LeShawna examined herself in the mirror. "Lay off the milkshakes, Shawn…" she muttered to herself. She heard a light tap outside her door as her fiancé, Gregg, called, "You ready Shawna?" Mustering up all the courage in her being, she called back, "Yeah, baby. I'll be there in a minute!"
She heard him swearing quietly as his footsteps faded away. "Gold digger…" she grumbled as she pulled on a coat and gave herself one more disapproving glance. Ever since she'd won Total Drama World Tour, gold-diggers had been oozing out the walls left and right. But she'd thought Gregg was different. Sure, he wasn't the luckiest guy on earth, but she could be loved for being herself, couldn't she? Wrong. He wanted her money.
Giving herself a shake, LeShawna strode to the door and unlocked it (she was paranoid these days). Gregg was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. "'Bout time you came down from your tower," he said, offering a tight smile as if it were supposed to be a joke. But LeShawna knew better. His voice was clipped and his smile strained. Turning around and tossing his car keys in the air, he called over his shoulder, "We better get going!"
Nodding even though he wasn't facing her, LeShawna started down the stairs and prepared herself for the nightmare that was sure to come.
The sounds of high-heels click-clacking against the hardwood floor met the engaged couple as they entered the club. As always, Gregg peeled away to ogle at the women hanging around the bar. LeShawna sighed and gave her coat to one of the men standing off to the side.
She started toward the ladies room, where she would hide and text friends "Help me!" messages until this catastrophe was over—for the night, at least. Suddenly, a tall, red-headed guy with glasses cut her off. "Hey, LeShawna." That gravelly voice, the crooked glasses, the stubble on his little chinny-chin-chin… (She'd been reading way too many fairytales at the library)
"Harold, baby!" she exclaimed and threw her arms around him. He blinked in surprise, and then hugged her back. Backing up a little to give him a once-over, she said, "I missed you so much! You haven't changed a bit!" His lips twitched into a grin. "Neither have you, Shawnee…" His eyes seemed to cloud over and his arms relaxed around her.
"I see you've met an old friend of yours." LeShawna spun around guiltily. "I-I just gave him a hug…he's the one that held on!" she blurted out, throwing Harold under the bus as Gregg narrowed his eyes at them. Harold smirked. "Sorry about that, man. You sure are lucky to have her…" He stuck his hand out for Gregg to shake. After a moment's hesitation, Gregg stiffly returned the gesture.
Gregg examined Harold through disapproving eyes. "Well, I'm Gregory, and obviously you know my fiancé LeShawna." At the sound of the word "fiancé", Harold seemed to have a double take. "You two are fiancés?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows at LeShawna and she giggled a bit. She didn't remember him being so …intriguing.
"Anyway, my name's Harold. I was on the Total Drama's." Gregg nodded stiffly, and then turned to LeShawna. "I've got a client over there—" He pointed to an Amazon with an intriguingly short dress "—who's interested in buying. I'll probably be talking with her all night." He briefly kissed the top of her head, and then headed over to the super-model-y girl.
Harold's hand on her shoulder snapped LeShawna out of the coma she figured she was about to drift into. "Come on, let's dance—by the way, have you lost weight?" he asked as he led onto the dance floor.