A Match Made in Heaven

Reece turned to Patricia. She as a bit harder to soothe. The woman kept shooting daggers at Janelle as if she could kill her by evil looks alone. That almost made Janelle want to roll her eyes, but instead she decided to remain the mature adult in the situation.

“This isn’t fair!” Patricia was saying, her arms now folded across her chest. “I played this game just like everyone else and made it to this round. You can’t do this! We had a connection,” she said to Reece. “I’m going to sue the crap out of this show,” she said as she jabbed a finger towards Janelle.

“I think I have a solution,” Reece was saying as he reached into his back pocket.

Janelle glanced over at him as he wrote out two checks. He gave one to each of the women. Both of their eyes went wide. Amber immediately tucked hers inside of her bra while Patricia glanced between him and the check.

“Of course,” Reece said quickly, “the condition to those checks is that neither one of you sues this show or Janelle. Understood?”

Amber nodded quickly. “No problem with me! Thanks!” She gave him a hug before she was off of the stage in a flash.

Patricia sighed. “Fine. I’ll take your stupid check,” she looked him up and down. “We could have had something special.”

“I know it,” Reece said, giving her a wink.

The woman grinned before she too left the stage. Janelle let out a deep breath that she’d been holding since the women first walked up to them. Everything seemed to be smoothed over. She turned to Reece, a broad smile on her lips.

“You’re amazing,” she said.

“Oh, you have no idea,” he said as he grabbed her into another deep kiss.

*****

Janelle raced around her apartment. As much as she’d been around Reece in the past few weeks, she felt as if this was different. This was an actual date. She hadn’t gone on one of those in so long that she’d forgotten what it felt like. Frantically, she texted him as she glanced at the clock. It was already six.

What am I supposed to wear?

Reece texted back promptly. Something should be arriving just about now.

No sooner had she read the text, there was a knock on the door. She walked over, a towel still wrapped around her body as she threw open the door. A man stood there, several boxes in his hands. Janelle signed for them before he was off again. She closed and locked her door.

Janelle opened the big box first. Inside, there was a dress in a pearl pink color. It was long, the front dipped low to show off her cleavage. The back cut down to show off her back. She pulled the dress up to herself and gazed into the mirror.

“Not bad,” she mumbled as she moved back and forth.

Janelle made herself focus as she went back for the next box. It held a pair of pearl pink shoes. Another box held a wrap that matched the dress. The last box was jewelry. Sparkling diamonds glittered at her in the form of a necklace, bracelet and earrings. She swallowed thickly. He really was rich.

That made her even more nervous. She wasn’t poor herself, but she didn’t have billions, that was for sure. She bit her lip. What if she backed out? Just said no? Janelle chided herself. No, she was going to put herself out there for once. Besides, she deserved to be happy.

She carried the boxes up to her room before she dropped the towel. First, she slipped on the lacy white underwear that she’d purchased before she drove home from the studio. The material against her skin felt soft, sexy. She smiled softly at her reflection in the mirror.

Janelle slipped the dress on next. It looked amazing against her brown skin. It showed just enough cleavage to not make her uncomfortable and it was the perfect size. She slipped into the shoes before sliding on the jewelry. It laid against her skin, sparkling and cool.

She walked downstairs to start on her makeup. Janelle kept it simple; mascara, eye shadow and a nude lipstick to compliment the dress. Mya had already helped her curl her hair before she’d left. All she had to do was pin it up. When she was done, she stared at herself and blinked.

“Woah,” she whispered, “I look amazing.”

Janelle stuck her makeup, money and ID inside of a clutch that had been tucked inside of the dress box. A smile was on her lips. It had been a long time since she felt like this. She glanced at her phone. It was almost seven. Reece was always on time too, all she had to do was wait.

She walked out of the bathroom, shutting the light off as she went. Mulder twisted himself between her ankles as usual as she walked into the living room. Nervousness lay in her stomach. She tried to push it away. She needed this. Besides, she was just as excited as she was nervous.

When she glanced at her phone again, she noticed that Clark and Mya had already texted her twice. She text them back before she sat on a bar stool in the kitchen. Janelle wondered absently where he was going to take her when there was a knock on the door. She jumped.

Quickly, she slid out of her seat and headed over to the door. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself. She pulled open the door.