Chapter Text
“Cast her.”
“Who? The fat girl?” Down the table, like dominos, the rest of the casting agents turn to Fife and pan him with a look of disgust.
“That girl’s name is Penelope Featherington, Fife. Learn it.” Danbury, Chief Media Officer at Ton Studios, speaks for the rest of them when she knocks the back of his chair with her cane. Really, the gall of the nepo baby. He only got to call himself a casting agent at Ton Studios because he had family on the board.
Fife grimaces. “I can’t believe I have to point this out for you all, but Penelope is not the kind of face the camera loves. Just look at her screentest, she mumbles the last few lines and can’t keep her gaze straight for the confessional shots. She only screentested at all because Eloise was screentesting–and that was just to pass the time while Colin was filming his introduction.”
The Powerpoint is frozen on Penelope’s face. There is a number 34 taped to her chest–34 out of 1000 in the folder of candidate contestants for Marriage Market Season 2. Her still is unflattering in the way all frozen video recordings are, but Danbury can see the promise of an underdog. And the makings of a makeover episode already.
Producer Debling chimes in. “You can see from the way her elbows are jittering in this shot that she’s wringing her hands below the camera.”
Fife seizes the minimal support. “She’s not made for TV. Worse yet, Colin and Penelope know each other.”
“How is that even a flight risk? That just adds reality to a reality TV show.”
Danbury’s mind drifts into director mode. Exeunt goes the oak conference table, business casual, and Starbucks and in comes an opulent ballroom scene (potentially episode 5). She sees Penelope on the balcony and Colin waiting at the steps, the quintessential Cinderella story moment. Penelope’s hair, a muted red in the audition tape, will be elevated into a glamorous, Jessica Rabbit auburn. Her blue eyes will peek behind a gold-flecked black masquerade mask, and Colin will look up at her with raw emotion. (If their bachelor doesn’t deliver on the shot she hopes for, Danbury will have the editors dice up the footage and apply background music.)
The tropes play out in Danbury’s head hard and fast. Friends to lovers—the internal dilemma that their bachelor would have seeing a friend in a new light. The underdog, steadfast and loyal childhood friend in a tidepool of female egos collected from wannabe models and influencers. Audiences are always putty for that kind of girl. It was the formula behind the Princess Diaries, She’s All That, and Cinderella Story.
“Cast Penelope.”
A murmur goes through the executives and agents. Though they had been largely silent and letting Fife blow his pipe, it seemed they did not share her vision. Cho spoke up.
“With all due respect, Danbury, you can’t just put an Old Navy in a room of Lululemons.”
“What part of that was respectful? You heard me. Cast Penelope Featherington.”
—-
“Colin, I have let you gallivant to Morocco, to Nepal, even to Antarctica. but now you’re going to be on a television show?” Anthony’s tone intensifies with disapproval, “and Marriage Market no less?”
Colin sits on the leather seat across Anthony, which seems to have been perfectly positioned for the receiving end of Anthony’s jailing stare. Benedict leans back in the corner. They are huddled within Anthony’s corner office in Bridgerton Tradings, which rents floor twelve of Gibraltar Towers. Every wall of the office is floor-to-ceiling glass, which makes Colin feel like he is stuck in a snowglobe that has been turned inside out. He has stared at the glass for the last hour, which is how long Anthony has berated him, ever since he had let slip why he was staying in London for longer than a fortnight. He would be the leading bachelor of Marriage Market Season 2.
“Honestly, Ant. It just seems like our brother learned something deeper from his work experience with Lonely Planet. He wants to find some companionship.”
Anthony quickly bats away Benedict’s attempt at levity. “ Companionship is throwing all his travel influencer pictures onto a dating profile and going through the proper motions. It is not signing up to be a dating show contestant. He’s putting our Bridgerton name at stake, Benedict.” Bridgerton Tradings was a respected hedge fund. It was known for having solid returns and had been profiled as being one of the rare successful transformations of old money into the digital age.
“Ant, they profiled you as one of the hottest 30 under 30 in the Financial Daily. How is this any different?”
Anthony stops his pacing and holds a finger up to level with his younger brother. “Because Colin, it was a proper column and not a televised snogfest!”
There is a beat of silence between the brothers filled with only a few beeps from Anthony’s slack and the whistle of wind outside the glass castle of an office.
Colin tries a different approach. He starts his plea at a lower volume. “I’m turning thirty next year, and we’ve discussed that I’m going to put the traveling to a stop and start working the trading desks next year. This show is going to be filmed in the Galapagos, Bali, and Morocco. Let this be my last hurrah.”
“But Colin, Anthony has a point. You’re acting like this is entering some travel sweepstakes or something, Colin. There are other ways to fix your wanderlust that don’t run the risk of being a PR disaster.”
Anthony doesn’t even bother picking up where Benedict left off. “And we know you hate the idea of settling down. What on god’s green earth are you thinking trying to woo people on screen when you have no serious intentions? The public hates people who come on shows for clout.”
Colin sits up. “I’m not doing it for clout—“
“You’re doing it so you can find some lifeline that gets you away from the desk job you promised us you would take once you turned thirty.”
For a moment, Benedict notes with his artist’s observation for facial expressions that Colin can look just like Anthony. Both of their jaws are clenched; their eyes are unyielding. He breaks the stalemate.
“Whatever Ant, just let him do it. Colin’s an adult. He’s charming and chivalrous enough to not cause public scandal—”
“Ha! Famous last words.”
“Plus, I–well, you as well as me– don’t want to see what shell of himself he turns into once we cuff him with Excel spreadsheets and the corporate life. Let him take the untraditional path.”
Anthony rolls his eyes and pushes himself up and away from the conference table. “He has always been off the beaten path.” But he pauses for a moment. He knows all too well how the corporate life had changed him, and made him slave to the different clocks of the world. Never living in the moment.
Colin takes Anthony’s introspection as assent. “Great, because I’ve already signed the contract.” His voice betrays the slightest bit of nervousness.
“COLIN!”
—--
Eloise joins Penelope at eleven at Saturn’s Cafe, throwing a tabloid onto the diner table where she had been typing. Penelope had ordered ahead, and Eloise slides onto the vinyl retro red seats and helps herself to a heap of pancakes. Penelope nurses a creamy cup of coffee, while Eloise takes hers black.
She wrinkles her nose at the taste. “Nasty, I don’t know why I keep trying.” Eloise douses her coffee in Splenda. As she looks up, she sees Penelope picking up the crinkled pages.
Eloise mock shudders as Penelope looks on with interest. “It’s a whole lot of Colin on page nine–across from the usual Whistledown column.” There was Colin, in fact not only on page nine, but page nine through twelve. On pages eleven and twelve, he spanned the centerfold, reclining against a wall as little blurbs detailed how he planned to apply his experiences from being a travel influencer to onscreen romances.
“He’s positively embarrassed by all the airbrushing. Complained about how they filled in his eyebrows. But I think he hates the Whistledown coverage even more.”
“Does he?” Penelope murmurs into her cup. They had captured his side profile well. Her fingers trace over his jaw and then over her words.
Colin Bridgerton, rugged royalty takes on Season 2!
The Bridgerton bachelor is no newcomer to fame. Colin has 2.1 million followers, who have seen him build houses in Ecuador, swim shark cages with the hammerheads, and dive off cliffs in Dover.
But outside of his fancies abroad, he has quite the roots back home. We hear his family is quite the clan. His sisters are pageant queens (Miss UK!) and feminist activists (Miss anti-miss UK!). His brothers are the debonair partners of Bridgerton Trading. Who will be the lucky lady at the end of the season who joins this dynasty?
“So what do you think?”
“He looks better in person.”
“Really? You give him too much credit.”
“What did he say about the Whistledown column?”
“Only that he hopes she won’t be watching and following along. He doesn’t want to be the center of gossip or for Marriage Market to be his legacy. A bit hypocritical if you ask me, considering he agreed to do the show–”
There was no universe where Penelope would not watch the show. She raises her coffee to her lips when a notification on her phone steals her attention.
It sends the coffee splattering out from her mouth and onto her jumper.
Penelope Featherington–congratulations on being selected for Season Two of Marriage Market! This is Debling, a producer from the show. Do you have a few minutes to take a call so we can discuss your upcoming appearance on the show?
But in a universe Colin tends to get what he wants (it seems to be this one), the impossible has been made possible.