“Why did you sign on for this?” Patrick Kane questioned his teammate Adam Burish as the two men got out of Adam’s SUV and walked towards the entrance of the building where they were having a meeting in ten minutes.
 
“I think the better question is why did you sign on for this?” Adam retorted, opening the glass door to the building and walking through it, laughing as the door shut too quickly before Patrick could get through it, too, causing Patrick to run right into it.
 
“I did it so that I can meet someone special,” Patrick answered, rubbing his forehead that had slammed against the glass when the door had shut in front of him.
 
“That’s bullshit,” Adam shook his head, laughing at Patrick’s answer. “You did it, thinking you could get in at least one of these girls’ pants.”
 
Patrick didn’t even try denying it, simply shrugging his shoulders as Adam pushed the button for the elevator to go up, and they waited on the elevator to arrive. “So, what’s your reason?” he asked Adam. “I mean I know you like to be the center of attention, but hosting a reality show that I’m participating in isn’t going to give you all the attention.”
 
“Yeah,” Adam agreed as the elevator finally arrived. “But, I’ll be there to watch you crash and burn. Because, let’s face it, you’re bound to crash and burn with at least one of those girls. You’re not a smooth guy, like some of us,” he said, pointing to himself. “Besides, all those girls are going to need a shoulder to cry on when they don’t get picked. Oh, and will you look at that,” he said, looking down at his shoulders. “I have two shoulders.” Patrick opened his mouth to argue when the doors to the elevator opened, revealing an attractive woman sitting at the table in the conference room, her brown wavy hair hitting the binder that she was currently bent down reading. “Whoa,” Adam breathed, and the woman looked up from the binder.
 
“Hi,” she smiled as they walked towards her. “I’m Delaney Palmer. I’m the producer of the show,” she introduced herself. Patrick’s eyes widened, shocked that she was the producer of the show. She couldn’t have been even thirty years old, and she was hot, to say the least.
 
“I would have picked you to be a contestant,” Adam spoke, taking the words right out of Patrick’s mind. “Adam Burish,” he added, extending his hand, which she immediately shook.
 
“Yes, I know,” she told him. “And, no, I’m not a contestant, thank God,” she muttered under her breath. She turned towards Patrick, apparently waiting on him to introduce himself.
 
Adam, realizing that Patrick was frozen while staring at Delaney, elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow!” Patrick yelped, and Delaney laughed at the two men. “Sorry, I’m Pat Kane,” he said, realizing he hadn’t told her his name.
 
“It’s nice to meet the two of you,” Delaney said, walking around to the other side of the table and sitting down once again, motioning for the two of them to do the same thing. “Have a seat while we go over how exactly the show is going to work.”
 
The two men sat down across from Delaney, listening as she went over all the small details of the show. They had already been told how the show was going to work. There were going to be twenty girls to begin with, and every so many days, after a date with the girls, Patrick was going to eliminate some of them until only three of them remained. Then, he would go on an individual date with each of them, and he would choose the one that he wanted to be with in the end.
 
Adam was hosting the show, and he would be narrating the dates for the televised portions. He would also be there when Patrick eliminated the girls, giving his humorous commentary the whole way through.
 
“And, you’re welcome to move into the house whenever you’d like,” Delaney said, looking at Patrick. He stifled a groan, remembering the downside to participating in this reality show. He had to live in the same house as all of the girls while they were filming because the executives thought it was a good idea. Patrick could think of a hundred reasons of how this could turn out badly, including having some sort of stalker in the house, but the executives had assured him that they had carefully screened the girls beforehand. “You don’t look too pleased about that,” Delaney observed.
 
“He’s not,” Adam interjected, and Delaney turned her attention towards him, waiting on him to explain further. “He’s afraid of getting raped in the middle of the night,” Adam supplied.
 
Delaney quickly looked back at Patrick, as if trying to get confirmation from him, and Patrick shook his head and rolled his eyes at his teammate. “That’s not it!” he said. “It’s just I don’t know these girls, and I don’t know how crazy they’re going to be. I don’t know if you know, but there’s a lot of crazy girls out there that are obsessed with me, and I’d prefer that one of them was not in the same house that I am,” he said, not realizing how conceited he was sounding at the moment.
 
“Well, I’m sorry Patrick,” Delaney began.
 
“Pat,” Patrick interjected. “Call me Pat.”
 
“Okay, I’m sorry Pat,” Delaney tried once again. “But, you’ve got to stay in the house. That way we can film everything, and we don’t have to worry about you not showing up or something like that. Plus, wouldn’t it be better to stay in the house with the girls—who will be in a completely different part of the house than you, not down the hallway—than have them showing up at your actual house?” she questioned.
 
Patrick seemed to think it over for a moment before replying, “Yeah, I guess that is better.”
 
“Good, now that we agree on that,” Delaney said with a smile on her face. “Why don’t we talk about Adam’s role on the show a little more?” she said, looking down at her notes in her binder.
 
“Yes, let’s talk a little about me,” Adam said with a grin on his face. Patrick rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair, balancing it on just its back two legs.
 
“You will be meeting with the writers of the show before every elimination ceremony so you can go over what you should and shouldn’t say,” Delaney told him.
 
“Wait a minute!” Adam interrupted. “Writers? I thought this was a reality show. Why are there writers for a reality show?” he inquired.
 
“There’s always writers on reality shows,” Delaney informed him.
 
“Huh,” Adam shrugged. “Who knew?”
 
“Everyone,” Patrick muttered under his breath, but Adam still heard him. Suddenly, Adam pushed Patrick on his shoulder, causing him to tip his chair backwards, and ending with Patrick on the floor, rubbing the back of his head. “Dude!” he exclaimed, but Adam was laughing too hard to even hear him. Delaney was instantly on her feet, extending her hand to help Patrick up, while trying to hold back her laughter. “Thanks,” Patrick mumbled as he stood up, putting the chair back on its four legs.
 
“Are you okay?” Delaney asked, a few giggles coming out of her mouth, even though she tried to stifle them.
 
“He’s fine,” Adam said, laughing even harder.
 
“Laugh it up,” Patrick muttered.
 
“Anyways, back to talking about me,” Adam said, looking at Delaney, who had her hand over her mouth, trying to hold back the laughter.
 
“Oh, right, you’re going to meet with the writers before every elimination,” Delaney continued, as Patrick sat in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest, waiting on this meeting to end so that he could kill Adam.
 
“Okay, well that’s it for now,” Patrick heard Delaney say after having tuned her and Adam’s conversation out for a while. “I’m looking forward to working with you two,” she said, extending her hand towards each of them.
 
Patrick immediately stood up after saying a quick goodbye and jetted towards the door, wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible. He turned back around to see where Adam was since he had gotten a ride there from him, and he groaned when he saw he was still around Delaney. He knew from previous experience that Adam was about to try to work his magic on Delaney and ask her out, and Patrick really didn’t want to wait and see what happened. But, he had no choice, so he leaned against the wall, watching the two of them, hoping that if he continued to stare at them, Adam would eventually give up and let the two of them leave.
 
“So, Delaney,” Adam said, watching as she collected all of her notes and put them back into her binder. She looked up at him, waiting on him to continue. “I was wondering what you were doing this weekend,” he began.
 
“I’m working,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Adam silently cursed himself, realizing it was a stupid question, especially since the show began taping on Friday. He heard Patrick snickering behind him, and he quickly spun around, glaring at him.
 
“I was thinking that if you had free time that we could go out sometime,” Adam suggested.
 
“Listen, Adam,” Delaney cut him off. “I’m sure you’re a nice guy and all, but you’re really not my type,” she told him.
 
“What is your type?” Adam inquired.
 
Delaney sighed, not wanting to answer the question, but she knew he wasn’t going to let her out of the situation that easily. He continued staring at her, waiting for her answer, and she took a deep breath before replying. “It’s… just not you,” she said, grabbing her binder and turning towards the door. “I’m sorry,” she added. “I hope we can remain professional, and maybe even become friends.”
 
“Sure,” Adam said, watching as she walked past him and Patrick out the door.
 
Patrick walked over to his friend, patting him on the back. “Smooth,” he said, laughing. “Real smooth.”
 
“Shut up,” Adam remarked, quickly exiting the room, with Patrick trying to keep up behind him.