Second Chance for Love

When I first heard about the new reality show, I thought it was ridiculous. Why would I want to go on a show to find love? Everyone knows those shows are not “reality.” Also, most of the couples break up after a short time. Only a really desperate person would go on this show. Right?

So I ignored the call for contestants. So imagine my surprise when I got a call from a producer, telling me they loved my entry. I was going to be on the show “Second Chances.”

“But I didn’t apply!” I said.

“Your friends sent in your video. It was so great, so real. We know you’ll be a perfect asset to the show.”

I called my best friends. “I told you I didn’t want to go on this stupid show!” I said to Chelsey and Anna.

“Oh come on Robin,” Chelsey said. “We thought it would be good for you. You’ve been saying you want to meet someone and form a meaningful relationship.”

“There’s no way I will,” I said. “They’d want me to end up with a guy! I’m a lesbian remember?”

“Robin, it’s for everyone. Gay, Straight, Bi. I’m sure they’ll be some women on there for you,” Anna said.

“I’ve had the right woman,” I reminded them. “Several times. But they’ve left me.” I tried not to think about them. Hannah, Denise. But they came back to me unbidden.

“Well, Robin, just give it a chance,” Chelsey said.

“A second chance,” Anna said, laughing.

So reluctantly, I packed.  I would play their game. But I wasn’t going to go there to win. With any luck, I would get eliminated early.

But then I found out the premise. “This isn’t like those other reality shows,” the producer I’d talked to, who introduced herself as Melody, said to me when I arrived. “There’s no eliminations.”

“So then what’s the point?”

“The point is, you will be reunited with someone who you were once with, and you’ll have a second chance at love.”

I snorted. “I doubt that. I mean you’d have to dig way back in my past to find a woman I’d want to be with again. Not after they broke my heart.”

“Well that’s what makes this interesting, Robin. This is the chance to reconnect. To say all the things you want to say. The viewers are going to tune in every week, for the drama.”

“So how does one win?”

“At the end of each week, the viewers will vote for their favourite couple. At the end of the 13 weeks, one couple will win.”

“Oh,” I replied. This was sounding worse and worse. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. How far back were they going to go? I suppose if it was my college girlfriend, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. But no, she was married. Helen had left me at the holidays. Sure I’d love to hash it out with her. And Denise. But nah, no way they’d get Denise. She was preparing her book for publication. The reason we broke up. I’d made a lot of mistakes in my 20s. But how had the show found out about my past relationships? I tended to keep myself on the downlow. Then I realized, Anna and Chelsey had probably told them some info, when they submitted the application. I thought back to the day they had tricked me into filming the video. Had I talked about my ex-girlfriends? I definitely had not mentioned Denise. But yeah, I had probably mentioned Helen. How much I had been hurt. But then I’d met Jackie. But Jackie was straight, we’d only shared one kiss on New Year’s that one time.

I began to dread what would happen. Part of me wanted it to be Helen. But the other part of me hoped it wasn’t.

The next day, I arrived at the house. They were keeping us separate from each other. They didn’t want us to find out who we were going to be reunited with, until we walked into the house. This way, they would capture the looks on our faces.

Now I heard the producer’s voice in my ear. My mic had been off before, because I was in the second group. I couldn’t know who I was going to see when I walked into the house.

“Right now,” the host said. “Our first group of contestants have arrived in the house. Now they are about to find out with whom they are going to get a second chance for love.”

She began introducing the second set of contestants. “From Boise, Idaho, here is Jared Hart. From L.A., here is Serena Morgan.” Then I was getting the tap on the shoulder. “From right here in NYC, Robin Walters.” I walked into the house. And there she was. Helen. The look on her face when she saw me. Was that surprise? Shock? Remorse? Everyone else was introduced. There was 2 straight couples, a gay couple. A couple who said they were both bi. And us. Really diverse.

Then we were left to reconnect. The cameras were on us. I didn’t know what would end up in the show.

“Helen,” I said. She leaned into hug me. I let her. It was awkward. “Well this is a surprise,” she said. “You doing a show like this. You hate reality shows.”

“My friends tricked me and sent in an application. Certainly I don’t believe in finding love on a reality show.”

“Well this is our second chance.”

“Maybe we should hash this out now. Because if we’re going to be stuck here for 13 weeks, we should get it all out in the open.”

“Fine,” she said. We brought our stuff to our room. Conveniently, there were five couples, five rooms. We had no choice. Our stuff had been placed in the room. We had been assured there would be no cameras in the bathrooms. But we were told we shouldn’t go there for private conversations. Just to change and do the usual stuff you do in the bathroom.

“Well,” Helen said. “Go ahead. Let me have it.”

“Right. I’m sure America would love to see us have a fight on national tv. We’d probably be #1 couple.”

“I didn’t come here to win a prize. I was intrigued at the thought of getting a chance to see someone again I hadn’t seen in awhile. I hoped it was you. Did you hope it was me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Robin. Let me have it.”

“Okay. Why didn’t you show up at the cabin? Why did you break up with me in a note? You couldn’t have the decency to break up in person? Was there another woman?”

“I thought I was ready for a long term relationship. I thought I was ready to move in with you. But after I got up to the cabin, I realized I wasn’t.”

“Then why didn’t you stay and tell me that, that you weren’t coming?”

“Because I knew the storm was coming. I thought, what if I break up with you and then I can’t leave because of the storm, and I get stuck there with you? So I hightailed it out of there. Part of me hoped maybe the weather would scare you off and you wouldn’t make it up there and then I could’ve seen you in the New Year and broken up in person. But then I called your place and your machine picked up, so I knew you’d gone up there. If I could go back a few years ago, and do it again...”

“You’d what? Not break up with me?”

“No I wouldn’t have been a coward, I would’ve broken up with you in person.”

“If you didn’t want to move in with me then, you could’ve just said you weren’t ready to move in with me.”

“Well I wasn’t that mature back then. I’m more mature now.”

“Yeah I guess I wasn’t that mature either. You know, I haven’t had a real serious relationship since. Well there was a woman I was with for a year, but it turns out she was just using our relationship to write a book. Part of me thought it might be her coming today, but I realize, she’s in the midst of editing her book. It will be out in six months. So yeah, I’m not so good at relationships either.”

“Maybe we could try again?”

“Look Helen. I don’t know if I could be in love with you again, after what happened. I’m still hurt over it. But since we’re stuck here, I’ll be mature and follow along with their rules and make a go of it.”

“Me too,” she said. She leaned in to kiss me, but I resisted.

The producers talked to us. “The audience is going to want to see some drama. So feel free to yell at each other.”

“Look,” I said. “I agreed to do this show. But I’m not going to do any fake drama just to get voted best couple on this show. Fixing relationships take time. I want this to be real, even though the show is fake. So you won’t see me yelling at Helen. I’ll see how things progress naturally.”

The producers weren’t too happy. Well I wasn’t going to play by their rules. They could kick me off if they wanted.

The day of the first live show came. We were all gathered in the living room and we had to introduce ourselves to America, and talk about our past relationship. Hannah and I were going last. The first couple Jared from Boise, and Lana from Washington, DC., went. “We were college sweethearts,” Jared said. “I proposed after graduation. Then Lana told me she got an internship in Washington. I was going to stay in Boise for grad school. We tried to make long distance work, but it didn’t.”

Lana said, “I got too busy. Being a political intern in Washington. I stopped coming home for visits. But it’s great to see him again.”

Then Ben and Serena went. “We met on the set of a movie where we were both extras,” Ben said. “But after that, I wasn’t getting auditions.”

“I got an audition for a tv show,” Serena said. “And my career took off. Ben gave up and went back home and I stayed in L.A.”

Then it was time for Daniel and Gary, the gay ex-couple.

“We were both models,” Daniel said. “And we were hot and heavy for awhile. But then I got a shoot in Europe.”

“I surprised him and visited him, but he was with someone else,” Gary said.

“Ouch,” I said. “Been there, done that.” They looked at me and Hannah. “No not Hannah,” I said. “In college.”

Then it was Steph and Josh’s turn. Then came the revelation. “We dated in college,” Steph said. “We both dated men and women, and had no problem with it. We weren’t exclusive. Sometimes we’d have threesomes or foursomes with men and women. Then I told Josh I was having a sex change operation to become a woman, and he freaked out.”

I looked at Steph. I should’ve realized. I hadn’t felt that attracted to her, maybe because I sensed she used to be a man.

“Yeah that was totally uncool of me,” Josh said. “I mean we were both bi. Why would Stephen becoming Stephanie bother me? But it did. So we broke up, and I went off to grad school, and this is the first time I’ve seen her since she became a woman. And man, I was so stupid.”

It looked to me like some of these couples would definitely make it at the end of the show. But would Hannah and I? And did I want to be with her again?

They were starring at us. Oh it was our turn.

“Well you all saw our fight,” I said. “We dated for a year. I was ready for us to move in together. I went up to the romantic winter cabin, and she wasn’t there.”

“I’m glad for the chance to reconnect again,” Hannah said. “A second chance at love.” She smiled at me. I didn’t want to fake smile back, so I just nodded.

At the end of the night, not surprisingly, we were voted as the least favourite couple. Steph and Josh were on top. Of course. A bisexual couple, where one was transgendered. Nothing like this had ever been seen on tv previously.

During the next week, I spent a lot of time getting to know the other couples. There was a lot of activities designed to get us closer as couples. But I didn’t take the bait. If Hannah wanted to get back together, she would have to work harder.

This went on for several weeks. Each week, we were still the least favourite couple. Then one day, Hannah cornered me as I came out of the bathroom. I’d had a luxurious bath, and had changed. They wanted us to wear clothes that would attract our ex, but I didn’t take the bait, and wore my own stuff.

“Robin, this is getting ridiculous,” she said. Aware that the cameras were there, I forced myself to stay level.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh come on, you are trying so hard to not share your feelings.”

“Hannah, this is a show, that millions of people are watching. Do you really want to hash out our dirty laundry on national tv?”

“They edit things out.”

“Of course they do. But the juicy stuff, they’ll leave in.”

“So come on Robin. Give it to me. You’ve been holding all these feelings in for years. Tell me how you really feel.”

“Fine. It isn’t just the way the relationship ended. The whole year we were together, I was the one making an effort! I was the one who planned romantic dates. I was the one who said we should be exclusive. I was the one who initiated moving in together. I was the one who planned all the romantic getaways. Except the last one. That’s when you finally made an effort. And then you didn’t even stick around. You left the wine and food on the table. You said the storm coming was your excuse. But that’s not it. You have always hated confrontation. You didn’t have the nerve to break up with me in person, so you took the coward’s way out. So a second chance with you, Hannah. No way in hell. When pigs fly!”

I stormed out of the bedroom.

That week on the live show, Hannah and I sat across from each other. I thought we might end up as top couple that week. Not that I cared. But it turned out our fight wasn’t the only drama that week. Secrets were revealled. It turned out there had been some partner swapping going on. People were getting a Second Chance at Love. But not with the expected people. It turned out Jared and Serena and Ben and Lana had been getting it on. Josh had been busy. He’d been in the hot tub with both Daniel and Gary. And he’d told them both he liked them. Both men glanced at him. “What can I say?” he said. “You’re both hot.” They showed Hannah’s and my fight on tv, and then they showed something else I hadn’t seen, to get my reaction. Hannah and Stephanie.

“Well Robin, what do you think about that?” the host asked.  “Right after you fight with Hannah, she goes and kisses Stephanie.”

“We’re not a couple,” I said, not taking the bait. “Hannah’s free to kiss whoever she wants.”

That week, we were voted top couple.

Finally, the finale week came. This was reality tv at its finest. No one was with the right person. Or maybe they were. After all, it was called, “Second Chance for Love.”

“Well,” the host said, during the live finale. “One of the couples will win, but it looks like it won’t be who we expect. It looks like you’re all pairing off with other people.”

“We’re going to reveal to America the new pairings. And then instead of the audience voting on the original pairings, they were vote on which new couple they think should win.”

So now we were each called in. First Jared and Serena came in and sat down together. The audience cheered for them. Then Ben and Lana came in.  Then Josh was called in. “Well Josh. Who do you choose? Daniel? Or Gary? Or Stephanie?”

“None of them,” he said. Then a clip was shown. Josh and Hannah. Hannah came out. She said, “I haven’t been with a man in a long time. But Josh is totally hot.” They sat down. Then another clip was shown. Daniel and Gary had been argueing. It turned out that them both being mad at Josh had brought them back together. That left Steph and I.

They called me out. “Well Robin,” the host said. “You’ve been adamant that you didn’t want to be here. Now we’ve seen that Hannah is with Josh. What do you think of that?”

“Like I said before, we were a couple a long time ago. I’m glad I got the chance to tell her how hurt I felt when she left me. But we were immature then. We’re mature now, and it never would’ve worked.”

“So,” the host said. “Have you found a second chance at love?”

“Sure,” I said. Then they rolled the clip. After Hannah and I had had the fight, I’d moved out of our bedroom, producers be damned. While I hadn’t been attracted to Steph at first, spending all the time locked up in the house with her, I’d found myself quite attracted. Stephanie came out and kissed me. The audience went wild. At the end, we were declared the best couple. We’d won.