Taping for the rose ceremony was scheduled for nine o'clock, and the girls were up early preparing themselves for the big moment. For half of them, the morning would end with a long ride back to the Girls' House to clear out their belongings and return to oblivion. For the lucky survivors, there would be a romantic dinner with Jason, beginning that evening and spread out over the next six days.
Jan tried to put his incredible night with Becca out of his head as he finished dressing. He had selected the outfit he had first worn the day he surprised Andrea Messenger at the Polo Lounge: a white mock turtleneck sweater and a short black pleated skirt, accessorized by a wide black Gucci belt and a colorful Hermes scarf. As he tugged on a pair of sheer black stockings, he wondered what Becca must be thinking as she went through the identical motions back in her room. Getting all dressed up, so full of hope, knowing full well that there was a fifty-fifty chance she would be crying her eyes out before the morning was over. For Jan, the show had started out as little more than an audacious prank, but something about this experience was drawing him closer and closer to the way women thought, felt and acted.
"Snap out of it, girl!" he said to his reflection as he appraised the finished product in the full-length mirror. Once again, Jan Peterson was devastating. Jan stepped into a pair of black pumps with gold trim, dropped a lipstick and compact into his black leather purse, and headed off to join the other girls in the dining room. Most of them had already finished breakfast, and Jan had a quick cup of coffee as they started to file out to the waiting caravan of limousines. Becca was nowhere to be seen, and Jan assumed that she had already gone outside.
He was right. When he got into the last car with Gloria and a beautiful Eurasian girl named Cat, who had the other bedroom in Becca's townhouse, the atmosphere was so thick you could cut it with a knife. There was none of the banter from yesterday's ride to the ballpark. Today was deadly serious, and each of the girls was focused on her own chances as they rode in silence to a seaside mansion in Palos Verdes which had been commandeered as Jason's bachelor pad for the duration of the show.
They were assembled in a semi-circle at the foot of a wide spiral staircase, and when Jason descended to greet them, some of the girls were visibly trembling. Becca was the first girl to get a rose. Gloria shrieked when she was selected. Finally it came down to the last rose, and when Jason handed it to Jan, one of the also-rans actually fainted.
They were ushered back into the limos as soon as taping wrapped, and each of the remaining contestants was given a schedule of the activities for the remainder of the show. Jan studied it carefully during the ride back to the Girls' House, while Gloria ran on like a chatterbox and Cat stared morosely out the window.
There was a lot of down time coming up. Jan's dinner with Jason was scheduled for the following evening, which was good: a day to get ready, but then it would be over with. Each girl was entitled to a shopping spree on Rodeo Drive and a makeover at a Beverly Hills salon before her big date with Jason, and Jan's was scheduled for the following morning. After the last dinner date, another rose ceremony, narrowing the field to three girls. Then an overnight getaway with Jason for each of the three, to someplace close to Los Angeles that they would get to select. Another rose ceremony, and the two girls left standing would be expected to bring Jason home to meet Mom and Dad. When Jan read this, he nearly gagged.
The surviving girls kept to themselves for the rest of that day. Alone in his townhouse, Jan put on shorts and a tee shirt and began to plot out his moves for the remainder of the contest. He had two major problems, assuming he survived a romantic dinner with another man: where to go on his getaway with Jason, and how to manufacture a family to meet with his prospective fiancé.
At four o'clock, no closer to an answer to either problem, Jan changed into a sports bra and jogging shorts and laced up his sneakers for a long run. A combination of reduced calorie intake and an aggressive exercise program had enabled him to get down to his ideal weight for a woman, and he was determined to take off another pound before his big dinner with Jason so he could enjoy the meal. There you go again, thinking just like a girl, he said to himself as he went outside and bumped smack into Becca. "Hey," he said.
Becca was just returning from a swim, and her long brown hair was slicked straight back. Without makeup, her chiseled nose and high cheekbones gave her face a purity that Jan regarded with a twinge of envy. She asked him to walk along with her, and when they got to her townhouse, she pulled him inside and closed the door. Neither spoke as they tore off each other's clothes and tumbled into bed, making sweet love again and again until it was almost time for dinner.
"So much for my jog," Jan sighed as he strapped on his bra.
"You got a good workout," Becca giggled. "When's your big date?"
"Tomorrow night."
"Do you think you can pull it off?"
"I don't see how I can."
"Let me give you a little tip. From a girl who's been on a few more dates with guys than you have. Take the initiative by asking him questions that make him do most of the talking."
"So he can't ask me any questions about myself? Good idea."
"Well, that's part of it, although you're a good little liar and you can probably get away with whatever you dream up. But there's another reason. By making him talk about himself, you'll make him feel important and wanted. Guys like that. And they like girls who make them feel that way."
"Becca, I'm not trying to get Jason to fall for me."
"Sweetheart, that is exactly what you are trying to do! In fact, that's the only reason you've gotten this far. Look at the way you dressed up this morning, making the rest of us look like hags. Don't tell me you're not in this thing to win."
"Sure, I want to win, but I don't want him to fall in love with me. I'm a guy, remember?"
"Oh, I remember. But you remember this: the only way you get to win this thing is to make him fall in love with you."
"I don't want to hurt him."
"Then don't let him fall in love with you."
"You know what? I think you're jealous."
"You're damn right I'm jealous. Every woman in America is going to be jealous of you when they find out that you're really a guy. God help you if you win this thing. They'll probably castrate you on television. Now that would be a good reality show!"
"Just don't tell my agent. If he thought it would get ratings, he'd try to talk me into it."
"All you have to do is take a dive, Sis. Hit the wine as hard as you can and throw up on Jason at dinner tomorrow night."
"You just want to knock me out of the competition."
"You're damn right I do! You scare me more than the real girls."
"Why's that?"
"Because they're all gonna be nervous as hell, and probably make idiots of themselves. Put them up against a professional actor who looks like you do in a cocktail dress, and they haven't got a chance."
"So what? Each girl I knock out of the competition is one less girl for you to compete with."
"That's what I'm worried about."
"I don't get it."
"What could be more humiliating than to lose this thing to a guy?"
