Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian(50)

Becca breathed a sigh of relief. She saw a brief flash of disappointment  flitter across Brian's golden eyes. She smiled when their eyes met, and  he grinned, but it was not the grin of someone who'd just been saved  from elimination on a show he desperately needed to win.

Lance continued. "Jax and Madison … " Again, Lance paused.

Becca's heart was beating so fast that she wasn't sure it was taking  breaks in between. It felt like it was just holding in the pound  position. She had no idea if Lance was going to say that Jax and Madison  were safe, like he had with Brian and Brooklyn, or if he was going to  flip the script and announce that they were eliminated.

She was on the edge of her seat, and she was sure that that was where they wanted the audience to be too.

" … Are not safe," Lance finally said. "Jax and Madison did not earn  enough votes to move on. Their road to happily ever after has come to an  end."

Becca felt like there was a very real possibility that she was going to  be sick. This was more than an emotional roller coaster. This was an  emotional car-driving-off-the-edge-of-a-cliff.

As everyone stood and hugged Jax and Madison, saying their goodbyes,  Becca realized that, just like she hadn't known how much she'd wanted  Brian to win until she'd thought he was going to lose, she also hadn't  known how much she'd held on to a secret hope, buried deep down, that  Jax and Madison would walk away with this and she and Brian would be  free to be together.

She knew it was selfish. Totally selfish. She hadn't even known she was  capable of being that selfish, but she guessed that was just one more  thing she'd learned about herself.

"Remember folks, keep those votes coming in, we'll be tallying them up  until the very last minute. Who is your favorite Fairytale Couple? Let  us know. Every. Vote. Counts." Lance spoke with a particularly dramatic  flair directly into the camera.

Everyone took their seats again, excluding Jax and Madison, who'd left  the stage, and Brooklyn nudged Becca. When she turned, Brooklyn was  giving her the I-told-you-so look-slash-gloat. Becca just smiled sweetly  with a blank look in her eyes, acting completely oblivious to what  Brooklyn was ‘saying' beneath her look. Becca's ignorance had the  intended effect. Brooklyn looked away, irritated.

Becca knew that it was petty, but she just didn't want to give Brooklyn the satisfaction of acknowledging that she'd been right.

So, in the last ten minutes, she'd been both selfish and petty. Wow.  This show was really bringing out the best in her. She looked back at  Lance as he read the teleprompter, which was filled with puns and corny  jokes.

As Becca sat waiting to find out what her future held, she tried to put  her life into perspective. That morning, she'd received a call from the  woman she'd met on the plane-Stella. She'd called Becca to say that she  was finished with her treatment and that, right now, things looked good  but she would keep her updated.

Cancer was a real problem. Losing your house was a real problem. Not having money for medical bills was a real problem.

Having to wait a year to be with a man that loved you and that you loved  with all your heart and soul was not a real problem. It was just a bump  in the road. And they could handle bumps because their love was the  ‘sticking kind'.

With a new resolution in her heart, Becca became present once again and turned her attention to Lance.

"You've seen a lot from our couples, from challenges to adventures,  fights to romantic overnights. But let's take a look at what you haven't  seen in a segment we call Fairytale Fun: The Unseen Footage."

The stage lights dimmed and a large screen behind them started playing a  montage of funny moments. Brooklyn tripping when she tried to take her  luggage in the house the first day. Brian doing a bunch of impressions,  entertaining the guys while they all played basketball, Jax lifting the  fridge because Madison thought she'd lost her contact, Leah doing a  belly flop as she tried to gracefully dive into the lake, Blake running  into a wall. Colton giving Becca a piggy-back ride on the beach and  almost stepping on a sunbather.                       
       
           



       

Becca found herself laughing at all the things that she'd never seen.  All the moments she'd had no idea had been captured. Her laughter was  short-lived, though, when she heard Lance's voice-over say, "And now,  let's take an up-close look at our remaining couples."

A still shot of Brian and Brooklyn kissing in the pool filled the  screen, and it was followed by a slideshow of more kissing, more PDA,  dancing, laughing …  Basically, it was like her nightmare montage set to  music.

She swallowed over a lump the size of a baseball that was in her throat  and made sure to keep her eyes on the large screen. If she didn't, then  she knew she'd look over at Brian, and she abso-freaking-lutely could  not do that. If she looked at Brian, she would not be able to keep the  tears, that were threatening at the backs of her eyes, at bay.

Finally, after what seemed like twenty hours but was probably more like  two minutes, the music changed and Becca and Colton's picture replaced  Brian and Brooklyn. Which turned out to not be any easier to watch. As  picture after picture flashed on the screen set to music, Becca felt  guilty. Really guilty.

No, it didn't make sense for her to feel that way, but it seemed like  her emotions weren't running their game plan past logic. So here she  was, sitting across from the love of her life, the man she'd spent every  night this past week making love to, while a montage of intimate,  loving pictures of her with the man sitting beside him played and they  all watched.

This was not fun. Not fun at all.

After an excruciatingly long period of time, the melodic notes of the  love song faded out and the screen went black. Becca's heart pounded as  the stage lights came back up. Lance started talking but there was so  much pressure in her head his voice sounded muffled like her sisters'  voices used to sound when she was little and she would put her fingers  in her ears if she didn't want to hear them, usually because they were  bossing her around.

Her eyes were working just fine though, and they immediately shot to  Brian. He sat perfectly still, looking calm on the surface, but in his  eyes she could see the simmering of something. It wasn't anger. It  wasn't hurt. But, it was something. And that something wasn't good.

"But there are more than just those two couples sitting up on this stage."

Becca heard Lance announce and snapped her head to look at him.

"That's right, there is a third couple sitting right beside me." He smiled with a knowing smile leaning into the camera.

Oh my God. They know. Somehow, they'd found out about her and Brian.  What was that going to mean? Did that mean that they would be  disqualified? Would they not even get the money that they'd been  promised? They had blatantly violated their contract by ‘engaging in  inappropriate relations'.

Becca couldn't breathe. She couldn't feel her hands. She couldn't feel her legs.

"There is a couple that has been together almost their whole life."

No, no, no.

"A couple of best friends … "

Oh, thank God. Becca's shoulders slumped in relief.

"They came on this journey together, supporting each other through this  process. Becca and Brian arrived together, and their bond of love and  support was apparent throughout the filming of the show. Let's take a  look."

Becca felt Brian's stare on her, but she was scared that, if she looked  at him, her face would give something away, so instead she turned to  look up at the screen as the lights once again dimmed.

The video started with pictures of them arriving and their voices  playing the conversation they'd had in the Jeep when she'd asked Brian  what he thought the chances were of one or both of them finding their  fairytale love and then him saying, "Good. Very good." It continued  showing them talking in the dining hall, and sitting out over the bluff  the night Brian was considering going home. Then it showed the pictures  that Becca's mom had found in the attic and given to Becca of Becca and  Brian growing up. There were shots of them at dances together, in  Halloween costumes, first and last days of school.

She felt tears forming in her eyes as the montage continued and picture  after picture of Brian hugging Becca, his hand threaded in her hair as  he cradled her head against his chest, flashed on the screen. She hadn't  realized just how often he did that. And now, it would probably be a  year before she would feel that again.

Then the music lowered and it showed her sitting in the confessional  booth when Gavin had asked her about Brian. Becca saw her own face  transform as she talked about him.

"Brian is the kind of guy who not only opens doors and makes sure you  wear a jacket if it's cold outside, he also knows exactly what to do to  make you laugh when laughing is the last thing you want to do. He knows  what really matters and what doesn't. He can rebuild your car engine,  put a complicated desk together in under an hour after your dad throws  the instructions out from frustration, fix your computer when it  crashes, and also, notices when you buy a new skirt.