Chapter Text
She stared into the mirror, and the face in it, so sparkling and unlike her own stared back. Robin fiddled with the singular sleeve of her asymmetrical dress, it was tight, showed an uncomfortable amount of her freckled skin. She hadn’t chosen it, but it was what she was stuck with. She grabbed her clutch bag and wobbled to the door; her feet unfamiliar with the balance required for the heels she so rarely wore. Outside her house, a black car waited for her. She opened the door and got in, clicking the seatbelt into place. The driver mumbled a hello to her and started driving towards their destination.
-
Nancy Wheeler was early, again. Oh well, she supposed it was better to be early than late, but it was still awkward. The room was pretty sparse, only featuring a couple of luxurious couches and side tables covered with lavish amounts of expensive wine. Her heart pounded, this was the start of something new, and maybe she wouldn’t find what she was looking for, but she could at least try.
She felt her phone buzz, opening it, and discovered yet another text message from Jonathan. She left it unread and closed her phone, putting it on silence, after all, it wouldn’t do to receive a noisy phone call while they were filming.
The door slid open, revealing another two women standing outside, curiously peering in. The pair walked in, waving to her as they came over. One was young, she must have been younger than Nancy, and Nancy was by no means the oldest women taking part in the show, she was only twenty-two, but already felt as though time was ticking by too fast, like water slipping through her fingers, hence why she was here at all: She was making the time count. The other woman was older, carrying herself with a sense of life experience that the other didn’t have. The lines on her face traced around her warm smile like a map.
‘Hi there, I’m Victoria.’ Said the younger girl with a wave, her carefully styled blond hair shining under the bright lights. ‘And I’m Joyce, nice to meet you.’ Said the older woman, shaking her hand. ‘Nancy, Nancy wheeler. It’s so strange being here, isn’t it?’ she replied.
Victoria opened her mouth as if about to speak, but was interrupted by the door sliding open again, a pretty red-headed girl floating through, her pale blue dress trailing behind her. ‘Hiya! I’m glad to not be the first one! I was so worried, thought I was going to have to tell the driver to wait a sec before dropping me off, but I’m glad y’all are here instead!’ She babbled, smiling radiantly. Nancy took an instant disliking to her.
‘Well, I’m glad we’ve put you at ease.’ Laughed Joyce, introducing herself to the redhead, who revealed her name to be Vickie. The four sat on the couches for a few minutes, exchanging small talk. Over the next ten minutes three other young women, who introduced themselves as Brittany, Amanda and Eve also joined them.
‘This must be almost all of us,’ drawled Brittany in a southern accent. ‘Yeah, I think so, but the past few seasons there have been eight women and eight men. So maybe we’re still waiting on somebody.’ Victoria replied. Nancy poured herself a small glass of wine, sipping at it as delicately as she could manage, pulling her coral dress further down over her knees. She had been there for nearly an hour now, and though she had been earlier than anticipated, this other woman was taking a long time to get here, perhaps she had run into some trouble along the way.
The door slid open for the last time, and a tall, short haired girl with a copious amount of freckles walked in, looking around with brown-blue eyes at the women sitting around. Amanda waved at her, and she walked towards them, smiling through the pinkness that was rising to her face. The ladies introduced themselves to her, and Nancy quickly learned that this girl’s name was Robin. Nancy looked the gangly girl up and down, she looked nervous, her hands fiddling with the edges of her bag and her green dress, which was form fitting, and would have looked lovely on anyone else, but somehow Robin made it look profoundly uncomfortable.
The women spoke to one another for a few more minutes, mostly discussing the absurdity of ending up on the show many of them had been watching for years. Even just from the few minutes the group were talking, evident groups and friendships began to form, with Amanda, Victoria and Eve discussing their hair, and comparing just how long it had taken them each to get ready, Brittany and Vickie began an animated conversation about one thing or another, and Joyce began walking to Nancy, which she was perfectly happy with. Robin seemed to be the only one not engaged in a conversation, with her lingering on the edge of every group, Nancy had half a mind to go up and start talking to her herself, but Robin was quickly occupied by Vickie, who seemed to blush at her, smiling up into her face and lightly touching the edges of her hands.
‘So, what brings you to this anyway?’ Asked Joyce. Nancy thought for a moment, how much was too
much to share with a woman she had just met today? ‘Well, I just got out of a bad relationship, thought it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot y’know, see what’s out there, if anything could happen.’ She laughed, it was the truth after all, and Joyce didn’t need to know about the worry that she would be alone forever keeping her up at night, this would just be a bit of fun, besides, it payed well.
‘What about you? What brings you here?’ She asked. ‘Well, don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not the youngest woman alive anymore, I left my ex-husband almost fifteen years ago, never really had the time or energy to find another man while my kids were at home, now that they’ve moved out, I realised just how few eligible men lived in my small town, so I figured I’d try this, rather than go on one of those apps.’
Nancy nodded, it made more sense than a lot of people's reasons for going this show, half of whom she guessed were probably truly here to boost their social media following. Looking around the room now, she was pretty sure she had almost everyone figured out, Brittany, Eve, and Victoria were here for the followers. Amanda and Vickie were young and naïve enough to truly believe they were going to find their soul mates, Joyce was here as a last resort, and she supposed that was true for herself as well.
Robin… Robin was the only one that she was confused about, she wondered if Robin herself knew, or if maybe even she didn’t know what had inspired her to apply. She was a mystery, that was for sure. A mystery she would have to solve, otherwise it would annoy her for the entirety of the show.
She was getting up to talk to the girl, when suddenly the lights were dimmed and the camera men began gearing up, turning their cameras and mics on and focusing them on the women, and on the raised platform at one end of the room.
The mauve curtain was pulled aside, and out stepped a man in a pinstriped yellow suit.
‘Good evening ladies, and our lovely audience at home,’ He grinned into the camera, his teeth so white that it couldn’t have been natural. ‘It is an honour to have you all here tonight and to finally meet you all! Yes, yes, I recognise a few of you from your audition videos. Welcome to Love and War, the hit TV show that gives YOU a chance to find the love of your lives! I am Maxwell EverHeart™, your host and friend for the next few weeks! And now, a word from our sponsors.’ He smiled into the camera for a further second or so, before dropping the act and grabbing a glass of water, taking a big gulp of it before putting it down and fixing a big smile back onto his face.
‘Over the next eight weeks, you will be paired up with a man specially chosen by our experts based on both of your personality tests and interests, and you will form a partnership in which you will live, connect and face a series of challenges designed to test your relationship. Over the course of this show you will have the opportunity to tap out at any time if you believe this is not a partner you can see yourself falling in love with, and each week you will take part in a conformation ceremony, in which you will make this decision to either stay or leave.’ He drew his finger down his face, showing the tear that was meant to show just how tragic it would be to leave the show. ‘Tomorrow you will be paired with your partner, and the two of you will live together in one of the ‘Love and War’ Townhouses, which you will occupy with the company of one other couple throughout your time on the show.’
This was one of the parts of Love and War that Nancy was most dubious about, it was one thing to share an entire house with your partner, somebody who you would ideally be in love with, but it was a whole other thing to share a house with not one, but two complete strangers. And with her partner, her boyfriend, also being a stranger, she was worried it would be so much she’d crack.
Nancy liked her space. She liked being able to spread her papers over the coffee table, liked to sit in silence after a long day, sipping tea out of mugs with silly puns on them. Wanted to lie awake till the early hours of the morning, listening to episode after episode of true crime podcast, trying to crack the case. So it would be strange. That was for sure. But half the reason she was even going on the show was to open up to people, and maybe find somebody she could spend the rest of her life with.
‘I, and all the team here, wish you luck on your journey to finding love, so we’re gonna jump right in and take some interviews. First up is… Vickie! If you’d like to just step on through to the next room.’
Vickie stood up from where she had been sitting on the couch, next to Amanda, and to Robin, giving Robin a small wave as she giggled and walked out of the room. Nancy could’ve sworn she noticed Robin’s face growing pinker than before, was she nervous about an interview? it was…strange, why would you go on a reality TV show if you didn’t like being in the spotlight?
Nancy sat talking to the other contestants, as one by one they were taken away and interviewed, before coming back and sipping delicately at the wine. Nancy was eventually called up, and she left the room.
She waited outside the room, the tall white door was open just a crack, and she could hear the interviewer talking to someone, she had been so wrapped up in talking with Amanda and Joyce that she hadn’t noticed who had gone in before her.
‘Sorry, can we try again?’ Asked a tired voice. The interviewer sighed. ‘Yes. Just go, try not to stutter this time, we are on a schedule ya know?’ Whoever it was took a deep breath, breathing it out softly before speaking. ‘Hi, my name’s Robin, i’m twenty-three years old, a student and I’m here to find love.’
So, this was Robin speaking, her voice low and almost… musical.
‘Tell me Robin, what are you looking for in your partner?’ Asked the interviewer. Robin thought for a second, um-ing and ah-ing. ‘I’m just looking for somebody who’s a nice guy y’know? Has a good sense of humour, good sense of style. Just somebody I can have a laugh with I guess.’
‘What would you say is the most important feature in a man?’ Said the interviewer once more. Nancy leant up against the wall outside, wondering how long this would take. ‘Well, as I said, humour, somebody who knows how to make a jo-‘ ‘Yes, but what is the most important physical feature?’ The interviewer cut Robin off.
Robin didn’t say anything for a minute, and Nancy wondered if she just couldn’t pick a physical feature she liked best, after all, there were a lot to choose from. Would the interviewer ask her these questions as well? She quickly thought up some answers, but what would she say was the best feature? Smile perhaps, hair, hair was good, Jonathan hadn’t had especially good hair.
Robin spoke up, her voice shorter, like she was getting sick of this. ‘Well, I don’t know, I tend to fall more for people's personality’s then just their looks.’ ‘Yes but, if you HAD to choose something…?’ He pressed ‘Jesus, I don’t know, freckles, I like freckles I guess.’ Robin finally said. ‘Thanks Robin, you can head out now.’
Robin began to storm out of the room, but as she went through the doorway her dress got caught, stopping her in her tracks. She looked at the dress, ‘stupid fucking dress.’ She muttered as she pulled herself free. She noticed Nancy standing there awkwardly, going beet red before narrowing her eyes, ‘What are you looking at?’ She snapped, strutting past her, trying very hard to look dignified.
Nancy felt taken aback, there was no reason to be so rude, she hadn’t done anything wrong, while she could guess that Robin was probably just embarrassed, and that that whole interview had been a painful experience for her, that wasn’t her fault. She crossed her arms.
‘We’re ready for you now Nancy, come on through.’ Said the interviewer, and she fluffed her hair and shimmied her dress down, taking two deep breaths before going in, knowing exactly what she would say. She looked back to the main room, seeing Robin talking again to Vickie, more calmly, Vickie touched Robins arm. A spark of something that felt like fire sparked to her stomach, and she huffed, trying to rid Robin and her rudeness from her mind.
It would be an interesting season for Love and War, that was for sure.