Reality And Romance

Chapter 7

Libby was pleased, her second appearance on show had been far better. Andrew and Libby had gone to speak with Vanessa, who had agreed to let her drop the ‘ice queen librarian act’ and let Libby be herself. No special makeup, or fancy hair, although she had still worn the nice suit Andrew had designed for her and the Valentino Rockstuds shoes, because she couldn’t lie, they were fu*king gorgeous.

They had decided in the end that Libby should only come on for special events, they were to treat her more like a guest star than a recurrent feature. Andrew and Libby were both still tentative about letting their relationship develop in front of the cameras, but at least if they had something specific to do, they could prioritize that instead of spending all their time worrying.

For this particular guest star appearance, they had decided to host a sneak preview of the routine Andrew and Libby were practicing for the fashion show. It was unusual to have anyone do anything at the end of the runway outside of normal poses, but Andrew had decided that this was his big chance, and he needed to make an impression. It was a big risk, but if it paid off it would be worth it, and he’d rather try something big and fail, then spend eternity wondering what would have happened if he had taken the chance.

They began by running through the costumes together, and Libby pretended to play the role of enthusiastic presenter as she questioned Andrew about his costume designs.

“This one here looks like something that would be worn by royalty rather than a superhero,” Libby said, holding up the design for Aaron’s costume. “What inspired you to design this?”

Andrew grinned, “Nothing inspired me,” he insisted. “He said, and I quote ‘I already look like royalty, so I simply must have the costume to go with it.”

“And this one,” she pointed to the design for Vanessa’s ‘Madame Butterfly’ costume.

“That’s not strictly a superhero costume,” said Andrew.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, every great hero needs an archenemy. My mother will be playing the part of the scheming super villain in this performance. So naturally her costume reflects that.”

Libby laughed, “How did she react when you told her the news? Was she offended?”

Andrew smiled wryly, “Actually, I think she was rather flattered.”

After running through the selection of the costumes they moved onto the final part of, what they were calling ‘The Fashion Week Special’, which was a sneak preview of the performance itself. They had been practicing for just over a week now. They were going to stage a fight, a true testament to the costumes they were wearing. To do this they had to move all the equipment out of the dining room, before picking up a pair of wooden swords that Andrew had purchased, and changed into safety gear. Slowly, they ran through several of the basic moves the instructor had taught them. They began the routine quite slowly at first, reluctant to show anything too impressive, in case it ruined the impact they were hoping to make at the fashion show. They were actually moves that required very little skill, but that would look cool if they were performed fast enough. They had been practicing every day for several hours and were getting rather good. After a couple of minutes running through the basics, at a slow-motion speed, they did speed up a little, just to give a taster of how good it might look and to add a little intrigue. After all, they didn’t want to go too far the other way and make it look as if Andrew’s show would be a flop.

As they were doing this, with the heat of the exercise and the concentration required to perform the moves correctly, a part of Libby forgot that she was on camera, and she began to enjoy herself.

“Just give up Ironchest! You know you’ll never defeat me.” She shouted, hoping Andrew would find it funny if she got more into character.

Andrew gave a beaming smile and had to dodge at the very last moment to avoid being hit. It was nice to see Libby relax on show, to finally look as if she were enjoying herself. “Never Liberty!” He said, before continuing in what was an (exceptionally poor) attempt at a British accent. “For I intend to steal…the Statue of Liberty!” He punctuated his statement, with what was supposed to be a maniacal laugh.

Libby broke character momentarily pulling her sword back. “Two things: firstly, am I the hero? I thought we both decided I was the villain and secondly, you want to steal the Statue of Liberty? That is the lamest villainous plan I have ever heard of.” She scoffed. “How would you even go about doing that?”

“Red light saber aside, your name is Liberty Belle, and you took out a mugger with your shoe. You’re definitely the hero. Oh, and I can steal the Statue of Liberty because I am an evil genius and completely unstoppable.”

Libby remained unconvinced, “I don’t know, that things pretty big, seems like a logistical nightmare.

Andrew grinned, “I’ll find a way, build a giant crane or something.”

“A giant crane? Don’t take this the wrong way Andrew, but maybe you should give up on this whole villain thing.” She smiled, “If you’re a good boy I might even let you be my sidekick instead.”

As Libby re-drew her sword, they continued to bicker companionably as they fought, until the practice came to an end, and they both collapsed breathlessly onto the floor.

After they had showered and changed into something more comfortable, they moved to the main room so that Libby could relax with the family for a while. They chatted idly, and Libby felt far more relaxed than she had on her previous appearance. She even began to join in with the guys jokes, poking fun at them and getting teased right back. It was companionable, she felt like she was being accepted into the family, and that kind of acceptance put her at ease in front of the cameras, although she couldn’t forget about them completely.

Finally the day drew to a close and Libby only had one more task to perform. They wanted her to enter ‘The Hot Tub’ of truth. Libby wasn’t actually bothered by this. She wasn’t body conscious and the bikini they had given her was nice; high wasted, it showed off her ample hips, good ass and tits. Libby went in feeling confident.

Andrew couldn’t walk her to the spa, as it was supposed to be a confessional, and the audience couldn’t know it had been premeditated, so she went down alone, to the small wooden cabin at the end of their large garden. As she walked inside, she observed the large Jacuzzi that was stationed in the middle of the room. It was already bubbling and ready for her arrival. Above the Jacuzzi was an air vent, clearly in place to prevent the camera (which itself, was positioned very unsubtly in a large box in the center of the wall), from steaming up.

Removing her towel, Libby lowered herself into the warm water, sighing as she adjusted to the temperature. She allowed herself to relax for a couple of minutes before speaking, running over what she wanted to say in her head. This was her first time in the ‘Hot tub of truth’, and her first chance to make a good impression.

“I know a lot of you probably see me as a sort of library based Yoko Ono and to be honest as a fan of the show, I might have been inclined to see myself this way too. There’s been a lot of speculation about what happened with me and Andrew, and a lot of noise about how someone like me, managed to get a man like him? There are a few answers to this. The first, as I’m sure you can tell is obvious…I’ve got a body that won’t quit.” She stood up to emphasis the point. She knew it was a bold move, but the press liked to go for women’s bodies. Even the stick thin Vanessa had some nasty speculation. Libby liked her body and had always been happy with her figure. That had started to change over the past few weeks and she hated it. Libby had finally decided that she wasn’t going to let anyone’s opinion dictate how happy she was with how she looked. She liked herself and that was enough.

Pleased that she had sufficiently made her first point, Libby lowered herself back into the tub, before she made her second complaint.