Adventure to Love (24 page)

Chapter 19

Morgan’s Confessional:
As weird as it is, last night was one of the best nights I’ve had on the show so far. We finally got to eat, even though the food was disgusting, and Ky and I had a great conversation. I didn’t want to come on too strong, but it seemed like he really likes me. I guess we just have to see what happens after we get home. If we ever get home. I’m still not sure when this bullshit is going to end. It would be really great if we could get some answers around here.

Morgan slowly opened her eyes. She’d had the best night of sleep since they’d arrived to the campground, which wasn’t saying a lot. It meant she’d gotten more than two consecutive hours of sleep thanks to Ky’s warm body curled around her all night long.

But nothing had happened. Just sleeping. She wasn’t even going to consider fooling around with anyone on camera, no matter how many times they had threesomes on
The Real World
. She still had to deal with her mother, father, and even her grandmother watching the show. There was no way in hell she was even going to consider doing anything besides kissing on camera. She was keeping it strictly PG for now.

She felt Ky begin to stir beside her. They’d crammed both of their bodies into the other tiny twin bed in the cabin. Brinkley had slept through the night in the bed next to them. Morgan got out of bed and went to check on her again. She’d checked on her several times in the night, and she was still breathing fine.
Thank God.

She shook Brinkley to wake her up. “Hey, are you feeling better? Do you want any water? You should probably drink something to keep up your strength.”

She brought the half-empty bucket of water to the bed where Brinkley lay. Brinkley gulped from the bucket and let out a belch. She giggled and put her hand to her mouth, as demure as a geisha. “Sorry about that! Where are my manners?”

Brinkley looked at the bed next to her where Ky still lay half-asleep. “Did you guys both cram into that tiny bed together? That must have been pretty uncomfortable!”

Whether Brinkley was digging at her for more information or was really extending her condolences, she couldn’t tell. She said quickly, “Yeah, we both slept in the bed on and off through the night. We had to check on you pretty often to make sure you were okay and still breathing. We were worried about you.”

That seemed to satisfy Brinkley for the time being. She didn’t ask any more questions about their slightly suspicious sleeping arrangements.

Morgan took it upon herself to cook breakfast for the group, which meant pouring more tepid water into a package of Salisbury steak. Then she divided the rubbery steak into three equal portions that they could share for breakfast. It wasn’t much, but it was better than the starvation they had faced for over a week. And at least they had water for the day. Part of her wanted to suggest they each take a package for themselves, but who knew how much longer they had to stay there?

The group ate breakfast in silence, focused completely on the simple pleasure of eating food. As disgusting as the dehydrated food was, it was still one of the most delicious meals that Morgan could remember having in a long time.

As she cleaned up the remains of their breakfast, she heard the rusty screen door swing open behind her. By that point, she didn’t even turn around. She assumed it was one of the cameramen going in and out of the cabin as they did all day and all hours of the night.

She heard someone clear their throat. That got everyone’s attention. She, Ky, and Brinkley turned their heads. One of the producers stood in the doorway.

She was so relieved she could have cried. Brinkley actually started crying, really letting the waterworks rip as she sobbed and sniffled and wiped streams of snot onto her dirty sleeve. Ky just sat there, frozen in the shock of the moment.

It was what they had all been waiting for. It was as if Jesus himself had appeared in their doorway to finally take them out of that terrible place. Morgan wanted to run and bow at the feet of the producer in gratitude, but she restrained herself.

She needed to wait to hear what he had to say. Maybe he was bringing even worse news. Maybe he was telling them that they were moving to another location for the final leg of the competition, where they would have to live in a cave and eat the rotting carcasses of jungle animals. That was the only thing she could imagine that could be worse than their current situation.

The producer cleared his throat again and smiled, a broad, cheesy grin. “Well, I’m sure you all are wondering exactly what has been going on here. First, I would like to say congratulations to our lucky couple, the winners of
Adventure to Love
, Ky and Morgan!”

The producer began to applaud, even though he was the only other person in the room with them besides the cameramen. Her jaw dropped. She had no idea what he was talking about. She didn’t even know the competition was still in effect. How had she somehow been crowned the winner when no one had spoken to them for at least a week?

Ky appeared just as surprised. But he quickly gathered his bearings and stood up to shake the hand of the producer. He pulled her to a standing position next to him and gave her a warm embrace and a kiss on the cheek.

But she still wasn’t buying it. “How did we win the competition? I don’t get it. I still don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Well”—The producer chuckled to himself—“The truth is that this isn’t your typical reality show.”

She rolled her eyes.
No shit, Sherlock.
They’d figured that out by now.
But what the fuck was going on?

The producer continued. “We started out the show like a typical reality dating show set at a luxury resort. But then we changed up the setting to a more rustic, authentic jungle camp to test how each contestant would survive in the wild. Instead of being aired on ABC, like we originally told you, we’re going to use
Adventure to Love
to launch the first in a long series of dating survival documentaries!”

The producer sounded proud and excited, like he’d just announced the birth of his first child. The guy was clearly deluded.

“Are you kidding me? This is fucking unacceptable! We’ve been out here for days or even weeks, I couldn’t tell you, and some people really got hurt.” She pointed in Brinkley’s direction. “Brinkley is so sick and exhausted that she can barely walk. Was that all part of the plot of the show to ‘test’ us? How is that even legal?”

The producer kept a smile on his face but said in a much colder voice, “We were monitoring you all every step of the way. You couldn’t see them, but we had a team of medical vans parked about a quarter-mile away, out of sight. That’s where we took Sarah M. to treat her sprained ankle, and we’re actually going to take Brinkley there shortly to get her hydrated and as good as new again.” He winked.

Morgan bit back a response. She really wanted to punch this guy right in the face, but she didn’t want to give the cameramen any reality TV gold that would somehow end up circulated on YouTube within a few weeks. She tried to keep her cool.

Ky stood at her side with the same hollow, meaningless smile on his face. She grabbed his hand and whispered, “I can’t believe this. I’m just so frustrated with everything that happened. I want to scream.”

Ky took one look at her and dropped the cheesy grin. He put both of his arms around her and looked deep into her eyes. “Hey, it doesn’t matter if you won this thing or not. That’s not the point. The point is that we have something to look forward to when we get home.”

She took a second to savor the moment. Even though the premise of the show was total bullshit and probably only legal because the cast members hadn’t taken the time to read their two-inch thick contracts before signing.

Whatever “winning the contest” meant, she still had no idea. It probably meant that she had to do stupid interview after stupid interview to talk about how wonderful it was to have a chance at love while learning to survive in the wilderness. But at least she knew she and Ky had really connected.

The moments they had shared the night before were stuck in her mind. Her body still felt warm from being wrapped in Ky’s arms all night long. That was the only thing that kept her from going totally apeshit and breaking all of the cameras that were still on her, taping her reaction to the shocking news. That, and the fact that destruction of studio property was also probably prohibited in her contract and would earn her a hefty fine in the thousands of dollars.

So she kept quiet. But the silence didn’t last for long. Brinkley’s soft whimpers turned into loud, ear-shattering wails. She was crying so hard that she had to stop to catch her breath, only to start crying again. Like a newborn baby. Her face had turned completely red instead of just spotted with red patches. Snot streamed down her chin. She was crying like her heart was broken.

Morgan desperately hoped it wasn’t. Brinkley and Ky had had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of quality time together when they were fishing, hiking, and pointing at the beautiful sights of nature over the past week. But she didn’t think that had created a lasting bond, let alone true love.

It was hard to tell with Brinkley. She was always so cheerful. So to see her break down like that was disturbing.

Medics rushed into the room. The producer continued to spew out his speech about the stipulations, rules, and regulations of the contest, as well as what the “two lovebirds” would be responsible for as the winners of the first series of the reality show.

She heard things like “appearances,” “award dinners,” and “magazine and TV interviews.” But she wasn’t really paying attention. She was watching Brinkley get carted off like a mental patient. All she needed was the straight jacket before she was officially committed.

Four medics surrounded Brinkley on the bed. Her crying hadn’t stopped. If anything, it had actually gotten louder. Morgan wondered absentmindedly how they were going to edit all the crying sounds out of the tape so that the producer’s congratulatory speech could air. He’d probably voice over the whole thing in the studio anyway, so it didn’t really matter what he was saying.

The medics checked Brinkley from head to toe for signs of breakage, swelling, bleeding, or any other random ailment. They mumbled medical jargon amongst themselves about dehydration, “severe” bug bites, and delirium. When they seemed satisfied with her present condition, other than the nonstop sobbing, they lifted her frail body from the bed and placed her on a stretcher.

Brinkley was strapped down. An oxygen mask was slapped on her pale, spotted face. The stretcher was rushed out of the cabin into an ambulance waiting at the door. It all happened in less than thirty seconds. Brinkley was gone for good.

Morgan wished she could have said something to her, offered her condolences. But what was she supposed to say in a situation like that?
I’m sorry you didn’t win this fake competition disguised as an abusive military training drill? I hope everything works out for you back in Kansas, or wherever you’re from?

She just didn’t want Brinkley to think that she had stabbed her in the back. Everything that happened between her and Ky had happened so suddenly. It wasn’t like she’d been plotting all along to have a connection with Ky that she kept hidden from the group. She really thought she was going to go home alone, if they ever made it out of the jungle alive.

Suddenly, Ky was smiling, clapping, and kissing her on the cheek. “Isn’t that wonderful? Aren’t you excited?”

She turned her attention back to the producer. He held an oversized voucher, similar to the jumbo check Ed McMahon carried around door to door to all of his sweepstakes winners.

“Huh?” she said. She was always so eloquent under pressure.

“He said we just won a two-night stay at a five-diamond luxury resort in Bali. It’s on the beach and, apparently, it’s even better than the resort we stayed at when we started the show! Just you and me. Isn’t that going to be great?”

All she could think was
shower, shower, shower.
And then it was
toilet, toilet, toilet,
followed by
food, food, food.
Once she’d scrubbed the inch-thick layer of grime, sweat, and God knows what else off her body, used a real toilet, eaten a decent meal, and had a good night of sleep, then, and only then, would she think about romance.

Epilogue

Morgan sat facing the camera, smiling so wide that her cheeks were beginning to hurt. Ky sat to her right. He clasped her hand in his and draped his other arm around her shoulders. He had his head cocked charmingly to one side as he listened to the interviewer’s question.

The young journalist repeated herself for emphasis, or maybe to get a better take on camera. “Can you tell me how this experience has changed you both? For better or worse?”

Ky took a moment to consider her question. Or at least he appeared to be deep in thought as he rubbed his hand across his cleanly shaven chin and squinted out the window that overlooked the busy streets of Manhattan.

But Morgan knew better. By now, she’d gotten well acquainted with Ky’s “on-camera” persona. Even though it was still irritating to see him kiss ass like it was going out of style, she understood better that it was necessary to manage their publicity, which had gotten out of hand ever since the show had aired.

And his cheesiness actually benefited her because she could rely on him to answer most of the questions that were asked in interviews.

God, the interviews.
She didn’t think it was possible to interview like a full-time job, but she had been dead wrong. When the producer reiterated to her that she would be responsible for interviewing and making appearances after the show aired in two months, he had neglected to tell her that she would have to take a leave of absence from her job just to keep up with the publicity.

But Ky was more than fine with it. He had promptly sub-letted his loft apartment in LA and had moved with her into a larger condo in Boston one month after they’d gotten home from Bali. When Ky had first suggested moving in together so quickly, she had balked. It seemed like a crazy, irrational, and totally stupid idea, at least according to her mother.

It also reminded her of how quickly things had moved with her ex before everything had crashed and burned just a few years later. She didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. She truly wanted things to work out with Ky, or else spending a week in the wilderness with no food or water and being treated for a mild case of malaria when she got home would have been for nothing.

But Ky had said one thing to her that had changed her mind in an instant. “I’ve seen you at your worst. I don’t think anyone could know you better than I know you now. And moving in together will let us have our best and our worst moments together from now on.”

He was right. Even though it seemed a little rash to move in with someone that she barely knew one month after filming had wrapped, their relationship had been put into a pressure cooker in the jungle. Ky had seen her squat to pee, almost faint from hunger and exhaustion, and live without makeup or access to fresh clothes for more than ten consecutive days.

If anything should’ve made her feel comfortable about their living arrangement, it was that. She didn’t have to worry about impressing him. If he were going to be turned off by the real, genuine Morgan without makeup and a sparkling personality, it would have been in the jungle.

The show aired three weeks after they had moved in together. The condo they shared east of downtown Boston was immediately swarmed by photographers from morning ‘til night. She could no longer pop out to take their dog Buster on a quick walk around the park before work. (
Yes, they’d gotten a dog together. Aw . . .
)

She now had to make Ky go everywhere with her so that he could say “no comment” about one hundred times before they made it to and from the park in one piece. But Ky loved every minute of it.

She didn’t really mind the publicity since it had boosted her bank account with the extra money from appearances, endorsements, and interviews, but she wished she had her personal freedom back.

Ky, on the other hand, told her over and over again how much better it was than the last time he was in the spotlight. Where he had to constantly cater to screaming teenage fans and deal with the personal drama of four other young, immature band mates in their twenties.

Now, they were a real couple that had publicity for a legitimate reason. They had starred in a groundbreaking reality series that was going to pave the way for a new line of reality survivalist shows that put couples to the test. Or at least, that’s what the
New York Post
and
US Weekly
had said in raves reviews about
Adventure to Love
.

But she still wanted to keep her day job, which she planned to return to after her indefinite leave of absence. After all the drama had died down, and she could go back to normal life, where she and Ky could meet her friends at the bar for a drink after work without having to worry about wearing disguises.

Ky still didn’t know what he was going to do with himself, but he wasn’t in any hurry. He had gobs of money from 101 royalties, which only compounded on top of his hefty check and the royalties that he would continue to earn from the show. She didn’t ask him for exact numbers, but she knew that his paycheck as the star of
Adventure to Love
was at least five times her own since he was cast as the hunky, eligible bachelor.

The only unpleasant interview so far had been the reunion show. She knew it was bound to happen, but she had to come face-to-face with Brinkley, and all the other women who had lost the competition.

It was still funny to use terms like “winning” and “losing” to describe what she considered to be a near-death experience. Although the producers insisted again and again in interviews and on their studio blog that the contestants had been monitored each step of the way to ensure complete safety.

Ha.
If anyone had been there firsthand to see how both Sarah M. and Brinkley had had mental and physical breakdowns in the jungle, then they’d question the ethics of the studio, too.

But that was a thought she kept to herself. Firstly, because she was forbidden from speaking ill about the studio and the show as a clause in her binding contract. And secondly, because it wasn’t worth the trouble it would cause in creating a media storm about “what really went on behind the scenes” of
Adventure to Love
.

For the most part, she kept her mouth shut and let Ky do all the talking. But on the reunion show, she’d had to face up to some pretty tough questions. The most surprising came from Brinkley, who stared at her with wide, weepy eyes and asked her point blank how she could have betrayed her like that.

Morgan knew it was coming, but she still wasn’t prepared for it. Brinkley was so sweet, and innocent, and genuine. It was hard to hear Brinkley accuse her of going after Ky behind her back.

She had tried to explain herself to Brinkley as best she could. How their connection had happened randomly on the last night of the show. How she hadn’t had any hidden agenda at all; it was her only concern to get them all out of the jungle in one piece.

But Brinkley wasn’t having it. And all the other women jumped in as soon as they saw that Morgan was on the defense. She was called a slut, a tramp, and even a devious bitch. That led to weeks of angry blogs slamming her day after day on the Internet, until her PR rep encouraged her to hire a writer and create a blog of her own to provide her side of the story.

It was a headache, but it was enough to silence most of her critics after a few weeks of media abuse. She didn’t blame Brinkley. It must have been humiliating to not only lose in the very last leg of the competition, but to have an epic emotional breakdown that led to her being escorted off the show on a stretcher. That clip had gone viral within a matter of days after the episode aired with over six million hits on YouTube.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Ky’s deep, jovial voice. “Well, we both feel that the competition changed us for the better by allowing us to open up and be honest with each other.”

He laughed and squeezed her knee. “Trust me, after you’ve been stuck in the jungle for days without any food or running water, you can get pretty honest. Right, sweetheart?”

She smiled and murmured in agreement. Ky went on about how there really wasn’t any downside to doing the show, providing his rehearsed response about how
Adventure to Love
had stretched them to their limits and had brought them closer together.

The journalist continued. “So, we’re excited to find out from these two lovebirds.”

Morgan knew what was coming. It was the time when the reporter always asked if they were going to get married and air the wedding on TV for what was rumored to be a hefty sum of half a million dollars.

“Will we be seeing you in a spin-off anytime soon? We have word from an inside source that there’s a reality show spin-off in the works for both of you that will air next fall on a major network. I know your fans are more than excited about it. Is there any truth to this rumor?”

God, no.
Morgan groaned inwardly. She had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. There was no way in hell she would ever agree to any other type of reality show, no matter how much they paid her. By now, she was more than suspicious of any Hollywood contract that was longer than two pages.

Ky grinned his million-dollar smile and looked into the camera behind the right shoulder of the reporter. He drew her closer and planted a huge kiss on her cheek. “The best answer I can give you is . . . never say never.” He winked.

Some things never changed.