Reality And Romance

Libby smiled, “It’s pretty impressive, I’ve gotta say.”

Andrew met her eyes, and returned her smile, although it was a little half hearted. Libby suppressed a frown, he had clearly seen her interview. As she reached the steps leading up to the main house, he walked forward to take her arm, and lent down to whisper in her ear.

“Giggle, and pretend I said something funny once I’ve pulled away, okay? What I actually want to say is that I’m sorry you had to say that bullsh*t for the camera’s, and that it should get easier once we get in the house. Just endorse the right products and every now and then talk about your cold past. A throw away comment here and there will do, but you can mostly be yourself.”

Libby scoffed, masking it as a chuckle as Andrew pulled away. How could she ‘be herself’ with the endless instructions that had been directed at her before the show. Libby felt an enormous amount of pressure pushing down hard on her. How could she not? All those people who were watching, judging…

“You look lovely by the way,” he said sincerely, before smirking and leaning down to her ear once more. “Although I must say, I still prefer the Yoda bedclothes.”

This time Libby let out a genuine chuckle, before remembering her shoes and suit. “Thank you, by the way. For the clothes and these shoes. It was really thoughtful of you.”

Andrew flushed a little. “You’re welcome, I’m glad you like them.”

As they walked up the steps, the other two brothers greeted her with a hug and they all pretended to introduce themselves for the first time, before going in. They headed straight to the living room, which was large and modern, with several huge red couches and bean bags sprawled across the floor. Libby tentatively took a space on the edge of one of them and Andrew sat next to her. The first few minutes were filled with general chit chat, until naturally the topic of their relationship came up.

“Well, at first I thought he was kidnapping me.” She gave Andrew a pointed wink. “But then I realized, alas he was my hero. He was just carrying me out of the way of a car.”

Andrew smiled, although Libby could tell he was equally uncomfortable. “Yea, uh, you’re welcome.”

Vanessa nodded at her, clearly pleased with the way things were going. Libby took it as a sign to continue. “His presence made me less cold. I used to be obsessed with money and getting to the top, I wanted to become, er, the head librarian in New York. I wanted power.” Libby said, forcing conviction in her voice. She thought she must look insane to the audience at home, wondering if anyone really believed that there were power hungry, money thirsty librarians.

Pleased that the topic had been covered sufficiently, the five of them descended back into idle chatter, until Vanessa gave them, what Libby assumed to be a signal to act, and Johnny challenged Aaron and Andrew to a push-up contest. The men took off their shirts and oiled up, before pushing away on the floor. Libby watched in enjoyment, it wasn’t often she got to see such a delicious display of muscles, and she was going to take advantage of every minute of it. Aaron was the first to drop out, most of his training regime was focused on maintaining a muscular but slender figure, for the clothes he models. Johnny and Andrew fought for a bit, but Andrew eventually ran out of energy. Johnny raised his arms in victory.

“Success!”

“Damn,” Andrew said ruefully, collapsing next to Libby on the sofa.

“Don’t worry about it, you did well.” She said to Andrew, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, before adding. “I almost forgot how fantastic your body is.”

“Speaking of figures,” Vanessa said, eyeing the smooth curves of Libby’s hips. “What diet are you on?”

‘Sh*t,’ thought Libby, Vanessa had specified that they were currently sponsored by a certain diet program, and both of them were supposed to endorse it. “Well, I could hardly reveal the secret of my, er, dieting success,” She eyed Vanessa immediately.

Thankfully Vanessa understood at once. “Oh no dear, you must tell me! I’m on the ‘Calorie Cut Express Diet’ which is working wonders, I wasn’t aware another diet could compete!”

Libby was actually on the – occasionally freak out about her weight, give up carbs for two weeks before quitting because she loved fries – diet. “I might be on something similar,” she tried to make her voice sound sly.

“Another Express Dieter! Well my dear, I’m sure we’re going to get along just fine.”

As the day went on, more conversations such as that one, occurred and Libby began to get frustrated. She didn’t relish having to tone herself down, nor did she enjoy the occasional signals to say something that insinuated that she had once been a power hungry ice queen, nor the occasional references to Andrew’s heroism in ‘saving her’, although they were at least now being balanced with stories of Libby’s bravery in helping that man escape from the mugger.

By the end of the day she was very tired of it all and pleased to go home. She hadn’t hated the experience, although wouldn’t say she had enjoyed it especially, given the constant bullsh*t she was being forced to spout. But, nothing bad had come of it all, aside from a little wounded pride.

Or at least, that’s what she thought.