Castaway Wife, Part 1

[photo: VictoriaAndrea]

In case you missed it, I wrote a free, Patreon Foreword here, that should answer any questions you may have around the logistics of this book. If not, though, please leave a comment here, there, or in the Community chat. Enjoy!

1. And the winner is…

“And the winner of Season 25 of Castaway is…” Molly Reynolds, long-time host of the hit reality game show, Castaway, paused for dramatic effect, studying the three finalists. They were holding each other's hands, supporting one another despite the weeks of fierce competition.

Molly turned her television smile outward, where the live audience was seated, silent, tense, anticipating the announcement. Her smile radiated even farther, picked up by the cameras and broadcast around the world. At home, everyone held their breath as Molly Reynolds delivered the news.

“The winner is Jason. Congratulations, Jason.”

The audience rose to their feet, starting to cheer. The camera operators zoomed in on Jason, the newest winner of the show, as the two other finalists pretended to be happy for him, congratulating him. The rest of the contestants, whose votes had crowned Jason the winner, swarmed in around the three in a happy reunion as Molly Reynolds stepped out of the fray.

“We’re going to a commercial break,” she announced to the camera right in front of her. “But we’ll be back to catch up with Jason, as well as some of our favorite moments. Did Clay really enjoy eating those grubs? How does Janice feel about being seen as the mom of the group? And we definitely want to talk about all the showmancing that went on this season. Was any of it real? All coming up right after the break.”

She stopped talking as the camera lights went dark, but the celebration on stage went on. The emotions were real. For the group up there, they’d spent an intense month together on a deserted island, sweating, competing, fighting, and bonding. This live show wasn’t just about finally learning who won the whole competition, but it was a family reunion. Everyone in the audience, even those who were literally family, could only stand and watch like outsiders.

That’s certainly how Andy felt, clapping from his seat in the audience as his wife, Chelsea, hopped around the stage with her Castaway family. He didn’t know them any more than the rest of the viewing audience, who’d watched the same twelve episodes that he had. But he knew Chelsea, and she was happy, and he was happy for her.

He also knew that somewhere, there could be a camera on him now, and he wasn’t going to show the world his cuckold angst. 

Chelsea turned from her reunion and found Andy in the crowd, her brows knitted ever so slightly. He smiled at her and nodded. When she returned it, her beauty took his breath away. Enhanced by the makeup, the hair, the shaped eyebrows and all the other styling the network had done to get her TV ready, she barely looked like the girl he’d met so long ago.

Andy and Chelsea always loved these live episodes of Castaway. They’d watch them from the sofa in their home, amazed at how different the contestants looked a full three months after their return home. On the show, they slept under the stars without access to showers or soap or hair brushes or makeup. Months later, the dirt and grime of the island long washed away, it was like they were different people, glamorous versions of their more real selves.

Andy was now having that sensation with his own wife. The dress the network stylist had chosen for her was tighter and shorter than anything she’d normally wear, pale pink with a scooping top that did more than just hint at her cleavage. They’d straightened her soft, caramel brown hair, which fell freely around her shoulders—so different from the tight braid she wore for most of the show. She was a vixen—normally his vixen, but right now, he knew the social media circles were blowing up about how the buxom Chelsea, the hottie librarian, looked in the show.

Chelsea locked eyes with Andy, about to step down and join him there in the audience when someone from the studio stopped her, whispering into her ear and directing her back to the stage. The commercial break was almost over. Time to go into the post-show.

She blew a kiss and let herself be directed up onto the risers with the rest of the cast, smiling and nodding to her new friends.

More than the hair, the makeup, or even the dress, it was Chelsea’s confidence that struck Andy as the biggest change. She didn’t shy away from the lights or the makeover. She didn’t seem to want to recede back into her shell as she gave hugs to people who’d been strangers just a few months ago. She wore her confidence as naturally as she wore that dress.

***

When the live show came back from commercial break, Molly Reynolds was perched before the assembled contestants, now basking beneath the bright, studio lights. 

“We had a few showmances this season,” she said with a laugh. Turning to the cameras, she added, “Even I got caught up in the rumor mill, and let me say to you all, while I’m flattered, there’s nothing there.”

Castaway used the same structure that many successful reality TV shows used. There was about an hour of edited drama as the cast hung out on the beach, bonding, conniving, and competing against one another. Then, at the end of each episode, all of the remaining players in the game would come together to vote someone off of the show, as those who’d already been voted off watched.

Prior to this vote, though, Molly Reynolds would gather everyone and discuss what went down in the episode. This is where she really shined, able to tease out juicy drama and keep everyone’s paranoia up.

Those who were cast away formed the group of people who would eventually vote on the winner of the show, so it was almost as important not to upset their opponents as it was to outmaneuver them. 

Jason, the just-announced winner of Season 25, did this by being the lovable flirt, and it worked. It was a running joke. Somehow, through raw charisma, he pulled it off without being a creep. No woman was spared his flirty banter. Not even Molly Reynolds.

See, besides being a very experienced and capable host, Molly was a total knockout. Half-Korean, half-American, she’d done modeling in her twenties. Now, in her mid-40s, she was even more stunning. Jason engaged with that side of her more than any contestant in the last 24 seasons, and audiences noticed how it made Molly blush. The unflappable was flapped.

Andy had asked Chelsea about it as they watched the episodes together with the rest of the television world. “Was there something there?”

“Jason and Molly? I… don’t know.” Chelsea had seemed weird about it at the time, but she’d not been very forthcoming about anything at the time. Andy had chalked it up to her worrying about violating her NDA.

Jason had also flirted with Chelsea early on, but their alliances diverged, so it didn’t go anywhere. Still, despite those alliances, she liked him enough that she cast her vote for him in the end and helped him win.

The Castaway host brought Andy back into the moment. “But we’re not talking about me,” she said, turning back to the assembled contestants. “First, Brooklyn and Kyle, the question everyone wants to know… are you still together?”

Andy zoned out again as the two contestants, who had a very visible on-air “showmance”, announced that they were now engaged.

Instead, Andy’s focus was on Chelsea, sitting up there, listening to Brooklyn and Kyle rehash their spark. He also watched Todd, sitting in a seat two spots away. The two were not looking at one another, but that lack of eye-contact felt so deliberate

Andy shifted in his seat as that familiar, itchy discomfort rose through him. He’d felt it every time he thought about all the guys who’d hit on Chelsea over the years. He’d felt it strongly watching the show, seeing her and Todd, reading the forum discussions long after Chelsea had gone to bed.

Molly Reynolds again. “Brooklyn and Kyle weren’t our only showmances. We had a few others brewing, like this was a season of Love Island. How about it, Chelsea? Tell us it wasn’t all part of the game.”

The subject had finally turned to Chelsea, who maintained her poise, hands in her lap, smile almost innocent in nature. “Well, I think that when you share such an intense experience with a small group of people, it’s only natural that they develop a connection.”

Andy felt clammy, achy. He quickly wiped sweat from his brow. Andy noticed as his insides twisted that Todd was watching Chelsea just as intensely.

Molly Reynolds didn’t let Chelsea off the hook so easily. “So your ‘connection’ with Todd was real.”

At last, she looked across at the man in question, a brawny fireman from LA, covered in tattoos and still sporting a more trimmed version of the scruff he’d grown over the course of the show. Andy—and the rest of the watching audience—leaned in for this answer. Chelsea said, “A partnership or alliance or whatever doesn’t need to be a ‘showmance,’ Molly.”

“Sure.” Molly nodded, looking amused. “How about it, Todd?”

“I mean, I think we had a good… partnership. But then again, I also got totally backstabbed by her. Didn’t see that vote coming.”

It was a huge play on Chelsea’s part. They were down to just five players. Chelsea and Todd were in a strong alliance and had a great chance to make it to the final two. Then, Chelsea switched sides and cast the pivotal vote to cast Todd away. It was a strong enough play that it spooked the remaining three, who voted her off the next week.

“Those hard feelings, Todd?” Molly probed.

Todd shrugged. “It’s a game. I probably should have done it myself, but she had me totally fooled.” He chuckled. “We worked it out, though, in the end. No hard feelings, Chels.”

Chels. The familiarity between these two was palpable. America had watched it build each week as they formed their strong alliance. Andy didn’t see his wife anymore, but the Castaway character that they’d edited and crafted.

It was the character that he’d clung to with each episode. It had been fun at first, then it got uncomfortable as she grew closer to Todd. Andy told himself it was the editing. He told himself that it was okay to be turned on by their flirtation. He told himself that it was just a fantasy.

“Let’s turn to David and Harry,” Molly said, shifting the spotlight away from Chelsea and Todd. “Was your showmance real?”

Andy zoned out again. He was staring at Todd and Chelsea, who were still holding eye-contact, as Todd’s final words reverberated in his head, making him so queasy, and so hard. 

We worked it out… 

In the end… 

But first, we go to the beginning.

Coming next week...

Five and a half-months before that live show, and only three days before Chelsea was to get on a plane, heading for the Caribbean, Chelsea stood before the mirror in a bikini and frowned at herself.

“I can’t… wear this,” she said.

“You can,” Andy encouraged. “You look great.”

She did. The pale pink halter bikini wasn’t all that risqué, as bikinis go, but on her tall body with her generous curves, she could have fit right at home on the cover of Sports Illustrated. 

“It’ll fall off when I’m doing a challenge,” she said.

“I don’t think it will.” Andy moved up behind her, admiring her reflection. It was a sturdy bikini—no loopy bows that could snag on things, no part of it was banded in flimsy string. The bottoms fully covered her heart-shaped ass, and the top held her full tits in place.

But it was a bikini that Chelsea would wear on national television. It was a lot of skin to expose. If things were reversed, Andy didn’t think he’d be able to wear something so revealing. Then again, he didn’t have a va-va-voom body like Chelsea, who’d been working out hard over these last few months, tightening and toning and training to be on Castaway.

“You look great,” he whispered behind her. He touched her skin at her hip, warm and silky smooth, tracing it up and around her body. She’d always been healthy, but now she had tone—flat stomach, shapely back and arms, muscular, shapely thighs.

Chelsea looked better than great, and it was giving Andy a hardon. He pressed it against her from behind. She stopped her scrutiny of herself and found his eyes in the mirror. It was still difficult getting used to seeing her without the glasses that he’d always known her with. She’d gotten LASIK for the show, too, joking that she’d be kicked out of the librarian society for it.

“I’m going to miss you,” she said. “I don’t know that I can do any of this.”

“You can.” Andy squeezed her from behind. “You’re going to go out there and win us a million dollars.”

Read Part 2 now.