DISLAIMER: i dont own the characters meg cabot does... i am simply borrowing them for my amusement
That evening I had gotten on the plane and flown to Hawaii overnight in my private jet along with Simon and Lily. Obviously, Grandmere couldn't come because she'd be easily recognized, but I had been warned before I left to call her at least every three days and that she'd be watching the show every time it came on. I was rudely awoken the next morning by Lily shrieking in my ear.
"MIA! We're here!" she shrieked shaking me.
"Great… let the torture for other people's amusement begin…" I grumbled. I am not a morning person normally and with the poor sleep I had gotten that night on the plane I was even more grumpy than usual.
"Remember Lily… from here on out-" began Simon only to be cut of by Lily.
"- Mia is to be called Mary Jane Renzo. I know, I know. You only told me about a bigillion times this morning alone." Said lily. She then turned to me and rolled her eyes making me grin slightly inspite of myself. Unfortunately, Simon took my grin the wrong way.
"That's the spirit Mary! Enjoy this. It'll be fun, you'll see." Simon grinned back at me and turned to get off the plane. I grimaced at his back as soon as he had turned away much to Lily's amusement.
"Hey, look at the bright side… you'll have all the hottest new celebrities competing for your affection. Even the great and mysterious lead singer of 'Amour Cache' will be here, along with the drummer, Felix, but still… no one knows the lead singer's real name. He calls himself 'M' but everyone knows that its not his real name, just like they know that his hair isn't really that color and that he wears a wig to perform in…"
I tuned Lily's chatter out easily due to years of practice adding the required hem's and haws here and there as we disembarked and made our way to the mansion while the bodyguards took our stuff to our rooms. The bachelors wouldn't be arriving for another couple hours so I went to my room to relax before I had to get into disguise and greet them.
A light rap sounded from the other room. I sighed and stopped fiddling with the wig, which was extremely itchy.
"Come in!" I yelled reaching for my colored contacts, the final part of my disguise.
"Wow, Mi-ary, I can barely recognize you."
I frowned into the mirror at Lily as she appeared behind me.
"Right…" I muttered leaning forward to put in my contacts. The room was quiet for a bit as Lily waited (amazingly patiently) for me to finish putting in my contacts. I straightened a bit later, having put the last contact in, blinking. "Anyone with half a brain can recognize that this is a wig and these are contacts."
"Yes… they could," admitted Lily. Seeing that I was about to smugly prove my point of how this wasn't going to work, she quickly, yet effectively cut me off. "Save the protests. Just go along with it and try to have fun. Its too late to back out now and you never know, you might actually have fun."
I scowled at her and slipped on my shoes. "Whatever you say, Lily."
Together, we made our way downstairs to the mad house was the entrance hall. Cameramen, helpers and many other people were rushing around finalizing everything and making last minute adjustments.
"There you are!" exclaimed Simon coming up to us. " Listen, Mary. You are going to be standing just outside the door waiting to greet each celebrity. They will have a few seconds to introduce themselves before you are to show them inside. Once you have greeted the last one, you will take his arm and walk with him to the dining room where the other bachelors will be waiting. Before dinner someone will explain to you lot next day's activities. You will then have all dinner to get to know them. Please try to get to know each one and show no favoritism. It is just the first day. Anything can happen…"
I nodded as a shiver ran down my exposed back despite the tropical Hawaiian temperature. I slowly walked to the front door and exited to the porch trying not to trip in my form fitting, light pink dress and heels. I had to admit that I like the feeling of the slightly clingy material gliding over the wood floor as I walked, but I'd never tell anyone that. I took up my post near the stairs resting my hand gently on the railing to wait for the first bachelor to arrive.
I didn't have to wait long. Five minutes later, the first one arrived, Felix Something-or-Another, the drummer for 'Amour Cache.'
He strode up confidently in designer pants and dress shirt with the sleeves pushed up. He looked amazing from his sandy blonde hair and blue eyes protected by designer glasses to immaculate shoes yet familiar and slight uncomfortable at the same time.
"Hi," I said as he approached holding out my hand, which he graciously took and kissed. I blushed, after all I had only been expecting a handshake and that was incredibly sweet coming from this hunk.
"Hello, gorgeous." He said winking slightly. "I think I'll enjoy getting to know you, that is if you want to."
I attempted to control my blushing as I replied in a surprisingly calm voice, "It'll be my pleasure to get to know you better."
The next twenty eight guys passed slowly as the jet lag started catching up to me. Mike, John, Tyler, Joe, Bob, Jake, Jordan, Doug, JJ, TJ, Sam, Dave, Derrick, Connor, Rick, Josh, Nate, Andrew, Hunter, Damien, Harry, Troy, Ron, Ryan, Tien, Lee, Cheyenne and Shane. The names and faces all melted together with handsome faces and charming smiles. Boyish looks mixed with roughish sexiness. It was finally time for the last bachelor. "M." The elusive and mysterious lead singer of Amour Cache.
The final limo pulled into the circular drive and slowly slid to a smooth stop just before the stairs. The door opened and a somewhat tall guy stepped out dressed in black jeans and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He leaned down into the car to tell the driver something hitting his head of slightly wave-y light brown hair as he straightened. I couldn't help but to giggle a little at the expression on his face as he turned around, rubbing the back of his head. He caught sight of my quiet laughter and a slight grin spread out over his face. Confidently he walked up the steps, taking my hand and kissing it as Felix and several others had.
"So you like laughing at the expense of others?"
"Not generally…" I trailed off not knowing what to call him and hoping that he'd fill the blank in for me.
"Forgive my lack of manners," he said. "People call me "M.""
I hid my disappointment with a slight grin. "Well, shall we go in then, "M"?" I asked holding out my arm for him to take.
He grinned back and took my arm allowing me to lead the way to the dining room.
The dinner passed quickly. All six or seven courses. The bachelors kept up a steady and competitive stream of chatter. The air in the room had an underlying tension that made me slightly uncomfortable. Thirty guys all trying to impress me. Make that twenty nine, "M", on the other side of the table, hadn't said much throughout the whole meal unlike his neighbor JJ who kept shouting things down the table about his career as an actor/rap artist. It was quite annoying really, but pretending to listen to him prattle on gave me an excuse to analyze the mysterious "M" some more. This "M" guy had lovely green eyes and light brown hair. His eyes were as bright green as mine were blue with the contacts. I wasn't sure if they were real and wasn't about to ask. It'd be inappropriate and I'd be sure to get an earful from Grandmere over the phone that night. His white shirt did nothing to hide the aura of mystery around him although it did soften it a bit. He must have felt my gaze on him because he looked up and his eyes locked with mine. I tried desperately not to blush as I smiled. He returned my smile with one of his own and went back to his meal.
Finally the meal was over and we sat chatting lightly, waiting for the show's host to come in and tell us what was going on tomorrow.
The door flew open with a bang, startling the occupants of the room and instantly halting all conversations.
It was the long awaited host.
"Well, I hope your meal was enjoyable." We murmured our approval as he smiled his camera worthy smile. "Tomorrow's meal will not be as enjoyable, I'm afraid." I stared at him in disbelief. I'd have to choose a few to vote off already? "Tomorrow will be a group date down at the beach. Then at dinner, also on the beach, Mary will chose five of you to leave." There were some mutterings which Kyle, the host, waited to die down before speaking again. "I hope you lot have a good night's sleep and we'll see you tomorrow."
As soon as he said that, I stood and left. I didn't want to be in the same room as those testosterone filled and guided men. I still missed Michael even after six years. He was so different from any other guy I have ever met. I sighed and entered my room locking the door after me. Maybe tomorrow things would be better…
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