Disclaimer: Do I really need to say anything here?
ETC: I don’t know anything about Ty, Alex, Hilda, Doug, etc., except what I’ve read at the TS site and the two forums I’ve visited about the show.
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Truly
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Chapter One: The Ring
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“Alex? Oh, Alexandra…” Ty Pennington called, walking down the hotel hallway. Everyone on the crew had gone out shopping and for dinner, leaving the four cast members – Hilde, Doug, Ty, and Alex.
“She’s in her room.” Hilde told him, sadly, “If I were you, I’d go out and buy her some flowers and hold her, ‘coz she is really upset.”
“What? Why?” He asked, looking at the woman.
Doug appeared next to Hilde, “Banyan picked up the show.”
“So? She liked the people from Banyan.”
“They didn’t like her. They…well…they have a new host they want to put in her place.” He paused, “And apparently, she was on the internet and found that some people think that she’s…unkind. And one or two were from the crew.”
Ty rubbed his eyes, “Great…just great. She’s out of a job and she’s finally heard all the rumors I was trying to keep from her.”
Doug and Hilde exchanged a look, before each tossed a soft, loving glance at the carpenter and retired to Hilda’s room.
He looked down at his feet, then carefully began to trek down the hall to the last room. He rapped on the door lightly to let her know he was coming in. He pulled the keycard from his pocket, inserted it in the reader, and pulled it back out when the light flashed green, “Allie?”
Alex was sitting on the bed, staring out the window at the plum-colored sky, “I tried to be nice. I really did.” She looked up at her boyfriend, “What did I do?”
“I don’t know.” He replied, seating him self beside her, “Maybe they just didn’t want to see how beautiful and wonderful you are. Some people just look for the bad in people, Alex.”
She smiled weakly, “You always make me feel better.”
“That’s my job.” He wiped away a tear from her cheek, “Who ever this new host is that Banyan brings in…They’ll be nothing compared to you.”
“Promise you won’t get involved with the host if it’s a girl?”
He shook his head, “How could I when I have you.” Ty grinned, “So how ‘bout we go grab Hilde and Doug and find a place to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.”
Standing up, he spoke again, a slightly harsher tone in his voice, “Tough. You haven’t been hungry since…I can remember! It’s time to eat something Allie.” He dropped to his knees and looked up at her, “Come on – you don’t want to be a twig at our wedding, do you?”
“What?” Alex looked wildly at her beau.
He carefully returned to his full height, strolled to his suitcase, and pulled out a box; “I was going to give this to you next time we were out with the guys.” He held out his hand, the box placed on his palm.
Hesitantly, she reached up and took it, opening it with more tears trailing down her face. Nestled inside was a silver band with two diamond chips on either side of a princess-cut emerald.
“Allie?”
“No.” She whispered, “I can’t. We’d never even make it to the alter. Everyone already agrees that I have a temper…you’d leave me.”
“What’s the matter with a temper? Everyone’s entitled to have off days. You especially.” He told her, caressing her cheek, “I promise I won’t leave you. I would never do that just because you got mad.”
“But…”
“Alexandra, listen to me – any time you do get mad, you usually just leave for a little while to cool off and then do what you’re supposed to. I doubt that you would ever do anything that would make me leave you. I love you. I have a sister who gets pissed at me for merely existing at least once a month, and even if you were like that, believe me – I’d stay.”
“You promise? Really promise?”
“With all my heart.”
She glanced around the room and heard footsteps in the hall, “Can I sleep on it?”
Ty nodded, turned on his heel, and headed toward the door, “I’ll bring something back for you, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She replied, watching him go. Sighing, she dragged her feet as she entered the bathroom. She washed the makeup off, staring at her self in the mirror the whole time. She did love Ty, truly, but she was scared. Alex had seen her parents’ bitter breakup, followed by her Aunt Sarah’s divorce, strengthening her belief that most people didn’t stay together – and if they did, it was for the children who would be better off if their parents weren’t married.
‘It could work. He does love me. He says it all the time.’ She thought, pulling on a pair of her flannel pajama pants, ‘Hilde and Doug are married. They really seem to be making it alright.’
Throwing on one of Ty’s huge t-shirts as she returned to the bed, she allowed a few more tears to escape before plopping onto the bedspread. She began to closely examine the ring in the box. It reminded her of the ring her grandmother had worn.
‘Nana and Pop were married for sixty years…’ She wondered, pulling the ring from the grasp of the box. Carefully, she slid it onto her finger and looked at it in the light. Maybe things wouldn’t turn out so bad.
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