Page 46 of Fan Favorite
“Just a sec!” Edie cried, untangling herself and, in the process, discovering last night’s thong trapped between the sheets.
Shit! There were her jeans in a slutty pile on the floor.
Her bra splatted across the desk lamp. Where in the hell was her shirt?
Quickly, Edie abandoned hope of reuniting with her clothes and ran to the bathroom for the hotel robe.
She shrugged it on, ran back to the door, thought better of it, ran back to the bathroom for a speedy gargle of Listerine, tried to fix her hair and rub the mascara off her cheeks, gave up, and then, breathless with anticipation, ran back to the door and threw it open.
“Good lord, what happened to you?” Jessa asked, breezing past Edie with her ponytail swinging. “You’re not even dressed! Chop-chop, girl, we’re got places to be!”
Edie stared at her dumbfounded.
And then it hit her.
The lock-in.
“We’ve got a full day,” Jessa said, stepping over the duvet and plopping down on the bed. Edie grimaced, wondering if she should mention the sex that had taken place right where Jessa was sitting.
“First some B-roll of my favorite lovebirds, Edie and Bennett, roaming around the most romantic city in all of the Midwest,” Jessa said, poking at her iPad.
“Then I have something very special planned for you, something nostalgic that you’re gonna love .
But don’t ask—it’s a surprise. Then off to Mama Pepper’s for a little ‘meet the parents’ moment and some engagement talk—” Edie gasped, and Jessa looked up.
“I know, I’m excited too! And then the very best part, the lock-in.
Super-special, off-camera time for you and Bennett to say whatever needs to be said and then make it official with your hot naked bods.
” Jessa wagged her brows suggestively at Edie.
Slowly and then all at once, Edie understood that BACK TO WORK literally meant Peter had gone BACK TO WORK producing the show.
And that the corollary to BACK TO WORK was Edie as one of Bennett’s final contestants, Edie as one of Bennett’s options for marriage, Edie locked in a room with Bennett all night long.
But Peter couldn’t possibly think that Edie should go on the lock-in like nothing had happened.
Right? Edie was typically up for a lot, but there was no scenario in which she went from naked in a bed with Peter Kennedy to her mother’s kitchen table with Bennett Charles.
“Seriously, what’s with you?” Jessa snapped her fingers in front of Edie’s face. “Are you hungover or something? We don’t have much time.”
“Jessa…”
Edie sat down next to Jessa. She bit her knuckle, trying to figure out what made sense. The Key was Peter’s realm, and maybe Edie should let him chart the way forward. Except, there was no way Jessa would’ve come here unless Peter told her to.
“Do you need to shower, or should I get you some flip-flops so you can go on this date as the guy from The Big Lebowski ?”
Edie looked up at Jessa and nodded. And then kept nodding. Until she was nodding like an evil villain on the verge of a grand plan.
“I need to shower,” she said. “Let me shower, and I’ll meet you in the lobby in forty-five minutes.”
“Thirty minutes,” Jessa said, consulting her iPad. “We’ll do your makeup in the van.”
“Thirty minutes,” Edie agreed, standing up and guiding Jessa to the door.
But then it occurred to her—it was still early.
What if Peter just hadn’t seen Jessa yet?
What if he was on his way to talk to Jessa, to tell her he was falling in love with Edie and that they needed to devise a plan for extrication?
Wouldn’t Edie be jumping to conclusions if she didn’t at least ask?
“By the way,” she said, trying her best to sound nonchalant, “have you seen Peter?”
“Peter?” Jessa said, picking lint out of Edie’s hair. “He went running.”
“Running? When did he go running? And, like, where?”
Jessa made a face. “Girl, I don’t know, he went running. Around. That’s what he does when he’s in a mood.”
“Uh-huh.”
So, Peter was in a mood. Well. Edie would show Peter a mood .
“If you see him,” Edie said, taking Jessa’s hands and squeezing them like she was a beatific bride and Jessa was her glowing bridesmaid and, together, they were full of wonder at the day to come.
“Can you please let him know that I cannot thank him enough for everything he’s done to make my wildest dreams come true, which is, just a reminder, getting engaged to Bennett Charles .
I cannot wait to give Bennett all of me . Know what I mean?”
“Aw, that’s fantastic, babe.” Jessa pulled Edie in for a hug. “But don’t give Peter too much credit. I’ve always known you and Bennett belong together.”
Edie laughed. And then started plotting her escape.
EXCLUSIVE: KEY PRODUCTION HALTS AFTER FAN FAVE EXITS DAYS BEFORE FINALE
BY LUCY LYONS
Alexa, play “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift! US Weekly has learned that fan favorite Edie Pepper has left The Key just days before the finale, when sources tell Us she was a shoo-in for an engagement.
What went wrong between the extreme sportsman and his high school sweetheart?
It appears Charles’s flagrant womanizing and bad-boy behavior played a big part.
Rumors have dogged Charles for weeks, with former contestants coming forward to expose The Key ’s “toxic environment,” even alleging Charles’s enthusiasm for physical attention contributed to a slew of sexual dalliances and subsequent breakups that left many of the women feeling used.
“He hooked up with absolutely everyone,” a former contestant tells Us . “It was insane. I wasn’t ready to sleep with him and, surprise, surprise, the next day I was going home.”
“I think Edie knew him better than any of us,” another contestant says. “I’m not surprised to hear she left. She knows what a liar he is.”
According to Charles, it’s not that simple.
In an Instagram post this week, Charles captioned a pic of the ocean with a ray of light breaking through a cloudy sky: “Even the worst storms will pass, and the sun will shine again.” He went on to thank his fans for their continued support, adding, “My intention, since day one, has been to find the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.
My heart breaks to know that people I care about have been hurt in the process.
I look forward to the day I can make it right. ”
For her part, Edie Pepper captured the hearts of Key fans immediately and quickly emerged as an icon for single women everywhere.
What is it about Pepper that resonates? Noted Key podcaster Julia Pitman says Pepper is a feminist face for a series stuck in a patriarchal past. “She’s messy, she’s imperfect, she says what she thinks, and she’s the ripe old age of thirty-five.
That’s to say, she’s just like us,” Pitman says.
“And when we see someone who’s not twenty-two or a size zero believing she’s worthy of finding love, well, that’s powerful television. ”
So, what’s next for Edie Pepper? In addition to fan accounts on Instagram and Twitter, celebs like Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Amy Schumer have shown their support for Pepper by signing a petition for the Midwestern copywriter to step in as next season’s lead.
The Key airs on RX Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.