Eligible

POV: Samantha

I can not believe I’m sitting here. The door of the main interview room opens and a gorgeous blonde walks out of the interview room. I stare around the waiting room full of women and can’t help but feel incredibly intimidated.

In a room full of thin, tall, drop dead beautiful girls, I’m anything but that. I’m 5′4, on a good day, with shoulder length light brown hair and hazel green eyes. Today it’s softly curled, thanks to the expert styling of my roommate.

“Thanks, you’ll hear back from us by the end of the week,” the producer says to the girl.

“Samantha Jacobs, are you here?” the same producer calls my name and I hear my heart jolt. Okay Sam, you have nothing to lose, I tell myself.

I’m wearing nude wedges, white jeans and a pink peplum top. I swear I’m the only girl in the room covering my ass and not wearing some sort of animal print.

I smooth my jeans, shooting the producer a smile.

“That’s me,” I squeak.

“Hey, I’m Jordan, executive producer for The Most Eligible. We around here just call it Eligible for short. Follow me.” He replies. I follow Jordan into a boardroom and take a seat at the head of a conference table. Jordan sits across from me on the right and there’s another producer to my left.

“So welcome to the interview portion of your audition. This is Andrew, our other executive producer. This will be just a casual series of questions to see if you would be a good fit for Dan and, ya know, to make sure you’re here for the right reasons, yada yada ya” Jordan chuckles and rolls his eyes. He squints and points his pen at me. “So tell me, what made you submit an audition for Eligible?”

I’m willing to fake love and a year of marriage for a million dollars and to save my dying twin brother? Could I say that out loud? I think to myself.

Eligible has been on TV for years, 15 seasons at least. It’s your classic reality dating show. Boy begins with a big pool of girls only to narrow his choices down, week by week. Boy hopefully ends up with girl, proposes in the final episode and they live happily ever after, you know the drill. Except for one big difference. The money. The couple gets one million dollars if they get married and make it through twelve months of marriage.

I haven’t watched a season since I was in high school. Yet here I was. I take a deep breath.

“Well I’m tired of the, erm... traditional methods of dating.” Liar, I think to myself. “I’m ready to settle down and think this would be the right avenue to find what I’m looking for.” Lie again. “Plus, it sounds cheesy, but I just have a feeling Dan and I could be a great match.” I throw the last sentence in, trying to make my generic answer a little more heartfelt. It’s the third lie but Jordan seems convinced.

“Tell me about your last relationship,” Jordan says.

My chest gets tight.

“Um. I dated someone seriously in college. I graduated before he did and it turned out, he wasn’t as serious as I was about it.” Thinking about Josh makes my stomach hurt. Anytime someone asks me about him, my stomach hurts. Every time for the last five years since we broke up. My eyes flicker between the two guys.

Jordan seems to deem my short answer acceptable and nods. He’s writing something down on his notepad. Andrew hasn’t said anything yet, only watching me. Jordan asks me a few more questions. I feel like I’m on a weird, robotic first date.

Jordan rolls around to his final question without Andrew ever having said a word.

“What do you think you’ll bring to the show? No offense but you’re not really our typical contestant.” Andrew chokes on his water. I narrow my eyes.

“Well for starters, I wear above a size 4 and all of my body parts are still real. Dan might actually have to think around me,” I spit back at Jordan. What the fuck?

Jordan grins and Andrew chuckles as I let out a quick huff.

“I’m just saying I’m a little more real than the girls that walk through that door. I’m not here to become an influencinsta or some third rate brand ambassador,” I respond. Shit, I just insulted their entire premise of the show. Hopefully I didn’t give myself away.

No Sam you’re just here for the million dollars waiting for you and your fake husband at the end.

“These days it’s called influencer, but I get what you mean,” Andrew laughs back, speaking for the first time. His voice is soft and sweet but all I can focus on are his bright blue eyes. They contrast against his dark hair. For a second I forget where I am until Jordan chimes back in.

“Well I think that’s all we need. Thanks for coming by Sam,” Jordan and I stand up and he leads me out of the room. I run my fingers through my curled brown hair. I let out a breathe I didn’t realize I was holding.

I fucking blew it.

POV: Andrew

Jordan guides Sam out of the room and then sits back down.

“Thank GOD she was the last of them today. I can’t ask any more questions to a girl I’m not having sex with,” Jordan moaned. I laughed.

“The last girl - Sam - was pretty interesting though. We should keep her,” I replied.

“You think so? She doesn’t seem like the normal girl that comes on our show, I think we’re just wasting our time,” Jordan said.

“Nah Jordan, I think Dan will really like her. Plus I think it’s good that she’s different from our usual girls. Dan’s gonna want at least one person to keep him on his toes.”

“Alright fine. I’ll make her an offer. But if she fucks us and goes home after the third week because she can’t handle it, you own me a drink,” Jordan shoots back. “And your younger sister’s phone number,” he adds with a wink as we stand up.

I shove him and tower over him, making my 6′3 muscular frame as big as possible.

“What was the last part?!”

Jordan laughs.

“Come on man, lighten up!” I push him again as we walk out the door of the conference room.

If I have to go through all this, Dan better find his damn wife.