Reality Check Read online

  Reality Check

  by

  NICOLE PYLAND

  Reality Check

  Cali Banks lost her job and needs money fast. When her best friend tries to sign Cali up to appear on a reality show where contestants complete ridiculous challenges for cash and prizes, Cali tells her she’s crazy. When she gets a call back for an audition, she thinks there’s no chance the show will be interested in her boring life. Little does she know; that’s just what they’re looking for. When Cali agrees to go, she’s thinking about keeping her head down and trying to win as much cash as possible so that she won’t lose her apartment and have to move back in with her parents.

  Dayton Maine is a reality show mainstay. She’s already done three and has been asked back for a fourth by the Berserk producers. Dayton understands she’s there to bring the drama. She has no problem doing that. She also has no problem hooking up with her fellow female contestants should the opportunity arise. She loves the challenges and the thrill of the chase. She’s there for the fun and the fame.

  When the two meet, it isn’t exactly love or lust at first sight. Dayton thinks Cali is a hermit who judges the rest of them. Cali’s pretty sure Dayton’s just there to reconnect with an old flame and get as much camera time as possible. While the cast members get kicked off one by one, though, the two women find common ground mixed in with a whole lot of differences. Dayton finds herself in a new position, chasing a woman for more than just one night, and Cali finds herself trying to live in the moment and trust that this woman might be the one she had been waiting for all along.

  To contact the author or for any additional information, visit: https://nicolepyland.com

  This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

  Copyright © 2020 Nicole Pyland

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-949308-42-6

  BY THE AUTHOR

  Stand-alone books:

  • The Fire

  • The Moments

  • The Disappeared

  • Reality Check

  Chicago Series:

  • Introduction – Fresh Start

  • Book #1 – The Best Lines

  • Book #2 – Just Tell Her

  • Book #3 – Love Walked into The Lantern

  • Series Finale – What Happened After

  San Francisco Series:

  • Book #1 – Checking the Right Box

  • Book #2 – Macon’s Heart

  (recommended to read after Keep Tahoe Blue )

  • Book #3 – This Above All

  • Series Finale – What Happened After

  Tahoe Series:

  • Book #1 – Keep Tahoe Blue

  • Book #2 – Time of Day

  • Book #3 – The Perfect View

  • Book #4 – Begin Again

  • Series Finale – What Happened After

  Celebrities Series:

  • Book #1 – No After You

  • Book #2 – All the Love Songs

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  EPILOGUE

  COMING NEXT

  CHAPTER 1

  “Where will I be in five years?” Cali took a deep breath, hating this question but knowing she needed to answer it. “I guess I hope I’m with the same company in a more advanced role.”

  “And?”

  “Oh, I hope I’m more developed and that I’ve grown as a person and as a professional,” she added.

  “You hope?”

  She’d messed it up.

  “Well, I plan to work for that. I will grow, and I’m looking for a company that can help me achieve that.”

  Damn it. She had prepped for this interview. She had done her research on the role, the company, and how to interview. She had even role-played this interview with her best friend, Megan. She’d practiced answering this exact question. Where did she see herself in five years? She saw herself with a management role, in a much nicer apartment, or maybe in a house she’d just bought. She saw herself with a wife or at least in a serious relationship heading that direction. She would be thirty in five years. She might even have a baby by then. That would depend on the relationship and the timing, but she knew she wanted kids. She wanted a good job and a family, eventually. She had prepped answering this question. Why was she messing it up now?

  “It was great to meet you, Cali. Thanks for coming in. We’ll have our recruiter see you out, and make sure to get your parking validated at the front desk.”

  That was the interview kiss of death. Cali knew that by now because she had interviewed with five companies over the past three weeks. She had applied for over forty jobs, heard back from ten of them, had a first-round interview with a recruiter for eight of those, and had been called in for an in-person interview for five. The numbers should be working in her favor. After all, they say people only hear back from ten percent of the jobs they apply for. However, she still didn’t have a job. And she needed a job.

  “And you’ve never worked at a consulting company before?”

  “Not specifically, no,” Cali replied two days later.

  “It’s not easy, working where the world revolves around billable hours,” the hiring manager said.

  “I can imagine.”

  “What will you do to ensure your projects will still get completed when you need to involve people at the company who have billable hours that come first?”

  Cali answered the question, wiping her clammy hands on her black pencil skirt. The hiring manager nodded, typed a note on her computer, and asked a follow-up question.

  “We’ll let you know by the end of the week,” the hiring manager said.

  Three days later, she sat in yet another office and took part in a second-round interview that was with a panel of her possible co-workers. They asked questions in turn, and Cali tried to make eye contact with each of them as they did, but also look around at all four of them with every question. Maybe that made her look like she had some type of eye issue. She didn’t know. She did know that by the end of the interview, she didn’t feel like she’d hear back from this place.

  “I’m buying tonight,” Megan said.

  “You can’t keep buying me drinks just because I’m jobless, Meg,” Cali replied.

  “Well, of the two of us, I’m the only one with a paycheck, so I think it’s a good idea for me to pay. I don’t want you to end up homeless because you bought me a tequila shot.”

  “How expensive are these tequila shots?” Cali chuckled.

  “It is LA.” Megan nodded at the bartender. “Two beers a
nd two shots of tequila.”

  “What do I have to do, Meg? I got a job right out of college. I went to a job fair. They saw me, liked me, and pursued me. I hardly had to interview.”

  “Look how that turned out. No offense, Cal, but if that’s how they hired people, it makes sense why they had to lay off like half of their staff. Besides, it’s only been a month. You’re going to find something.”

  “It’s not like I have anything saved. I still have student loan debt. I was almost done with my master’s that they were paying for. Since they’re not paying anymore, I had to withdraw, which means I owe money on my undergrad loans now, plus I have to live.”

  The bartender placed two draft beers in front of them on the bar and then moved to make their shots. Cali took a long drink, needing the cool, bitter liquid to help soothe her soul. Beer of any kind wasn’t exactly her favorite thing to drink, but sometimes, the occasion just called for it.

  “Do you need to get a roommate? I can help you find one. And, I’ll let you sleep on the couch at my place anytime if you need to.”

  “I’m sure Becks would appreciate that. Didn’t you once tell me you two have sex everywhere and all the time?” Cali asked, staring down at the shot that had just been placed in front of her.

  Megan laughed and said, “We used to, but we’ve been living together for a while now, so some of the passion has worn off.” She took a drink of her beer.

  “Everything okay there?” Cali asked, noting the change in tone in her best friend’s voice.

  “Beckett has been a little distant lately. It’s not a big deal. We’ve been together since junior year. That’s five years. I’m sure we’re just dealing with an early version of the seven-year itch.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “No,” Megan said, sighing and taking another drink. “I love my girlfriend. She’s amazing. She’s also complicated, though; and, sometimes, I have the energy to deal with those complications. Other times, I wish things were simpler.”

  “Her family?” Cali guessed.

  “She won’t let me propose until she comes out. She won’t propose unless she’s out. Her mom is a born-again Christian who has gone on an anti-gay tirade in my presence. They’ve never been to our apartment because Beckett won’t let them visit. When she visits them, I’m not allowed to go. Her sister, who is her best friend in the world, thinks she’s single and keeps trying to set her up with guys she knows. It’s just a lot.”

  “I’m sorry, Meg.”

  “Me too. But we’re not here to talk about my girlfriend’s closet status. We’re here to talk about you.” She held up her beer glass. “Let’s make a toast.”

  “A toast to my failures?”

  “A toast for good luck.”

  “Fine,” Cali replied, holding up her glass to Meg’s.

  “To your job search.”

  “To my job search,” she replied with less gusto than her friend.

  They clanked their glasses together and both took a drink.

  “You’re going to hear back from one of them soon.”

  “If not, I’m going to have to find that roommate, get something part-time, and also drive for Uber. I’m living off my severance right now. They gave me a month, which was nice of them, but that money is almost gone. My parents sent what they could, but they live on a fixed income, so it’s not like they have anything extra lying around.”

  “Do you really have to drop out of school? Can you apply for a loan?”

  “Yeah. And I will. But tuition for this semester was due last week. I couldn’t pay it, and it was too late to apply for a good loan. I would’ve had to apply for a fast one, with a ridiculously high interest rate, and it just didn’t seem worth it to compound my money problems. I’ll take the semester off, apply for a normal student loan, and then go back, but I can’t think about that right now. I have to find a job.”

  “Shot time,” Megan said, holding up her shot glass.

  “I hate tequila.”

  “You love tequila. Tequila hates you,” Megan reminded. “Bottoms up.”

  Cali followed Megan and took the shot. Thankfully, neither of them was driving. The bar was just a block away from Beckett and Megan’s West Hollywood apartment. Cali had crashed on the couch once or twice, after having a few too many, and Beckett would likely already be asleep. She was in her final year of law school and was typically in class, studying at the law library, or sleeping these days.

  “I think I’m going to apply at that café down the street from your place. They have a ‘now hiring’ sign up in their window. It’s shit money, but it’s something. I can apply somewhere else, too, and try to keep interviewing when I can.”

  “You don’t even like coffee,” Megan said.

  “I’ll be making it, not drinking it, Meg.”

  “Hey, Kate’s here,” Megan said, nodding toward the back of the bar.

  “I’m sure she is. She’s here every night.”

  “Not every night; just the ones that end in Y,” she joked.

  “What woman is she trying to pick up tonight?” Cali asked, not turning to where Megan was looking because she knew what she would see if she did.

  “Oh, she’s not trying to pick her up. She’s just doing it. Looks like they’re leaving hand in hand.”

  “It’s only nine-thirty. I’m surprised she didn’t stay later, to see if another, hotter girl showed up before she went with this one,” Cali said.

  “This one’s pretty hot,” Megan said. “But yeah, that’s not usually her scene. She gets here early, flirts with a bunch of girls, stays until the later crowd comes in, and picks one to take home with her.”

  “She conveniently lives next door. It makes it easier. I’d know,” Cali replied.

  “Hey, she committed to you, Cali. You didn’t put out on the first date. You made her work for it, and she was all in.”

  “Until she wasn’t,” Cali said, taking a drink from her beer.

  “You broke up with her, Cali.”

  “Because she can’t stop flirting.”

  “Do you really think she cheated on you?”

  “She says she didn’t, but I don’t know,” Cali said, sighing. “Maybe she didn’t, but she wanted to go out all the time. She wanted to come here every night. I can go for a drink, but she wants to live at this bar. She’d talk to anyone who looked her way, and manage to keep the conversation going even if they had nothing, really, to talk about. I can’t keep up with that. It’s better for her to be single. She needs the freedom to pick up women; not the girlfriend sitting at home, wondering when she’s coming back.”

  “Whatever you say. But it’s been six months since you broke up, and you still can’t look at her when we see her here.”

  “Would you want to watch Beckett hit on women left and right?”

  “No, but Beckett is my girlfriend; probably my future wife, if she can get her shit together. God, I can’t wait for her to finish law school and join her cousin’s firm.” Megan gave a soft smile to Cali. “Cali, Beckett and I are going through some stuff, but I still want my life with her. The thought of anyone else touching her – even kissing her, makes me want to vomit. So, I get it, but it’s not the same. You dumped Kate; and that’s fine. It’s your choice. If she’s a consummate flirt, I get why that’s annoying. But, maybe you should at least try to move on.”

  Cali laughed and asked, “Move on? I have nothing to offer a woman. I can’t even afford my own drinks at a bar, let alone hers. I have no job. I could lose my apartment. I’m not someone a woman is going to want to date right now.”

  “You’re always someone a woman is going to want to date. I would know… I dated you.”

  “Freshman year; for three months,” Cali said.

  “It was good between us, though,” Megan said with a wink. “We taught each other a lot of things I can now use on my girlfriend.”

  “Oh, gross, Megan,” Cali replied, shoving at Megan’s shoulder playfully.

  “What? You’ve ne
ver done that thing I did with my tongue to another woman?”

  “I am not talking to you about this,” Cali said, laughing.

  “You have done that thing!” Megan pointed at her.

  “I might have even done it to Kate,” Cali said, winking right back at her.

  CHAPTER 2

  “God, I love your tongue,” the woman said.

  “Hold that thought,” Dayton replied.

  “What? Dayton, you were–”

  “Hello?” Dayton said into her phone.

  “I cannot believe you just answered your phone,” she said, sitting up.

  “Dayton, they want you back on Berserk again,” her agent said.

  “Yeah?” Dayton asked as she knelt on the bed in front of the woman whose name she couldn’t quite recall at the moment. “When does it start shooting?”

  “I’m going to send you the paperwork. You’re available, so you just need to sign on the dotted line.”

  “What’s the prize money?”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” the girl, lying naked in front of Dayton, said as she climbed out of bed.

  “Five hundred thousand,” her agent said from the other side of the phone.

  “Cool. I can make that work,” Dayton replied, watching the woman get dressed. She then covered the bottom of her phone with her hand and told her, “I just need one second. Don’t get dressed. I’ll give you my tongue in, like, thirty seconds.”

  “I’ve had it. It’s good, but it’s not that good.”

  “That’s not what you said a second ago,” Dayton argued.

  “You just picked up your phone while you were going down on me. No thanks, Dayton. I don’t need this. I’ve got a girlfriend at home who’s a fucking model.”

  “Then, why are you here with me?” Dayton asked.

  “Dayton are you there?” her agent asked.

  “I’m here.”

  “Let’s just pretend like this never happened. I won’t tell my girlfriend or yours. You don’t say anything either,” the woman said as she slid on her heels.

  “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  “I’ve seen you two in pictures online.”