For the Love of Money

Kristina paced about, her impatience only growing.

She’d been asked to wait in the games room while the show’s contestants assembled in the foyer. All she could do was watch the camera feeds from a few televisions the production staff had set up and try not to bump into the pool table. Again.

Well, there was one other thing she could do. With a list Diane gave her, she could start trying to put some names to faces.

On one screen, she could see two Hispanic men talking to one another – one with his hair dyed white, and his counterpart having short hair with a scar running through an eyebrow.

Alejandro and Mateo. One’s an actor and the other’s an engineer. I don’t think taking a chance on an actor is a good idea.

Then a few steps away were a short man with blonde hair done up in the front, talking with a man who looked so plain Kristina nearly fell asleep looking at him.

Evan is a teacher and B-B…. She yawned. Barty is a mid-level bureaucrat. Ugh, I’m dying of boredom just thinking about him.

But her eyes soon wandered to a trio of bachelors who’d just walked onto the scene. She doubled-checked her list to get a read on them. Ryan… hooo boy. She felt her face flush just looking at the man. Craig, well, doctors were supposed to be smart. And on the very last page…

That guy looked really familiar.

“You have GOT to be kidding me.”

----

Jules slowly mingled with the other assembled men, trying to take their measure with what little time he had. Some of these guys were clear first boots. No offense to Linus or Hank, but up close he could tell some of them wouldn’t pop off the screen.

“Gh!” He quickly ran into someone, what was left of his drink spilling out all over them. Definitely a contestant, and now his slicked back blonde hair was drenched with ritzy champagne.

As the man turned to face him, Jules realized who he’d splashed. It was that haughty model from the formalwear store.

“Excuse you?” Two other men were rounding on Jules as well. The one on Jules’ left was more muscle than man, a tower of pure sinew and skin save for the goatee glued on his face. On the right, a slim man about Jules’ height with the most fulsome and waxed mustache he’d ever seen. “Do you know who I am?”

Jules had no choice. If he was going to get production’s attention to save himself, he had to double down and be a smugger villain than Christian could dream of. “I don’t think about male models that much.”

The one with the mustache’s eye twitched.

“My name is Christian,” said the blonde-haired man. “And this is Parker and Zach.” He gestured to the goatee man and the mustache man in turn. “You know, it’s not a good idea for people like us to butt heads on day one. After all, we’re all here for the same reasons.”

Jules looked back and forth at the three men. Being the third henchman for this colossal twit sounded a lot like having to run errands for his office manager. Which was a nice way of saying he’d rather take a short walk off a long pier.

“I’d rather get eliminated on the spot.”

Christian locked eyes with Jules, the two staring each other down. Jules had never pulled this move at work and he was sure this was a terrible idea to try now. But this was just where he was now.

Someone was gently tapping their glass with a spoon. All eyes – including Christian’s and Jules’s – were now on Petey Pete, who was now dressed in a sequin suit. He was impossible to miss as he stood next to a grand staircase leading to the upper levels.

“Gentlemen,” announced Petey, “I’d like to welcome you all to the manor. I see we’ve already started to mingle and get to know one another. That’s fantastic. Welcome to our show. I will be your host, Petey Pete. All thirty of you are here for the adventure of a lifetime. But before we introduce our bachelorette, I want to make we we are all on the same page.”

He gestured to the back of the foyer, where cameras were trained on him and the bachelors to get reaction shots. Petey was handed a briefcase as he continued, “Unlike most dating shows, we’re not all here for the same reasons. Some of you are here for love, yes, but some of you are here for something very different.” With a simple gesture, he opened the briefcase to reveal stacks and stacks of money. “Inside this briefcase is one million dollars. Fifteen of you are here for the sake of true love, and everyone else is here for this cold, hard, cash. Welcome to For the Love of Money.”

Jules wanted to scream. And in his mind, he was already throttling someone. How the hell was he supposed to ruin this show when half of the contestants were explicitly here for the same reasons he was?! They’d managed to play him without even trying! This could not possibly get any worse!

“And now, gentlemen. Our bachelorette. Miss Kristina Harlowe!”

Down the grand staircase came a woman carefully stepping down the stairs in a fancy red dress to uproarious applause as twenty-nine sets of bachelors’ hands clapped politely at Kristina’s arrival. They saw a beautiful and powerful woman descending from on high.

For one bachelor, this was the worst moment of his life. The woman at the bar? That was the bachelorette?! Forget about the fifty thousand dollars for making a deep run! How was he supposed to survive the night? Especially with the death stare she was giving him!

Jules was already dead. He knew exactly what was on Kristina’s mind.

----

These high heels suck.

With each step down the stairs, Kristina thought her ankles were going to break off. She’d pleaded with the costume department to let her wear pumps. But nooooooooo, they’d insisted she had to be traditional for tonight.

Swear to god, she’d murder someone before this night was out. And she had just the guy in mind.

Her eyes stayed glued on that idiot she’d met from the bar. Jerry? Ju… something? Well, it wouldn’t matter because in about ten seconds his ass was going to be Ju-do thrown out of here.

“Oh my god, please step on me!”

Everyone went silent. The crowd parted, to show a confused looking Craig standing next to a bachelor with extremely thick glasses.

Alright. Jules gets to be the second person to die tonight. Screw you, Tom.

Kristina pulled the suitcase full of a million dollars out of Petey’s hands, closed it shut, and then chucked it right at Tom’s face.

The suitcase hit Tom right between the eyes, sending him flying backwards past the camera and lighting crew, through the manor wall, and out into the middle distance where no one could see him anymore.

Her head swiveled back to lock-on to Jules. Time to thin the herd.

Petey took her action in stride. “Make that twenty-nine of you.” He then sidled up to Kristina and whispered, “Kudos on a lightning-fast elimination. But let’s make sure there’s enough of them to go the distance.”

Kristina was immediately deflated. Fine. That jerk gets to live one night.