Page 96 of The Charm Offensive
She ignores his question and continues on with her story. “I went up to Rey after the group session, and we started talking. For a long time, we were just friends. They were the person whohelped me figure out I’m biromantic, the person who helped me feel okay about being sex-repulsed. They see me exactly as I am while also helping me become a truer version of myself.”
Charlie thinks about Dev and about the beautiful simplicity of beingseen.
“I’m telling you this, Charlie, because you asked how you know you’re going to love someone forever, and the truth is, despite what we tell people on this show, forever is never a guarantee. I don’t know if I’m going to love Rey for the rest of my life, but I know right now, I can’t imagine a future where I don’t love them. And for me, that’s enough.”
Charlie fidgets with his tux jacket and wishes he could find a way to thank her for sharing herself with him, find a way to tell her what it means.
Skylar swallows an antacid. “I think you have to decide if you love him enough right now to try for forever.”
Charlie chokes. “Him? Her. Daphne. I… I love… Daphne.”
Skylar rises from her chair and approaches him again, reaches up to brush the errant curls off his forehead so he’s camera ready. “Son, I know everything that happens on my set.”
She doesn’t say it threateningly, doesn’t sound angry. She says the wordsonthe same way Dev says the wordlove—as if Skylar knows he’s always wanted to be someone’s son, too.
“But what if,” he asks the head director ofEver After, “I don’t know how to choose him?”
“We’re almost at the end of our quest to find love,” Mark Davenport intones for the cameras, “and tonight, Charlie will make the most important decision of all.”
Charlie stands behind the small table bearing only two tiaras. Across the room, Daphne, Angie, and Lauren L. are lined up, awaiting his decision.
“Are you ready to choose your final two?” Mark asks. Charlie clears his throat and reaches for the first tiara.
“Wait!”
He looks up to see Daphne stepping out of formation, her blue eyes wild. “Can I… Charlie, can I speak to you for a minute? Before the ceremony?”
Charlie tries not to seek out Dev in the producer lineup along the back wall as he crosses the room. Daphne leads him and the cameras out into a little alcove. “What’s wrong?” he asks, because it’s clear something is. Daphne is wringing her hands and worrying her bottom lip.
“I think,” she starts, “I think you should send me home tonight.”
Charlie tries to temper his reaction for the cameras. He doesn’t know how he’s going to keep Dev, or if it’s even possible for them to be together when this is over, but he knows the only way they stand a chance is if Charlie gets engaged to Daphne. They all need this season to be a success. “What do you mean?”
Daphne squares her shoulders. “You don’t want to get engaged to me,” she says, “and I don’t think a fake engagement is going to make either of us happy, really.”
Charlie involuntarily looks at the cameras. “It’s not, uh, fake.”
“It is. We agreed to a fake engagement, but I think we were wrong.”
“I thought you wanted people to see you in a relationship?”
She reaches up to tuck her hair behind her ears. “I’ve been thinking about it… and I don’t know. Maybe what you saidin Cape Town was right. Maybe I’m chasing the wrong kind of love. Maybe I need to figure out what Ireallywant, and I can’t do that if I’m engaged to you for the next six months. I can’t do that if I keep pretending to be someone I’m not.” Daphne takes his hand. “Don’t you want to figure out what you really want?”
Heknowswhat he really wants. He just doesn’t know how to get it. “I—”
“Cut!” Maureen Scott stomps in her high heels into the alcove, shoving a camera operator out of the way. “Cut! Turn off these cameras! What the hell are you doing?”
Charlie shrinks at Maureen’s anger, but Daphne stands firm. “I’m sending myself home.”
“Like fucking hell you are,” Maureen snaps. Charlie feels the panic creeping up his esophagus and wishes he could see Dev through the glare of lights. Maureen is screaming at various crew members and Skylar is trying to salvage the scene and somewhere, beneath the steadily increasing thrum of his anxiety, is the creeping realization that everything is about to fall apart.
Dev
It’s all falling apart.
It’s been slowly falling apart for days. Ryan knows and Skylar knows and now Daphne Reynolds is talking about fake engagements in front of the cameras. The season has been hanging on by a thread, and now Daphne has chopped that thread with a machete.
“Production meeting! Now!” Maureen shouts, and Jules has to grab Dev by the elbow and guide him behind Skylar and Ryan as Maureen cuts a path toward the cramped room where Charlie changed before the Crowning Ceremony. Daphne andCharlie are here, too. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Maureen asks Daphne. “Are you truly as stupid as you look?”
