The Italian launched insult after insult at the Spaniard in front of him. He could see the pain and heartbreak become more obvious with every word. Lovino hated this, he hated doing this, but it was his job.
It had all started about a month back when his younger brother Feliciano approached him with a flyer for one of those stupid romance shows. Feli was obsessed with those kinds of shows, and the idea of true love. Lovino had never been one for such things, unlike his brother, he found these things to be stupid and fake. He was right of course those sort of shows were always scripted.
Lovino had, despite his dislike of the show, tried out for the sake of his brother. The girl he was suppose to 'woo' hadn't interested him in the slightest, but her best friend, a Spaniard by the name of Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, had definitely caught his attention.
The only problem was that shows such as this were fake, and preplanned. Lovi was suppose to be the angry, bitter, and jealous one. The kind of guy who hates a girl's best friend out of said jealousy, but everytime he looked into Antonio's eyes he felt guilt.
Lovino had tried his best to get the both of them away from the cameras so he could talk to him properly, but to no avail. He stayed on longer than he thought he would. Though expecting it wouldn't have been too hard. His character was their main source of drama, so it was only natural to keep him around until right before the final decision.
The bouncy little blonde was grinning ear to ear as she held the two roses aloft. Emma, Lovino had noticed, had a flair for the dramatic while still being a sensible person. He liked her in some regards. She was cute, rather nice, and a good cook, but she wasn't Antonio.
Antonio stood beside her as always. He always had a new ridiculous outfit. Today's was in a primarily unbuttoned silk dress shirt, skinny jeans, black dress shoes, and a turtle hat... He had most likely purchased it at the zoo that they had gone to earlier that week. The little legs of the hat flopped to about mid ear. Romano tried not to laugh at the sight.
Romano tried to focus on his lines. He would have to blame Antonio for his leaving, but that wasn't true. He didn't want to leave, but there was no way he would be able to stick around either. Antonio didn't know the show was primarily scripted, which meant Emma probably didn't either. He hated someone, but neither of them. He hated the studio for manipulating good people.
He stood between two people, some Australian surfer dude named Jett or something, and a girl named Elizibeta. She had really helped widen the shows demographic, and was nice enough off camera. Jett wasn't too different. He was a well meaning surfer who managed to get himself into a lot of trouble. Romano sighed while waiting. He just wanted to go home and never speak of this again.
When his wasn't called and the other two stood beside Emma he prepared himself, but dropped the act rather quick. Antonio flinched like he was expecting to get hurt. They had convinced him that Lovino would hurt him. He let out a resigned sigh. "I'm going home." He pulled out a small piece of paper and a pen and scribbled his number on to it. Turning towards Antonio he gave a sad smile. "If you ever want to know the real me, give me a call, I'm not entirely what the ass hats made me act like." After handing Antonio the piece of paper he returned home to his brother.
About three months after the finale Lovino had still gotten no word from the Spaniard, but he kept an eye on his phone almost 24/7. It had taken over half a year when the first text came through. "So it was scripted?" and Lovino smiled."Of course it was you bastard. Italians are naturally very charming."
