The Grand Romantic Gesture

The constructed world of the reality dating show observes its own rules at the cost of anything sensible or rational. Everything must bend to the most romantic and dramatic outcome possible.

It was something Bruce and Christian had meddled with at their own peril. In Bruce’s effort to run a dating show, in his effort to put a thumb on the scale for Christian, all of it risked a romantic backlash of karma.

And the forces of the reality dating show? The primal forces of love? They had flaunted it.

Now Jules stood at the threshold, wearing a torn undershirt, an unbuttoned collared shirt, a fedora, and jeans. He was covered in sweat, exhausted but standing tall. A pair of black shades were on his face and resting on his shoulder was an old fashioned boombox.

All they could do was watch as he pressed the ‘Play’ button.

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The music took Kristina to another world.

The classic arrangement, the lyrics. The clothes. The fedora. The dance moves.

She recognized the complete package immediately. Jules wasn’t just dancing for her again. No. This was a specific dance number to a specific song – the finale to Seven Nights a Sinner. When the male lead finally...!

Kristina couldn’t stop watching. She could hear Christian trying to pester her into answering Petey Pete’s question. But not even Petey Pete wanted to interrupt the display being performed for everyone, being done in front of a live camera.

Was it any wonder she’d fallen in love with this stubborn pervert? Jules didn’t just know what Kristina liked. He put in the effort.

Jules paused the playback on the boombox once he’d crossed down to the pulpit. He set it down carefully, lifted the shades to rest above the eyebrows, and smiled. “Hello there.”

Christian scowled. “You have some nerve to interrupt this.”

“Your confession?” Jules snapped his fingers and pointed to Christian. “Ah, I’m going to let you finish. But I have something I need to say.”

Kristina stood still as Jules rose to her level. Her heart began racing. This was happening. It was actually, finally happening to her. She wanted to cry or scream but she needed this. Kristina needed to hear this.

“When I met you, I couldn’t stand you,” spat Jules. “Yeah. I was here for money. But never the million dollars. Because not even you deserved to get embarrassed in front of these people. But you know what your worst quality was? It wasn’t how your head lightly grazes the ceiling in some rooms or how you rip shirts when you open jars. It was that you made me miss you. You made me happy to see you. You are a mental terrorist, hijacking my mind into doing the one thing I swore I wouldn’t do.”

Kristina’s fingers trembled, her hands folding over her heart.

Jules looked furious with himself, looking out to the waiting audience. Then he looked back to Kristina. “I can't believe I'm saying this. But I love you, Kristina Harlowe.”

She didn’t think twice. Her hands were on him in an instant, roaming his body and pulling him close. Having Jules in her arms again was the most thrill Kristina had felt since he was sent away. She felt like she’d walked through a desert, and when Kristina finally kissed him again, she drank deeply.

Her face flushed long before their lips met. She almost squeaked into the kiss as Jules’s hand drifted down from the small of her back to her rear. A feeling she paid back in kind with a firm squeeze.

There was no world outside of them. No more shame or need to hide. The only thing that broke her bliss was the need to breathe.

She finally broke off when that need made itself known, a dribble of spit escaping both their lips. Kristina could hear herself and Jules gasp for breath over the dead silence of everyone else. Even Petey Pete for once in his life wasn’t saying anything.

Kristina took her chance. She spun Jules around to face Petey Pete and Christian, put an arm around his shoulder, and pointed at him. “I love this man and I’m picking him.”

Saying that felt right. The genuine smile on Jules’s face confirmed it. Seeing Bruce silently clawing at his face in the back was only a bonus.

Petey Pete was still at a loss for words but was starting to find them. “Kristina, that was a very… passionate display. But Jules was eliminated weeks ago.”

“You’re saying that he can’t be here for the money,” Kristina stressed. “Which means he has to be here for love.”

The present audience was slowly catching on to what had happened. Some were still confused at how they’d gotten here. But a number were breaking out into applause.

Christian looked back and forth between Kristina, Jules, Petey Pete, and Bruce in the back. This didn’t make any sense to him. “But…. But!”

Jules leaned in with a knowing smile. “I think someone’s upset that they’re not going to win a million dollars.” He blew a kiss to the male model. “You were right, you know. There was only going to be one winner.”

It still didn’t add up to Christian, who’s arms were now randomly swinging around as he tried to add two and two together and kept coming up with fish.

Petey Pete was still caught off guard. He was taking this much better than Christian, but even he was maintaining better decorum more than Bruce. The producer wanted to scream, and Kristina could make out him calling for Elena to give him a pillow. When she didn’t show up, he buried his face into his hands.

Kristina turned back to Petey Pete. “Yeah. I pick Jules. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She picked Jules up by the collar of his shirt and off his feet, putting him in her arms. “We have some catching up to do.”

She turned to walk out, carrying Jules in her arms. There was a smattering of applause from some of the guests. Craig had stood up and was clapping, Warren was cheering, and as she got to the door she passed by Tyrone. He gave a knowing nod and a thumbs up.

The doors closed behind Kristina. She looked down to the man in her arms with a knowing grin. “I’m the mental terrorist?” she mocked. “You have any idea what kinds of things you’ve been doing to my mind for the past few weeks?”

Jules laughed. “Why don’t you show me exactly what I did?” He craned his head up, matching her own grin with his. “In exquisite detail?”