Day 3: A Day In The Sun

It's another morning in Midas Manor, and the girls are up early to get ready for their date.

"The burgers from yesterday are out? I guess I'll have to cook breakfast myself."

Eggs and bacon: a protein-packed meal to start the day, folks.

Meanwhile, our bachelor gets ready for his first time out the house with these lovely ladies.

"Are you girls ready?"

"We sure are."

"Can't wait!"
"I'm very excited for this!"

"Where are we going anyway?" asks Crystal.

Some of the girls ventured a few guesses.

"I think we'll go to the beach," Bootsie says.

"Karaoke?" Pricilla asks.

"I'm in the mood for a stroll in the park," Kate proclaims.

"You'll just have to wait and see. But I can say one of you is right," Landon teases.

After a short trip, everyone arrives at their destination.

"Well, here we are! Myshuno Meadows. So we did end up going to the park, as Kate wanted."

"Oh," Kate mutters unenthusiastically.

"Why the park?" asks Crystal.

"Why not? I'm game for a day in the sun," Bootsie says.

"So am I. I just like going outdoors since I grew up in a woodland area. And I thought this would be a good, quiet place for us to have a few one-on-one conversations," Landon exclaims.

While everyone else was fine with this arrangement, Kate in particular seems a bit upset.

"Hey, Kate. What's wrong? You look a bit down. I thought you of all people would love this place. And you told me you even grew up here."

"Oh, I do love going to the park. It's just that, erm, what I didn't tell you then was that I grew up in the bad part of San Myshuno."

"I see."

"As much as this place is a part of me, it's also tainted with some bad memories." A slight wince briefly shows up on Kate's face, but she tries to regain her composure.

"Do you...want to talk about it?"

Kate looks down pensively onto her hands on her lap. She stays silent for a few seconds, conflicted on whether she wants to go to that dark place.

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Landon reassures her.

"Thank you."

"So, the reins are yours. What do you want to talk about?"

"Let me think about that. I told you about me helping people in San Myshuno out on Saturdays, right? It's this group called "Tate's Crew". Oh God. I just remembered that my sister is in charge of it right now. I hope she doesn't screw it up."

Landon chuckles upon seeing Kate worry like this.

"So, anyway, I started this venture because I felt like people here deserved a chance to live a better life. And if that meant getting a helping hand while they struggle to pay the bills, well, we're their go-to guy."

"You know, I love how you're enthusiastic about this. I can tell this really means so much to you. Are there any stories about Tate's Crew that come to mind?"

"Oh! There was this one time. An old widow's pipes were starting to leak, and she was a bit behind on her mortgage payments. So I sent one of my guys in, but what that lady failed to mention was that she had this big dog in her yard. He wasn't that threatening, but he was apprehensive when Sammy entered the front yard. Sammy was afraid of dogs, so he ran for it and called me. 'I don't think I can do this Miss Tate. She's got a huge rottweiler guarding her house.' So I go there myself, and all I saw was this sweet little boy who was very fond of his human. In the end, I helped Mrs. Truman fix her pipes, and the rest of the crew never let Sammy live it down!"

Landon and Kate laugh heartily at Kate's story.

Meanwhile, Crystal went to the bathroom to freshen up. Which set up this little exchange:

"Oh, hey, Crystal!"

"I didn't know you were also in the bathroom. Do you wanna go upstairs?"

"Sure."

"So, Crystal. Why did you join this show? Well, I guess if you just wanted the money you wouldn't tell me that," Landon teases.

"Oh, it's just that I've been very busy, getting ready for med school. I haven't found the time to date, and since this show is airing over my summer break, I thought why not?"

"It must be hard when you don't have a lot of free time. I was pretty busy when I was in college, but I did go to a few parties here and there."

"Right? God, sometimes I just want to grab my anatomy textbook and throw it out the window!" Crystal jokes. "I really needed this break. And to be honest, I wouldn't be here if my brother didn't persuade me to put in my application."

"You have a brother? How many siblings do you have?"

"Just the one. His name is Daniel. I only get to see him from time to time, since he's currently stationed in the Middle East."

"Your brother's in the military?"

"Yep. Enlisted 4 years ago right out of high school. I miss him sometimes."

"Yeah, I grew up with 4 brothers and sisters, and I don't get to see a lot of them too often. Especially when my work takes me around places sometimes. What was your brother like?"

"Oh, the usual. We drove each other crazy when we were kids."

Landon chuckles at this, for it's a situation that he's only too familiar with.

"We'd fight over who gets to have some time on the PlayStation 2. I still think he hogged it too much back then. Our parents had to arrange a schedule for us. He loved playing this game called 'Twisted Metal Black'. It was too gory and gross for me, and I mostly played Crash Bandicoot games."

"Oh, I love Crash! My friends and I would play over the weekends. My cousin also had the Twisted Metal games, but those freaked me the hell out."

Just as their conversation was flowing freely like wine, a third party appears.

"Hi, guysth! Mind if take my turn with Landon?"

"Oh, not at all," says Crystal.

"I actually did mind. A bit. But then Pri's such a sweetheart, so I can't really get mad at her."

"What's up, Miss Pettit?"

"You know, I really like thisth place. It's large, and the landsthcaping isth good."

"The producers helped me pick it out. They said they knew this great park out here in San Myshuno, and they weren't kidding. How are you adjusting to your braces, by the way?"

"Good. I can sthay my s's a bit more easily now. It wasth kind of dumb that I got them right before thisth started, but my sthepfather insthisted on it."

"Oh right, you did mention having a stepfather. So you lived with your mom growing up?"

"It'sth more like I wasth passed around every week between my parensth. But that'sth okay, at leasth I can say I have four parentsth to love me."

"That's great. Not everyone gets along with their stepparents. So you mentioned four parents. How was your stepmom like?"

"I don't have a sthepmom."

"What do you mean?"

"..."

Landon looks puzzled for a while.

"Oh. So your dad..."

"Yep. That'sth what caused my parensth to divorsthe in the first place, back when I was in kindergarten."

"Well, I hope your dad is happy right now. We live in modern times now, so it's great that he can be happy with a man, if that's what he wants."

"He isth," Priscilla smiles at Landon. "They got married when sthame-sex marriage was legalizthed a few yearsth ago."

"That's fantastic."

And later in the day...

"Would you ladies mind if Bootsie and I have some alone time?"

"Not at all."
"Oh, it's fine."

Kate and Crystal decide to explore the other parts of the park.

"Oh my God, what happened to you?"

"I broke out in hives. I go outdoors all the time, but this is one of the rare times it's happened to me," Bootsie responds.

"I think I can get production to get some ointment for that."

"Oh, no need. It'll go away on its own later in the day."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Just like if you get tested for hives?"

"Landon!"

Bootsie laughs boisterously.

"It's such a beautiful day outside, even with all these things covering my skin," Bootsie says.

"It is, isn't it? So, Bootsie, you said you were a gemologist, right?"

"Right on. Although before that I took two years of aerospace engineering in college. By the end of my sophomore year, I realized that it wasn't what I wanted to do after all."

"Yeah, that sounds very hard. You must be really good if you were able to get into their program in the first place."

"Oh, I am," Bootsie winks.

"I love your confidence," Landon says.

"I just really, really like sparkly things."

"So do I. I used to go around the woods looking for shiny rocks and stuff. I grew up in a woodland area. Have I mentioned that?"

"Oh, I think you did earlier. Personally, I think that's very interesting. What was it like?"

"Well, I'd always find the coolest and weirdest things in the woods. And there was a lake too. I used to love swimming there."

"Oh, swimming! I hope we can visit the beach one of these days. I just love strolling along, feeling the sand on my toes, and going for a dip in the salty waters."

"I'm more of a freshwater person, but beaches are fine," Landon jokes.

Later on, Landon decides to have a little time to himself. Here we find him looking wistfully at this wedding arch.

"Whatcha doing?" Kate says as she approaches Landon.

"Oh, it's just, this reminds me that my eldest brother Elliot got married last year. He and his wife look really happy together. I'm kind of jealous, you know. I hope I can have what they have someday. That closeness, intimacy..."

"You know, I do too. I didn't have much growing up, but at least I had my parents to look up to. I knew ever since I was a kid that I wanted my marriage to be like theirs."

"Yeah, I can relate."

"By the way, before I forget, why did you choose me to be a team captain for yesterday's thing?"

"It's funny, Rosetta asked me the same thing. Well, I just felt this connection with you two. Like I can just talk and be at ease around you."

"Us...two. Right. This is a competition, after all."

"Yeah, sorry."

Landon seems to be enjoying himself with the bookshelf in the park's rest house.

"Whatcha reading?" Bootsie asks.

"This volume of compiled Sherlock Holmes stories. This one has The Hound of the Baskervilles in it."

"What's it about?"

Landon summarizes the book's plot as Bootsie nods along. Looks like these two are having some fun.

"Oh, hey, Kate. I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were stalking me," Landon jokes.

Kate chuckles a bit. "And what if I am?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind at all."

As the sun begins to set, Landon starts to get hungry, and he decides to get himself a little snack. And it looks like we found where the other two girls are.

"Hey ladies!"

"Hi!" Pri enthusiastically blurts out.

"What's up?" Crystal says.

After their long day out, everyone heads back home and meets up with the other girls.

"So, how was he?" Ariella asks.

"Details, girl. We need details," Linda demands.

"Oh, he was a perfect gentleman! Not only is he devilishly handsome, but he's got an angelic aura to him. Conversation was great, and I feel like he's pretty intelligent as well."

The girls squeal giddily as Kate recounts her day out with Landon.

Landon, meanwhile, comes across Crystal inside the study.

"Is that alcohol?" Landon asks.

"Yeah! You know that this globe here, it's actually some sort of minibar with drinks inside."

"Nice. Production was holding out on us. Mind if I have some?"

"Go ahead."

I just want to inform you guys that the house already has a fully stocked bar in the kitchen, so no, we weren't holding out on Landon.

Landon and Crystal have a drink to wind down before retiring to their beds. Tomorrow's a big day, after all, so everyone needs to be ready.

---------------------------

And that's it for our first ever group date. Tune in next episode for our first elimination ceremony. Who will be the first to leave our luxurious abode? Find out next time on For Love or Money.