Ava closed her eyes and listened to
the chatter of the audience in the distance. Ava had prayed over and over to
get onto The Dating Game and here she was! Her prayers had
been answered. She could hardly wait to get out there and be on TV. Ava still
had her eyes closed as a curling iron went through her hair and her nails were
being painted. When the stylists were done she opened her eyes and saw a
completely different person. She was shocked.
In the midst of Ava smiling to
herself as she stared into the mirror she turned and saw a woman dressed in all
black with an earpiece.
“Ma’am, you are on in one minute.
Please follow me.”
Ava followed the woman with a hop in
her step. She heard the announcer, but couldn’t make out what he said. Suddenly
a voice boomed over the audience,
“And now, ladies and gentlemen,
please give it up for the lucky lady, Ava!”
Ava heard the roar of applause and
it gave her feet the power to walk to the stage. Ava was so nervous she could
hardly stand it.
“Ava darling, you look radiant-“
started the announcer.
A male voice cut him off and said,
“Hey now, Ryan! No hitting on her!”
Ava heard the voice but the man it
came from was hidden behind a curtain.
Ryan smiled. “Well, well, I meant no
harm, sir. Ava, please take a seat. When the game is over, the gentlemen who
won will sit next to you.”
Ava followed Ryan to a red love seat
and sat down. There was still room for another.
“Now, Ava, I am going to explain the
game to you and our viewers before we get started. Behind this curtain here are
five gentlemen. One of them will be lucky enough to go on a date with you and
the other four will not. I am going to ask these gentleman a series of
questions and you will rate their answers here on this sheet. After the
questioning is over you will select the man who is most compatible with you and
then this gentleman will reveal himself and you two can ride off into the
sunset, and by that I mean an all-paid night out. I will warn you that clips of
your date will be shown next week so the audience can see how you two turned
out. Now, Ava, do you have any questions?” explained Ryan.
Ava smiled. “I do have one question,
Ryan. Are any of them ugly?”
Ryan let out a chuckle and the
audience was overcome with a wave of laughter. Ava also laughed.
“I assure these men are very
good-looking,” Ryan turned to the audience. “Audience, don’t you agree these
gentleman are well-engineered?”
The audience hollered and woo’d.
“Alright, everyone, we are about to
get started with our first question of the evening.”
*
* *
Frank stared at the television
fuming. Ava was a thousand miles away having the time of her life. She
always gets everything she wants doesn’t she? Her luck needs to run out
soon.
