Page 20 of Fan Favorite
It’s not like Bennett had been operating under the illusion that Peter had his best interests at heart.
Peter was just some know-it-all prick. But before Edie’s arrival, Bennett felt at least like they were playing for the same team.
But as the makeup artist attempted to calm the Rorschach test blooming across Bennett’s neck and chest, it became crystal-clear that no one gave a fuck about his love story.
And that any misstep would be used against him.
What the hell was he supposed to do? There was no way out.
The only way was through. So, Bennett let them powder his neck and guide him back to the living room for the key ceremony.
The girls on the risers were getting restless.
“Bennett didn’t want her then and he doesn’t want her now,” Zo, standing front row center, seethed loudly to two of her minions: Parker, the artist/heiress from Palo Alto, and Aspen, the NBA cheerleader from San Antonio.
“Total fucking bullshit,” Parker and Aspen sniffed in agreement.
“That’s the tea and it’s scalding,” Zo pronounced, glaring at him.
The risers trembled with the wiping of eyes and indignant straightening of gowns.
Somehow Bennett thought being on this show was what was going to change everything.
He thought he’d come here and pick a wife, and that by virtue of picking someone and that person saying yes on national television, he’d finally be able to give his whole self to another person.
But having Edie Pepper on those risers was startling proof that for basically his entire adult life, it had been impossible for Bennett to get close to anyone.
Sure, he had lots of friends and followers—he was a great hang.
But had he had any relationships, even one , like the one he’d had with her?
Bennett sighed and picked up the fallen key.
The Key was supposed to skyrocket Bennett to book deals and sponsorships and his own adventure-themed TV show.
And by committing to one woman on national television, Bennett would also be creating an additional brand, a couple brand, probably even with a couple nickname like Benley (Bennett + Bailey) or Bentel (Bennett + Chantel) or Benani (Bennett + Imani).
His entire vision of the future was based on a positive outcome from The Key .
Bennett and his beautiful wife on the cover of magazines.
Bennett and his beautiful wife working with the best comedy writers to create online content in the vein of “just like us!” couples like Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.
And then more followers and more content and more followers and more content and more money money money .
But as soon as Bennett saw Edie Pepper, he realized it was impossible. Edie knew who he really was, which was no one at all.
Peter strode onto set and clapped his hands like a football coach prepping the team for the big game. “Okay, all right, let’s get this thing going.” He assessed the girls for a moment. “Edie,” he called. “Why don’t you go ahead and switch spots with Zo?”
“Excuse me?” Zo screeched.
“I want you two to switch spots,” Peter said, pointing to Edie’s spot in the third row.
“Sounds great, Peter,” Edie called, clapping her hands on various shoulders, crutching her way down the risers.
“There’s no way you’re getting a key,” Zo seethed when Edie landed before her. “They just want a better shot of you crying.”
“Maybe,” Edie said. “Or maybe they want to hide that dress you’re wearing? Sequins. How original.”
“You should go home. You’re embarrassing yourself.”
“Listen up, Hannah Montana. I’m thirty-five years old. I do what I want.”
“OMG, I thought those were dentures!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, save it for the cameras,” Peter said, shooing Zo up the risers. Then he strode over to Bennett and leaned in. “Can I talk to you for a second? In the kitchen?”
Jesus Christ, what now? Reluctantly, Bennett placed the Key to My Heart down on the pedestal and followed Peter back into the kitchen.
“Hey, man, relax, you look tense. It’s all good.” Peter clapped him on the shoulder again. “Can we get another bourbon over here?” he called to a PA. He turned back to Bennett. “I have an idea I want to run by you.”
Bennett made a noise in his throat.
“What if we do the key ceremony like usual,” Peter continued. The bourbon arrived and he handed it over. “And you choose Edie last, really amp up that tension, and then I’m thinking, what if when she comes up for her key, you give her a little kiss?”
“What the fuck , Peter.”
“Just hear me out,” Peter said, palms up.
“Now that we’re on the same page that Edie stays, we’ve got to come together on what that looks like, right?
It’s a fairy tale. It’s gotta look like a fairy tale.
Right now, it looks like a bad date. You look angry, and what kind of fairy tale is that?
But this—a little kiss—that turns it all around.
What’s more romantic than you kissing her in front of everyone so she knows just how special she really is? ”
“There’s no kissing at the key ceremony, Peter. Everyone knows that.”
“That’s exactly what’s gonna make it great.”
“The other girls will freak out.”
“Jessa will deal with them.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me with this.” Bennett drank the bourbon down fast, well aware that he was, once again, well and truly fucked.
“Do you trust me?” Peter asked.
“Not at all.”
“Fair enough,” Peter said. “But I think you should trust me on this. It’s not really that big of a deal—you kiss all the girls.
Obviously, you should never feel pressured into kissing anyone because, as you know, The Key takes consent very seriously.
But, look, it’s easy. You call her name, you give her a little kiss, and in post we make it into a super romantic moment with swirling cameras and romantic music.
You have to picture it—every woman in the world who’s ever pined for her ex is just living for this moment, where you, Bennett Charles, are every girl’s dream. ”
Bennett stepped closer to Peter. He wasn’t Charlie Bennett anymore. He was a guy who’d BASE jumped in India. Who’d rappelled into an active volcano. Who’d jumped out of a helicopter on motherfucking skis. Contract or not, Bennett Charles wasn’t intimidated by this prick.
“You need to promise me,” he said, looking Peter straight in the eye, “on your honor as a man, that you will never use that footage. From the hall.”
Peter gave him the Boy Scouts salute. “On my honor.”
And then Bennett was shaking out his arms and legs like an athlete preparing to take the field.
He bounced on the balls of his feet, repeating his personal mantra to himself.
Every mountain teaches you something. Every mountain teaches you something.
Some residual soreness from yesterday’s pick-up basketball game with the sound guys shot through his left knee, a rude reminder that he was, in fact, thirty-five.
“Let’s go.”
Peter and Bennett walked out of the kitchen, and Bennett once again took his place next to the podium.
He could feel the eyes of all fourteen women boring into him, and a little rivulet of sweat snaked down his back.
He ignored it. He was Bennett Motherfucking Charles, and it was time for his speech.
Bennett knit his hands together at the waist and looked at the floor for a moment, as if the gravity of this burden weighed heavily on him.
“I believe in this process,” he began. He raised his face to the girls, eyes tender.
A camera trucked closer. “I believe my wife is in this room tonight. And my commitment to finding her, to building a life together filled with love and adventure—that commitment has never wavered. Buddha reminds us not to rush anything. When the time is right, all will become clear.” He took a deep breath and picked up the first Key to My Heart.
The teeth dug into the palm of his hand. “Bailey.”
Bailey, the Pilates instructor from Santa Barbara, who the girls called Malibu Barbie because she was empirically the most beautiful woman of the bunch, with a ton of blond hair and these big blue eyes and this little nose over full lips, swept down from the risers.
Bennett had a major hard-on for Bailey, but he couldn’t imagine a girl as perfect as Bailey ever agreeing to marry him.
But her eyes were supportive, so maybe he was wrong.
He smiled at her gratefully as he took her hands in his.
“Bailey, will you hold this Key to My Heart?”
“Always,” Bailey said, smiling in a way that was somehow shy, confident, sexy, and demure all at once. They embraced.
“Zo,” Bennett said. After she slinked across the floor to him, he asked, “Zo, will you hold this Key to My Heart?”
“You know I will,” Zo responded. And then she placed a hand at the nape of his neck and pulled him to her, planting a seductive kiss on his cheek and whispering, “Send that bitch home,” in a way that sent shivers down his spine and almost got him hard.
He continued handing out keys to the girls on Peter’s list. Lily, the aromatherapist from Portland with the little yin-yang tattoo on her wrist. Just yesterday, before everything went to shit, they’d been alone for a moment on the group date and Bennett had held that tattoo to his lips.
She’d smelled like lavender. Max, the long-distance runner from Kansas City with the purple hair and swole biceps.
He could picture her rock climbing in Yosemite with him, and it was hot.
Imani, this season’s only real model, or at least that’s what she’d told him repeatedly, referencing the appearance of one-third of her torso in the corner of a Gucci ad as “the time I was in Vogue. ” McKayla, who was always drunk but always fun.
Aspen, who’d dry humped him on a pool table. Parker, Emily, Bai, Chantel, and—
Adam Fox appeared and said gravely into the camera, “Ladies, this is the final key of the night.”
Bennett took a deep breath.
“Edie,” he said.
“What?” Edie and a smattering of indignant girls cried.
“Edie,” he said again, tilting his head in a way he knew looked adorable and smiling like, Come on, get over here, silly . He could do this. No big thing. He kissed all the girls, all the time. And when this was over, didn’t he want to break into acting? He’d start now.
She arrived in front of him. He took her hands in his.
“Edie Pepper,” he said, “my oldest friend. Over the years our lives have put miles and oceans between us. But seeing you again, for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m home.” He squeezed her hands. “Edie, will you hold this Key to My Heart?”
“You bet your ass I will,” she said. And the way she was looking at him, amused but also like he was really something special—just like that, something inside him relaxed.
Suddenly he felt like he could see her, really see her, this friend he’d always known.
She smiled—that big smile where you could see all her teeth, and he remembered—hadn’t she always been like the coolest girl to him?
And even though he could feel Greg right on his ass and all the girls holding their breath, Bennett felt ready—happy even.
He put his hand to her cheek, leaned in, and kissed her.
WHO IS EDIE PEPPER? 5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BENNETT CHARLES’S EX-GIRLFRIEND
BY LUCY LYONS
Ex-girlfriend alert! Us Weekly has learned that Midwestern copywriter Edie Pepper, 35, has joined the competition for Bennett Charles’s heart in a surprise entrance during The Key ’s 22nd season, premiering November 3 on RX.
“I’m so flattered that Edie took time out of her life to reconnect and see if the spark’s still there,” Bennett said in an exclusive quote to Us .
Who is Edie Pepper? Here are five things to know.
1. She’s the Oldest Female Contestant in the History of the Franchise
Clocking in at 35 years old, Edie Pepper is by far the most mature woman to ever compete for a Key to My Heart. But is maturity what the extreme sportsman’s looking for? Sources tell Us that while Bennett claims to be ready for marriage, his wildin’ days might not be over just yet.
2. She’s Not into Fashion
Edie’s official cast photo says it all. Decked out in a red sweatshirt and messy ponytail, clearly Edie’s joined the Key cast for love and not to showcase her sartorial point of view.
3. She’s Never Been Married
But don’t call Edie a spinster—she just hasn’t found the right guy! On average, women in the US get married at 27.9 years, so at 35 years old, this Bridget Jones isn’t too far behind.
4. She Has an Unfair Advantage
Not just high school sweethearts, these two lovebirds have known each other since kindergarten! Bennett tells Us , “Seeing Edie again was like a warm hug from home. I’ve been traveling for so long—it’s been years since I’ve had that feeling. Like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
5. She’s Looking for Her Soulmate
According to her cast bio, Edie “loves to laugh” and is looking for someone she can “trust.” Will that be Bennett? Sources tell Us Bennett’s “falling in love” with “multiple women.” Fingers crossed Edie doesn’t get her heart broken for good!