Stay With Me 2

by Jessica Aniston

  “It’s fine,” she whispers back and then leans out to kiss his cheek and then study him as a delicious wave of arousal clouds her mind in the best of ways.

  “I’m glad we’re doing this together,” she says louder, as level as she can, purely for the sake of the camera’s mic.

  “Me too,” Declan breathes, wonder in his eyes. “God, you’re so beautiful.” He shakes his head at her, in disbelief and something else she can’t quite name but likes on his face a lot. “Do I tell you that enough? You’re so gorgeous and I’m so crazy about you.” His hands tug at her hips and she gasps, which earns her more fingernails, actually scratching her under the blanket of rumbling water. “God, Rinny. I could eat you alive.”

  She wishes he would. She would agree to whatever it is they’re doing, she doesn’t even mind when Declan seemingly snaps out of it. But then again, his hands are still clutching her tight as he turns to Gorman to ask breathlessly: “You need more kissing or do you got enough of that?”

  “Do whatever comes naturally,” Gorman replies somewhere behind a curtain Karin has pulled over the rest of the world. “The editors will choose what they want.”

  Declan nods and turns his head back around to her and everything aside from his face blurs out into oblivion.

  “Come here,” he half-breathes, half-growls, and she kisses him before he can finish licking his lips. She tries to keep it as PG as she can, prying his lips open with her teeth, grinding on him hard but the first time they have to come up for air, she whispers into his mouth, hoping for some sort of effect on him that she hopes won’t be PG at all.

  “Yes, sir,” she whispers and his response is a growl so primal and lewd the camera catches it. They’re going to cut that out in post production though, just like they’re going to bleep out every time when she makes him curse under his breath. Yet, what the camera doesn’t catch, thank God, is how he thrusts up and against her hard. But Karin does.

  She keeps kissing him. Kissing and grinding and grinding and kissing and however stupid and borderline exhibitionist this is, she doesn’t give a damn. She’s keyed up and desperate, all the electricity that’s built up in her system since they got here that has had no outlet before discharging at once, making her twitch and shiver. The water around them is just adding to the sensation of the boundaries of her body breaking open and falling away. She’s pure energy now. She completely unravels beneath his hands. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knows that this might be a bit too much - that maybe indulging in this level of intimacy with him might open a door inside her that she won’t be able to close. But with Declan pulling her down onto his hips again, she tells the back of her mind to kindly go to hell and leave her alone to enjoy this.

  Declan kisses her as if he never needs to come up for air again and he’s moving beneath her, chasing the closeness and the friction like he’s just as starved and needy for it as she is. It’s all a big crescendo and Karin has to catch herself once or twice to keep from moaning, remembering that there is still a camera on her and this is not the blue hour on some crappy cable channel. It’s just that suddenly, it’s that much harder to hold on to her sanity. Because Declan’s legs tremble underneath her and his breathing sputters like an old engine, misfiring, falling over itself and he whimpers, so startled and suppressed it comes out more like a cough.

  She’s not sure but she thinks he might’ve just come. There’s a possibility that he did but an she be sure?

  Her eyes fly open to check in with him and he’s already there, waiting, looking startled, at once apologetic and embarrassed. Maybe he did. She isn’t sure. If he did, it would make sense that he looks at her like he did something terrible but it’s alright. It happens. It’s a physical thing. He’s worried that she’ll read into it, but she won’t. She knows how it is. Bodies, male bodies especially, react to stimulation in a certain way. She knows it’s normal, that it isn’t personal. So she tries to put him at ease, leans in and kisses him softly on the forehead. The way he gazes at her after she pulls away is complete dumbstruck adoration, like she’s done him a favor by reassuring him. I’m not deluding myself here, Shelton. I know how it is. But it’s sweet that he keeps giving her that look, like she’s wondrous, like she’s special.

  That look makes it into the final cut of the first episode, with much, much less of the kissing and none of the grinding.

  It’s the moment when, at the fire-station in Bronstown a couple weeks later, Scarlett grabs Darla’s hand where she sits beside her and gasps.

  “Oh boy,” she mutters and looks at her friend who stares back at her, wide eyed.

  “Is he…” Darla asks, not daring to put the two big words out there because she knows that they only spell danger. Scarlett nods and looks shocked and also a little bit scared.

  “Yes, I think he is,” she answers.

  “Oh boy,” Darla repeats uselessly.

  Yes, it sure looks like things are about to get a whole lot more complicated for their lovely, clueless children now, and there’s nothing they can do but watch.

  “I think we’ve got enough, you two,” Gorman says, barely audible. “Thanks.”

  Karin nods, sighs into herself and gingerly climbs off of Declan, her body buzzing and her mind once more in awe of how Declan manages to look at her like she’s everything he’s ever wanted, like he wants to take her to bed and have his way with her and then to City Hall to get married and never leave her side. She knows in her heart that’s impossible.

  It’s impressive how well he can act, startling even, because none of the things she reads on his face he’s ever wanted to do, not in real life. He never will.

  CHAPTER TWO

  T he night the second episode of Heart Roulette airs, the Bronstown Fire Station is bursting at the seams with people. To say that the first episode had made a big splash would be a drastic understatement. The whole country is buzzing with excitement about the whodunit fake love story and speculation throughout the nation is already running rampant about who the culprits are. Obviously, Darla and Scarlett know, just like the rest of the Bristeadians in attendance, but that doesn’t prevent people from gathering around the television they’ve set up to watch the episode air in real time and reacting with great fervor to everything Karin and Declan do on the screen.

  The most interesting thing is how quiet it gets whenever their kids are shown “canoodling”, kissing or looking at each other in their interview segments, like the sun rises and sets in the other’s eyes. It’s then that Scarlett can sense heads snapping towards her and Darla; she can feel the stares and sense the questions no one dares to actually ask. Questions like “Are you sure your children aren’t sleeping with each other after all?”, “Why does Declan look at her like that?”, “Why is Karin so out of breath after they kiss?” They’re questions she asks herself and isn’t sure she’s able to answer.

  At the beginning of episode two, though, there’s still clutter and commotion in the large garage, as chairs are pushed and pulled to the right places, beer bottles are uncapped, chips passed around, and the previous week’s developments are recapped on screen. After a brief “Last week on Heart Roulette” featuring Karin sitting on top of Declan in the hot tub, kissing him like it’s the beginning of a porno movie, then Declan looking at her after the kiss, gazing at her like she’s made of sparkling diamonds , the intro plays: sunshine, a wide drone-shot of the villa and pop music.

  Ten minutes into the episode, though, she isn’t quite sure how many more inquisitive sideway-glances she can take. She’s a little buzzed off the wine that Darla and she started sipping the moment Karin apologized on screen to her mother for making a lewd gesture about what Scarlett muses is her youngest son’s sexual prowess. Meanwhile, when they show Declan shooting billiard balls somewhat capably down the pool table in the guy’s segment of the ‘significant other’-talk up, he gazes off into space, frozen in his movements, as soon as he starts talking about Karin. The words tumble from his lips like he can’t stop himse
lf: “I’ve never met anyone like Karin in my life, like I have this ... ” he stops, considers and then goes on: “She’s such an unbelievable woman and she’s so wonderful, I’ve never met someone so consistent.”

  He gives up trying to shoot another ball and stands up to put the cue to the side, allowing his free hands to start fidgeting nervously.

  “She can get grumpy but that’s about it,” he continues, deep in thought. “She’ll never get past the grumpy stage. The thing with us is that we’re very, very sensitive so when she’s grumpy, I always think it’s my fault and when I’m a little emotional, I do get to the angry stage and then she thinks it’s her fault. But what she does is, she’s so consistent but still so passionate. I don’t quite understand how that works because my passion and emotion is always kind of a roller coaster ride but she brings this level of consistency and clear-headed thinking and she just smoothes me right out. She has such a good handle on me. I know that sounds stupid but I need that so much. I’ve always needed that. She’s been through a lot with me, because I’m a handful, but she’s never given up. She always stayed, through all the crap I pulled in the past years. She balances me and I need her. I don’t think she realizes that she keeps me alive.”

  It’s very quiet in Bronstown then, like you could hear a pin drop, which is mostly because Declan’s constantly commenting, joking friends have fallen completely silent where they sit some two rows behind Scarlett.

  “Wow,” she hears Oakley mutter. “That just got real.” Didn’t it indeed? Scarlett doubts the strangers watching this will understand just how real it got, with Declan saying that. He’s never before, not once, said anything of this magnitude about any of his past girlfriends. The strange suspension of noise after Declan’s comments lasts practically until Karin and Declan are shown getting their prize for winning the first challenge, and then Declan’s friends are back to talking loudly through every scene that features their friend, providing a slightly annoying if still hilarious running-commentary on her baby boy seeing sharks in real life for the first time ever. His boyish giddiness that comes through even when underwater and decked from head to toe in diving gear brings tears to her eyes.

  People are getting a little antsy over the commercial break before the challenge for the second episode is revealed, and there are even more murmurs and comments made once it does get announced, which is hilarious because it isn’t like there haven’t been teasers aired all week about what it will be. They already know the challenge will be saccharine and cheesy as heck, but they still all react with coos and hums anyway. It’s almost like they’re trained monkeys.

  “Good morning couples,” Tag, that TV-actor who is hosting the show, grins at the contestants all lined up in summer clothes in their extravagant living room, looking very sharp. “Today for the challenge of this week, I’d like you to follow me to the condo. I can only tell you so much: Joy awaits you, bundles full of joy!”

  The scene cuts to the group following after their host, passing by the stunning pool in the yard with the view of the ocean in all its turquoise, brightly saturated glory, and enter the guest condo - and sitting there on the pool table are five baby carriers with dolls in them. All of them are crying frantically with robotic voices.

  “We walk in the room and there is so much screaming!” Declan says, the scene transitioning to one of his talking heads interviews.

  “We were all just wondering what is going on,” says the blonde girl in the next scene, the one with the rich boyfriend, Morris as they recall, and then they’re cutting back to the game room, the contestants pulling confused faces at the cacophony of tiny fake babies screaming their plastic heads off.

  “Surprise!” the host yells, trying to be heard over the noise, looking smug. “This week’s challenge is all about family. For the first part of the challenge, you’re each becoming parents to one of these true-to-life newborn dolls. You are going to take care of them with all the love and care of real-life parents for twenty-four hours starting now. Your babies are like real life children and will occasionally start crying. Just like with real kids, they can’t tell you what is wrong, so you’re going to have to figure out if what your baby needs is feeding, changing, or physical affection.”

  Tag takes a breath so that the contestants can follow his explanations, which is a good thing, Scarlett thinks, because she can hardly follow either. “Now, the dolls are actually highly intricate little machines that will record the way you interact with them,” Tag continues after a moment. “If you get impatient and, let’s say, try and shake them, they will make note of that. If you let them scream for hours, they will make note of that, too. It will record how many tries you need to figure out what the problem is and how much time you devote to it when it is not crying for your attention. All this data will be used in your evaluation and will get you points to go into elimination with. The higher your score, the better. Couples, good luck!”

  They show the couples each walking to their designated dolls and Karin and Declan wind up with a bald, pale one in a pink jumper to indicate its gender. Darla’s daughter approaches the table with an expression of almost abject horror on her face, her voice-over sounding slightly rehearsed and scripted laid over it.

  “So, we are getting our baby and I am already overwhelmed. I haven’t really thought about children yet, so I don’t know if I even have a maternal side,” Karin says and then she is on screen next to Declan, looking at him. “But Declan already has nieces and nephews, so he was a natural right from the start.”

  “Karin had to come around to it,” he shrugs beside her. “But I think she got into it pretty quickly.”

  In Bronstown, nearly two weeks after this was filmed, people lean in expectantly, and as Scarlett watches them watch Declan and Karin try and handle their assigned plastic baby, she wonders if they can tell that they are witnessing her son fall so much deeper into the hole he’s dug himself. Deeper than she thinks he’s capable of getting out of once this is all over. It makes her fear for the son’s feelings but it also feels right, seeing him doing all those things with Karin, just like everyone knew it should be.

  As it happens on the island, weeks before, Karin for her part, has no idea about what Scarlett will see once the episode they’re shooting airs. She is too busy trying not to ruin the challenge within the first few minutes by dropping the ‘baby’ or some damning mistake of the sort. She and Declan and their ‘baby’ have been moved to the computer desk in one corner of the game room to get acquainted with the fake child and Gorman hovers about while she prods at the artificial baby’s head, the skin made of some rubbery plastic that almost feels human. Feeling more than a little uncomfortable, she shudders from the uncanny sensation.

  “This is ridiculous,” she says, turning to Declan who is eyeing her, looking vaguely amused.

  “Oh, come on, Rinny,” he chides.

  “No, I mean it,” she tells him and adjusts her shirt slyly because her mic’s cord is tingling her between her breasts. “This is a doll. They want us to play with dolls.”

  “So? You have to make it real,” Declan says and then moves to pick the ‘baby’ up from its resting place because it’s still crying loudly. He puts it against his chest and starts rocking it softly, obviously having guessed “physical affection” right because the doll stops screaming after five or six seconds of his attentions.

  “But it’s not,” Karin argues and studies the scene before her, all the other couples doing some variant of what Declan is doing, taking the dolls out of the carriers, prodding at them and starting to try and get them to stop crying. Over in the other corner, Courtney has already started to undress theirs and by the couch, Mimi is hopelessly cradling their ‘baby’, seeming completely overwhelmed and stressed by the task mere minutes in. Grace stands by much like Karin and looks appalled, fiddling with the plastic bottle which she soon attempts to stick into the doll’s mouth with little success.

  “Pretend,” Declan orders, snapping Karin’s attentio
n back to him. You’re good at that, she thinks unbidden, and pushes the thought away. She doesn’t have time for this right now.

  “We should name her, that’ll help,” Declan suggests, tilting his head so it nudges the fake baby’s face around to Karin. “Anything but Noelle.”

  “It’s a beautiful name,” Karin says, rolling her eyes. Can he cut it out? Oldies music that borders on embarrassing, the ridiculous rom com movies he never lets her watch on movie night, and now Noelle: things he just won’t quit telling her he hates that she loves.

  “It sounds like a disease, Rinny,” Declan scoffs. “Do you want to call her Tuberculosis instead? Go big or go home?”

  “Very funny,” she deadpans.

  “Look at her,” Declan says, ignoring her and turning the baby out for her to study. “What does she look like? A little Amy?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Karin replies, humoring him.

  “Cher,” Declan suggests and Karin snorts.

  “What?” she wheezes. “Why would we name our baby Cher?”

  “I thought because you like that movie, Clueless,” Declan shrugs and she wonders why he is still holding the thing when it’s stopped crying already and the task is done for now.

  “That’s a bit out there,” she comments his last name suggestion.

  “Oh, yes but Noelle is very commonplace,” he teases and raises the doll in his arms to get it even closer to her. “Name our baby, Rinny.”