New York City Friends
Season 1, Episode 10: The Men Of The City
Starring~ Michelle McCool, Ashley Massaro, Candice Michelle-Barrett, and Torrie Wilson.
Although love sucked, some of us were still looking for it, digging through the trash just to find just a little love. The other half of the population however, were done with it, Ashley was usually one of the other half, but today she found herself just as desperate as us others.
While going through the racks of clothing, the topic of love soon approached Ashley, "Okay, so, my mother is having this stupid engagement party and I am screwed, because I am single and my mother is getting re-married for the fourth time," Ashley pans out as she goes through the racks of clothing, "And everybody knows that my mother will be dissapointed if I come to her engagement party all single, so do you know anybody who might be single," Ashley asks Dolph.
Dolph stops and thinks, "Hmm, not really," Dolph says shaking his head, "Although this might be a crazy absurd idea... but you can maybe try hosting like a 'love booth' kind of thing," Dolph throws out for Ashley to think about, "Guys will show up and you'll probably find somebody out of that bunch, tell me that's a good idea," Dolph exclaims, ready to set his friend up for some love.
Ashley turns to Dolph, "That could work, but It'd take a lot of planning and I don't have that type of time," Ashley says, bursting Dolph's bubble of love.
"Well, I could always plan it for you, just give me a few hours and I'll make it happen," Dolph suggests to her.
Ashley continues to go through the thrift-store clothing rack before giving him an answer, "Fine then, but make sure at least a few of the guys are descent," Ashley says with a chuckle, "So how are you," Ashley asks Dolph.
Dolph shrugs, "I'm fine, well me and Fandango are getting more serious with our relationship, it took us losing each other to know how much we really belong together," Dolph says, with a calmness to his voice.
"Why is the man's life so tidy and figured out, did he maybe go on a journey filled with too many struggles to get where he's at?"- Ashley asked herself and so did I, it seemed like he had it all figured out. One can only wish to have it like that, but maybe some of us are still on that journey of up's & down's.
"Oh and I'm a few weeks away from finishing my first year of college," Dolph continues as Ashley self-pity's herself, "But, don't worry, I'm a college drop-out, so technically this is my second ride to college life," Dolph adds in, trying to avoid making Ashley feel terrible about herself.
Ashley laughs to erase the awkwardness, "Well, I am your go-to-gal if you ever need help, but from the looks of it I'm positive your doing just fine," Ashley says as she comes in contact with a sick white & black t-shirt, "By the way, do I need to dress... like in a dress for this thing," Ashley says as the two laugh in union.
On the other side of Manhattan, two other opposite-sexual gendered friends talked on about the troublesome's of love.
"So me and Victoria are going out for dinner tonight with some of our friends, and I was wondering if you wanted to go," Mark asks Michelle, while the jogging makes his voice shaky.
Michelle turns to him, "I have plans, I'm sorry, but maybe next time," Michelle says as she feels the heavy sweat on her forehead, either because of the jog or because of the lie she just told.
Mark stops and leans against the nearby fence, "Well, I have a friend," Mark says, pausing to catch his breath, "And he is single, I could definitely try setting you two up, I know you'd like him, he's a good guy," Mark says, followed by a long sip of water.
"My ex-husband trying to set me up with one of his friends"- Wow! I did not think I would ever get to live that day, but it was happening. Well it wasn't going to happen, because I could never do that to Mark and I don't think I would feel comfortable in that whole situation.
Michelle stretches her leg on the bench, "Are you crazy, no," Michelle says loudly to Mark, "Plus, I'll look on my own, but thanks for offering," Michelle says to Mark.
Mark starts jogging slowly again, "If you say so," Mark says. Feeling relieved that she rejected the idea of his, because no normal person would ever want to see their ex with one of their friends.
Michelle follows him, "Wait up," Michelle yells as she starts jogging faster.
Mark trying to set me up with one of his friends really hurt my feelings in a way, because I know that no man would want the idea of his ex having 'fun' with one of his own friends... but this definitely showed me how open-minded and over me Mark really was. It inspired me to get out there and look on my own, so that I could get the same sense of understanding as Mark.
Blocks away from Central Park, Candice had her own park of problems going on. She and Wade were no longer even living together, for the most part at least; he would make periodical appearances here and there, but it was mostly just Candice and Brooklyn living in that Park Avenue Penthouse. Candice never thought about the idea of Wade fully moving out, but she was about to learn otherwise.
"Knock, Knock, It's me baby," The woman sings through the door, with a melody to her tone.
Candice opens the door and stretches her arm in the air, "No way, here come in," Candice exclaims as she makes room for the woman with heavy-plastic work.
That's Wade's friend's ex-wife- Although she and Candice were never that close, she knows exactly what mess Candice is going through, so she came to give Candice a head's up.
"How ya' doing," The woman says as she throws her Chanel purse on Candice's couch, "Okay, so basically, I heard that your husband is looking for another apartment and apparently he's keeping it top-secret," The woman dishes out to clueless Candice.
Candice stops and takes it all in for a moment, "What, are you positive," Candice says, too scared to accept it as the truth.
The woman's botox made it too hard for Candice to believe her expressionless face, but it was mostly just Candice's own denial making her a little blind.
The woman sticks her hand out, "I am positive, trust me, I'm here to warn you about him possibly throwing you under the bus soon," The woman says flipping her hair to the other side, "I'm so sorry Candice, but I don't want you to fall like I did to my ex-husband," The woman tells Candice.
Candice hated being seen crying, so she simply excused herself to the kitchen.
If you can't handle the heat of Candice's anger, then stay out of her kitchen.
"That son of a b*tch," Candice yells from the kitchen.
Candice hopes that the woman doesn't follow her in, luckily the woman knows not to, "Okay, well, thank you for notifying me, I don't know what to do, but I'm going to figure it out," Candice says to the woman, but instead of saying anything more, the woman knows to leave.
Candice wanted to celebrate her sorrow, alone. But she would never let Wade celebrate a victory against her, a divorce was now what Candice most desired.
Strong and Independent women aren't rare to find here in New York, in fact some of the greatest women are able to turn this characteristic on and off whenever they have to. Torrie was one of those women, she knew how to turn it on and off and today she had that switch fully on.
Torrie nervously looks up at Brock's staircase; which she walked up and down numerous of times for better reasons in the past. But today, Torrie was going to do what most women would never dream of doing, which was to face your ex and even return any nice gift he ever gave to you.
Torrie slowly walks up step by step, finally reaching the front door, she pauses to look through the bag of luxurious items- Making sure everything is in there, she then proceeds to knock on the door.
But one item in particular caught Torrie's eye and heart... The beautiful Pearl Necklace Brock gave to her on their first date.
It's too late to take anything out at this point, she already knocked the door. But after waiting for about 20 seconds, Torrie contemplates on whether or not she should keep that piece of treasure.
Another ten seconds go by and Torrie makes up her mind, so she quickly takes the Tiffany & Co Pearl Necklace from the bag.
Right in that moment, the door opens and Torrie panics, but she still holds on to that necklace, "Hi, are you looking for Brock," The maid says as she watches Torrie's unnatural and clumsiness in action.
Torrie is relieved, "Oh, no," Torrie says, still holding on to that necklace, but it's stuck to the strap of the bag, "I just came to give this to Brock, so can you please tell him that Torrie Wilson left this for him and please tell him that I don't ever want hear from him," Torrie says, still trying to untangle the necklace from the strap.
She finally untangles it and snatches it, hoping the woman didn't see, but she did, so Torrie try's to play it off.
"Woops, my necklace just fell in here and it got stuck," Torrie explains to the maid.
The maid smiles and pats her on the back, "It's a beautiful piece from the love you once shared with Brock, present or not, love is love," The maid says as she grabs the bag and puts it inside.
The maid then turns back to Torrie, "It's a true beauty, keep it darling," She says to Torrie.
Torrie was somewhat embarrassed, but she walked away with a smile and that gorgeous Pearl Necklace.
Torrie never thought about it that way; That the pieces of a past love are still the same pieces of love and love will always be love, but it's the people who maybe ruin that. Not just men, but women too... mostly men though, but agree to disagree if you want to.
Later, all us girls met for a quick brunch. We all brought pieces of our emotions with us, the food wasn't filling us up, so instead the emotions were doing that job.
Candice sits there with her arms crossed, "I just cannot believe, that Wade would go behind my back and go plan this new life of his, expecting me to stay behind," Candice let's out, keeping a strong face for the women.
Michelle shrugs, "But that's not fair, you were emotionally destroyed and you didn't know about Wade's second life, so he technially has an advantage to this 'who creates a new life for themselves first' race," Michelle says with her hand being used to make the points and with a strawberry on the other hand.
"I know, he's being sneaky and unfair, but I'm not gonna let him win," Candice says, almost yelling the words out.
Michelle can't help, but to feed off of this 'divorce-subject' stamina of Candice, "Well, don't let him, because Mark moved out and on top of that he got a girlfriend with that little deal," Michelle says, almost yelling her words out too, "Do you know what I got; some small apartment filled with memories of Mark and an embarrassing STORY OF CRYING SEX WITH THIS GUY I MET AT THIS EMBARRASSING DESPERATE CLUB," Michelle yells this time.
I had to let it all out, all of it, everything I've been through for the past few weeks.
Ashley and Torrie stay quite; The two un-married women who have never dealt with this complicated divorce mess would rather appreciate that fact.
But Ashley finally speaks, "Well of course men are going to move on quicker than us, they're less emotional and more stupid," Ashley says, "I mean, the woman simply wants him to show up with a passion... Whereas the man wants her to do him a little favor with the mouth, and I'm not talking about kissing."
The four girls all laugh, finally sharing a laugh that they haven't heard in a long time.
"Yeah and you're forgetting that women simply want the man to be their other half, whereas the man wants the woman to be his puppet and his little 'owned property'," Torrie says, joining in on "This Last Supper Of Men, If Women Had Guns Right Now".
I guess we all had to let it all out, all of it, everything we've been through for the past few weeks.
Ashley brings her hands together, "Well, unlike you women, I have nothing to tell, so I'm gonna go out hoping to find myself that same 'suicide to the emotions' man," Ashley says, as she get's up from her chair.
"Dolph set up this 'love-booth' for me and I'm hoping to find somebody there," Ashley continues, mocking herself and trying to hold back the laughter.
Michelle gasps, "Well then, Ashley going out to look for love, that's not surprising at all," Michelle says sarcastically, "And in a 'love-booth', hmm. I am too shocked."
Ashley shakes her head, "Okay, I'm only doing it because my mother is having an engagement party, and it was Dolph's idea," Ashley says, repulsed with the idea of her ever chasing love.
"Well tell your mother, I said good luck with that, because marriage is just a mean girl dressed in a pretty dress," Candice exclaims as the women all laugh, especially Candice and Michelle.
Ashley walks off and Torrie simply hopes she has an ounce of hopefulness, "Ashley, if you don't find somebody, you'll be fine because you're a gorgeous strong woman," Torrie yells to her, hoping Ashley heard.
And after getting herself dressed up for "The Special Love Both For Ashley's Needs", Ashley sat through a number of 'special men'.
Ashley sits there waiting for the first guy to come through the red mini-curtains, "By the way, Thank you Dolph," Ashley says to Dolph, but he doesn't respond because he's too busy getting a quick count of the men outside the booth.
"Okay, here comes the first one," Dolph exclaims as he watches the good-looking man walk up, "It's looking good Ashley," Dolph says, almost drooling over the man.
Ashley nervously drinks a sip out of her water bottle, "Hello, yes this is my love booth and yes I am Ashley," Ashley try's to confidently say.
The man sits down on the chair, "Cool, cool," The man says with a pause, "You look nothing like you did in your picture," The man says disappointed.
Ashley's eyes widen just hearing that, "Well, Um..., I'm sorry but I don't speak asshole," Ashley says with her feelings already completely hurt.
"Okay, out," Dolph yells to the now-not-so-good-looking man.
Ashley still secretly hoped a descent one would come through those curtains.
A weird smell suddenly fills the room up, followed by a hippie-looking man, "Hello, you're a pretty chick," The smelly man says with a cocky smile.
Ashley casually covers her nose, "Hi," Ashley says, still wanting to give him a chance.
The man stares at Ashley, "Hey," The man says as he stares at Ashley's water bottle, "Are you gonna recycle that or are you just another idiot who is destroying this earth," The man says to Ashley, calmly and awkwardly.
But guy after guy, Ashley has seen enough and apparently they have too...
After the other three men that followed, only to get a big fat rejection, including; The arrogant politically opinionated man, The loud bald lawyer, and The guy who could possibly be a serial killer... no more men seemed to walk through those curtains.
Dolph turns to Ashley with a shrug, "I think we should cancel this," Dolph says as he watches the men almost riot in front of the small booth.
Ashley over-hears a few men yelling that this whole 'love booth' thing is "ridiculous" and that "she is too picky".
"Hey, watch the c-words," Dolph yells to one of the men.
Ashley covers her face with her hands, she feels the sweat dripping down from her arm onto the white table, "Get them out of here," Ashley begs to Dolph.
Dolph looks at her with a blank expression, trying to come up with something, "Okay everybody, you were all part of an investigation that is now being cancelled, but if you were looking for sex, then you should probably leave," Dolph yells to the few 15 men in the room and all those 15 men surely dashed right out of there.
"Perfect, except I'm still alone," Ashley says, with her hands on her face again.
And on a more serious note...
"I wanted to talk to you about something," Candice says to Brooklyn as she caresses his hair.
Except Brooklyn already knows what this is about, but he'll listen either way.
"Well for the past few years your father has been ignoring me and he would always seem to have places to be at in the evenings if you don't rememeber," Candice says trying to keep her own feelings out of this.
Brooklyn already knew that and he too found it suspicious, but he has a scary feeling of where this might go.
After a long pause, Candice continues, "And a couple of weeks ago, I found out he was cheating on me and he even hit me," the mother says as the tears began to pour down, "I'm telling you this because you're not a little kid anymore and I don't want to leave you in the dark about what's to come for this family in the future."
Brooklyn looks the other way, as the tears rain down on him too, "Okay," Brooklyn says, not wanting to talk about this any further.
The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree; Both Candice and Brooklyn were afraid of vulnerbality.
Candice notices Brooklyn's uncomftorable behavior; A behavior she's noticed within herself too. So Candice wipes the tears away and she re-adjusts her voice to match the strong face she has had on for far too long, "Me and your father are most likely getting a divorce and I'm hoping that this place will stay with us, but that's all I know as of now," Candice says as she looks around the penthouse her family has shared for almost one long decade, her eye contact then goes back to Brooklyn, "Strangly enough, this is the best for us, your father and I can create our lives again and we can be happy again... seperatly in different paths, the only thing connecting our worlds will be you."
Finally, after the tears dried off, Brooklyn got up from the couch, "I think that a divorce would be a good thing too, for all of us," Brooklyn simply says, but before he walks off, "But don't do that thing where you make up with him and then cancel all of these future plans, only to repeat the same damn cycle, because I will label you stupid if you do do that," Brooklyn madly says, with his real feelings unleashing.
Candice gasps, not expecting that from him- All along she thought he didn't notice that destructful behavior of her's.
Candice shakes her head, strangely enough she is not offended by her son's sharp statement, "This time, it's happening and I will do everything in my power to make it happen," Candice says to her strong son.
That's when Candice's mind officially filed for a divorce... but physically, she still needed to take care of that.
Torrie on the other hand, had already taken of care handling her physical break-up with Brock, but mentally she was still fighting.
Torrie lies on the living room floor, when suddenly Alicia walks in.
"Torrie, What on earth are you doing," Alicia exclaims as she reaches her arm for Torrie to grab.
Torrie is somewhat surprised that she was so busy in her own mind, that she didn't even recognize Alicia's presence in the apartment.
Torrie stays lying down, "I'm not even sure that breaking up with Brock was what I even wanted," Torrie says, still trying to find the mental ending for this past love.
Alicia joins her on the floor, "Well, you're still young," Alicia says as she sits with her legs crossed, "Of course you're not gonna know what you want all of the time."
Torrie sits up, "He made me happy and I loved everything about the real human being part of Brock," Torrie says to Alicia, "But he had this big incredible life and it seems like people just always came between us, it was all too complicated for me!"
Torrie already had the reasoning for this mental ending of this past love, but she still didn't have a moment where she could call it "The End".
Alicia get's up, "Well there you go, you already know why you broke up with him," Alicia says as she pats Torrie on the knee, "Now, you need to heal yourself and move on."
Torrie gives her a smile and Alicia walks out of the living room.
Torrie turns around and looks out the window, she pulls out the beautiful Pearl Necklace Brock gave to her on their first date and she simply looks at it with the pearls gleaming in her eyes.
Was Torrie hanging on to Brock or was Torrie hanging on to the Pearl Necklace?- And by that I mean; Was Torrie hanging on to the man or was Torrie hanging on to the love?
I still was holding on to the man and to the love, but a quick solution for that would be to just re-do my apartment and paint my past with new colors.
Michelle walks with a basket full of a few home-supplies, she struggles with some of the heavier items, but overall she turns her right hand into the man.
Although she knows exactly what she wants for this new rejuvenated apartment of her's, she never hesitates to ask a man questions about this world of 'home improvement & construction' world.
But after walking in my fabulous heels, paired off with these fabulous ripped jeans- I learned that a woman can never trust that she'll survive in a man's-dominated world.
Michelle looks around the aisles and finally a beautiful section of paints of colors wonders her eyes, so she walks towards the aisle.
But right when she makes the turn to walk straight down, the wondrous paint suddenly becomes her worst nightmare.
Michelle sees a big splat of yellow paint coming towards her, she tries to move but it get's her right on the ripped jeans.
"Um, hello, I'm walking hea'," Michelle yells as she throws her hands in the air- Like a True New Yorker!
The blonde man runs to her, "I'm so sorry, I was testing the paint on that canvas and I guess I missed," The panicking man says as he observes the damage, "I'm really sorry!"
And suddenly, I was okay with trading my ripped jeans for this handsome man... maybe? But I'm definitely liking his generosity and his face.
Michelle shakes the anger off for the man, "It's fine, at least you didn't get the heels," Michelle says as she gives the blonde man a smile.
He smiles back and puts his hand out for a shake, "Well I still feel guilty, so can I help you with whatever it is you want," The man says as he reads Michelle's eyes and what they're telling him is 'Yes'.
The two walk towards the paints and the blonde man even helps Michelle with her shopping basket, "By the way I'm Christian," Christian says as his leads the way to the wall-paints.
"Nice to meet you Christian, I'm Michelle," Michelle says as she follows Christian and while walking she notices that her heels also have a few splats of yellow paint... but she's okay with that.
But a generous and kind man is hard to find here in New York, just ask Ashley.
Ashley takes her sunglasses off as she walks in the bar of almost all men.
Ashley sits on the stool, "A Manhattan please," Ashley says to the bartender.
The bartender turns around to mix a drink up for Ashley's lonely needs.
While hopelessly waiting, Ashley calmly sat on the stool as she looked up at the television. When suddenly, a rough man came ramming straight into Ashley's back- Knocking her forwards to the floor.
The fall happens right before Ashley's eyes, "Watch it there," Ashley yells as she sticks her hands out, to avoid hitting her face on the bottom of the bar's counter.
Not one bone of Ashley was hurt, but emotionally she was practically paralyzed.
She's far too embarrassed to pick herself up and the laughter of the man isn't helping at all, but she eventually picks herself up anyways.
Ashley supports her stand with the stool, she turns around to give it to the rude man, but he's no longer there.
The man has disappeared without even apologizing, but the bartender with the alcohol is still there.
He looks at her blankly and Ashley is too embarrassed to stay any longer, so she puts down a 15 dollar bill on the counter.
She then picks up the drink and quickly drinks it down- Trying to wash away the bitter feeling.
Ashley was pissed at New York City and it's men, so right when she got home her browser history consisted of Paris questions and Paris facts- A place she wanted to escape for some time now.
'Flights to Paris from New York City,' Ashley types in the Google search bar, but it soon hits Ashley that her visiting Paris is highly unlikely.
Ashley shakes her head as she backspaces the sentence, but her researching Paris and it's wonders definitely won't hurt her.
Ashley runs her fingers across the computer keyboard and types in; 'NYC vs Paris', Ashley scrolls down as she overwhelmingly looks through the articles.
Ashley spent her afternoon in Paris... Not the one located in France, but the one located in her imagination.
New York City eventually tires people out and sooner or later, people make a run for it. But I didn't want to be anywhere else, but here, mostly because of this unexpected kind man I met.
Talking about home-painting soon turned into more than just that; Michelle and Christian shared a conversation with depth of excitement and infatuation.
The two would often touch each other and the flirting was obvious, but the two acted oblivious about it on purpose.
Michelle soon realized that her time was ticking away, "Wow, it's getting late," Michelle says as she looks at the time, "Thank you for helping out, I'm excited to get these paints onto my walls," Michelle exclaims.
Christian smiles and he hands her his phone, "There's my number, just in case you need help painting those walls," Christian says as he stares at Michelle the way every woman dreams of being stared at.
Unknowingly, Michelle excitedly types in the number to her phone, "Okay, got it," Michelle says, catching Christian's dreamy eyes on her.
"Well, I definitely did not expect myself to run into someone like you over here, but it happened," Christian admiringly says as he laughs and waves goodbye.
Michelle stands back and watches him away, she simply smiles and turns around to walk away with a newly re-opened heart.
Throughout my whole conversation with Christian, I never stopped to think about Mark for even one short second. Maybe this man I just met was the right guy to help me move on from Mark. This city has it's rough men, which is why they stick to your mind and heart for so long. But every now and then, a different one comes along, one that gives you the confidence in the future of this city's love scene and one that gives you the confidence in your own future of exciting love!
Special Guest Stars~ Dolph Ziggler, Mark 'Undertaker' Calaway, Brooklyn Barrett, Alicia Fox, and Christian.
Written & Created By~ Jonathan N.
Published On May 2, 2015.