Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
I WANT IT THAT WAY — BACKSTREET BOYS
TWELVE WEEKS LATER
Molly’s lower lip trembles slightly as a makeup artist reapplies—for the third time today—the vampy red shade of lipstick Sora picked out for her this morning.
“Thanks, Lorraine,” Molly manages to say through pursed lips, her tone cheerful and bright.
After a full day of interviews with every major entertainment media conglomerate, a slew of digital bloggers, and Love at First Sail’s network crew, there’s a subtle raspy edge to her voice that on anyone else might sound like exhaustion or illness, but on Molly sounds sultry.
Which is perfect, because that’s what we’re going for on the Love at First Sail season finale tonight. Not a villain, not a monster, and definitely not some nobody who gets kicked off in the fourth week—like Carly.
Tonight, we’re going for “bombshell with a heart of gold.”
“Hey, Molly?” Sora’s head pokes around the doorframe and into the dressing room, a headset slung loosely around her neck and a clipboard clutched at her side.
There’s a hint of anxiety straining her youthful features, but her eyes are brimming with a familiar kind of excitement I’ve only ever seen in two situations: kids at a trampoline park when their friend double-jumps them to the fucking moon…
and when I looked at myself in the mirror on my first day of college.
When I knew I was exactly where I belonged.
“Oh, hey, Sora. Am I up?”
“Yup,” she replies, a broad smile directed first at Molly, then at me. “Thirty seconds to air.”
Molly and I exchange giddy glances, and she pushes to her feet, her expression twisting into a sly grin. “It’s showtime,” she sing-songs.
I follow her out of the room, making sure to swipe my walkie-talkie off the table and clip it to my belt next to my phone, which has been buzzing repeatedly over the last ten minutes.
I know it’s likely Kyla or Nolan, both of whom are in the audience with Morgan, but I don’t bother checking it.
I’m focused on Molly as she struts down the long corridor, echoing with the urgent voices of crew members.
Unlike the majority of the season, the grand finale—in which the winning couple is picked and awarded a $100,000 prize—is filmed on a set with a live studio audience.
So, the rest of the world will find out at the same time Molly does if she and Duncan will be walking away with cash in their pockets.
The winners are always awarded the money, no matter what, but whether they choose to leave Love at First Sail and stay with their winning partner is completely up to them.
As we round the corner and enter into the soundstage’s main studio, there’s an energetic hum in the room.
Audience members are talking and laughing, crew members are calling directions to one another across the stage, and contestants, who are already seated front and center on the finale couch, are murmuring quietly to one another.
Sora leads Molly to a bank of tall, narrow black drapes, hung vertically in a quarter-circle on one side of the stage. Once we’re tucked between the thick curtains, it’s like all the sound has been snuffed out in the tiny, padded space. It’s a reprieve from the insanity of the stage and the wings.
“You know your cue?” Sora asks, her voice immediately absorbed by the dark fabric.
Molly nods, flicking her eyes to the stage she’ll have to walk out onto in a few seconds, and I can tell she’s getting nervous.
The confidence that was easy to find in her features only a few minutes ago has been replaced with lowered brows and an uncertain gaze.
“Just stick to the plan,” I say soothingly as I take her hand. She shifts her clear gray eyes to meet mine, and I give her a warm smile.
“What if they don’t like me?” she says quietly.
I shake my head quickly. “They already love you.”
“They think they do. But that’s because—”
“Ten seconds to air!” a producer calls out from somewhere across the stage.
“Do you trust me?” I ask, squeezing her hand.
“Of course,” she whispers. “That’s why you’re my producer.”
“Exactly. I’ll be right here. You’re going to do great, okay?”
Molly nods, and I nudge her forward just a bit until she stops at the strip of red gaffer tape on the floor.
“Five, four, three, two—”
The “one” is silent as the producer counts production in.
Or maybe it’s drowned out by the applause from the audience.
I sneak a peek out at the dark theater seating and notice a crew member clapping in an exaggerated manner as they stand facing the audience, their only job to make sure people clap when they’re supposed to clap, laugh when they’re supposed to laugh, and sound surprised when… well, you get the point.
From the wings, I can see Tom Tomlinson striding toward Camera 1 as it rolls to him. A broad smile just barely bends the features of his face—he must be fresh off either a facelift or a Botox injection.
“And we’re back to Love at First Sail! Before the break, we caught up with our second couple competing for the coveted title of season nine winners.”
Camera 2 pushes in on the four contestants already on the stage.
Kory and Tanesha are cozied up on the couch, Tanesha draped in a stunning yellow gown that pops against the rich brown of her skin.
Kory is decked out in a white tux, but sporting a bare chest, and his hair is pulled back in a rugged bun, the sides of his head newly shaved.
They’re an attractive couple, it’s hard to deny that—stylish and hot in their own regard.
And their love story has been sweet, if a little boring.
Beside them sit Canadian seductress Tina and handsome Parisian Jean-Luc. Their story was more spicy than sweet, each having ditched the partners they had been paired with all season at the last minute and heading to the finale with each other after a whirlwind three-day romance.
“Our next, and final, couple, you should all know. Whether you were a die-hard fan from the beginning or fell in love with their story after her dramatic disappearance and their thrilling reunion in Sicily, I think we can all agree—Molly and Duncan were the most talked-about couple in Love at First Sail history.”
The audience goes absolutely bonkers at the mention of their names, and I swear I hear a whoop from Nolan rise above the din. Molly straightens, rolling her shoulders back and holding her head up high. She may be feeling like a fraud on the inside, but she doesn’t show it.
“Molly, Duncan—come on out, you two,” Tomlinson booms. Molly, as if she’s done this before, struts onto the stage, waving at the audience and doing a cute little run in her heels to embrace Duncan in the middle of the stage.
He dips her and plants a passionate kiss on her lips, then swings her back up. Molly makes a big show of fanning herself, as if that was the single hottest thing she’s ever experienced, and takes Duncan’s hand eagerly as he leads her to the long couch to sit with the other contestants.
“Well, that was quite the welcome, wasn’t it?” Tomlinson purrs smoothly as he sits in an armchair across from them. He leans in toward the three couples, like a therapist about to ask, “So, what brings you in today?”
“We are so excited to be here, Tom,” Molly exclaims, squeezing Duncan’s hand.
“You two have had quite the season. From a poolside rescue on day one, to a very memorable poker game, to a runaway trip after a disastrous trek up Mount Etna, you’ve both been through so much.”
“It’s our love story,” Duncan croons. I roll my eyes and chuckle quietly to myself. He’s certainly laying it on thick. Good—we need that.
“Molly, during your time away, you said you made your way down to the Amalfi Coast. Why there?” Tomlinson drags his gaze away from Duncan and settles it on Molly.
“When I was a kid, I spent time there with my grandparents. I was really missing home and their advice, especially because I was feeling so lost after Duncan rejected me for Carly. I just needed to feel close to them. To figure out what to do,” she explains, choking up slightly at the end—and I can tell that there’s real emotion behind her words.
“We all saw what happened at Mount Etna—the look on your face when Duncan left with Carly was heartbreaking. But as we saw later that episode, Duncan actually left the date early in search of you, Molly.”
“Yeah, I had no idea he did that.”
“As most of you will remember,” Tom says easily, now looking directly into Camera 1, “Molly returned to port just in the nick of time—both before the elimination ceremony and before the Gemstone set sail. It was a big moment, not just in season nine, but certainly one of the most sensational moments in Love at First Sail history. What do you say we watch that moment again?”
Molly and Duncan gaze at each other like lovesick teenagers and nod happily.
On the projector wall behind the couch, the Love at First Sail logo dissolves into a clip from the show, in which a car speeds down the dock, trails of dust kicking up behind it.
Anyone else wouldn’t be able to identify the driver behind the wheel.
But I can—just by the shit-eating grin on his face and the lock of dark hair that’s fallen out of place to drape into his eyes. Nolan is living out his James Bond, action-star dreams.
And then there’s me, barely visible in the passenger seat, my face full of absolute fucking terror. The shot then cuts to the car screeching to a halt just outside the ramp leading into the ship.
The crew members shooting the footage are both fellow B-cam operators.
And what the audience doesn’t know is that not a single producer was aware this was happening. Let’s just say I called in a few favors from my little band of baby crew members.
A third camera joins in, this one held by a camera assistant using the Sony XDCAM that Sora grabbed from my room, to capture the scene from a balcony above the ramp.
It catches Molly as she throws the door open with determination, pushes her way out of the car, and runs for the ramp.
A uniformed crew member stands at the bottom of the ramp—Keaton, the same crew member who brought me Nolan’s breakfast delivery that first morning.
He stops Molly short as he holds up a gloved hand.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we will be departing in just a few minutes. It’s too late to board the ship,” Keaton says authoritatively.
An obvious lie.
But we needed to raise the stakes, or else this next part wouldn’t look believable.
“No, I need to get on the ship, right now!” Molly argues, clearly panicking as her voice breaks just a bit at the end.
“Ma’am, please keep it down.”
“Oh, shut up! And don’t call me ma’am!”
I love that part. It was a trending GIF for, like, two weeks straight after the episode aired.
“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to meet the Gemstone in the next port.”
A look of shock and desperation in Molly’s eyes is caught perfectly from the second camera, which is positioned just inside the opening to the ship.
“No… No, this can’t be happening!”
Here’s where Molly’s acting chops really shine.
“DUNCAN!” she wails—heartbroken and tortured, like she just found out her childhood dog died. Which, incidentally, is the scenario I told her to think about to make herself cry. “Duncan, please! Duncan! I know you’re in your room right now, please, God, let your door be open so you can hear me!”
At this point, multiple guests are looking out over their balconies at the screaming woman below. Then, as if he really heard her (and wasn’t actually queued by Sora), Duncan’s head pops out from his balcony, taking in Molly below.
“Molls?” he says, giving his best impression of “confused.” It’s passable—thankfully.
“Duncan!” Molly shouts. “Come down here! They won’t let me on the ship!”
“Where’d you go, Molly? I came back early yesterday and you were gone…”
“I just needed to get away, I thought you were going to pick Carly to be with. Can you please come down here? I need to tell you something!”
“What?” he shouts, putting his hand to his ear.
“I said, CAN YOU COME DOWN HERE?”
“I can’t…I’m sorry, Molly, but I can’t leave my room.”
Molly grumbles, as if she didn’t already know this, but then she shifts her gaze over to a ladder that’s been placed strategically just under the lowest deck on the ship. She stomps back down the ramp, making a beeline for the ladder, her blond hair whipping behind her like a cape.
Keaton shouts at her, demanding that she stop, but she keeps going.
At this point, a few more cameras are at the dock, other DOPs who heard the commotion and raced to get footage. Producers began showing up at the entrance to the ship, too, trying to catch a glimpse of the drama unfolding.
It’s around this point, when Molly starts to climb the ladder, that I noticed Glen’s eyes widen in genuine panic. I could practically hear him screaming internally about how we aren’t insured for contestants scaling the side of the ship.
In the clip, Molly makes it up several steps before Keaton finally “relents,” and says, “Alright, alright! I’ll let you onto the ship.”
She whips her head around to look at him smugly and climbs back down, stalking to the entrance as the cameras follow her.
The clip then cuts to Duncan, pacing in his room, then pounding on his door, yelling for a producer to let him out. Short cuts of Molly walking determinedly through the halls of the ship toward Duncan’s room are interspersed with this footage.
The entire segment ends with Molly knocking on Duncan’s door as Duncan tries to shoulder it open from the other side, and, finally, a producer unlocking the room so the two can embrace.
“I’m sorry I picked Carly—it was the wrong choice,” Duncan breathes into Molly’s neck, his words muffled in the mic attached to his shirt.
“I’m sorry I ran away. Please forgive me,” Molly murmurs, her own voice picking up on Duncan’s mic.
It’s a brilliant scene—finished with swelling romantic music and a slow fade-out as the two kiss passionately in the middle of Duncan’s messy room, until the door closes on the camera.