One To Watch(18)

“Ugh, and humble too?? I swear, Bea, you’re just perfect. Real talk, though”—she leaned in conspiratorially—“are you nervous? I would be so nervous if I were you—dating twenty-five men at once is so much pressure!”

“Honestly? Yeah, of course I’m nervous—who wouldn’t be?”

“Can you tell me more specifically about what makes you most anxious?”

That every man would remind her of Ray? That none of them would? That everyone would see through her feigned flirtations and call her a liar and a self-serving hypocrite? That whatever had kept her from having a serious relationship for her thirty years on Earth would be laid bare for all of America to see?

“I guess it’s two sides of the same coin, really,” Bea said carefully. “A show like this presents such an amazing opportunity to make a connection, but you also have to face the possibility that you won’t meet that special person. I think everyone at Main Squeeze is going into this with the best intentions, but at the end of the day, it’s just twenty-five men in a whole world of people, you know? I want to keep my mind and heart open to the possibility I could end up marrying one of them, and I am. But I also want to be realistic—we’re all just people, and people are messy and complex. Life isn’t often a fairy tale, even on a show that aims to create one.”

“Was there a particular fairy tale you loved growing up? Any princess you identify with?”

“Is there a fat princess I don’t know about?” Bea laughed. “No, even as a kid, all that princess stuff felt like it really wasn’t for me. My stepdad and I always used to read ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’; that was my favorite.”

“So you prefer adventure to romance.”

“I developed my romantic side when I got a little older—I read Gone with the Wind so many times the pages started falling out.”

“And now you’re looking for your real-life Rhett!”

“Hopefully he won’t be a war profiteer, but I did always love how Scarlett and Rhett were each other’s equals. Their fire, their tenacity, their intellect—I hope to find all that in a partner.”

“Well, Bea”—Sheena lifted her glass of sparkling water in a toast—“here’s hoping you meet your Rhett on Main Squeeze—and that you realize you love him instead of spending all your time mooning over some guy who’s with another woman!”

Bea choked on her iced tea. “Excuse me?”

“You know, how Scarlett was obsessed with Ashley Wilkes even though he was married?” Sheena affected an atrocious Southern accent. “Oh, Ashley! Ashley!”

Bea did her best to laugh naturally, but she didn’t come anywhere close to pulling it off.


Three days later, before dawn on the morning of the big announcement, Bea was in a posh hotel room in midtown Manhattan, pacing back and forth and repeating her talking points for what felt like the millionth time.

“I’m just so grateful for this opportunity. I’ve always put my career first and it’s thrilling to have a chance to focus on love. It’s thrilling, thrilling, I’m so thrilled, just thrilled.” She took a deep breath to make herself slow down, but these nerves were like nothing she’d ever experienced.

She’d gotten the photo of her cover of People the night before—she thought she looked great, and the headline was bold and punchy: “‘Is there a fat princess I don’t know about?’ The next Main Squeeze redefines real-life fairy tales!” She was meant to post the photo along with a link to her interview as soon as it went live on all of her social channels while People and ABS cross-promoted on theirs. All of this had been preapproved and coordinated by all the corporate players involved, including the social-media team at ABS who were, Bea was horrified to admit, now in possession of all her passwords.

They’d spent hours going over a calendar of preapproved content for the team to put out at regular intervals while Bea was filming the show and on complete Internet blackout. But this first post, the announcement post, sure to be the most widely seen post of Bea’s life, she insisted on sending with her own two thumbs. It felt like something she needed to do—to have some kind of agency over this tectonic shift in her existence, in some small way, to break the news herself.

So at exactly 5 A.M. Eastern on Wednesday, February 26, once the People interview was up, Bea sat at her laptop—which would so soon be contraband—closed her eyes, and clicked.



@OMBea Overjoyed to share I’ll be starring in the next season of @MainSqueezeABS! Read all about it in this week’s @People. Can’t wait to start this incredible journey.

@CounselorKaruna ahhhhhhh THIS IS AMAZING CONGRATS BEA!!!!

@DearJohn01209 I don’t understand. Is literally every other woman married?

@Bucky909 does this mean I’m actually going to have to watch #MainSqueeze this year?? So many conflicting emotions!

@weaver77 if I were single and looked like that I would save us all some time and just kill myself

@HetToToe @weaver77 she doesn’t need to kill herself shes gonna have a heart attack soon as she has sex

@weaver77 @HetToToe in that case I think she’s actually safe

@LondonReb Bea, you are such an amazing role model! Good for you!

@Delaney333 Wow Bea way to sell out everything you stand for and join the people who make women feel incomplete without a man!! Hope it’s fun!!!