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Emma knew she must look as exhausted as she felt when Kitty actually left her alone all day.
She’d received the guidelines for that reality show they were going to be on, and it did not look pretty. Not only did they want to play up her trust issues and her stubbornness, but they wanted her to fall head over heels with a 19 year old reality TV star.
Even if he was cute- and that was a hard if- none of that sounded super… appealing. Especially since he was closer to Kitty’s age than hers.
She didn’t waste time driving down to the studio to hash out her complaints. As an international law student, there was no way in hell she was agreeing to sign such a stupid contract, not before she’d made herself known.
As she approached the door she’d been directed to by an equally exhausted receptionist, she heard yelling from the other side.
“Are you kidding me? I’m a 19 year old! 19! I’m already in a relationship! I’ve been on how many shows? And you want me to drop everything for a knock-off Courtney Garcia on a reality TV show that I’m competing on with my boyfriend?”
Huh. That must be Noah.
“Well I’m my own person too ya know,” she said casually, interrupting both Noah and whoever else he was meeting with as she walked in.
“Oh, you must be Emma.” a producer said nervously. The room held just Noah and a few producers, but two men appeared on cell phone screens propped up around the room.
“Yeah, I must be Emma. And if I’m right about who he,” she said, pointing to Noah, “is, then you’re really going to have to revamp your script.”
The “he” in question rolled his eyes, to laughter from one of the phones.
“I’m Noah. I’d say it’s a pleasure, but I’m a little bit busy right now.”
A glare to the producer who’d spoken earlier.
“Right. Yeah, you’re exactly who I thought you were. Nice. If you’ll pardon me here,”
She turned from him to the panel of producers.
“There’s no way in hell I’m playing up my trust issues- from a relationship international TV has no business sticking their noses into- all so you can make me look like a shitty sister and to pair me with a repeat reality show addict who’s only a year older than my kid sister and who presumably is already in a relationship all for a reality TV show competition. Capeesh?”
“Um. Well-“
Noise from the phones.
“Glad to know you are on our side, amiga.”
“Yeah, Noah’s been real stressed out about this whole thing. It’d really be a shame to ruin this show for all of us, especially if no one wants to do this.”
Emma squinted at the caller ID. Huh. Alejandro and Owen. The name Owen sounded familiar from the contract deal. Whatever.
Noah glared over at the two men on the screens. More laughter, from both this time.
“Right. Emma, I can officially say it’s good to meet you. Now, if you’ve heard enough from us both for one day, I’m sure Emma has probably had just as much fun with this as I have, so you can take some time to think about what to do before you reach out to us next.”
Emma nodded her approval. Though she felt an interaction that short could’ve been handled in an email, it seemed Noah had cleared a lot of grievances with the team already, and it was always good to make sure you couldn’t be ignored when making demands.
She moved to turn on her heel and walk out, taking one last moment to stare coldly at the producers.
She paused, looking over at the one producer’s name tag, mentally pocketing the name for later.
“Look. I don’t think this is too much to ask, and I understand you guys have a job to do, but we are not the right people for this. It would be wise of you to reconsider.”
She joined Noah as he retrieved the phones and said goodbye to Owen and Alejandro before he hung up, the pair making their way out together.
He pocketed both phones and ran his hand down his face.
“Ugh, you have no idea how glad I am that you showed up. I was in negotiations with those idiots for two and a half hours before you showed, and my partners were only on call for half of that.”
Emma let him get the door, but waved him back over when she noticed he was heading to a bus stop.
“Hey, if you really had to handle them for that long you can at least let me drive you home.”
The kid looked unsure, which, good, street smarts and all that, but Emma was ninety percent sure that bus had finished it’s route twenty minutes ago.
Noah seemed to realize this too as he sighed and walked over to her.
“You can drop me off at the Olive Garden in town. I don’t need to go far, but it’ll spare me the trouble of needing to call one of my boyfriends to come get me.”
Well.
“Cool it kid, this is just to say thank you for whittling those suits down. It means a lot to me that you’re not cool with this either.”
They piled into her car, a sensible compact, and she plugged in the location to get them started.
“So. Boyfriends?”
This kid was scary good at sighing. Wow.
“Yes. Boyfriends. Sorry if you have a problem with that.”
He sounded really defensive.
“No, I meant I want to know about your boyfriends. So I can get to know you, because it’s both good to do in general, and because it’ll help me with both further negotiations and possibly in the game show.”
He blinked. Once. Twice. Once more for good measure.
“Oh. Right.
I’m sure you know my gimmick already from the contracts, but I met Owen on the first reality show I was ever on. Technically I met Alejandro there too, but Owen and I were both season one contestants. Alejandro was a season three contestant, and even though I couldn’t stand him during the show, we worked it out, and. Yeah. Now we’re dating.”
“All three of you?”
“Kind of. I’m dating both of them, and they’re testing, like, a romantic relationship even though they aren’t anything official other than friends just yet. I’m competing with Owen, though. Alejandro was smart enough to get out of reality shows after two seasons.”
“Right, okay. Good to know.”
Clearly not wanting to be the only one sharing, Noah followed up.
“You have anyone special?”
She cringed.
“Yeah no. Just broke things off with my ex Jake, right? So no one in that regard. I’m competing with my sister, Kitty, though. She’s a little bit younger than you, but she’s real peppy, yeah? I’ve been kind of distant, what with college and the break-up, so it’ll be good to spend some time with her.”
“Oh yeah. College. I haven’t done that yet, what with all the TV shows.”
“Oh, I’m sure it must be tough to be on TV all the time.” she said teasingly.
He teased back.
“Hey I’m a hot commodity. Every show wants me,”
“Oh I’m sure, Mr. Famous.”
“No, yeah I’m kidding. Sorry for calling you a knock off Courtney back there.”
“I’m shocked you think I know who Courtney is considering I didn’t know of either of your boys.”
He looked her up and down from the passenger seat.
“Yeah, but you do know who she is.”
She shrugged. Yeah, she did know who Courtney was. They’d interned at the same law firm about a year ago. But that wasn’t Noah’s business.
“Yeah, well. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for calling you a repeat reality show addict.”
“Aw, thanks.”
She decided to accept the gratitude despite the heavy sarcasm.
He gave her a couple more directions and they made small talk until they made it to the restaurant.
She parked her car and he got out to someone shouting his name.
It was kind of funny to watch him get halfway tackled by a guy two times his size. His other partner walked up smoothly behind, helping the other two up.
She stepped out of her car.
“Oh, you must be Emma. A pleasure to meet you.” the tanner one remarked.
“Yeah, yeah. Just wanted to thank you all for your help with the producers. Things should move faster with all of us on their case.”
“Aw, thanks, but it was mostly Noah. It’s gonna be good to compete with you though!” the other added.
“Right. Emma, I got your number from the producers, so I’ll be in touch with you. Owen, Alejandro, let’s go eat before I waste away where I stand.”
Both men turned at the sound of their names, Owen being the one who’d tackled Noah, Alejandro being the one who’d helped them up afterwards.
Alejandro tutted at Noah.
“Aw, querido, you should’ve told us you were so hungry.”
“Yeah, yeah, shut your mouth. Cállate, or whatever.”
Alejandro’s eyes lit up, his boyfriend’s use of Spanish completely voiding the demand from the smaller man.
Emma rolled her eyes, fond of the idiots in front of her already.
“Alrighty lovebirds, I’m gonna head out. It was good to meet you all.”
“Oh, bye Emma!” Owen called, “It was good to meet you.”
“You already said that, big guy.”
She excused herself, but got a text from Noah later that night thanking her again for her help and for the ride. Alejandro and Owen both decided it was a good plan to steal her number off of Noah, Alejandro letting her know to keep in touch during the competition, and Owen sending her pictures of their dog.
“Woah, Em, you look better.” Kitty remarked when she got back.
“You know what, Kitty? I think I feel better too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”