking with him, sharing fragments of her life and looking at him hopefully after each tiny revelation. He remembered Evie touching him, kissing him, molding herself to fit beside him. Her fingers in his hair, her lips parting around a gasp, her body unwinding beneath his touch, her heart gathering speed. Evie always making sure he was wearing sunscreen. Gale always making sure she was well fed.

Evie seeking him out every single night, assuming that each time they would still choose to come back together. 

None of that felt fake or shallow. It felt dazzlingly, painfully real.

Gale settled into the side of the mattress that had once curved around her body and laid his head down on the pillow that still smelled like her hair before he fell into a fitful sleep.

-

“I hate this,” Evie said and curled up into an even tighter, angrier ball in her beach chair.

“So you keep saying,” Jen said from the chair beside her. Her eyes were closed behind her sunglasses as she reclined.

“Because I still hate it.”

Jen sighed. “You're the only person in the world who could complain about a paid vacation.”

Except it wasn’t quite a vacation.

The eliminated contestants couldn’t live in the villa but they couldn't go home either. Some of them needed to be available in case they were chosen for dates, and all of them needed to return for the finale at the end of the week to vote on the best match, so production housed all of the losers in a resort about thirty minutes away from the main set. 

Evie expected the contestants to be sequestered to separate rooms but they were pretty free to wander the hotel and even talk to each other. There was a whole separate cast ecosystem that Evie, as a day one villa contestant, had never seen. She suspected the freedom to roam might have something to do with Tadpole recently being sued by some of their reality stars over their treatment during filming but she didn’t want to inquire about it and have those freedoms revoked. 

“Vacations are relaxing,” Evie said. “This is, like, the most stressed out I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”

Jen gestured at the ocean in front of them. “Well, don’t blame the beach for that. It’s a nice day.”

Evie huffed and hugged herself tighter. As far as she was concerned, the hotel wasn’t that much different from the villa. Both gave her little to do but think.

They were allowed an hour of phone time and Evie spent most of her allotment that morning ignoring all of her messages and searching for Gale online. She looked at his picture on the website for the university where he worked and wondered if he wrote the little blurb about his work and his classes. The head of the philosophy department was a beautiful, severe brunette woman but Evie didn't actually know his ex-wife's name and couldn't confirm if that was her. She almost paid $3 to a background check website to find out before deciding that was a little too insane.

Gale’s only social media seemed to be one Instagram account. There were a few promo posts for Greatest Bakes, with official pictures and language that had clearly been posted by a marketing person at Tadpole. There were a lot of heart eyes emojis in the comments, which - yeah. The only pictures Gale himself had ever posted were one of a latte and another of a fluffy tabby cat with its front legs hanging off the side of a coffee table. Evie zoomed in on the tabby's white paws and felt unbearably sad.

Jen pushed her sunglasses up and looked over at her. “Look, darling, I know you’re hurt right now but you would hate being there for the finale dates.”

“I wouldn’t hate being on a big sail boat drinking a mimosa,” Evie said. 

“Would you enjoy feeling pressured to make a big, romantic confession on camera?” Jen asked.

“No,” Evie conceded, but she pouted like a sullen teen anyway.

She and Jen had just barely missed a finale date on Look But Don’t Touch by getting eliminated in the penultimate episode for habitual rule breaking. A few think pieces and online commenters speculated that they had been penalized because they were the only same sex couple but Evie figured it was probably because they cost the group $50,000. The show’s lessons about seeing beyond the physical were clearly being wasted on them.

“You’ll see Gale again soon,” Jen said. “And he lives in London anyway.”

Evie grumbled as she remembered. She wasn't sure if she should try to see him or how she would react if he declined the invitation.

“Where does Halsin live?” she asked coolly.

Jen waved an idle hand. “Here and there.” 

Evie almost scoffed. Jen was so bad at pretending not to care that it was almost comical. If she didn’t care she wouldn’t dodge all of Evie’s questions. She wouldn’t have chosen to essentially eliminate herself and then lie about it. Evie understood the pressure and confusion of the show without her having to say it out loud but she wished Jen would have told her anyway. Guiltily, she wondered if staying friends was too hard.

Then Jen reached her hand out between their beach chairs and Evie unwound the angry pretzel that was her body enough to take hold of it.

“Hey, how about this?” Jen said. “If neither of us are married by the time we’re forty, we’ll marry each other on television so the network has to pay for the whole thing.”

Evie squeezed her hand and her doubts about the two of them drifted away, the same way they always did. She didn’t want to ever stop being close to Jen, even when things got weird. Whatever they were in was forever. Esprit de horny reality show.

“Okay,” Evie agreed. “Anything to make my mother angry.”

“Oh please,” Jen said as she pulled away. “Your mother adores me.”

Evie uncurled her legs and stretched them out in front of her on her beach chair. The anger was fading, leaving her utterly depleted.

Astarion showed up then, dragging his own beach chair from the resort behind him. He practically threw it down into the sand beneath Jen’s umbrella and sat down beside her with a great huff.

“I hate this,” he said, crossing his arms.

Evie pointed at him and looked at Jen. “See?”

-

Time moved at a glacial pace in the hotel. For one thing, Evie was completely partied out and had no interest in alcohol which made the hours feel long and directionless. She was also too depressed to do anything except rot on the beach under a big umbrella. The resort was going to have to blow her up with dynamite like that beached whale from the internet to get her off of the sand.

She and Astarion stayed on the beach long after Jen had gotten tired of them and gone inside, leaving them as partners in their pathetic loneliness.

“What are you wearing to the finale?” Astarion asked.

“A funeral shroud,” Evie said. “A burlap sack. I don't care.”

He sighed, utterly bored with her. “How can you possibly complain this much? You got to be a front runner, you got to stay with the person you wanted.”

Evie prepared to brush that off as standard jealousy but it was odd enough to snag and stick in her thoughts. Then it abruptly snapped into place. She whipped around towards Astarion, gasping and snatching her sunglasses off her face.

“Oh my God - you like Jen,” she said.

Astarion scrambled to sit up straight in his beach chair. He fumbled for his sunglasses so quickly that he knocked them off his face and had to bounce them between his hands so he wouldn’t drop them into the sand.

“Excuse me?” he demanded.

Evie gripped the arm of her chair with both hands, leaning forward eagerly. “Exhibit A - you're mad that I 'stayed with' someone I wanted, as if you didn't get to do that. Exhibit B - after Jen stuck with Halsin you matched with a parade of psychopaths so you probably don’t miss any of them. And exhibit C -” she pointed an accusing finger at him “ - you like Jen and I know it.”

“I misspoke,” Astarion insisted. “I wasn’t referring to anyone here. It was - someone you don’t know.”

“Which is it? Did you misspeak or do you miss someone I don't know?”

“I -”

“You are bright red right now,” Evie said. “Look, if this is about Halsin I wouldn’t worry. They’re very ‘free love,’ you could probably snag both of them if you played your cards right.”

“Oh my God, can we please discuss anything else?” Astarion said and swept a frustrated hand down over his face.

“Why?” Evie cooed, tilting her head to the side. “I always thought you were fun together. You’re both here, you should just talk to her. Tell her how you feel.”

“And are you sitting here because you told Gale how you really felt?” he bit back at her.

Evie had been so completely wrapped up in other people’s drama for a second that she was stunned by hearing Astarion mention her own so plainly.

“Wh - Gale’s…complicated,” she said haltingly. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh yes, you have that kind, good-looking man who knows how to cook and is utterly obsessed with you,” Astarion said sarcastically. “That must be terribly complicated, what a burden. Are you being canonized yet?”

Evie sat back in her chair and shoved her glasses over her eyes. “Whatever, fuck off.”

They only sat in wounded silence for another few minutes and many more crashes of the ocean against the shore before Astarion packed up and left her too.

-

As Evie lay starfished on her bed, she was grateful that production had only given back her phone for an hour instead of the entire day. By the time the sky became dark outside her window, Evie knew she would have paid a hundred dollars to that background check website if it were in front of her now. A thousand dollars. She would have stayed up all night reading recaps of old Greatest Bakes episodes just to see Gale’s name all spelled out, proof that he was real.

She turned onto her ear to look at her alarm clock and confirm that the little red dot had only switched from AM to PM once and not fifty times. If this was what it felt like to survive through one day, how would she ever make it to the finale? At this rate they were going to have to pour her remains into a bucket and carry that around to the final vote.

She felt weightless but heavy. Terrified but bored. And she was hungry too. She missed Gale going into the kitchen and whipping up little meals just for the two of them with whatever he could find. He insisted that he was a very good baker and only a decent cook but he seemed like a professional chef as far as Evie was concerned.

The kitchen was closed for the night but the front desk told her she could go wait by the pool and someone would be around to let her in to grab something from the vending machine out there. She lingered by the pool door - feeling awkward and worried no one had actually been sent to help her - until a harried looking man in a jumpsuit arrived. He was shorter than her and carrying a large jangling ring of keys.

“Thank you,” she said when he unlocked the door for her.

“Machine’s on the right,” he said gruffly.

The pool was on an enclosed rooftop so when Evie walked through the door she stepped out into cool night air. She realized the hotel employee was waiting for her, propping the door open with his body while he poked at his phone screen with one thick finger. 

“Could I eat it out here by the pool?” Evie asked. “Just a few minutes. I won’t go in the water. And I’m with the show. If I do anything you could sue Tadpole for all they’re worth.” And then because she really needed this, Evie pouted a bit, made her eyes that much rounder, pleading and helpless. 

He folded almost immediately, the way she knew he would. “Fine, just -” he dragged a potted plant over to prop open the door. “But I’m going back the other way in ten minutes so then you have to go.”

“Perfect, thank you,” Evie said, laying on the effusive gratitude.

The machine had been stocked with snacks appealing to foreign tourists so she bought a small package of Goldfish crackers and sat on one of the plastic chairs beside the pool to eat. The lights were all off except for the ones beneath the water, giving the pool and her body a pale, eerie glow.

Her fingers felt almost numb as she opened the bag, like her body was disconnected from her thoughts. She put one of the tiny orange crackers in her mouth and paused halfway through the bite. It was too soft. Stale. Evie flipped the bag over and saw the crackers expired four months ago. She cautiously ate another one to make sure but no - just as stale and disappointing as the first one.

There was an immediate pressure on her chest. She tried to breathe but it all got stuck and when the air finally left her it came out as a sob. In moments she was crying freely, the wobbly surface tension around her emotions finally breaking and letting everything pour out.

She pulled her feet up into her chair to curl in on herself as the tears flowed, the crackers crumbling as she crushed the bag against her body. She had been trying so hard to feel everything half way. To not get too annoyed by another contestant in case the producers caught it and tried to exploit it. To not feel too much for Gale in case it made her vulnerable again. 

But here by this closed pool, alone in every sense, all of those reasons had fallen away.

Her job was stupid. She’d gotten into a huge fight with her maybe-kind-of-boyfriend. She had bought herself a snack to feel better and it sucked. This felt like the longest day of Evie’s life and without any cameras to place it permanently on a hard drive, or editors to find the best angles of her face, or commenters to analyze her pain - she could just be normal and cry about it. 

It was awful. It was such a relief.

-

When Volo announced the cast would be competing in a trivia contest, Lae’zel was so enthusiastic about having Gale as her partner that she wrapped her arms around his waist and actually lifted him a few inches off the ground with a roar of triumph. 

Gale thought there might be some sort of catch, like only asking questions about Tadpole shows and stars that he would have no chance at answering, but they all seemed to be straightforward trivia, albeit no higher than Celebrity Jeopardy difficulty. One question simply asked them to name the largest planet. 

He won handily but felt nothing. Neither he nor Lae’zel were interested in a romantic date together so he had to sit through a desperately awkward evening of chocolate fondue and stilted conversation. He couldn't imagine that date playing well in the final edit.

The machinations of Cupid’s Den didn’t intrigue him either. It would have been nice if Lae’zel could find someone on the board to send herself on a date with but beyond that Gale had absolutely no interest in the game. He remembered having a passing thought that he and Evie might win but that seemed like another life now.

As he rode in the car on the way to the Cupid’s Den studio, Gale remembered how it felt to win that challenge with Evie where the only feat they performed was ranking themselves as the most compatible couple. At the time he had laughed about winning a challenge that way but there was something sweet about it now. Instead of a feat of strength or intelligence, all Gale had done was care about Evie. They were rewarded for choosing each other.

This place was doing very strange things to him if he was suddenly finding depth in the challenges.

Volo was already waiting for them at the board, the large screen blue and blank.

“Welcome, welcome, come in,” he waved them closer. “Well! I sometimes think I’ve seen everything but I’m quite surprised to see you two here together.”

Gale and Lae’zel smiled awkwardly, both accustomed to letting their more telegenic partner speak on camera for them.

Once the silence became strained, Volo clapped his hands together, moving on swiftly.

“Alright then,” the host said. “You both understand how this works now. At the bottom of the board here, you will see the members of the less compatible couples.”

The couple portraits faded in on screen. Most of the pairs were fairly new as the house experienced a sudden wave of upheaval. Gale imagined that Lae’zel’s grumble had to do with Wyll and Mizora’s pictures sitting side by side even though in person it was clear they were miserable together. 

“And we have a special surprise for you two,” Volo continued. Gale’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. Surprises here were never followed by anything you’d actually want to receive. “Today we’re keeping it all in the family. Every lonely heart on the board today is someone who has already made their first attempt at finding love in the villa and come up short.”

Gale noticed her hair first when the four single portraits appeared at the top of the board. The blonde strands shone brightly even as pixels on a screen. Her picture looked up at him with a coy smile, EVIE printed clearly underneath. He stared at her, this evidence she wasn’t a dream, as Volo continued to speak.

“Lae’zel, Gale - you have the opportunity to select two of these singles and give them a second chance. As always, you can match them with any members of the less compatible couples, or if you're feeling adventurous you can match them with yourself.”

After not feeling particularly important to the game, it was unsettling for Gale to realize that the producers actually did have larger machinations for him. He knew with certainty that they put Evie on the board as an option because he would be there making the selections. He knew they wanted the shot of him seeing her picture for the first time, wanted the audience to gasp and wonder what he would do. Maybe they even set him up to win an easy challenge just to put him here at the board.

Good God, was this how Evie perceived the show all the time? No wonder it exhausted her.

Volo bid them a farewell and Lae’zel immediately stalked over to the other side of the board and bent over it like a wartime general examining her troop positions.

“Who is the most displeasing rat here that Mizora could be paired with?” she wondered aloud.

Gale blinked at the board, still a bit stunned. He recognized all of these faces now looking up at him. Nym, Aradin, Halsin, Evie, Evie, Evie, Evie, Evie.

How would she feel about being chosen like this? Gale tried to picture her waiting beside twin scooters with a helmet tucked under her arm, or perhaps kneeling on a beach blanket surrounded by a picnic, wearing a nice dress she had chosen for a blind date. Turning to see who she was supposed to spend the afternoon with. Realizing it was Gale.

He remembered the tightness in her jaw whenever the cameras made themselves too obvious. The sight of her skin, red and aggravated, after she collided blindly with hay bales placed in her path. The careful way she chose her words and tiptoed around her own life when asked, all part of the high wire act of maintaining her image.

“Gale,” Lae’zel said sharply, pulling him from his ruminations. “This is the time for me to strike. Can you focus for one moment?”

“It’s obviously Aradin,” Gale said and looked back at Evie’s picture.

Satisfied with his choice, Lae’zel locked in a date between Mizora and Aradin and nodded as their pictures both disappeared from the board.

“Excellent. Now you can pair yourself with Evie and we can get back to the villa.” Lae’zel cracked her knuckles. “I want to be the one to deliver the news.”

“I don’t know if I want to match with her,” Gale said.

Lae’zel abruptly terminated her next sentence as her shoulders stiffened. “Oh. I see. No forgiveness, no looking back. Hmm. I’m impressed with you, Gale.”

“No, of course I would forgive her,” Gale answered. 

He couldn’t help it any longer. He dragged her picture to the middle of the board so the video of her would play. Her smile broadened slowly. She blew an exaggerated kiss to the camera.

“Then - what are you planning?” Lae’zel asked.

Gale watched as the video looped again. Smile. Kiss. 

“I'm not sure,” he said.

He couldn’t complete that last part of his fantasy, how Evie would react when she saw him again and knew he had done something to place himself in her path. Maybe she would smile. There was a good chance she would be furious. 

But he knew he had to try. Ever since the call to appear on Matchmakers, Gale had seen himself as something of a victim of circumstance, only floating along the winds of fate, but he realized now that he had control here. 

The removal of the weight on his body was so sudden that Gale felt buoyed by the relief. Dread was replaced with anticipation. He knew he would be seeing her soon.

-

Evie miserably hurled objects into her beach bag. Sunscreen, a sweatshirt, the one book she had been allowed to bring (a romance that she now wanted to tear out of the binding). 

She had a very important schedule to get started on. First, she would go to the hotel’s restaurant and eat an enormous cheeseburger for lunch. Then she would sit on the beach until the sun went down, staring at the happy couples and families from behind her sunglasses and imagining all of the secrets and lies waiting to tear them apart when they went home.

Now that she was all cried out, everything felt dull and pointless. There would probably be another date night mixer in the house before she returned for the finale vote, guaranteeing at least one final couple she had never seen interact. Why did she care if they won or lost? Did this show even have a prize? She couldn’t remember now.

I’ll get better tomorrow, Evie promised herself as she walked down the hallway to leave. Tomorrow will be good. But today I’ll let myself be miserable.

She was so lost inside of her own thoughts that she almost plowed into someone walking off the elevator. She leapt back with a muttered apology but the guy stepped into her path when she made a move for the door.

“Hey -” Evie started aggressively until she looked up and froze under a familiar gaze.

She thought guilt would land on her like a house the next time she saw Gale but her heart was too busy flooding with relief that he was here to feel any more sadness. It was like she was finally waking up, everything dull and gray inside of her suddenly blooming with color. Like she had bundled up for winter, well used to the routine of shielding herself from the cold, only to step outside and realize spring had arrived.

“Hi,” she breathed.

“Hello,” Gale replied with a nervous, lopsided grin.

Evie spent a moment just absorbing the image of him again, the gray beginning to speckle his beard, his warm brown eyes, the strong shape of his nose. She pressed her nails into her palm and it hurt. “What are you doing here?”

“The same thing you are,” he said. “I was eliminated. Well - I chose to remove myself from contention.”

She exhaled loudly, stared at him with fascination. “You eliminated yourself? That’s - a professional level reality TV move. You don’t even need me anymore.”

His mouth twisted into a frown. “That’s not true. I feel sick without you.”

“I -” she started to speak without knowing what to say. She wrapped both hands around the strap of her beach bag but she wanted to touch him.

“Are you free to talk sometime today?” Gale asked.

“S-sure. We can talk right now. My room is this way.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, Evie saw the room through Gale’s eyes and realized it was a mess. She ignored the clothes spilling out of her suitcase and tried to flatten the duvet over her sheets as best she could.

“Uh - here,” she sat stiffly at the end of her bed.

The air gained a heavy electrical charge as Gale sat beside her. They had slept next to each other for weeks but this was the first time they had ever been alone together without a camera. The bed wasn’t just a prop now and it felt significant to be on one with him. Evie tucked her hands beneath her thighs.

“This is a rather nice hotel,” Gale said.

“I guess,” Evie said. “The vending machine snacks are expired.”

He nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on that, thank you. Have you been well here otherwise?”

The gulf between well and whatever the hell Evie was doing here was so wide that she almost laughed at his question but restrained herself. “I’m getting by.”

His soft smile said that maybe he knew she wasn’t okay and that relieved some of the pressure of pretending. 

“Who have you been matched with?” she blurted out.

“Lae’zel,” Gale said with a little huff of a laugh, like can you believe it?

She couldn’t.

“We even won a challenge,” Gale said and now Evie flinched. For as much as she had called the challenges inane, it still stung to think about him being selected as the most compatible with someone else. 

“What did you - do?” she asked cautiously, fearing the answer would be some sort of licking whipped cream off of your partner derby.

“We were the winners of a trivia contest.”

“How does that -” Evie started before she cut herself off. Asking how the challenges measured compatibility was a waste of time. Clearly they didn’t and clearly this challenge had been designed for Gale to win for some reason. “What happened after?”

He looked at her intently, like what he had to say was very important. The attention made her cheeks warm. “When we went into Cupid’s Den, you were on the board. I could have brought you back to be with me.”

Oh. That was why they wanted him to win.

Evie swallowed down the sudden knot in her throat. “And you didn't want to?”

Gale shook his head. “I didn’t want to put you through that again. I knew you were unhappy living with all of those cameras and I couldn’t bring myself to place you in front of them again, no matter how much I missed you. I was hoping the next time I saw you would be more like this. Just the two of us.”

She spent a few long breaths just looking at him, appreciating the novelty of being the only one who had the privilege. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, emotions heavy inside of her chest. “I’m sorry I faced one relationship test and fell apart.”

“Evie -” Gale reached forward suddenly, laying his hand over her knee, and his touch shivered across her skin like a strong wind across the surface of a lake. He pulled back quickly, embarrassed to touch so much of her bare skin, but she wished he didn't, wished he didn't think he had to.

“Evie,” he tried again. “The real world isn’t comprised of relationship tests that you pass and fail for a place on a scoreboard. No maniacal game show host is going to force us to date other people to make sure we still care for each other.”

“I feel like I failed,” she admitted quietly.

“You didn’t,” Gale said. “Not one bit. You - struggled to live up to an absolutely absurd measure of love. Everyone there did. I would never expect you to be pleased while I had drinks with someone else.” His gaze narrowed slightly, searching. “Although - when I returned, I didn’t get the sense that the date was the thing that was bothering you.”

There was a long pause while Evie thought about what she wanted to say and Gale gave her the space to consider. She wanted to be careful this time. Loose strings hung from the bottom of her cut off shorts and she wrapped one around her finger until it snapped off in her hand.

“When you were gone I was thinking about” - she sighed - “I was thinking about how we met. And how different our lives are. I thought about matching with you and kissing you, and how I wanted those things and maybe I had wanted them so much that I wasn’t considering whether you wanted them too. I thought you might feel obligated to stay with me but once you actually saw all the options out there you would realize what a mistake I was.”

Gale turned his head away from her while he weighed her words. Evie took a deep breath when she noticed her blood thumping too loudly in her head.

“I thought I was quite genuine in how I felt for you,” Gale said. “It pains me to hear you say that those feelings might not have been real, and that I don’t know myself enough to know what I want. It’s - it’s not kind to say that someone who cared for you must privately resent you.”

Evie hugged herself, her eyes stinging. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it that way. You really didn’t do anything wrong. It was me.”

“I don’t think I’ve been perfect,” Gale said. “I think I may have pushed you too hard, perhaps said too much too soon. It was just so exciting talking to you that every time I saw a little bit beneath your exterior I wanted to see even more.”

“You’re not too much,” Evie said quietly as hope and doubt tangled further inside of her. “I want you to like me.”

“Do you want me to know you?” he asked.

He had this way of cutting right through her acts and down to the heart of her. Pushing and inquiring and discovering until there was nothing left but the real her.

“Sometimes I think I do,” she said. “But it’s not something I’ve ever really tried.”

“Never?”

Evie shrugged. “Not really. Not the way you’re thinking. As much as I cared about Jen - we both always knew we were part of this game and this show, and it kept this wall between us. When it ended there was almost this - resignation. Like it was okay because we always sort of planned for it. But I knew you would never be happy with some kind of casual relationship and separation. I knew you would only want something real.”

More hurt flashed across Gale’s face. “You were reluctant to be close to me because I wanted something real?”

“No, it was because you made me want that too,” Evie said. “Even after everything, you made me think about going home and trying to make it work. I wanted to take you to my favorite cafe and oversleep on Sunday mornings and bring you to meet my family.”

“Is there something wrong with all of those things?” he asked.

“Not for normal people,” she said. “It’s just - people have always wanted something from me and I honestly don’t know how to handle someone just wanting to know me. Especially here. I know that sounds crazy.”

“It doesn’t,” Gale said as he raked a hand through his hair, tempting Evie greatly to follow the path of his fingers. “There was this particular moment in Cupid’s Den when I realized how much I was being observed by the producers and I saw all of the strings of the show that had faded into the background for me. I started picturing how they would use this footage they were recording, and living a year in the future when this is all on television, and suddenly everything you had tried telling me about surviving here all made sense. I remembered what a truly absurd way to live this is.”

“I’m sorry about what this show put you through,” Evie said and now the guilt she thought she had avoided all arrived on her shoulders at once.

“I was more concerned about what it might have done to you.” Gale studied her, lighting up each part of her he looked at. “You know…I spoke to the camera about my divorce but I never really spoke to you about it. I thought it might scare you away. I was afraid I might seem pathetic if you knew the way I lived to impress my ex-wife and - the way I convinced myself that her opinion of me was the only one that was right or true.”

He sighed and the sound was full of years of emotion that Evie knew she could never fully grasp, the private feelings no other person can truly understand. 

“There was no line between our relationship and our work,” Gale continued. “I always felt that my colleagues saw our partnership before any of my accomplishments and maybe even thought I hadn’t earned them on my own. So - I did something incredibly reckless and ill-advised. I attempted to prove my own worth by publicly refuting one of her theories. I tried to raise up my own profile in an attempt to impress her and show her what I was capable of on my own but all it did was ruin my career and my marriage. Without those things I didn’t know who I was anymore. And I thought - maybe the man I was without either of them wasn’t someone worth knowing.”

“I’m sorry,” Evie said again. “I - I didn’t ever want to make you feel like that.”

“No, no, Evie -” Now he grabbed her hand and held it, steady in his desire to touch her like this. “I didn't tell you about the divorce to shame you. I only wanted you to understand what you mean to me. The show didn’t break me in some unfixable way and neither did you. I…you’re so brave and bold that you make me want to be like you. I feel proud that someone like you sees something good in me and wanted to protect me. When I’m with you…I feel like I’m worthy of a good life. One that's my own.”

“You are,” Evie said, her voice thick. 

He lowered their joined hands to his lap, more points of connection. “And so are you.”

Evie worried she was going to start babbling if she spoke but she wanted Gale to know how she felt. He was looking for something real and he deserved the real her.

"When people see me on TV or online they only get this edited version of me and they think she's real. And I started believing that she was too.”

Evie wanted him to understand, needed him to know. I was missing too, until you found me.

“But you acted like there was more to me than that and I always believed you. I feel like you’re one of the only people who really likes me. Who’s interested in what I think and feel."

"I do like you," he said earnestly. "Very much. I couldn't wait to be with you at the end of every day, just to talk to you. God, Evie - I never cared about winning. I only ever wanted to wake up next to you.”

“I did care about winning,” Evie said and Gale smiled at her crookedly. “You know…I didn’t match with you the first night because I thought you were pathetic or I pitied you or anything. I just - thought you were nice. And I didn’t want you to feel lonely the way I did when I started out. It’s - it’s really important to me that you know that.”

“I do know that,” Gale said, not unkindly.  

“So you don't hate me?”

“I could never,” he said. “In fact, I was hoping that outside of here, beyond all of this, I could see you again. In whatever way you wanted.”

There was that familiar chill of fear in Evie’s stomach at the thought of making plans to see Gale when this was over but the thought of never seeing him again was like a black hole of grief. Pushing Gale away hadn’t given her the control she hoped for. It only made her more alone.

Evie squeezed his hand, trying to ground herself more than reassure him. “I would like that. I’ll take you out to dinner so you don’t have to suffer through my cooking.”

Gale nodded, eyes fond. “Of course. I’m an expensive date but I know you’re good for the bill.”

Gale calling her brave repeated in Evie’s mind. She wanted to be as brave as he thought she was.

“Are things still too fresh to ask if I could kiss you again?” Evie asked uncertainly.

Gale’s lips parted softly in surprise and Evie was about to start scrambling for a way out until he laid a warm hand against her cheek, stilling her thoughts.

“You never need to ask,” he said before urging her closer and kissing her.

The first brush of his lips was tentative, both of them testing if the walls between them were truly gone. Then Evie pressed in closer and Gale hummed against her lips. His hand moved back to curl into her hair and a wave of goosebumps swept up her arms. 

Gale pulled back enough to look into her eyes, hovering just beyond another kiss. He took his time letting his hand travel down the side of her neck, tracing the curve with his fingertips until they rested against the spot he had once marked with bright yellow paint. He pulled his hand away and Evie finally exhaled. 

They sat there not touching at all, both just thrumming with energy and unsure of what to do next. These moments between them usually dissolved with the discovery of a camera but now there was no clear reason to stop, nothing to prevent the tension from winding tighter.

"I should go," Gale said.

Of course, there was another reason Gale might want to stop besides cameras. He still needed time. He still wasn’t sure about her.

Disappointment tightened brutally around Evie’s windpipe but she still pushed out an, "Okay."

It had been too much to hope that Gale might stay and take her into his arms, to kiss her and forgive her and love her again. Especially when Evie couldn’t guarantee what would happen to them after. There were only a handful of days until the finale and then they could both go home. Maybe things would be easier then.

Evie could still feel the warm hunger all over but she dutifully walked Gale to the door. 

When they arrived, neither of them opened it. They didn't even reach for the handle. Gale turned to her suddenly like he'd had a rush of inspiration before he paused.

"I should go," he said again.

Instead of repeating her line, Evie let the moment stretch out longer between them. Gale had that intense look of focus, the one that made her feel like he could see through her skin. She had only really seen him like this, taking in information, filing it away, holding back. She felt like ever since that first night, she had been waiting for him to let go.

Evie looked up at him, heat blooming slowly through her body. 

"Should you?" she asked softly. 

She hoped during all that time studying her, Gale had figured out how to read what she wanted.

Then Gale wasn’t just looking at her anymore but touching her. He leaned in to kiss her first, cradling her face with both hands and drawing her up to his mouth. There was one brief, tender moment of yes , and you , and finally before he moved to tangle his fingers in her hair and four weeks of want rushed upwards, all desperate for an outlet. She seized his shirt with both hands and yanked him forward until their bodies collided. 

He pressed her back against the wall, flattening her body with his own, his mouth still hard against hers. No cameras, no reason to stop. What did Evie want? What could she do now? She reached for the waistband of his shorts and deftly unbuttoned them. Gale didn’t flinch. He only groaned as he pressed himself harder against her.

Evie just let him for a while, gripping his shoulders tightly as his lips found her throat, heat pulsing through her and gathering heavily in her core as Gale ground his obvious hardness against her hip. She slid her hand down the front of his shorts to grip him through his underwear, relishing the way he dropped his head against her shoulder, his breath hot as it hit her skin.

“Fuck,” he groaned against her neck and knowing Gale had already lost control enough to actually swear for once sent a little thrill through her stomach.

“Off,” Evie said, shoving his shorts down. “And the dad sneakers.”

“But I wore them just for this,” Gale rasped and she felt the curve of his smile against her skin.

Evie laughed and then felt like she couldn’t stop smiling, even as they tumbled towards the bed. She quickly pulled her t-shirt over her head and Gale’s eyes roamed over her body, no longer seeing her as something to admire but something he could have.

Their combined need had removed any subtlety as Gale laid her down against the sheets and swept away her thoughts with another slow, heavy kiss. There was only her shaky breath, his hands scraping against her tender skin as he worked her shorts over her hips, her hands fumbling for the hem of his shirt, tugging and pushing until it went flying over the side of the bed. His mouth against her heaving chest, her neck, her mouth. 

Evie was dressed for the beach beneath her clothes and she had a passing fantasy about wearing expensive, luxurious underwear for Gale to take off of her, his hands sliding between the lace and her skin.

Her bathing suit had the benefit of being much easier to remove. With one quick pull, the strings holding up her bikini top unraveled and Gale pushed the material down until it was around her waist and leaned over her to take her nipple into his mouth. She arched up against him with a sigh as his tongue trailed over her body. He made a low sound against her skin and she gasped as everything inside of her pulled taut and the rest of her bathing suit was discarded.

“Do you have protection here?” he asked raggedly.

“Of course,” Evie said. “The producers sent me home with a box of forty-eight condoms in my going away basket.”

“Get one? Please?”

Evie nodded quickly and Gale moved so she could slip out from underneath him.

She swept aside the clothes in her suitcase to uncover a few of the goodies production had sent her home with, including a pair of wireless headphones and a comically large box of condoms. She tried to open it and ripped the cardboard flap clean off in her haste. Then she went to remove one but several more that were attached came with it and even more spilled out onto the floor.

Gale chuckled from the bed. “Eager?”

Evie slapped a whole strip onto the bedside table and crawled back over Gale’s lap to kiss him again, to feel his arms lift around her and so much of his bare skin.

“Mildly interested,” she answered.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve done this,” he said between kissing her throat and the soft underside of her jaw. “I want to make this last for you.”

He rolled her onto the bed beneath him. Giddiness and need tightened and twisted in her belly, releasing pleasantly when he kissed his way down her body. It all pulled tight again as he pushed her legs apart, not forceful but insistent. Enthusiastic. He wanted this, wanted her, and she was more than happy to let him have her.

“Eager?” she teased.

He settled on his stomach before her and kissed her inner thigh, all pressure and desire. “Desperate.”

It was almost too much, that first broad swipe of tongue. She gasped when Gale set his mouth to her properly and warmth trembled up her spine as his hands settled on her hips. Evie had also been desperate and not at all prepared to make things last. There was no way she would be able to draw things out when he was touching her like this, gentle but assured, making soft sounds against her body, his fingers applying the perfect pressure inside of her.

Her head was spinning, the room around her melting, until a particular movement of his tongue brought all of her blurred edges back into focus and landed her firmly back inside of herself. Shivering sensations rushed in, and in, and in, suspended for a few thoughtless moments, and then all rushed back out. She grasped Gale’s hair in her hands as she came, her head thrown back, letting herself feel and moan without needing to care what anyone would feel about it beyond this room.

As Evie struggled to catch her breath, Gale rose up to his knees, leaning over her. An errant spark bolted through Evie’s abdomen, making her limbs briefly twitch.

“Oh,” Evie laughed nervously as her hands curled over her chest. “Sorry it’s not funny. I’m just -” Gale smiled down at her as he smoothed his hand over her hair, the love in his eyes leaving her breathless “ - just happy.”

They were both still smiling as he leaned in to kiss her. “I’m happy too.”

He continued his path down her neck, over her chest, the heat of his mouth making Evie’s hands feel clumsy as she reached for a condom from the nightstand and tore it open. She rolled it on for him and he moaned against her throat while she touched him.

Then he was pushing into her and her body was melting between his and the mattress, his mouth was against her pulse, against her mouth, her moans of pleasure given directly to him as they moved together.

Their haste dissolved for a few moments as they adjusted to all of the smothering feelings. Evie’s legs bent slowly, pressing in against his waist, drawing him in nearer, enjoying the feeling of him, her, them. Gale leaned his elbows down on the bed, rocking deeper into her and Evie’s chest bowed up towards him as she whined, every part of her seeking just a little bit more of him.

“More,” Evie whined as the weeks of waiting, of holding back, all rose up again. She gasped as Gale’s pace quickened, wordless pleas and whimpers falling from her lips as he filled her. His lips found hers again, more panting against each other’s mouths than a proper kiss. 

“God, Evie,” he bent his forehead to hers. “You - feel too good.”

“Do you want to come already?” she asked, her voice a breathless tease. 

He nodded and Evie held his face with both hands to pull him in for a kiss, flushed with a bit of power and pride at the thought. Then the balance all tipped back towards him as Gale took her wrist and brought her hand down between their bodies. She moaned helplessly when she felt where his cock was still sinking into her.

“I want to feel you come while I’m inside you,” he said beside her ear and just hearing his voice say something like that nearly tipped her over the edge right there.

She was still so sensitive from the warm friction of Gale’s mouth that she could only take a few more steady thrusts and a few moments of her fingers heightening it all before she came undone beneath him, crying out as her free hand grasped for his shoulder, gladly letting the rushing waves overtake her. They kept moving through it, until there was no line between her pleasure and his, until he buried his face against her shoulder and his hips stopped to grind slowly against hers, pulsing deep inside of her.   

Gale slumped down against her chest, both of them breathing hard, every exhale a high pitched sigh. His heart thundered against her as Evie slowly unwound her legs from his waist. Another wave of laughter rippled through her chest. She was so, so happy that this had happened here instead of fumbling around beneath a blanket, trying to avoid a camera. This would only live in their memories. A secret passed between them. Gale laughed too as she kissed her, the sound still shaky from his uneven breaths. 

Everything inside of Evie was still buzzing and bright when Gale moved to collapse onto the bed beside her. He turned towards her, tucking his face beside her neck and kissing her there once before laying an arm over her waist to hold her close as their breathing slowed.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said softly. “I thought someone like you must be tired of hearing that but now that just sounds like a poor excuse for not telling you everyday.”

Evie smiled and blushed as she snuggled Gale closer in her arms. “You can tell me whenever you want.”

“Then you’re beautiful,” he said.

“So are you,” she leaned her cheek against the top of his head and sighed contentedly. “The only thing I want to do in hotels is have sex and order room service.”

“Then let’s eat,” Gale replied.

Everything was being charged to Tadpole so they ordered steak with thick cut fries, and huge crab cakes, and two different desserts. They ate sitting at the foot of the bed, just like they had when they poured their hearts out, but now they were wearing the hotel’s fluffy robes with their thighs pressed together. Evie let herself be cheesy and ate bites of chocolate cake that Gale fed to her.

“I didn’t get all of the trivia questions correct,” Gale said to her as he scraped some ice cream from the sides of a bowl.

“What did you miss?” Evie asked.

“I didn’t know the Hemsworth brother that was in The Hunger Games,” he said.

“You mean you didn’t know Gale?”

“Yes, very funny,” he said flatly. “Everyone else was quite amused as well.” He clearly struggled not to smile as Evie laughed and leaned against him. 

When the food had all been picked over, they lay back on the bed and let the cool air conditioning wash over them. Gale’s hand found hers in the space between them.

“I’m glad that I came to this show,” he said softly.

Evie turned towards him and her stomach flipped as she took in the mess she had made of his hair and the soft look in his eyes. “And I’m glad you were eliminated from it.”

Gale grinned. “There’s still plenty of daylight left. What do you simple resort people like to do?”

“I was planning to go to the beach this afternoon,” Evie said. “Is that too boring?”

“No. It sounds perfect.”

Out in the hallway, dressed again in her bathing suit and outer layers, Evie turned to Gale and leaned up on her toes to kiss him. His hand settled warmly against her lower back and they were still grinning and tangled up in each other when Jen suddenly rounded the corner from the elevator bay.

Jen froze when she saw them, taking in their proximity. Then she touched her chest and closed her eyes as if she had just received the news that a sick relative was going to pull through after all.

“Oh, thank God I’m not in the room next to yours,” she said.

Chapter Text

It felt different waking up together this time. Not entirely out of the show’s bubble but closer to what Gale had started to picture once it was all over. No assistant coming to wake them or cameras capturing them sleep. Just Evie curling into him, her ponytail loose after a night of sleep, tangling her limbs with his and nuzzling her face into his neck. 

“Morning,” she said drowsily and it felt like the first time.

Gale crushed her against his chest and kissed the slope of her neck. A soft sigh from Evie spurred him onward, kissing her again, higher, harder, her chin tilting up to give him more. She hummed when his lips found hers and the fog of sleep fell away quickly as her fingers dragged through his hair. 

“I wonder what sort of dreams you had,” she teased.

“None,” Gale answered. “But I woke up beside this gorgeous woman and couldn't help myself when I saw her.”

He was already thinking about pressing her down into the sheets, feeling her arch up against him, but Evie seemed to have other ideas. She hooked her leg over his waist and rolled them until she was sitting up on his lap. She leaned down to kiss him eagerly and his hands curved around her rear and down over her thighs.

Evie shifted her hips backwards, further down his legs, so when she pushed Gale’s shirt up she could bend low and press a kiss to his abdomen. She kissed him again, lower, above the dark hair trailing down below his navel. His stomach somersaulted when Evie looked up at him through her lashes, making sure he was watching, before dropping her gaze and letting her lips drag over his clothed erection.

“Evie,” her name left him involuntarily, his hips tilting up higher.

“Do you want it?” she asked, her voice low and warm.

“Yes.”

“Tell me.”

Seeing her confident like this sent a flush across his skin, the warmest heat all gathering right beneath her palms. Gale reached out to run his hands along her arms, the nearest part of her he could touch.

“I want to feel your mouth,” he said.

She bit her lip against a smug smile and Gale’s body warmed even more, burning for her.

He hadn’t been touched like this for so long and he made a rather pathetic sound the first time she sank her lips down around him fully. Her confidence seemed to extend to this and she moved slowly, deliberately, letting Gale sigh and tremble beneath her while she luxuriated in their newfound privacy. He touched her hair, not to grip it tightly, just to touch more of her, be nearer. She wrapped a hand around his cock, moving in sync with her mouth and Gale fumbled to grasp her other hand where it was pressed against the mattress.

“Evie,” he was panting now. “I - I’m going to come if you don’t stop.”

She only pulled back long enough to say “Good,” before taking him into her mouth again and working up to a faster pace. 

The rough fantasy of finishing inside of her mouth struck him hard and suddenly Gale was living it, coming with a series of needy moans, holding on to her everywhere he could reach. She didn’t pull away until Gale asked her to and then she leaned over him, looking pleased with herself as she watched the little aftershocks of pleasure shudder through him.

“You’re so cute,” Evie said with a smile. Her hair tie had gotten lost somewhere in the sheets and she ran a hand through the messy blonde strands.

Gale laughed breathlessly, his chest still heaving. “I never thought of myself as cute before.”

“You’re adorable. I just want to keep you here in bed all day and touch you.”

“That can be arranged.” Gale held out his arms to her. “Come here.”

She snuggled up close against his side, wrapping an arm and a leg around him.

“I like this,” she said as she smoothed her palm back and forth over his chest. “When your heart is beating fast.”

She left her hand there as his heart slowed, as it fell into sync with hers and her even breaths. Gale could have gone back to sleep just like this and almost felt himself drifting before Evie spoke again.

“What do you feel like doing today?” she asked.

He sighed and hugged her closer. “Having you on every surface of this hotel room.”

“You read my mind,” she said.

-

Gale couldn’t keep his hands off of her and he would have felt more self-conscious about his behavior if Evie didn't seem to be feeling exactly the same way.

She was the one who pulled him into the shower, the one whose voice echoed off the tiles as she guided him to touch her. She reached for Gale's hand as they walked along the beach. She cuddled up beside him in bed for a midday nap with the sliding glass doors open and the ocean breeze drifting across their skin.

Gale pulled her into the same side of the booth at the hotel restaurant and Evie seemed surprised for a moment before adhering herself to his side.

“I didn't think you'd be comfortable with PDA,” she said.

“I was only concerned about the cameras,” Gale told her. She was wearing a short dress and he put a hand over her bare leg, letting his fingertips slide purposefully along her skin. “I don't mind if people see how much I want you. Is it too much?”

Evie shook her head, smiling and flushed. “No. Definitely not.”

They didn’t have the frills that the producers could provide like sailboats and ziplines but they had each other and Gale found he didn’t want anything else. Evie seemed to know one of the hotel employees for some reason and also somehow convinced him to let them into the pool after dark.

The night air was warm as they paddled around the pool, splashing each other and clinging to each other for long, slow kisses, enjoying the last time they would have access to a pool for a good long while.

As Gale looked at the water droplets clinging to Evie’s eyelashes and her silly, genuine smile, he realized that he loved her. It didn't shock him or scare him to understand this. It was more like the relief of stepping through his front door after being away for a while, of turning on the lights and seeing his home still safe and whole.

He also realized that he shouldn’t tell her, at least not yet. Three days ago, Evie had been so afraid of caring for him that she couldn't even speak about a future beyond this place. He couldn’t just tell a person in that state that he was in love with her. 

For now it was enough to just know, to feel that sense of relief in another person and realize he was still capable of it.

He pulled her body against his beneath the water and she looped her arms around his neck.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked teasingly. “You have this look.”

“Just feeling wistful,” he said. “Before I met you I had started to think that maybe nothing novel would ever happen to me again. And maybe life would all go along at the same dull, gray pace forever. But now I feel that maybe there are still some surprises left for me.”

She was pouting at him, listening intently, before she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

Back in Evie’s room, he laid her on the bed and touched her slowly, letting his hands trail across her breasts, her stomach, the soft skin of her inner thighs, until she was flushed and her body shuddered with every new touch.

“Please,” she breathed as her hips lifted up off the sheets.

He pressed his mouth to every taught muscle along her body until he found the places she was soft and yielding. She cried out softly, beautifully when he was finally inside of her and Gale slipped his hand beneath her head to pull her into a warm, heavy kiss and slowly unravel her.

Afterwards, he gathered Evie close and carded his fingers through her hair as they held each other, drifting off faster than usual after utterly exhausting themselves all day.

“Perhaps we could still win as write-in candidates,” Gale said.

“Not a chance,” Evie replied. “There were Dammon and Karlach canvassers at my door earlier. We could never get our campaign up and running in time.”

He fell asleep holding her and loving her.

-

The evening of the finale, Evie stood in front of the mirror and examined her outfit for any last minute adjustments. She was poured into a bright white cropped top and a long matching skirt, like an elegant dress made sexy enough for television by showing off her abdomen and frankly a lot of her tits.

“I’m not spilling out of this too much, am I?” she asked Gale. She lifted the straps of her top to see how much everything would shift and still stay secure.

“I don’t think I have the same standards as a television censor,” he said.

Evie smiled at him in the mirror as she put one of her earrings in. Gale had let her go through his bags to dress him and she chose an olive linen shirt that she tucked into a pair of black pants. The way it all pulled in at his waist made his shoulders look broad and made Evie’s mouth water but she didn’t have time to be distracted by him. She had finally put on her lip gloss so she wouldn’t be tempted to kiss him so much.

“This is streaming, there are no censors,” Evie said. She took a step back and tried to see herself as the audience would for the last time. Her hair was swept up off her neck into a simple ponytail to keep the focus on the outfit and because it would be sweltering outside while they filmed. She had a femme fatale vibe that she was quite pleased with and she deemed her look Officially Complete.

“Oh, before the van comes,” Evie turned to face Gale where he was sitting on the end of the bed. “I don’t think we should talk about - all of this -” she gestured at them, the room they were in “- at the finale.”

Gale frowned. “Sorry - we shouldn’t talk about - what, exactly?”

“Us,” she said. “Definitely not as part of the show. I think maybe not even to the people who are still in the villa and haven’t seen us here.”  

A muscle in his jaw shifted and Evie felt the tension in his pause, knowing instantly she had screwed up somehow.

“Alright,” Gale said slowly. “Can we talk before we leave?”

“Of course,” Evie said as her blood went cold the same way it did for anyone hearing the words can we talk?

She sat beside him on the bed, folding her hands in her lap and sitting up straight and stiff. He swept a hand down her arm but Evie would not be able to be consoled until she knew what this was about.

“I don’t mind obfuscating the nature of our relationship at the finale tonight,” Gale told her. “But…I think we should make a decision soon about what the exact nature of our relationship is.”

Evie nodded. “Right. Okay. Well - I like you. I like what we have, what we’ve been doing.” 

The heightened emotional environment of the show made those feelings look a lot like love but for now she wanted to keep that thought as something she could turn over and examine on her own instead of admitting it, even to him.

Gale took a long, slow breath. “I want to be together when this is over,” he said plainly. 

“I know,” Evie said and she really, really did know and she really wanted that too. It went against all of her natural instincts to just tell him how she felt but she didn’t want to hurt him again while trying to protect herself. “I want to try and see where things go. I just - do you think we could wait and actually put a label on things when we’re outside?”

He smiled but it was strained. “Alright. I can accept that. I do understand how large a risk this must feel after all you’ve been through. If you asked I would be yours without question but - you don’t need to change what you want for your life. Truly. And if you’re not comfortable with something serious at the moment then it would break my heart but…I would still prefer to know.” 

He said it gently but unequivocally. Gale had been through enough to know the kind of relationship he wanted and he wouldn’t wait around for Evie if she didn’t feel the same.

She nodded as her chest constricted. “I understand.” And even though she was already wearing lip gloss she leaned in and pressed a brief kiss to his lips.

They were the only ones in the elevator and they held hands on the way down.

“It’ll be different back home,” Evie said quietly somewhere around the fourth floor.

Gale squeezed her hand. “I know. I just think those changes won’t feel so daunting if I can face them all with you.” 

-

They filmed the finale after dark beneath the same pergola where Evie and Gale had their body painting date. It looked like a bizarre, tropical Ikea, with five loveseats for the final couples on one side of the space and two tiers of individual chairs on the other for the single contestants. Any empty spaces were dotted with end tables, candles, leafy potted plants, and several rugs scattered haphazardly on the floor. 

The tiers made the single side of the space seem like a jury box. Fitting since the losing contestants would be judging the couples harshly and probably wished to put a few of them to death.

The singles walked in first and Evie was placed right at the front of the procession, the grand marshal of the losers. The air simmered with hurt feelings as the space filled with contestants just waiting for their chance to tear down the remaining couples. But as Evie settled into her chair in the middle of the top row she felt relaxed for the first time. She couldn’t win so there was no pressure that she might lose and she had only ever been with Gale so there was no expectation that she would speak about any of the final couples. All she had to do was sit there in a nice outfit and occasionally make cutting remarks about other people’s love lives which was sort of her perfect evening. 

Gale was sitting in the row below her and to the right. Before they started properly, he turned in his chair and offered her a small wave and Evie felt like a sparkler was fizzing in her chest.

Volo appeared to them on a small dais at the front of the space and he looked at all of them with a paternal smile. He was dressed in his Matchmakers best, a blazer with shorts and white sneakers, like his beach dad persona had attempted to dress up for the one fancy dinner of the vacation.

“Welcome everyone,” he said. “It's a pleasure to see all of you in one place and looking so gorgeous. Unfortunately, none of you are leaving this villa with your perfect match. But! It is still a very real possibility for our five remaining couples. Are you ready to see them again? To pass your judgment?”

Production gave them the option to carry a large folding fan for the heat and Evie snapped hers open dramatically by way of answering while the others clapped their hands together and cheered. 

“Then let’s welcome our five final couples!”

Volo announced each couple like the herald of a ball, to wildly different receptions from the singles.

“Wyll and Lae’zel!” Wyll waved happily as the contestants cheered, making eye contact with his friends, placing a hand over his heart like he was touched. Lae’zel only inclined her head once and took her seat cuddled up close to Wyll.

“Aradin and Korrilla!” Evie didn’t clap or attempt to hide her eye roll. Korrilla just wanted to win for the sake of winning and Aradin just wanted to be in the same room as a woman. Painfully aware of this, most contestants didn’t clap either.

“Minsc and Mayrina!” A boulder of a man walked in with a big, goofy smile and a petite blonde with long beach waves on his arm. They only received a smattering of applause which made Evie realize she wasn’t crazy for thinking that she had never seen these people in her life.

“Dammon and Karlach!” People went wild when they entered, whistling and cheering and pointing, like they were the audience of a talk show and the hosts had just walked out. They were the obvious front runners with a strong combination of affection and friends in the house who would vote for them.

“And finally, our lovely ladies, Lakrissa and Alfira!” Evie sighed and snapped her fan open when they entered. Production was going to edit her to look bitter about Gale and Alfira’s date no matter what so why bother trying to change it now? Evie knew that she wasn't jealous, she was just insane.

“Welcome, welcome,” Volo said to the cast, fully assembled for the first time ever. “You all came here for one reason - to make a match. To find love. And it’s been quite the wild ride from where I’ve been standing. You’ve been brought together, broken up, found each other all over again. This is the moment it’s all been leading up to. The best match here will win an all expenses paid vacation to the location of their choosing, to jumpstart the beginning of their lives together. Later this evening, you all will be asked to vote on who you see as the perfect match. The couple with the most votes will be crowned. Simple enough, isn’t it? After so much drama and heartache?”

They applauded this even as both sides of the room eyed each other warily.

“But let’s discuss your journeys first,” Volo said. “Dammon and Karlach - how would you describe the ups and downs of your time here together?”

The host went around to each couple that way, asking them questions about their relationship, what stumbling blocks had been overcome, and letting single contestants interject with their comments and (more often) critiques.

“It’s just the switch up that bothers me,” Nym said about Dammon. “Thirty minutes before you matched with Karlach you said you wanted to end the night with me and I went home without getting a chance to speak to anyone else that night.”

“You obviously want to win,” Astarion said while assessing Wyll and Lae’zel. “But that’s about all I can say for -” he waved his hand - “whatever this is.”

Korilla made a vague allusion to “chemistry” with Aradin, a clear code for we have fun making out and have nothing in common otherwise.

Somehow Gale was the first person to speak during their time. 

“I don’t believe Aradin should even be here,” he said. “Every cast member has complained about his behavior. He’s clearly here for his fifteen minutes and not to find anything lasting.”

Evie pressed a hand over her heart. Gale was publicly calling someone out at a cast reunion. She was so proud she could have shed a tear. 

Wanting to back Gale up, Evie interjected, “He only made it this far because she's attracted to egotistical men and he knew he could exploit that.”

Mayrina spoke about the challenges of being a single mother which absolutely baffled Evie because she definitely would have remembered someone like that on this show or any Tadpole show. The existing couples and singles seemed to fawn over this, but Evie was allergic to anything she felt was purposefully inspirational.

When asked about the certainty of their future together, Minsc declared in a booming voice, “Of course we will stay together! We are in love!” And Evie couldn’t help gasping in genuine shock. Minsc didn’t seem to have the cunning to lie about his feelings for the cameras.

Lakrissa and Alfira were quite cuddly, sitting shoulder to shoulder and holding hands through each couple’s evaluation.

“Lakrissa was gone for half of the show,” Jen chimed in at one point. “It doesn’t seem fair for her to say she’s made a perfect match when she barely even met anyone here.”

A harsh assessment but Evie knew Jen had only made the observation for her, to sow doubt and siphon away votes, so she made eye contact with Jen sitting beside her that she hoped conveyed her gratitude.

Before wrapping up, Volo went to each couple and asked the same question, “Do you think you have made your perfect match here?”

And one by one, each couple agreed that they had. 

“Fantastic,” Volo said. “I love seeing so much love here this evening. I’d like to begin the voting soon - but before that! Are there any final words from any contestants? Anything you’d like to get off your chest before your time here ends? If you would like to clear the air about anything, now is your opportunity.”

Evie looked down at Gale sitting below her. She studied the dark hair curling around his ears and imagined what it felt like in her hands. He was so close but he felt much further, too far away from where she wanted him, a distance no one could bridge but her.

That moment when she walked out of the villa for the last time had felt final, closing the cover on her time. But she was still here. She still had time to be who she wanted.

“I’d like to say something,” Evie said and felt every head and camera turn towards her.

Volo held out a hand to her, imploring her to speak. She cleared her throat nervously and clutched the fan tightly with both hands.

“Nothing here went the way that I expected,” she said. “From the first day, to my exit, to sitting here right now. It’s all been so much better than I ever hoped for and that was mostly thanks to meeting Gale. And because of everything he did and how good he was to me…I feel like I owe him an apology.”

He had turned in his chair to look up at her but Evie found she couldn’t hold his gaze.

“Gale, uh -” Evie’s voice cracked. “Ever since I realized how much I liked you, I've been worried about how hard it would be to lose you. And I thought it would be easier if I had control over when you left. So I pushed you away before you could leave. But I never stopped caring about you. And I'm sorry that I hurt you by being a coward.”

“You're not a coward,” Gale said roughly, his eyes shining. “Everyone here is afraid of being heartbroken.”

The fan creaked in Evie’s hands as she gripped it tighter. “Still. I'm really sorry about how it ended. I can’t imagine going through this experience with anyone else. I know that I chose you that first night but I wanted to thank you for choosing me every night after that.”

There were a million more things Evie wanted to say but her throat was tight with emotion and looking at Gale’s achingly tender expression made her eyes fill with tears so she had to stop. 

“That was a beautiful sentiment, Evie,” Volo said.

She just snapped the fan open and looked away while using it to dry any moisture in her eyes. They were moving on to the voting now. She was officially done with the show and felt a strange sense of relief and loss. She had been holding onto so many things so tightly and now she had no choice but to let go.

The voting took ages as one by one the contestants left the filming area and went to a private set up just beyond the treeline.

When Evie arrived at the voting spot, she found a camera trained on a wooden box set out on a table. The box had a small opening carved into the top, perfectly sized to drop their votes into. Production had printed the final couple’s names onto plastic circles about the size of a drink coaster and Evie took her time dragging her nails across all of them as if she were thinking hard about her choice.

Lakrissa and Alfira seemed very enamored with each other but Evie wouldn’t vote for Alfira to win anything unless the prize was a Lottery-style public stoning. 

Wyll and Lae’zel were a solid option but Evie was feeling a little scorched earth tonight and if Lae’zel wanted her vote then she shouldn’t have matched with Gale, even strategically.

Aradin getting eliminated at the beginning and then falling upwards to somehow land in the finale was a joke. Evie still wasn't actually sure she knew who Minsc and Mayrina were.

She held her selection up for the camera to see.

“I don’t hate Dammon and Karlach as much as I hate everyone else here,” Evie said and dropped her vote into the box before giving the wood a little affectionate pat.

-

Gale was actually the last to vote and he found Evie’s eyes and smiled at her as he walked back to his chair. She smiled back at him, like she was giddy just from the act of looking at him. 

Volo called them all quickly back to attention after Gale took his seat.

“Now is the moment we have all been waiting for,” Volo said. “After tabulating each of your votes, we now know who here is the perfect match, who here will be sent on the private vacation of their dreams. It was a photo finish between two of the couples sitting here tonight, separated by just one. Single. Vote.”

Murmurs rippled through the cast and Evie couldn’t help a whispered “wow” herself, genuinely swept up in the suspense.

“And now, the winners of this year’s Matchmakers are…” Volo took a deep breath, then swept both arms towards the winning couple, “Minsc and Mayrina!”

There was a moment of awkward silence after the announcement, like the curtain had just closed on a terrible play and they all weren’t sure if they should clap for it. Then Wyll put his hands together and the cast seemed to slowly wake up and begin applauding and cheering for their winners while making incredulous eye contact with each other. They followed Wyll’s lead into a standing ovation as well, their cheering growing louder and more unwieldy as they all realized the absurdity of what had happened.

“Who are they?” Evie asked Jen, nearly drowned out by the sounds of celebration.

“I think they might have been at the hotel?” Jen said uncertainly.

Evie and Jen beamed at each other before collapsing into each other’s arms in laughter. If Minsc and Mayrina hadn't gotten to the villa until Evie left, the audience probably wouldn’t even see them until the penultimate episode. Now they had won the entire show simply by having the least amount of time to piss off the rest of the cast and cost themselves votes. Evie held Jen’s face and kissed her cheek where she was still smiling and laughing, grateful they had both survived and hoping they would never again see each other on a television set.

“Thank you all so much for being here,” Volo’s voice boomed above their laughter and cheers. “Congratulations to our winners! And now I release you back into the world to continue your quests for love!”

The cast applauded. A few people were crying. Everyone was milling around and hugging now like this was their graduation day and they were so happy for it to all be over that it didn’t matter how much they had actually liked each other during the experience. Alfira leapt at Evie with a delighted squeal and Evie patted her back even as she rolled her eyes over Alfira’s shoulder.

Even Mayrina threw her arms around Evie like they were old friends. 

“I’m so happy,” she cried, her blue eyes swimming in tears of joy.

Evie awkwardly rubbed her shoulder. “That’s great…pal.”

She was just turning away when a PA arrived beside Evie, holding a hand out as if to touch her.

“Evie, I can take your microphone,” she said pleasantly. There was already a cardboard box full of electronics tucked under her arm.

“Oh,” Evie nodded. “Sure.”

The microphone wire slithered out from beneath her top. The weight of the battery disappeared from her lower back. She thanked the assistant but the other woman was already onto the next contestant, trying to wrap up as quickly as possible. Everyone was still chatting but now no one was listening.

When Gale placed an arm around her waist, no one cared. No one was watching her anymore. No one was looking at her or noticing her except for him.

Gale. This man who thought she was funny and intelligent above all else. Who cooked food for her and laughed at her jokes. Who kissed her like he wanted her as much as he cared for her. Who probably couldn't post an Instagram story if his life depended on it. 

A man whose heart had been broken but wanted very badly to fall in love again. Who believed Evie could fall in love again too.

“What you said was lovely,” he told her.

“I should have said more,” Evie replied. “I should have written you a book of sonnets. There should have been groveling.”

She turned further into his arms, letting him envelope her in a tight embrace. He kissed her temple and her knees felt like water. “No groveling required, I promise. You made me want to say something as well but I thought you would want the last word.”

“Aw, you really do know me.”

He lowered his arms around her back and gazed down at her fondly. “I’ve been feeling some regret about our conversation earlier. I don’t want you to feel that there’s any pressure on my end. We can take things as slowly as you’d like and -”

Evie was already shaking her head. “I don’t want to be slow. I just want to be with you. It feels silly calling you my boyfriend - but also I really want to. Although ‘partner’ has a certain amount of sophistication that I don’t mind.”

Happiness and shock seemed to be struggling for control of his face. “I - w-well, of course. I still feel the same but - what changed your mind?”

“I’ve spent so long making myself sick over this show that I forgot how stupid it is,” Evie said with a laugh. “I mean, there isn’t even a cash prize. I was always the one telling you not to let the show take anything from you and I just realized…I didn’t want something so silly to be able to take you away from me. We won’t be here forever and I don’t want what we have to only belong to this.”

His mouth pressed into a thin line like he was trying to hold back his emotions. Then he held her face with both hands and kissed her forehead before pressing his own against the spot his lips had touched.

“I already told you that all you had to do was ask and I would be yours,” he said.

The show felt so fleeting now but Gale didn’t. It felt like he would always be there when she reached for him, like maybe some part of him had always been there, passing by her in the same city, waiting for them to finally cross paths.

Production began trying to herd the cast out so they could break down the set but on their way Evie turned towards the sound of a cork popping.

Minsc and Mayrina were in front of their own camera, popping a bottle of champagne and letting the bubbles flow over the side of the bottle as they laughed loudly.

Gale bent to whisper conspiratorially beside her ear. “I have to say that of all of the couples here, I didn’t expect to lose to that pair.”

Evie watched them for a moment as they leaned against each other, so excited and giddy that they could barely pour the bubbling champagne into their glasses.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe it’s real.”

Some of the smaller lights were turning off. Camera equipment was being disassembled and placed in padded boxes. Everywhere Evie looked, the show seemed to be dissolving, fading like a dream. There was nothing left to do but wake up and return to the real world.

Gale put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him, following him up the path back to the villa to go home. The show may have ended but she had a feeling their story was far from over.

Chapter Text

After spending nearly twenty minutes pacing around the kitchen, Evie gave up pretending that she wasn't obsessing over her bread and sat down on the floor in front of the oven. Tara came over to investigate and Evie absently scratched the cat's head but her attention stayed on the loaf pan and the bread rising over the top.

Gale chuckled nearby as he leaned against the counter.

“Don't laugh at me,” Evie said without looking away from the oven window.

“You just remind me of myself,” Gale said affectionately. “Although you won’t have a panel of judges eating your bread.”

The loaf Evie made was a no-knead recipe since she had just gotten a manicure and neither of them thought she was up to the task of kneading anyway. Gale said the bread was foolproof but he said the same thing about his apple crisp, a dish neither of them were able to enjoy after it sat in the oven and the warm smell of cumin began to drift through the kitchen instead of cinnamon.

She wanted to do something nice for Gale’s first month at his new university, ignoring Gale’s protests that it was not a day people typically observe. It had been a long, awkward transition for him and she wanted Gale to know she was proud of him for managing the contracts, the job search, his new students. He told Evie that he had opened up the room to questions on the first day and instead of asking about the syllabus or the textbooks, a student put their hand up and asked, “Are you the professor that painted your girlfriend on TV?” To be fair, the show had just recently premiered then and the student body hadn’t had enough time to grow bored with this information.

Season 3 of Matchmakers aired ten months after filming ended but it took about three weeks for Tadpole to release all the episodes.

Some viewers complained about the schedule, especially the final episode being released on its own a full week after the previous one, but Evie didn't think she would have been able to handle all of the show dropping at once. It was bizarre seeing the way things that she remembered had been edited into something else. It was really weird seeing it all set to music, although Evie was pleased that Tadpole licensed an actual pop song for her entrance instead of the royalty free snippets everyone else got.

It was also strange seeing so many things playing across the screen that she had never known about at all. Evie may not have been paying attention to the matching drama but when she finally saw the show she realized that a lot of people were paying attention to her.

The first episode featured a whole subplot of Rolan trying to get Evie’s attention all night and pouting when she was the first one to be matched.

They filmed a private interview with Mizora, still on the beach after the kissing challenge, saying bitterly into the camera, “I don’t think their tens were real.” 

There was a scene of Ellyka, just before the hay bale obstacle course, sitting on her bed and saying, “I want to win the challenge today to prove that a good match is about communication. It takes more than some crazy initial spark,” before the camera cut to what Gale and Evie were doing then, which seemed to be giggling at each other with their mouths just far enough apart to not legally be considered kissing.

She never got used to the wash of nerves that came with someone saying her name when she wasn’t there or the camera randomly and abruptly cutting to footage of her and Gale curled into each other, whispering, and smirking, and flirting in their own little world. Unfortunately, there was a lot for the producers to work with. 

She thought the clip of her and Gale almost hooking up would be a lot worse than it turned out to be. 

The bad news was they had accidentally placed themselves at the perfect angle for the camera to capture everything up to the point that it became too raunchy for television. Even in the dim light, the audience got to see Evie’s mouth falling open as Gale kissed her throat and the crappy microphone in their room was still good enough to capture the distinct sound of moaning.

The slightly better news was that the show was so crammed with footage of Evie and Gale kissing, or about to kiss, or looking at each other like they were going to eat each other that one makeout was hard to distinguish from any other. It was significant to Evie but to the audience it was just What Gale And Evie Are Like.

(She tried not to think about Gale's mother seeing this. Morena claimed she didn't watch the show but something about the way she asked Evie for a sunscreen recommendation seemed pointed in a way that made her extremely suspicious.)

They couldn’t air any of Gale saying that he wasn’t intended for the original cast and the producer’s attempts to edit around it were sloppy and confusing. Their argument was full of so many Franken-quotes, bits of dialogue edited together from unknown moments in time, that Evie didn’t even feel humiliated by the version of her they put on screen. It didn’t even feel like a real person anymore.

It did crush her to watch Gale cry after telling herself for so long that she wouldn’t let him get hurt on camera. When she saw the scene, she turned into Gale’s arms on their couch and cried and apologized into his chest but he just held her tightly and told her he had forgiven her before he had even gone to sleep that night.    

Evie was extremely grateful for the ten month pause between the end of filming and the show’s release and she didn’t seem to be the only cast member in need of some grounding in the real world. Lae’zel deleted and reactivated her Instagram once a month before the premiere. Jen was almost impossible to get a hold of because of how often she was traveling somewhere new.

I think I'm going to Prague with Halsin for a bit this summer , Jen texted Evie about two months after they got home.

Oh?? 👀👀 Evie replied.

Probably. I might meet Astarion afterwards in Berlin.

OH????? 👀👀👀👀👀 Evie texted back frantically.

And then, because Jen was wretched and evil, she proceeded to get on a plane for fourteen hours and when she responded the next day it was only to say Yeah I think🤷‍♀️ .

Evie had also traveled to prepare herself for the show’s release. After returning from Panama, Gale insisted they stay in London for an entire month before they could go off on another trip. Evie thought maybe he was worried she might bolt during that excursion into the real world but she remained certain that she wanted to be with him. And eventually Gale let her take him to Greece for three weeks of feeding each other olives, winding their way through cobblestone streets and ancient ruins, and making love whenever they felt like it with bright sunshine and the Mediterranean Sea just outside their window.

He told her that he loved her for the first time in Greece. They were stumbling back to their hotel after dinner one night, leaning on each other and laughing, drunk on wine and some clear spirit the owner of the restaurant had given them for free when he saw how cuddly they were being.

Gale wrapped an arm around her waist, securing her tightly against him, and cradled her alcohol warmed cheek in his other hand.

“I love you, Evie,” he said.

Instead of being afraid she felt a warm pulse through her body and a sense of comfort, like she was right where she was supposed to be.

“I love you too,” she answered, leaning into his palm. 

It felt so easy to say it then. As easy as it felt to love him during the show, during their trip, during every day after.

Now, the kitchen timer dinged and Evie scrambled to get off the floor and grab the oven mitts, sending Tara sprinting from the room.

Evie removed the loaf pan from the oven and moved it slowly and delicately as if she were handling plutonium, setting the whole thing on a wire cooling rack. She took a deep breath, settling herself, before taking hold of the pan again.

"Carefully..." Gale said.

Evie tipped the pan slowly and the entire loaf of bread slid out and onto the wire rack.

"Ah! Oh my God, look at it!" she said excitedly before quickly setting the loaf upright. "I did that! That bread was flour this morning!"

Gale’s smile was full of genuine pride. "It looks perfect, well done."

"Oh, he's beautiful.” Evie bent down until she could feel the warmth of the bread on her face, staring at every crumb along its golden surface. She moved for the bread knife but Gale touched her wrist.

“Not yet,” he said. “It needs to rest for thirty minutes.”

“Thirty?” she asked incredulously. “I thought the whole point was to eat it warm and fresh. I bought that special butter.”

“I know, I know,” he assured her. “But trust me, it's still boiling in there. It’ll be plenty warm thirty minutes from now.”

Evie groaned. “Oh my God, this is taking forever, it was in the fridge all day.”

“And think of how delicious it will be after waiting for so long. Come -” he touched the small of her back and ushered her out of the kitchen. “We can watch something to distract you while we wait.”

During her first visit, Evie had decided that Gale’s place was the one they would keep whenever they moved in together. It was clean and smelled like baked goods and fresh linens. There were stacks of books that Gale swore had a system and full shelves in nearly every room. The furniture was all soft and gently worn, like it had been lived in and slept on and loved. She knew right away that she wanted this place to be theirs and now it felt like it always had been. Like it was just waiting for them to be there together.

They left the bread to cool and Evie curled up against Gale on the living room couch, leaning her head onto his shoulder and pulling her feet up next to her.

“Is there anything you’re in the mood to watch?” Gale asked as he grabbed the remote.

Evie snuggled into him, hugging him around his waist. “I don’t care. As long as it’s scripted.”