The Game

TY

I see this beautiful girl looking at me, and she really is beautiful. I can tell she’s a little shy from the way she waves back at me. I really hope she’s my partner.

“I want to thank you again for coming to New York for the first annual For Love or Money. I can tell you all are wondering who your partner is. Who wants to know?” Craig asks.

Everybody raises their hand.

“All right, let’s put the teams together. When I call your name, I want you to stand up and meet.

“Team #1, Joseph and Joanna.

“Team #2, Alex and Theresa.

“Team #3, Derrick and Juan.

“Team #4, Diane and Bobbie.

“Team #5, Wayne and Brittany.

“And last but not least…

“Team #6, Ty and Maddie.”

I look over at the girl across from me and see that she has a big smile on her face while she claps quietly. I look back and give her two thumbs up.

We both get up at the same time and walk toward each other.

“Okay, now you know who your partner is. Now what I want from you is to come up with a team name. This is what you will be called during your challenges. You got thirty minutes. GO!” Craig says.

He and Cassie start to position the chairs in groups of two.

I walk up to my partner with my hand out. She takes my hand.

“Is Ty short for Tyler?” she asks while shaking my hand.

“It is. Is yours Madelyn or Madison?”

“Madison, but my friends call me Maddie,” she says. I just stare at her for a few seconds longer. “What?” she says with a smile.

“You have the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen,” I say.

She starts to blush. I can’t stop staring at her, she’s just perfect with the smile and the ponytail. I want to look at the rest of her, but I don’t want to be that typical guy.

“Did you know only 2 percent of people have green eyes?" she says, looking at me. "I’ll tell you a secret only my father knows.

“When I get really scared or pissed off, my eyes get dark, almost to the color of black. So when you see my eyes that dark, something’s wrong,” she says, still holding my hand.

“This is what I’m thinking for a team name. What do you think of team MadTy?” I say to her.

“It sounds like a very angry Thai restaurant. What about where you live? Where you from?”

“I live in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I was a surf instructor there.”

“I thought to myself before we were paired that you must live on a beach. You said ‘was a surf instructor?’” she says. “What do you mean?”

“The surf shop I worked for got bought out, and I was fired.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that,” she says.

“Don’t be. This game came at the right time.”

“Okay, so you’re from the East Coast, which explains the tan and the sun-bleached hair. I’m originally from Long Beach, California. I work for Hooters. So I’m from the West Coast.

“What if we call our team East-West?”

“I like that. East meets West,” I say.

We start to walk over and take a pair of seats.

“You said you work for Hooters. Were you one of the models or a spokesperson?” I ask.

She laughs at the question. “Neither. I was just your ordinary waitress working in the worst restaurant in Long Beach.”

“So you’re not a model? You look like one.”

“Psh. No. I did one modeling job, but I did try to be an actress.”

“What happened?” I ask.

“Everybody in LA thinks they’re producers. So when they see me, a nice girl with a nice rack and a great smile, all they wanted was to put me in porn.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love sex. I just want it with one partner.”

“I can totally understand where you’re coming from.” I say.

“Can you?” she says, laughing.

“All right, everybody, time’s up. Please take a seat if you haven’t already,” Craig says. Everybody takes a seat. “Cassie is going to go around and get your team names.”

I look over and see one of the girls with her phone out, recording. Maddie sees me staring.

“That’s Diane. She was in the limo with the rest of us. She was recording, doing a live feed on Instagram.”

“As Cassie goes around to get your team names, she will also be handing out the rules. These rules will be strictly enforced, and you will be disqualified if you break them. Does everybody understand?”

Everybody says yes.

“I’m not going to read every rule, just a few. First, there will be no live streaming on any platform at any time.”

As soon as Diane hears “no live streaming,” she slowly puts her phone down.

“No Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, or Twitter—nothing. You can FaceTime family and friends on your time, not The Game’s time.”

Craig looks at Diane. She closes her phone and puts it back in her backpack. “Are we clear?”

Everybody says yes except Diane.

“We will be traveling around the US for the next couple of months. We may be in New York today, then in California the next.

“The idea is to see if you as a couple can handle the stress of being together working as a team with little or no sleep whatsoever. This will test your relationship with each other.

“Speaking of relationships, all the hotel rooms you will be staying will only have one bed and a pull out sofa. It is up to you whether you sleep together or separately. The choice is yours.”

He stops and licks his finger to turn the page. “Curfew? There will be no curfew. You are all adults. I will give you what is planned for the next day and only that day.

“Like tonight, if you want to go see the City of Lights, be my guest. You want to go dancing all night long? I don’t care.

“But if we have to leave and be on a flight at 5 a.m., you will be there in the lobby waiting like everybody else.

“If you don’t show up with the rest of the group or you oversleep, you and your partner will be disqualified from The Game and you will receive nothing. Do we agree?”

The whole group says yes.

“So, please read the rules. I don’t want to see anybody leave or get kicked off for stupid stuff. We are all adults. I don’t think we need a babysitter.

“This is a small production that doesn’t have a lot of people telling you what to do. I trust we can do this. Cassie just handed me a list of team names.”

He opens the list and takes a look. A small giggle escapes him.

“Team 1 is Team Jo-Jo.

“Team 2 is Team NewTex.

“Team 3 is Team Rainbow.

“Team 4 is Team Bi.

“Team 5 is Team BriWay.

“And Team 6 is Team East-West.”

Cassie steps forward. “All right, I will be handing out your room assignments and key. In the next couple of days we will have shirts with your team names on them.

“Does anybody have any questions for Craig and me?”

“How long will we be in New York?” Brittany asks.

“Glad you asked that question.” Craig stands back up. “We will be leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow evening. So if you want to see New York, be my guest, have fun.

“Don’t forget, if you stay out all night, be responsible. We leave for Vegas tomorrow around 6 p.m. Anybody else?”

Everybody shakes their heads.

“Have a good night, and don’t forget to read the rules. See you all tomorrow,” Craig says, then he and Cassie walk out together to the lobby.