"For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo." Sansa read, her eyes misty as the emotion of the story as well as the late hour overtook her. She took a long drink of water, her mouth parched from reading out loud for the last two hours. Despite this being her payment for losing the bet, Tyrion had recited some of the lines as well and Sansa's heart had grown full to bursting when he read Romeo's soliloquy.

Tyrion was a true romantic. One couldn't read with that much emotion without some level of passion behind it. She hadn't realized how much she truly desired that in a man until now and she couldn't imagine her life without it. Her family had always kidded her about her notions of fairy tale love and rom-com meet cutes but it was who she was.

So it was in fact somewhat tragic that she had never fallen in love before.

Well...before now.

"Thank you Sansa." Tyrion said gruffly. There was a sweet, melancholy tinge to his voice and she wished so badly to see the expression on his face.

"I can't believe that's all you wanted. I'm always happy to read the Bard. I am an English teacher for a reason." Tucking her loose hair behind her ears, she leaned forward. "But why Romeo and Juliet?"

"We are on a dating show." Tyrion joked. "Aren't we supposed to have these kinds of over the top romantic dates?"

Sansa made a noise that clearly indicated she didn't believe that was the whole of it.

Tyrion yawned "It's late Sansa, almost one in the morning. Why don't we have our literature review in the morning over coffee and croissants like civilized people."

There it was again, that wall. Every time she came close to touching certain things about his life, he deflected. It hadn't bothered her at first since they were just getting to know each other, but now it made her question if this relationship was meant to go beyond the pods. Although, she hadn't exactly bared her soul to him either. Jaime knew more about her past, about Ramsey in particular, than his brother. She had been slowly working up the courage to tell him, but she was scared. Not necessarily about his reaction partly due to Jaime's reassurance, but just being that vulnerable and open again.

Heart pounding, she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. It wasn't fair to expect him to lower his walls if she wasn't willing to do the same.

Deciding to be brave, she said "I've never been in love before." in a small voice.

"Never?" he said in disbelief.

"I've thought I was in love once, but time and a lot of therapy" she laughed bitterly "taught me that what I felt wasn't love at all. So it's hard for me to fully understand a play like Romeo and Juliet, or a Jane Austen book, or the love songs on the radio because I've never loved or been loved like that."

Tyrion said nothing for a minute, but Sansa waited him out. Silence was better than a witty retort, it meant he was thinking not deflecting.

"I was in love once," he said wistfully "a long time ago and much like our play it ended in tragedy."

"Tragedy?" Sansa said, alarmed.

"Not double suicide level" he chortled "but tragic nevertheless."

Sansa once again remained silent so he would continue.

"Her name was Tysha." The sound of her name was like a physical blow to Sansa. "We met in college in the pre-law program. She was a year my senior but we ran in the same circles. The week before Jaime was shipped overseas he visited me and I took him to a houseparty for the pre-law crowd. We had a good time, drinking just enough to have a buzz but not enough to get drunk. The party broke up around midnight and we were walking home when we heard a scuffle in an alleyway. This girl in torn clothes came sprinting out of it and bowled me over flat on my back while her pursuer ran straight into Jaime who took one look at him before turning tail and fleeing back down the alley. Jaime and his white knight hero complex took off after the bastard while I scraped this hysterical girl off the sidewalk. Once I realized it was Tysha, and she recognized me as well, I was able to walk her home. I wanted to call the police or at the very least campus security, but she wouldn't let me."

Sansa felt a kinship for this poor girl. Unless you've been in the situation, it's difficult to understand why you wouldn't want the authorities to get involved. A police report makes it all the more difficult to pretend a traumatic event never happened.

"We got to her apartment where I learned her roommate was out of town. She was too shaken for me to leave her by herself so I crashed on the couch."

"She was comfortable enough to have male friend stay with her after being attacked?" Sansa said doubtfully.

"I'm not exactly the kind of guy women worry about like that Sansa." Tyrion said in a strange tone of voice leaving Sansa even more perplexed.

"Anyway, I stayed the night. And the next night too. By the third night, I was head over heels in love with her. And to my surprise, she soon felt the same."

"What happened?" Sansa asked.

"The curse of any young love...family." he said resignedly. "My father disapproved of hers. They were of meager financial means and of no importance in society. She was there on scholarship and some hefty student loans. I didn't really care for his opinion and wasn't wholly dependent on him financially thanks to a trust from my late mother. Perhaps we could've surmounted that obstacle but everything changed when we went to visit her family for the first time."

"What happened?"

"Tysha was due to graduate that spring so I traveled home with her for spring break. We had been together for a little over a year, and with her getting ready to graduate I thought it was the perfect time to propose. I spent a fortune on a ring and planned on proposing after getting her parents' blessing. I was excited about the future, figuring we'd wed after I finished my undergrad and I'd apply to the same law school she was going to. However, life had other plans." he said ominously.

"Life?"

"I should say her father. He made his disapproval of me evident from the moment we met and it was clear he would not be giving me his blessing to marry her. In fact he pulled me to the side and told me I wasn't good enough for his daughter. That being married to a man like me would hold her back in life."

"A man like you? I don't understand." Sansa said.

"Tysha didn't either." Tyrion continued rather glossing over Sansa's inquiry as she felt some of his walls coming back up. "But the damage had been done. Doubts slowly crept in and six weeks later it was over. No dramatics, no huge fights. Just a slow seeping away of what we had like a sandcastle on the shore as the tide comes in. In some ways, it was almost worse, like a slow lingering death."

"I'm sorry Tyrion." Sansa said.

"It was a long time ago."

"It doesn't matter how long ago something happened if it still bothers you. Do you still have feelings for her after all this time?" she said, her heart sinking at the thought.

"It's not that." He took a deep breath. "My whole life I've been told I'm inadequate by my father, Cersei, hells society as a whole. I let it hurt me at first, but I learned to be strong, to not care so much what others think as long as I had the people who loved me. For so long it was only Jaime and then I had Tysha. But after her father told me I wasn't good enough...Gods I believed it. It was so easy to believe."

Sansa's heart bled for a young heart broken Tyrion as the truth behind his story sunk in. "It wasn't her that had doubts about you. It was you having doubts about your own self worth."

"Ding, ding, we have a winner." Tyrion said tiredly with a hint of sarcasm. "Self-sabotage thy name is Tyrion Lannister."

Silence came over the pods, the hour was late and a glance at the clock told her the crew would be telling them to wrap up the date in the next few minutes. Sansa's head swam in that bleary way that emotional as well as physical exhaustion can do. And out of that muddled quagmire, came a startling realization. "That's why you lied about your appearance to those other women. You're doing it again but preemptively. Sabotaging your own chances at possible happiness. Rejecting them before they can reject you."

"Sansa" Tyrion replied in a strangled voice. "I.." He hesitated. "You're right. I didn't want to be here and I thought I could prove a point about how ridiculous this concept is. But...I don't know. I came on this show and it wasn't what I thought. Some of the women were superficial and shallow, that's true. But a few were so sweet and sincere and then.." He paused. She wished so badly that she could see him. Communication was about so much more than words and not knowing his body language and facial expressions was killing her.

"Tyrion.." she practically begged in a word for him to continue.

"And then I met you. Sansa you shook up my world in a way I didn't think was possible for me anymore. Made me wonder if it was truly possible for me to find happiness, if love was out there for a man like me."

A roaring filled Sansa's ears as her heart thudded in her chest and butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

Gently she replied with a tremor in her voice, "I think that love is out there for both of us. If we're willing to take the risk."

"Sansa, there's just so much you don't know."

"But I want to." she said urgently. "I know there's something you're not telling me. Something that makes you feel as if you need to put up these walls. But you don't need to with me, I promise."

"It's easy to make a promise when you don't know what the circumstances are." Tyrion replied ominously.

"All I know is that I've never felt this way about anyone before, and the thought of it ending in a few days terrifies me in a way that I didn't know was possible." Sansa said in earnest. "And there is so much I want to tell you too."

The lights flickered just then, annoyingly like a final call at a bar, signaling the conclusion of the day's filming and Sansa groaned in frustration. Tyrion chuckled at the sound before retorting, "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

While she adored the charming Tyrion, it was the man underneath who she was falling in love with. "Tomorrow." she said. "No more games."

"No more games."

The next morning Tyrion rose bright and early full of nervous energy about his talk with Sansa that night. A talk that would change his future for either the better or the worse. He knew it was time, time to move forward. Time to give this thing between them it's due course. But he was paralized with fear and indecision. Because how on earth do you tell the woman of your dreams "Heeeyyyy by the way, yeah, I have achondroplasia. So if you're cool with the dwarf instead of the handsome prince you want to marry me?" and not expect her to run screaming.

Noticing that his brother, the human garbage disposal, was picking at his breakfast he realized that he wasn't the only nervous one. Jaime had confessed all to Brienne last night, who had reacted by confessing to have been in love with her best friend, a gay man, for years and that "We don't get to choose who we love."

Jaime had promptly proposed to her on the spot replying "I didn't choose to fall in love on a preposterous reality show with a woman I have never seen, but I have and I've never been happier. What I can choose is to ask if she will spend her life with me and let me love her as I have never loved another. Will you marry me Brienne?"

But now in the daylight hours, his bravado had evaporated. It didn't matter to Jaime if he was the best looking guy on the show, it just mattered to him what Brienne thought. And he was petrified of her reaction. If Tyrion didn't love him so much, he'd probably hate him right now because really, what on earth was he worrying about! And that thought alone made him feel guilty because Jaime was allowed to have those feelings too, no matter how unfounded Tyrion found them to be.

Deciding to get over himself momentarily and be a good brother, Tyrion asked "She said yes and she told you she loved you. What are you worried about?"

Jaime didn't answer so rolling his eyes Tyrion sighed before continuing "Are you worried about what she looks like?"

Jaime glared at him. "No! I don't care about that. You know that looks have never really been important to me." Tyrion did know. A man like Jaime could have women or men for that matter by the dozen. But he never did. It had only ever been Cersei, (and for a time span in high school a crush on his soccer coach Arthur Dayne). Tyrion was pretty sure his brother was demisexual, but it wasn't his place to label anybody.

"Then what?" Tyrion said, his patience wearing thin on account of his own nerves.

"I'm…" he ran his fingers through his own golden locks before sighing and laying his head on the table "pretty." He mumbled into the table.

Tyrion responded with a bark of laughter before he caught himself, pretending to have a coughing fit. Jaime turned his head enough to scowl at him before returning glumly to stare down at the table.

"What if she doesn't like pretty men? What if she likes big rugged men?" Jaime said, and Tyrion could tell by the melancholy of his voice that he was genuinely upset.

"Jaime, I'm sure you're worrying yourself over nothing. I think she's more worried about what you think of her." Brienne had told him that while Jaime knew she wasn't built like a conventional woman being stronger, broader, and taller than most men, she was still worried that Jaime would reject her based on some nasty past experiences with blind dates.

"I said I don't care. I love her."

"Has she given you any reason to think that she cares about looks either?"

"No." he said hopefully.

"Then be happy Jaime. In a few hours you get to kiss your future wife, so the only thing you should be worried about is your breath." Tyrion said before throwing a breath mint at his head and leaving for his yoga session with Arya.

"I hear congratulations are in order." Arya said "for your brother and Brienne."

"Yes, he's a happy man, although nervous about seeing each other for the first time."

"I bet. I can't even imagine."

They lapsed into comfortable silence with the exception of Arya's instructions. They finished the session before resuming their conversation.

"Rumor has it that Gendry is leaving today." Tyrion said.

"That is what he told me last night." Arya replied.

Tyrion said nothing after first but he knew Arya well enough by now to know she wasn't going to volunteer any information.

"So I take it the date didn't go well."

"I thought I'd give it one last chance."

"It?"

"This show. I mean my dumbass cousin found love. Jon proposed to Ygritte last night if you hadn't heard."

"I did."

"And my sister...I think she's found something special too." Arya said in a gentle but pointed tone. "I've never seen her this way."

"And how's that."

"In love." Arya said bluntly.

"Oh," Tyrion replied, his heart pounding so hard it threatened to beat outside his body. He steered the subject quickly back to Arya. "So Gendry wasn't the one?"

Arya sighed. "I came here to escape my own heartache. I thought throwing myself head first into the dating pool by meeting a bunch of men would make me get over him. But all it's done is make me realize that… that none of them are him and he's the only one I want. Even if he says he doesn't want me like I want him. Even if he doesn't love me the way I love him."

"Did you tell him that? That you love him."

"Not in so many words. But I told him that I wanted to be with him." Arya said glumly. "He didn't feel the same."

"He told you that?" Tyrion said incredulously. Arya didn't seem the type of woman who gave her heart easily or foolishly away.

"No. He just said 'I'm not the man for you wolf-girl.'" Tyrion waited patiently. He knew something had been eating up his new taciturn friend and was honored and amazed she had chosen him to confide him. "I was humiliated. I left that day and never went back. We had worked together for years and all these feelings were a long time in the making. And I swear, I swear to the Gods, he felt the same. Not that he'd ever said anything. But the way he'd look at me when he thought I wasn't looking, how he said my name in that deep gravelly voice, how a man of few words always had plenty to spare for me. The way he stared down a man in challenge no matter how innocent, that I spent time with. " She blew out her breath angrily in frustration "I just don't understand how I could be so stupid, how I could have tricked myself into thinking his feelings were more than they were."

"Arya," Tyrion said calmly, his mind sifting through the information she had just told him. "It doesn't sound like you ever actually found out what his feelings were for you. What he said to you in fact didn't address his feelings at all."

Arya didn't reply so Tyrion decided to press his luck. "You owe it to yourself to find out what he meant and what his feelings really are if only for closure. I may not know the whole of the situation, but by the Gods I know evasive speech and 'I'm not the man for you' sounds like it could be more about him than about you. Especially if all you said was true. You don't strike me as the type of woman to have romantic flights of fancy, or over analyze every word a man says to figure how he feels. I think you are very perceptive and wouldn't perceive feelings to be there on this man's side unless they were true."

"Maybe." Arya said before lapsing back into silence, clearly taking his advice to heart. "He did blow up my phone in the days that followed before I came on the show, but I was just too hurt and angry to hear what he had to say.

"What does Sansa think?" Tyrion finally asked. Jaime was the first and well, only person he went to when his heart had been broken all those years ago.

"She has the broadest outline but I haven't told her the whole story." She paused for a beat. "I'm not sure she'd approve of him. I know mother wouldn't. He's older than me and too rough around the edges for her taste. Besides, we haven't always been the closest of sisters. Growing up, it was a constant battle between us. We couldn't be more different. I was a bit of a wild child. A skinny little flat-chested tomboy that was always giving my mother fits while Sansa was quite the opposite, a younger version of herself. I played soccer and lacrosse. Sansa took ballet and played the piano. I squeaked by in school, Sansa was an honor student. I never got asked to a dance, Sansa was homecoming queen." Arya explained. "It was hard growing up being compared to an older sister like that."

"Trust me Arya, I get it. Jaime was the golden child and I was the black sheep. And much like you and Sansa we couldn't be more opposite in looks or personality. He was super popular and excelled at sports and with the girls, even if he didn't notice them, while I was the bookish lonely nerd that girls didn't even see. So I know what it's like to grow up in an older sibling's shadow."

"After our father died, we started to put a lot of our differences aside and become closer. But then she met that asshole, and slowly started pulling away from me and the rest of the family. And Gods we let her, thinking she was pulling away due to her own need to escape the grief that hung over us all. We didn't know, I didn't know, what that bastard was doing to my only sister and all because some petty childhood sibling rivalry lodged a wedge between us!" Arya seethed.

Tyrion sat perfectly still. On an intellectual level, he knew that Sansa had been in an abusive relationship. But to get a glimpse of what this man did to her through her sister's eyes was illuminating. And frightening.

"I didn't know and if I had, that man would have a sentence far worse than time behind bars." She paused collecting herself. "I wanted you to know that, before she tells you about him." The very word dripped with venom. "Sansa hid everything very well, until it went too far. My family," she choked on the guilt of the words "my family, we were just caught up in our own grief, our own lives to see what was happening. But we will NEVER let that happen again." She said firmly, the warning hanging there unspoken but heard by him nonetheless.

"I understand." Tyrion said in a gentle tone.

"See that you do, or you'll be answering to me." Arya replied in a threatening voice, before changing to a friendly tone. "So same time tomorrow?"

Once again Sansa found herself, sitting behind a one way mirror watching newly engaged couples meet in person for the first time. First it had been Jon and Ygritte. The combination of Jon's slack jawed amazement at his kissed-by-fire future bride and the utter look of unadulterated lust on Ygritte's face caused both her and Arya to fall in a fit of hysterical laughter. Next had been Daenerys and Drogo. Sansa was pleased she had predicted that accurately, although Drogo had done the proposing, not Dany.

"Good for her" cheered Margaery with a slow clap while both Doreah and Roz let out a wolf whistle at the appearance of Drogo, a tall, gorgeous man with long dark hair and a bodybuilder's physique. Sansa agreed he was attractive, but extremely muscular men had never really been her type (but a glance at Arya's flushed face reminded her that it was very much her sister's type. She liked a ripped man she could climb like a tree.) To be honest, Sansa had never dated enough to figure out if she had a physical type. But she did know that Tyrion's deep voice, sharp wit, and easy charm easily caused the butterflies to flutter rather south of her stomach.

The last couple of the night was Brienne and Jaime. Which Sansa thought was a deliberate move on the show's part. The other two couples had been straight out of reality show casting 101 as they were all abnormally attractive people.

But Brienne was anything but a typical looking woman and Jaime was a disabled war veteran so this combination would be far more interesting to see on camera. Sansa's palms were sweaty and her heart pounded. A laugh bubbled up, this wasn't even her meet up and she was a ball of nerves! She had grown close with both of them and wanted nothing more for them to be happy.

Of course, there was also the fact that she'd be seeing Tyrion's brother for the first time, which may give her an inkling of what he looked like. It was almost funny that in all this time, neither of them had spoken of appearance after that first conversation. Most of the other men had given some vague description or had named off celebrities that they may resemble. But not the two of them. There were so many more important things to learn about each other. And wouldn't it rather defeat the purpose of this so-called experiment if they did discuss their looks?

However...she was still curious. While sexual attraction was far more than physical beauty, it certainly couldn't hurt either if the man she happened to have fallen for was a hottie.

Sansa snapped out of her thoughts as the countdown reached zero and the doors slid open. Like all of the women, her eyes were riveted on Jaime not only to finally but a face to a name but to gauge his reaction to Brienne.

The resulting reaction, as the most beautiful man she had ever seen stepped out of the shadows in a James Bond esque tuxedo, can only be described as chaos.

"HOLY SHIT." Doreah screamed while launching herself at the glass. All of the other women scrambled to get closer as well.

"I've never seen a man so gorgeous outside of the movies." whispered Rosalin Frey to her sister.

"I didn't know they made real men that good looking." another voice swooned.

"Is he missing a hand?" piped up Daenerys. (Jaime wasn't the only party who hadn't enjoyed that first date.)

"Who even cares with a face like that?" said Shireen with a giggle.

Margaery had been the first to turn back to her friend and what she saw made her hand fly to her mouth in shock. "Oh sweetie, it's OK. It's OK baby, be brave. He loves you. I know he does."

Sansa ripped her eyes away from Jaime's face as his smile, which had gone from nervous and delighted at his first glimpse of Brienne, slipped. Turning to Brienne, she saw her new friend frozen in place, face crumpled as tears filled her eyes.

"What is wrong with her?" hissed Doreah. "That man is an absolute smoke show and she's blowing it."

"She's afraid." Margaery said quietly, touching the glass as if trying to reach out to her friend.

"And so is he." Sansa said quietly, as all heads turned towards him to see Jaime's head hung low as he nervously rubbed his stump before hiding it behind him.

That subtle movement broke something in Brienne. She strode forward, jaw clenched her long legs flashing through the high slit evening gown. A dress that emphasized Brienne's muscular physique rather than trying to hide it and matched her striking blue eyes. By the time she reached Jaime, he was quite under her spell and stared at her wide eyed and hypnotized by her every move.

"No." She said firmly as she gently reached for his right forearm and brought his stump between them. "There is no need to hide this from me."

Jaime gazed up into her eyes, his own glassy. "You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." He stroked her cheek, before raising himself on tiptoe and kissing her deeply, reverently.

Finally, he pulled back and made her do a twirl while he gazed upon her in open admiration. Not to be outdone she did the same which he did with a flourish as Brienne snorted in laughter. "Like what you see?" he asked as a joke, but Sansa was sure he was covering up his own self-doubt. Even beautiful people need reassurances from the person they love.

Brienne bit her lip and rolled her eyes. "I guess you'll do." And she shot one arm out and pulled him to her for another kiss.

"Damn, I need a cigarette after that." Ros said, fanning herself.

"They looked very good together." Margaery agreed, snuggling next to Ros and placing her hand on her thigh.

"And happy," Sansa added. They looked completely and totally infatuated with each other.

"Their children will be Nordic gods." Ygritte agreed. "Between his face and her muscles I can't definitely see a Hemsworth being produced." She turned to Sansa "You regrettin' not going for him when you had a chance now that you've seen him?"

"No." Sansa said sincerely. "He and Brienne are a perfect fit."

"Plus she has Tyrion, who has all that genetic potential plus that voice." Margaery said with a wink.

Sansa blushed. That had already occurred to her. Not that it really mattered.

Checking the time, Sansa rose to get ready for her date with Tyrion and to her surprise Arya followed her.

"You know he might not." Arya said out of the blue.

"Who might not what?" Sansa said, smoothing down the imaginary wrinkles in her dress as she got ready to enter the pods.

"Tyrion. He may not look like Jaime."

"I know that." Sansa said, rolling her eyes. "What's your point Arya?"

"I'm just saying that siblings don't always look alike. I mean look at us. We're as different as night and day."

"And…this is important how?" Sansa said knowing she was sounding bitchy, but her stomach was in knots about the conversation she was about to have with Tyrion and the possible outcomes.

"Fine" Arya said, huffing out some air in frustration. "I gathered from Tyrion earlier today that he grew up in Jaime's shadow. And now that you've seen what Jaime looks like, I'm sure he's feeling insecure." Sansa stared at her blankly. "I just know that if the guy I wanted got a good look at you first and then based his expectations on that, he'd be disappointed when I walked out the door."

A physical slap would have been less painful. "If I ever made you feel that way, I'm more sorry than you could ever know." Sansa said, wrapping her arms around her. "And it's not true by the way. I wish I could tell you the number of men that check out your ass as we're walking down the street."

Arya laughed, pushing Sansa away. "Just be careful. Hearts are fragile things." she said with a tinge of melancholy.

They certainly are. Easily broken too as Sansa was about to discover.

Confessional Video Footage Love is Blind Westeros Season 2

Brienne, still in her evening dress sits at a desk staring intently at the camera.

"Seriously, not one of you could warn me that he looked like that." She glares at the camera. "Noooo one." She says, wrapping her knuckles against the desk. "It's almost cruel. Nobody should be that good looking."

She glances away overwhelmed and dumbfounded while a shy smile flickers across her face. Glancing back at the camera, she bites her fist and gazes in the camera in wide eyed wonder. "I am totally going to fuck his pretty brains out." she whispers to herself in astonishment.