Across the set, Charlie picks up a jeweled tiara. “Daphne,” he says, and the woman steps out of the lineup to approach him. “Are you interested in becoming my princess?”
“Of course.” Daphne beams, and Charlie smiles shyly as he puts the crown carefully in her hair.
Dev has always known how this story will end. Now he has two weeks left to figure out how to accept it.
Story notes for editors: Season 37, Episode 8
Story producer:
Ryan Parker
Air date:
Monday, November 1, 2021
Executive producer:
Maureen Scott
Scene: B-roll, post-massage Quest （post–Handie Crisis） Location: Shot on location at the villa, Amed, Bali Charlie [muttering, barely audible]: I know.
Producer [voice off camera]: Are you okay? With what just happened with Sabrina?
Charlie: Mildly embarrassed, but that’s standard operating procedure.
Producer: [Steps into the shot.] What Sabrina did was not cool. You shouldn’t feel embarrassed about that. It was not your fault. You should, however, be embarrassed about how you look in this tiny robe.
Charlie: I’d happily burn it along with the memory of this entire day.
Producer: Now let’s not do anything too hasty.…
WEEK EIGHT
San Francisco—Sunday, July 25, 2021
3 Contestants and 14 Days Remaining
Charlie
Coming home doesn’t feel like the right way to describe it.
For Charlie, it feels like the past and present collide inside his chest when their connecting flight from Taipei arrives at the San Francisco airport. This is where his journey started eight weeks ago, when Parisa put him on a plane to Los Angeles to become the Ever After prince. This is where he used to fly in and out of when he worked at WinHan, he and Josh in adjacent business-class seats to London, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Mumbai. And now this is where he lands for Angie’s Home Kingdom date, Dev’s carry-on duffle over his shoulder, Jules drooping against him while they wait for the equipment on the baggage carousel. He watches Skylar and Ryan pound espresso shots from Peet’s Coffee so they can meet with the travel team to debrief the plans for tomorrow. He watches Dev play some stupid game on his phone. And he thinks about who he was when he left San Francisco and who he’s going to be in two weeks when this is over.
A fleet of vans carry the exhausted crew to a hotel in downtown San Francisco, driving past Charlie’s apartment building on the way, the one he’s lived in for almost three years now, the one that’s been empty for two months. He looks up and searches for the window on the twentieth floor, south corner—his window—and realizes he misses it. Not so much the apartment itself, which was cold and sterile, but what it represented. About him, about his life, about how far he’d come from the bullies at school and the bullies at home. On the twentieth floor, it always felt like the past could never reach him.
He could have that again. In two weeks, he’ll propose to Daphne. She’s already promised to say yes when he asks. The show will air, and they will pretend to be in love on the live finale special, and thanks to Dev, he’ll come across like the perfect prince. He’ll be famous again; he’ll get a job again; he’ll be allowed to sit at a desk and do work befitting his brain again. He’ll be allowed to contribute something again. It’s the whole reason he came on this show.
He could have everything he’s ever wanted. So why can’t he stop thinking about a little house in Venice Beach that smells like oatmeal and bleach? Why can’t he get this lump out of his throat?
* * *
“I truly did not think it was possible, but I stand corrected.”