💗It’s Day 2 of the #TopsyTurvyRelationships writing challenge over on Instagram! Yesterday Emily Swift was the first character to hear a bell chime 🔔. Today it’s Lucie Bellerose’s turn. Here we go!
🔔 Chime
Lucie Bellerose sighed, dropping the sponge in the bathtub. “This better not take long,” she grumbled.
Rinsing her hands in the sink, she glanced in the mirror. Her thick hair was twisted into a loose bun, and strands were pulling loose around her face. She grimaced at her sweaty and unkempt appearance.
The bell chime became a gong.
“I’m coming!” She snapped at the door leading to the linen closet before stepping through.
“Let’s give a warm welcome to Lucie Bellerose!” a voice cried out from the overhead speaker.
On the other side of the door, Lucie pushed the lush red curtain aside, squinting against the bright lights. A hand at her elbow guided her to two chairs placed behind a short curved wall. A plaque on the front read: #TempLucie. Sitting next to an empty chair, she noted two other couples. Emily Swift sat beside Jack Greene and waved from the first set of chairs. Big Rabbit and his girlfriend were in the next set. Lucie blinked at the film crew facing them. Rabbit wore a headset, his arms crossed and his feet apart. Frozen in place, his lips were pressed together.
“And our third couple playing for the grand prize is Lucie Bellerose and John Templeton!” Lucie’s attention was drawn to the man strolling toward her, a big grin on his face and a microphone in his hand.
“Sebastian?”
“It’s Bob today,” he winked, pointing to the ‘Bob Eubanks’ name tag on his plaid suit.
“What’s –?” Lucie began.
“The Newlywed Game!” Sebastian gestured to the studio circling them as canned applause blasted. When the noise ended, he continued. “But you seem to be at a disadvantage. Where *is* Mr. Almighty Templeton?”
Before she could answer, Sebastian barked out the first question to the contestants. “What’s your wife’s favorite color?”
“Green,” Jack replied.
“Black,” answered Big Rabbit.
“Templeton?” Sebastian smirked at the empty chair. “Next question! What’s your wife’s favorite food?”
“Pumpkin pie,” said Jack.
“Pancakes,” smiled Big Rabbit.
“Templeton?” Sebastian pointed his mic at the empty chair next to Lucie. “Third question: what’s your wife’s favorite song?”
“Run, Snow Patrol!”
“Flogged, Rhino Vomit!”
“Templeton?” Sebastian tsked.
Lucie’s cheeks grew bright red. Before she could speak, she heard Rabbit swear, and his headset slammed to the floor.
Rabbit stormed across the stage and gripped the back of the empty chair next to her. His eyes now solid black, he growled at Sebastian. “Everyone thinks her favorite color is royal blue, but it’s really red. Her favorite food is sushi –”
“She loves calamari salad,” Sebastian agreed.
“– and she refuses to pick a favorite song. But she thinks music sounds better on vinyl, her favorite season is fall, she prefers the city over the countryside, loves to dance, sings like a f*cking angel, and deserves better than this!” Rabbit flung the chair aside and held out a hand to Lucie.
Stunned, Lucie put her hand in his and allowed him to lead her away back behind the red curtain.
Sebastian laughed, turning toward the invisible audience. “Well folks, I think we have a winner.”
—
💗 This writing challenge runs from February 15 – 28! Stay tuned as tomorrow the next prompt is: Seven minutes in heaven – with someone unexpected. (That post is now available – click here!)
Readers – Not on Instagram?
That’s okay! I’ll be sharing my Instagram posts daily here on my blog site AND daily on Facebook at Writer Tracy Brown so you can read them there, too. Make sure you check for a new story every day from February 15 through February 28!
What’s This Mean for Door to Door & Bellerose Witchline Characters?
I’ll be dropping Emily Swift, Lucie Bellerose, Templeton, Rabbit, Tara, Sebastian, and the rest of the crazy crew into a story matching the relationship-themed “prompt of the day” from the challenge.
If you ARE on Instagram, make sure you’re following me at https://www.instagram.com/WriterTracyBrown/ to see the posts there! But again, as long as you check out my blog list or my Writer Tracy Brown page every day, you can read all the short stories without Instagram. 🙂
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