Joe walked into the school's health club carrying his bag and bottle of post-workout drink mix and looked around.
He was glad the facility was almost empty and smiled when he saw the free weight section was completely empty.
"Gotta love 5 am workouts," he said to himself and tossed his bag into an empty locker.
He stepped on the scale and nodded at the 212-pound reading. He wanted to maintain his weight between 210 and 215 pounds, so he was happy.
"Cut back on the protein, I think," he said to himself. He didn't want to bulk up any more than he was already.
After stretching, he walked out of the locker room and groaned when he saw a group of wives had entered and were walking casually on the treadmills which had an open view of the weights area.
"Damn, it's Tuesday," he grumbled.
They were a group of trophy wives of professors and administrators who pretended that going to the gym once a week was healthy. In reality, they were there to ogle the young men from the college.
"Hi, Joe," a couple of the older ladies called out as he walked by. He waved without looking back and didn't see all of the ladies stare at his muscular back and butt.
He felt their eyes on him as he went through his workout. Five Finger Death Punch blasted through his air pods, so he at least could tune out the world around him, he just couldn't control the lustful glares.
A year and a half had gone by since he started college. He was far from the gawky geek he was in high school, and every day he looked more like his heartthrob brother.
"How the hell does Jim live with it?" he asked himself as he walked by the oversexed ladies who had moved from treadmills to bicycles, but still within eyeshot of him.
"See you around, Joe," one of the mature beauties with fake boobs, fake tan, and fake fingernails said.
He waved without looking again and headed for the shower.
Joe had begun to catch the attention of many women around campus and the neighborhood. It took some time, but he began to realize he was a good-looking guy, although he was never comfortable in that skin.
His brother was one of the sexiest men in Hollywood and had to deal with women falling all over themselves in his presence, but Joe never thought it would be like that for him. He was supposed to be just a regular guy. He had no idea how much his life was about to be tossed upside-down.
*****
Melanie and Keri sat in their favorite coffee shop on campus and watched as a beautiful woman and overweight man walked into the café.
"Mel," Keri chirped, "look! That's Kelly Winters."
Mel looked up and saw the hostess of the most popular dating show on television walk past their table.
"I wonder what she's doing here?" she shrugged.
Keri answered, "I wonder if they are doing a talent search for the next season of the show here."
Mel's eyes lit up, and she said, "Really? You should sign Taylor up to audition. That stuff is all fake anyway."
"I'm not putting my man on a dating show to have all those model women degrade themselves to win a date with him. Screw that!"
They laughed, and Keri saw them walk through the café and head into the common area of the building.
"Maybe, we should go check it out?" Keri said. "We could get a picture and an autograph."
"Nah," Mel boredly answered. "Go ahead if you want, but I'm good."
"Your loss," Keri shrugged and headed off.
Keri had come a long way since her days of fainting every time she met a celebrity. She'd gotten used to Ken, Jim, and Devon's antics and teasing.
Keri walked off and found that the hostess and her partner had a table set up in the common area. There was a line already formed and Keri asked the girl in front of her what was going on.
"Auditions for a new show. They are looking for couples to compete in some kind of scavenger hunt or something."
"Whoa! I'm totally trying to get us in."
When she got to the table, the man explained what the show was and asked, "Do you have a picture of your boyfriend or girlfriend?"
"Yeah," Keri said and pulled up a picture she'd just had taken of her and Taylor and Mel and Joe.
"Nice, okay," the man said and handed her a card with a website and code number on it. "Go online and fill out the questionnaire and submit the required information and photos. What about the other two? Do they want a shot?"
"The other two? Oh! Mel and Joe? I don't know, but I'll ask them."
"Here, take a card for them too. Step over, now. Kelly's signing autographs and taking pictures."
*****
Mel laughed when Keri handed her the card later that day.
"I'm not trying out for a TV show. The whole thing sounds dumb."
"Come on, Mel. At least ask Joe. Maybe he'll want to be on TV?"
"Are you kidding?" Mel laughed. "Joe hates getting attention from anyone. Could you imagine if he became famous? He'd probably lock himself in his bedroom."
They giggled and Keri dropped it. Mel didn't know that Keri was going to submit their application anyway. She knew that deep down, Mel would love to be on that show. She was very wrong.
*****
Two months later, Keri sighed when she received an email rejecting her and Taylor from the show. At the same moment she read that email on her phone, Mel screamed, "You bitch!"
"Uh oh," Keri groaned.
"Keri, what the hell did you do?" Mel shouted as she hurried down the stairs.
"What do you mean?" she asked feigning innocence.
"Why am I getting a congratulations email telling me Joe and I have been chosen for that stupid TV show? I didn't sign up for it."
"I'm sorry. I thought it would be fun if one of us got picked. You should be excited. You're going to be on TV."
"I don't want to be on TV," Mel shouted.
Moments later, Joe knocked on their door.
