The Charm Offensive(102)
The tension breaks in his chest, and Dev laughs, truly and fully, for the first time in three months. “That is the reason I wore it, obviously.”
Dev is so hopeful, he feels like he’s choking on it, and he leans forward an inch, the smallest of tests. Charlie meets him more than halfway, pushes himself up on his toes, and kisses Dev on this show about fairy-tale love. In front of Mark Davenport and a live studio audience and twenty million viewers. He kisses Dev with hands and with teeth and with tongue, and Dev kisses him back with I’m sorry and I love you and I promise.
Kissing Charlie is like all the pieces of himself coming together, confident and sure. Kissing Charlie is like the scene at the end of the movie, and it’s nothing like the scene at the end of the movie, and he wants to spend the rest of his life telling Charlie what he needs and being what Charlie needs. “I love you, Charlie.” He tucks the words into the hollow base of Charlie’s throat, just for the two of them. “All of you.”
Charlie leans back so he can see Dev’s face. “I love all of you, too.” Then he kisses him again, deeply, then tenderly, then like he did in the shower in Bali, as if Dev is something precious and rare.
“Well, Fairy-Tale Family,” Mark Davenport interrupts, probably to keep the kiss on this side of prime-time television standards. “There you have it. Our Prince Charming did manage to find love, and now there’s just one thing left to do.”
Mark Davenport reaches for something beside his chair, then rises and moves toward them. He’s holding a royal blue pillow with something glistening atop it in the studio lights.
Dev covers his face in his hands. “Oh my God.”
“There is only one way this season ends,” Mark Davenport says, and he hands Charlie the pillow holding the crown, a twin of the one on Charlie’s head. It’s the Final Tiara, the Crowning Ceremony that never was, here, on this stage, in this studio, with two men. Dev knows it’s all stupid—grown adults, playing at fairy tales—but he feels ten years old, watching for the first time.
“Please don’t laugh,” Charlie says, his tone serious even as his face breaks into a ridiculous grin at the absolute absurdity of it all. Not just the show itself, and not just this moment, but every moment from the first, when Charlie fell out of a car at Dev’s feet. Practice dates and real dates and New Orleans and Cape Town and maybe, maybe, other places, too. Places they’ll visit together, side by side in adjacent first-class seats. Food to eat and mountains to be carried across and a house to come back to, always.
“Dev Deshpande. Are you interested in becoming my prince?”
If happily ever after is something you choose, then Dev decides to choose it for himself. “Yes,” he says.
THE PREMIERE
Los Angeles—Monday, April 11, 2022
20 Contestants and 64 Days Remaining
Dev
“Are you ready to meet your princess?”
Mark Davenport stands in his signature spot in front of a gurgling fountain with the castle in the background, perfectly framed on their fifty-inch television screen. “Last season of Ever After broke all of the rules, and we ended up with a new couple in our Fairy-Tale Family.”
“Woot-woot!” Dev shouts at the television. Charlie responds by burying his face in ten throw pillows. Here, in the privacy of their own home, he blushes. Dev constantly marvels at the fact that Charlie somehow survived two months of filming and the last six months of unrelenting media attention.
“After last season aired, we saw an overwhelming outpouring of support, particularly from members of our Fairy-Tale Family who were so honored to see themselves represented in the love story on our show,” Mark is saying. “And no one was more moved by what she saw than our very own Daphne Reynolds. Take a look.”
The show cuts to a package on Daphne’s journey last season, which is primarily footage of Charlie and Daphne making out. Dev’s totally fine watching it. It doesn’t bother him at all. But on the off chance that it does bother him, Charlie reaches out and takes his hand. To remind him how this story ends.
There are other moments, too. Moments of Megan harassing Daphne back at the castle, moments of Angie and Daphne sneaking away together to escape the drama, moments of Daphne struggling to process in front of the cameras during her confessionals.
The package jump-cuts to the interview they did with Daphne on the live finale after Dev and Charlie’s reunion. She sits on the couch in a knockout of a silver strapless dress and reflects on her experiences with Mark Davenport.
“The truth is, I was never in love with Charlie. I was trying to force myself to have feelings, because I thought if I could fall in love with him, it would solve what I thought was a major problem in my life.”
“And what problem is that?” Mark Davenport asks leadingly.
Daphne sighs, and there is the faintest hint of tears in the corners of her blue eyes. “I grew up in a deeply religious family. That’s not to say my family isn’t tolerant and supportive—” The show inlays a small box in the corner of the television screen, showing Daphne’s adorable Southern family cheering her on from a greenroom. “It’s just, since I was a little girl, playing with Barbies and watching Disney movies, I always thought my future had to be me walking down the aisle toward my prince. I pursued that future, and I dated men, and I never let myself question why none of those relationships ever felt right.”