Promotional: Pineapples on Pizza?

Michael and I hardly hung out in the past year because of our busy schedules.

But now all of a sudden we were spending time together as Bradley/Hollywood's crew set up their cameras and equipment.

"So we will set up cameras in all areas except for the bathroom and your bedrooms. They will be small so it shouldn't bother you much. Twice a week we will come into the flat for extra filming and gathering B roll. There will be a messaging group opened between key crew members and Marie and Michael so we can communicate. We need time to edit the clips before releasing episodes, so we will finish filming of the week every Thursday night and the episodes will be released every Saturday. We will turn off cameras for Fridays and turn them back on Sundays."

Hollywood explained in depth to us before the filming days started.

Me and Michael nodded, agreeing to the terms and conditions of the filming. Thankfully we had a spare storage room so that the crew could keep their things in there or take a moment to rest if need be.

Michael had a break from his studies while I was job searching, so we would both be at home while the filming happened for now. Before the actual filming we needed to film some promotional stuff too.

"For the promotional filming, we'd like you to just spend a day as you normally would. The cameras will pick up the scenes, but we will also schedule a time in the afternoon for the crew members to come film in the style of a Q&A."

We waited until Fluffs was in recovery stage and able to come home. Then we accepted the invite officially and went to sign contracts regarding the reality show.

On the morning that promotional filming started, I woke up feeling joyful. I finally had a long eight hours of sleep.

"A break from eight AMs!" I said to myself. I made sure all important parts of my body were covered because the camera would pick everything up as soon as I exited my room. Humming, I grabbed my hand towel to go to the shared bathroom.

Our flat was relatively big, we had a living room and a kitchen of decent size. But when we moved in our landlord told us the downside of the shared bathroom, because of some plumbing problem that hadn't been fixed when the construction of the building went on.

Michael was usually either still in bed or out for a run, but when I opened the door, he was there just coming out of the bathroom.

In all shirtless abs glory.

Drool worthy, glistening drops of water running down his skin and disappearing into his towel that wrapped around his lower body.

I'd never seen him without a shirt before.

That man was fit. I held on to my hand towel, feeling a sensual rippling below my stomach.

It made sense, what with his daily morning runs. But seeing it in person was so different.

"Oh, hey." Michael smiled. Even his smile was inviting and I didn't know what to do with my bodily reactions in the morning.

I gaped at him, opened my mouth, closed it. Then nodding politely I darted past him into the bathroom.

There was a second where our bare shoulders brushed and I shivered.

Splashing cold water on my face I told myself to get it together. This was no time to crush on my handsome flatmate. No time at all. I blew dry my long black hair and put cream on my face. Patting my face, I grabbed my face towel and left the bathroom with one last "stand down, girl" to myself.

Michael was in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Hey, Marie do you want anything for breakfast?" He asked as I stepped into the living room with my laptop.

"Uh, no I'm good thanks." I said.

"I can't hear you from here can you come into the kitchen and say that again?" Michael said.

Putting my laptop down, I walked to the kitchen. Fluffs lay taking a nap by the television and couch.

And when I entered the kitchen, I couldn't help but to say, "oh god."

Michael was clearly not skilled at cooking.

There was a burnt smell coming from the toaster, dirty dishes lay everywhere and as Michael flipped the eggs they jiggled and slid off the pan onto the griddle.

I rushed to turn off the toaster and pull the burnt toast out.

"Let me help!" I declared.

Michael stepped back, a sheepish grin forming on his face.

"Sorry Marie. Thanks. I'll wash the dishes." He stepped aside.

Okay, so the man couldn't cook to save a life. Just like my dad. I sighed, scraping the remainder of the eggs burning into the trash and adding some hot water before leaving the pan to cool down so it would be easier to wash.

"I'm thinking pizza tonight!" Michael exclaimed when I handed him a new plate of scrambled eggs and sausages, along with a glass of orange juice.

His eyes lit up and he said, "wow thanks Marie."

"Mhm, no problem. So what flavor pizza are we getting?"

Michael passed me the menu pamphlet.

At the same time we both blurted different things.

"I'm allergic to mushrooms."

"I hate pineapple on pizza."

We looked at each other and laughed.

"Wait you don't like pineapple on pizza? What!" He said.

"Oh no, we have a pineapple pizza criminal in the house." I hooted.

Michael chuckled and he said, "alright no Hawaiian pizza tonight. Off the table?"

He peered at me with cute eyes and I rolled my eyes.

"Definitely off the table."

"Fine." He pretended to huff and cross his arms.

—-

That afternoon the crew came into our flat to film the question and answer portion of the promo video and take some photos.

"Hi, I'm Fern! I'll be leading the crew here. If you have any questions do let me know. We'd like to start with Marie first then Michael. And we'll finish up with a quick photo shoot. Sounds okay?" She asked us.

Michael smiled and I nodded.

Fern was a loud and friendly woman, and I liked her instantly. I guessed that I wasn't the only one who liked her, because there was a crew member who kept giving her the google eyes.

"Alright Marie. It's so good to meet you! Thanks for being willing to participate in our show!" Fern started.

I sat on our couch, feeling slightly awkward with Fern facing me and the lights and cameras in front of my face.

"Oh it's my pleasure. I'm glad I get to be part of this." I waved my hand around.

Fern asked the question, "So when you and Michael met what was your first impression of him?"

I giggled then and I said, "he looked like an uptight nerd to be honest. He had different glasses back then and his hairstyle was all gelled too. His shirt was tucked in and his trousers rolled up at the bottom."

Fern boomed with laughter along with me.

"Ah I see, I'm curious to see that!"

I smiled and I said, "I'm sure I can find a picture and show you sometime."

"We'll ask him and know what he thought of you too later." Fern winked.

"So how about your interests? Are they quite different then?" She asked.

"Oh yes, probably! Aside from our love for languages, I'd say we have different things we like doing. He likes running and gaming, I like reading and writing." As I responded it made me reflect.

The reason why we didn't hang out that much was also because we did different things outside of our main job and studies.

"Wow, that's great though, you can teach each other about your interests. So in the past year, have there been any hiccups as you lived together?" Fern pressed on.

"Not really? Well, there was a time when I forgot to feed his cat, and a time when he forgot his house keys and I was sleeping. That was quite disastrous." I said.

"Oh wow! What happened then?"

"He went to sleep at his university friend's place, and called me the next day!" I said.

"Haha! Hm okay, that's all for today Marie thanks so much!" Fern said, gesturing for the cameras to move away.

As Michael did his segment of Q&A I busied myself cleaning my room.

When Fern called me to come take pictures, I smoothed my hair down and went to the living room.

Michael lounged on the couch, still chatting with Fern. When I entered he glanced up and his face brightened.

"Hey, Marie!" He said.

"Hiya," I responded, taking a seat on the armchair beside him.

"We're thinking of zooming in on your interests. So maybe Michael can pretend to run and Marie can take a book and "run" into him?"

Fern demonstrated with that besotted crew member and he seemed to die from happiness.

I smiled and I said, "okay! Let's do this!"

And that was how we ended up falling to the ground together, me in his arms, him breaking the fall with his hands. We might have scratched a camera or light shade, but thankfully everything was fine in the end.

A snapshot and day to remember.