Real Love

by Natasha West

  ‘Yeah, it’s a bit of a tricky tightrope, scripted reality’ Ryan continued. ‘But at the end of the day, there’s an appetite for it and we’re going to fill it with the strongest content we can. The angle we’re taking this series is that if we get in some good actors and encourage them to be themselves, but just, you know… in the situation we dictate, we get the best of both worlds. People with certain skills and personality, and a strong sense of drama. But still with that reality edge. A more professional, polished angle on the scripted reality genre. Am I making sense?

  ‘So, it’s like an improvised drama?’ Daisy said, still semi-bewildered. But Ryan seemed delighted with her.

  ‘Yes! Precisely.’

  Ryan gave a small glance at Jill and she gave a sort of nod shrug. Ryan turned back to Daisy.

  ‘So… Do you think you’d be interested?’

  ‘Yer what?!’ Daisy uttered in pure astonishment.

  ‘We like you. You’re smart and feisty. Plus, you’ve got that gritty Northern accent that people love.’

  ‘Hang on a second. You’re offering me the part? Like, right now?’

  ‘We’ve seen fifteen people already this morning. They came in and kissed our arses, tried to give us what they thought we were looking for. No one came in here asking uncomfortable questions like you did. That’s what we’re looking for. Spark. You’ve got spark, Daisy. Now, can we rent that spark out for an episode?’

  Four

  ‘Ashley will want me to do it. I know she will.’

  Abigail was sat on her sofa (she called it a chaise, but Daisy could never use a word like that with a straight face) pushing buttons on the remote, looking through the options, trying to find Laid in Medford.

  ‘Scripted reality, that’s what they said it was? Sweet Jesus’ Abigail said, realising she was in entirely the wrong menu.

  ‘It’s bad, isn’t it? I mean, it’s definitely not acting. Is it?’

  ‘Well, I don’t know. Let’s just check it out, see what’s what before you make this decision. Ah, got it.’

  The show sprung to life and Daisy and Abigail watched with rising horror. It was nothing but love triangles, bitching, betrayal and jealousy. And that was before the first ad break.

  The central conceit seemed to be that a man called Reece Hewitt, all muscles and teeth, was desired by just about every woman within a five-mile radius. He couldn’t seem to walk into a bar without some woman marching over and demanding to know why he hadn’t called her. Usually, while his friends watched and laughed. Then Reece would pretend to be embarrassed by the scene he’d caused while obviously enjoying the attention no end.

  ‘Well…’ Abigail started during the ads.

  ‘Christ. Is that what I’d be doing? Making a scene over this idiot?’

  ‘Quite possibly. But it’s one ep. It’s not as though anyone will remember it in a few months. Maybe Ashley’s right. Maybe profile is profile at this point.’

  ‘Let me ask you this. Would you do it?’

  Abigail cocked her head to the side as she considered. ‘Well… No. But that’s only because my Dad would have sixteen heart attacks in a row if his daughter and heir apparent to the Rothley name did reality TV.’

  ‘Fair enough’ Daisy shrugged. It was something she didn’t have to consider. Her name was her own. It had no expectation attached to it whatsoever.

  The second part began in a similar vein as the first, Mr. Self Esteem strutting around Medford with his pals, flashing his teeth at every possible opportunity. Then the action moved to the gym, where they all stood about gossiping in a pool, no doubt happy for the opportunity to get their shirts off.

  And then someone else came on screen. She appeared under the water at first, and then, in slow motion, she rose from the pool, water dripping from her perfect curves. She was tall, with a flawless thick brown lob haircut that still somehow managed to look good soaking wet. As the camera finally showed her face, her chocolate doe eyes, pillowy lips, olive skin and light freckles completed the picture of something like a perfect human being.

  ‘Good god’ Abigail muttered.

  Daisy said nothing, but quietly she’d been thinking something quite similar.

  Of course, Reece spotted her from across the water. Needless to say, he was fairly enamoured and left his friends, strutting over to the woman to introduce himself. He walked up behind her and said hello, but she didn’t notice him and walked away. His friends saw the scene and laughed at him uproariously. The Sex God had gone unnoticed.

  Then there was a time jump to night and Reece was out drinking with his hangers-on, when he saw the woman again. This time she was dressed to the nines and looked even more mouth-watering. Reece was practically drooling when he made his second attempt at getting the woman’s attention.

  ‘Hi, I’m Reece. And you're perfect’ he said to her, looking pretty happy with his line.

  The woman arched one magnificent eyebrow and said ‘Is that so?’ in a rich, velvety, bored voice.

  ‘Look, I’m gonna be straight with you. You’re hot. I’m hot. So why don’t we get out of here and set the sheets on fire?’

  The woman’s response was to throw her martini in his face.

  Abigail, who’d been looking the show up on her phone, said ‘That’s Alexa Lockwood. She does that a lot, apparently. Practically never gets to finish a drink.’

  The rest of the episode passed with Reece deciding that the woman who had chucked a drink in his gorgeous face was the woman for him and vowing that she would be his.

  And then it was over.

  ‘So that’s it? This pillock trying to get with Alexa Lockwood? That’s the whole show?’ Daisy spat once the credits rolled.

  ‘Can’t really blame him. I’d let her throw as many drinks in my face as she wanted’ Abigail replied with a lascivious smirk.

  ‘That’s not helpful’ Daisy said. ‘I really don’t know what to do here. Ashley’s gonna call any minute.’

  ‘So… Is the problem that you don’t know whether to take it or that you don’t know how to tell your agent that you’re turning down work?’

  That was a good question. Was there any way she could really do this? Fundamentally, she was averse to the whole thing. Whatever Ashley had said to her about making the most of every chance, this was so far away from where she was trying to go, it was practically the opposite direction. Even playing a corpse on a slab in a police procedural seemed to have more integrity.

  The phone rang. It was Ashley.

  ‘I could just not answer it’ she said, as she looked at the phone.

  Abigail shrugged.

  At the last possible moment, Daisy accepted the call.

  ‘Hi, Ashley…’

  ‘Just had a very exciting call from Cut and Shut!’

  ‘Yeah, about that…’

  ‘Look, I know what you’re going to say. It’s not the kind of thing you want to do, it’s not real acting, etc. That’s why I didn’t tell you what it was, so you wouldn’t go in with preconceptions.’

  Ashley had lied, then. Not a great start to the working relationship.

  ‘Well… Yes. I suppose I was going to say that.’

  ‘Fair enough. I’m not going to push you.’

  ‘You’re not?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘But what about making the best of every opportunity?’

  ‘It’s true, I don’t think it could hurt to do an episode of Laid in Medford. But if you really feel it’s below you, I’m not going to tell you you have to.’

  Daisy was so relieved she could have cried.

  ‘Thank you, Ashley. You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say-’

  ‘All I will tell you is how much money you’ll make for a half day of work. After my cut.’

  ‘Ok, you can tell me if you want’ Daisy said, sure it wouldn’t make much difference. How much money was her dignity worth?

  And then Ashley said a number.

  ‘Pardon?’ Daisy said. She was sure she’d
misheard. Ashley said the number again. Daisy had indeed heard correctly; it was an amount that would take her several weeks to make from office temping.

  ‘Ashley, do you think I could call you back in a second?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Once the call was finished, Daisy did a quick calculation of where the money could go.

  The car needed its MOT in a few weeks and probably wouldn’t pass. It might cost a few hundred to get it fixed.

  Then there were Jake’s trousers. In fact, she could get him a whole new school uniform, as well as some other bits and pieces he needed.

  And her half of the rent, that would be covered too.

  Daisy felt like she was on the edge of a dangerous abyss. She could do this and it would really take a chunk out of her financial problems. And it would probably be easy work.

  But was it selling out? She’d balked at the idea of a soap opera three weeks ago. And this was indisputably worse. She kept picturing Reece Hewitt’s gleaming white teeth. She’d wanted to smash them in for the duration of the first episode.

  Daisy had always thought she’d get a chance to do some real acting before this question, whether to take the money and run, ever came up. But here she was, fresh out of drama school, her first audition and the question was already here.

  But of course, it all came back to Jake. That pink little face, so embarrassed by everything, how hard it had to be on him to look down and see his frayed, too-short trousers. If Daisy took this job, for once she could do right by him. She could feel like a good parent. And he deserved that. He practically never complained about not having things that the other kids had.

  Once she looked at it like that, there were no two ways about it. Her dignity could be put away in a drawer for a half-day. Because Daisy owed Jake this.

  ‘You’re going to do it, aren’t you?’ Abigail said.

  Daisy sighed.

  ‘Is it a mistake? Will I regret it forever?’

  ‘I can’t say. But I know this… Once you take this step, it’ll be hard to walk away from it. The money will seduce you. My Dad’s told me a million stories about actors he knows who’ve had it happen.’

  ‘It’s just one day, Abs.’

  ‘Unless they like you.’

  But Daisy wasn’t worried about that. It didn’t matter if they did offer her anything beyond this, she’d say no.

  She would do this stupid thing for money and then she would demand that Ashley found her some real acting work.

  Five

  Daisy looked at herself in the mirror and it was a stranger that looked back. She’d never looked so styled. Hair and makeup done by professionals, it was quite a sight.

  But Daisy didn’t think she looked half bad, surprisingly. She’d been fearing the worst, that she’d end up looking like a clown. But it was… Alright. In fact, the more she looked, the more she thought she’d never looked so good. Her hair had a bounce she’d never been able to achieve at home with the hairdryer. Her hazel eyes popped like she could never make them do herself with a dash of eyeliner and mascara. She looked the way people on TV did. And to cap it off, she was not orange, thank god.

  And then she had a thought that disturbed her. I could get used to this.

  ‘Right’ the makeup artist Isabella (an elfin creature with an exotic beauty tempered with a severe case of Resting Bitch Face) said as she added the last few finishing touches to her face. ‘You’re done. Out of my chair.’

  Daisy stood, wondering who had pissed on Isabella’s cornflakes this morning. But Isabella had done magnificent work so she said ‘Thanks. You did a great job. I’ve never looked this nice, honestly.’

  ‘That’s what I do’ Isabella said dismissively and then clicked her fingers at the guy with the bullring through his nose from Daisy’s audition. Daisy had since found out he was a runner and his name was Aaron. ‘She’s all yours.’

  Aaron jumped to attention.

  ‘Great. Daisy, we’re going to the set now.’

  Daisy dutifully followed him out of the trailer that sat in the carpark behind some restaurant called ‘Nova’. Daisy had never been to it but a production manager, Sue, had called her a few days ago to tell her where she needed to be. Daisy had asked the woman what she’d actually be doing but Sue wouldn’t say.

  ‘Ryan likes to keep things fresh for the scenes, he doesn’t want you to feel too prepared. You’ll find out on the day.’

  So here she was, shuffling into the restaurant in a skirt that seemed like it had been designed as some sort of straight jacket for her legs, not a clue what was going to be asked of her.

  The place was filled with people, some of whom looked like diners from a distance. Until Daisy saw that no one was actually eating. Around them, a production crew of about eighteen people were getting the place ready, setting up lighting and cameras, moving furniture about.

  Then she spotted Reece Hewitt at the other end of the restaurant. He was on the floor in the corner, doing grunt-y push-ups. Less than a foot away, a guy was fiddling with a lighting rig but he barely seemed to notice the exercise regimen going on right next to him.

  ‘Reece does that before every take. Gets his muscles popping for the scene’ Aaron explained. ‘You’ll get used to it.’

  Daisy hoped she’d never get the chance.

  ‘Daisy, hi’ Ryan said, coming up behind her. ‘How are you feeling today?’

  ‘Fine. Maybe a little nervous’ she admitted.

  ‘Well, you look fantastic.’

  ‘Thanks. But it took a team of professionals to make this happen’ Daisy said with a self-deprecating laugh.

  ‘Nonsense. They’re only bringing out what you’ve already got.’

  Daisy knew Ryan was buttering her up but it was helping to calm her butterflies so she wasn’t about to argue.

  ‘So, here’s what we want you to do for us today… You see Reece over there?’

  Daisy glanced back at Reece, who’d moved on to pull-ups on a door frame while the crew struggled to get around him.

  ‘Well, last season ended with Alexa… You know Alexa?’

  ‘I’ve watched the first series now, yes.’

  ‘Oh, so you know that Alexa finally decided to give it a go with Reece after he spent all season pursuing her?’

  Daisy did indeed know that, to her chagrin. Even though she knew full well that it was the premise of the show, she’d watched in the slim hope that Alexa - who was clearly far above Reece’s league in every conceivable department - would not give in to him. But although she’d really made Reece work for it, there was no other way it could end. They’d had a ‘romantic’ ending, kissing in a clichéd horse drawn carriage after Reece told her he’d never met a woman like her and that he didn’t want anyone else.

  ‘Right, so the arc of this season will be about whether Reece can really change his ways. Lots of exes popping up to remind Alexa of the Lothario that Reece used to be, clashes in public, that type of thing. And that’s where you come in.’

  Daisy had to remind herself to keep her face neutral but this was exactly what she’d feared. She was romantic fodder for Reece.

  ‘The story is that you used to be Reece’s girlfriend a few years ago, and you broke his heart, which was what made him become the bed-hopping slut he turned into.’

  Ryan turned and waved at Reece, gesturing for him to come over. He dropped off the door frame immediately, making his way to where Daisy waited with stifled horror.

  ‘Reece, this is Daisy. Take a few minutes to get acquainted and then the director will prep you for the scene we’re doing this morning.’

  And then Ryan walked away, leaving her to deal with Reece alone. Reece looked Daisy up and down with no hint of shame and then said ‘So… You’re the one that got away?’

  Daisy was confused. They weren’t shooting yet. Was he already in character?

  ‘I guess so’ Daisy shrugged, perplexed.

  ‘I don’t think anyone’s gonna buy that storyline. Who’s gonna be
lieve that I’d ever have let you go.’

  Daisy didn’t have the first clue how to respond but lucky for her, she didn’t have to.

  ‘Reece! Leave the new meat alone, can’t you?’ cried a voice from behind Daisy.

  Daisy turned to see a woman with a face like a cartoon character strolling over. Daisy recognised her immediately as Robyn, Reece’s younger sister, the ‘comic relief’ from the first season and the focus of a running joke in which she had one disastrous first date after the other with a serious of morons, each one more dick-ish than the last.

  ‘We’re just getting to know each other. I’m supposed to know her in the biblical sense. Can’t fake that, Sis. Need to feel it.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean you’ve got to try and shag her the second you meet her’ Robyn said with an eye roll. ‘In fact, some might say you don’t really need to hit on her at all. You could just treat her like a person, rather than a penis receptacle.’

  ‘I respect women!’ he argued. ‘I came out of one, didn’t I?’

  ‘And you’ve spent the rest of your life trying to get back in. Just take a breather, would you?’

  ‘I’m not going to sleep with you if anyone cares to know’ Daisy interjected.

  ‘That’s what they all say’ Reece replied with a chuckle.

  The annoyance that Daisy had already been feeling began to tip over onto full-on anger. There was just something about Reece that had rubbed her wrong from his first second on screen.

  ‘Even if I wasn’t as gay as the day’s long, I wouldn’t risk my health. You’re probably riddled.’

  Daisy was slightly shocked she’d said something so rude, she wasn’t usually one to have a go at a relative stranger. Robyn clapped her hands together and laughed. But Reece didn’t.

  ‘Bloody lesbians’ he muttered darkly. ‘Why is my life filled with them?’ he said inexplicably and stalked off, walking over to the other side of the restaurant and jumping back onto the doorframe for more pull-ups.

  ‘That wasn’t much of a welcome to the show, so I’ll say it. Welcome, Newbie.’