Butterflies In My Stomach

The date wasn't necessarily going as well as the one with Emma had, at least at the beginning. At least Emma had some rapport with Turner, everything with Charlotte would have to be built from the ground up. He wasn't even sure if he had said a single word to her prior to this week, he had just admired her from afar.

"So, I heard you were working in Washington," Charlotte said, making conversation. "How's that going?"

"If I'm being honest, it's a lot more work than I thought it would be," Turner answered, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I mean, my coworkers are great. Kathryn has made learning the ropes leagues easier than it ordinarily would be, and it's fun work, but it's taxing."

"What specifically do you do?" she continued asking. "Sorry, I'm just interested. I might as well get to know the man I'm gonna be tied to forever."

"No, it's fine, I'll get my turn to be nosy next," he joked. "I work in cybersecurity and threat analysis, basically I just look at daily threats to the nation's computing systems, all that jazz. I'm not entirely sure how much I'm allowed to say, and I haven't gotten too far into it before, well, all this, but that's the gist of it. What about you?"

"Ugh, that sounds so much better than my job," Charlotte said. "I work night shifts on the floor of the hospital. It's a lot of work, but it pays the bills, and it's starting to make a dent in my loan debt for medical school. But hey, I'm pursuing my dream job too, I've always wanted to work in medicine, and being able to help people who are in need certainly doesn't hurt."

"That's great to hear," Turner agreed. "Anyways, you still haven't told me where we're headed..."

"Oh, right!" Charlotte's energy shot back up again. "Well, I didn't want to do something too traditional, and I didn't want to take anyone else's idea, so we're going to the zoo!"

"There's a zoo here?" Turner asked incredulously.

"Of course there is, there's like everything here!" Charlotte answered. "Plus, I love animals, and I heard through the grapevine that you do as well!"

"How much did you hear about me?" Turner asked, a bit suspicious.

"Eh, I run my mouth a lot, so sometimes the other gals just say something to get me to shut up," Charlotte said honestly. "It's not like I'm asking people to tell me everything they know about you, though, it usually just comes up. I'm not going around like 'Hey, tell me everything you know about Turner'. That'd be weird."

"I'm offended," Turner mocked displeasure. "You think asking people about me is weird?"

"Eh, just a bit," she said slyly. "I mean, how would you react if I just walked up to you and demanded you tell me everything you know about Becca, or Emma, or someone like that?"

"Okay, point taken," Turner conceded. "Anyways, the zoo? That sounds great."

"I booked us a personal safari tour too, we're gonna get to see whatever they have in that," she added.

"You didn't look into that?" he asked.

"Eh, the flyer for it looked fun enough," she said nonchalantly. "Plus, if it's bad, then we'll have something to complain about together."

Charlotte was giddy with excitement as they approached the entrance. She really hadn't been on many date dates before, especially with people down-to-Earth like Turner was. So what if it was a man? She didn't have to do anything on the date, she was comfortable in her placement, even if she had moved down a spot.

Turner, on the other hand, was more curious than anything. Curious about what Charlotte was like now, curious about what the night would bring, the whole nine yards.

"Here we are!" Charlotte suddenly said as they stopped walking in front of a nondescript entrance. It said "zoo" on the front, but there would be no indication otherwise. It didn't appear like there was anything inside at all, almost as if it had been abandoned.

"Strange, this looks a lot different from what I was expecting on this island," Turner said out loud.

"Yeah, it looks very different from what the brochure had," Charlotte agreed. "Oh well, it'll still be fun, let's go inside!"

As they went in, everything changed. Maybe the outside had been under repair work, maybe Kendra changed the look of it for some reason, maybe there was some unknown cause for the exterior to look like it was ripped straight out of the bad side of Baltimore, but the inside rivaled the San Diego Zoo.

"Holy shit, this looks so cool!" Charlotte marveled as soon as the two of them made it past the entrance.

They were standing before an artificial waterfall, but it looked so real, almost as if they had been transported to the beautiful mountains of Africa. Lots of greenery surrounded the two of them, and faint ambient wildlife sounds could be heard in the background. The park wasn't entirely empty; it was full enough to not come across as creepy, but empty enough that nothing would be remotely crowded. Turner wondered where all the people for this had come from, were they people from past seasons? Did they abduct these people too? Perhaps they were just people from the production team or those who worked with Kendra and her higher-ups, whoever those were.

"This is...amazing," Turner managed. "It's like we're actually here, in the wild."

"C'mon, let's go this way first!" Charlotte excitedly said, grabbing Turner's hand and pulling him aside.

And so an evening of Charlotte running around, talking her head off about God knows what, Turner trying his best to keep up with her seemingly boundless spirit, and just having fun and getting to know each other, began. As they ran around around the park, acting like two kids again, the other parkgoers gave them side-eye, but none of them seemed too fussed about what was happening, adding a point in Turner's mind to the "These people were planted here by the production team" column. The two of them were laughing and talking like two old friends by the end of the evening.

"And then-," Charlotte tried again, between fits of hysterical laughter. "Then, she said that he WAS the guy they were looking for!"

Her contagious radiance was taking over Turner's mind. He wasn't worried about what would happen during the date, wasn't worried about the points, the nine other girls (aside from Becca, of course), or the game at all. He was content, laughing along with this gal who he'd never gotten the time to know, due to her high status and high school demeanor.

As they were riding in the back of the four-wheeler that was leading them along the safari tour, their tour guide was giving them an enthusiastic explanation for everything that they saw, down to the water that the animals were drinking. Charlotte and Turner earnestly listened to it, taking in all the information that the guide was telling them as they drove across the rough terrain.

Charlotte had let go of Turner's hand. It wasn't anything sexual, or even romantic when she had grabbed it in the park. She was only trying to have him follow her around and not get lost in the park that surrounded them. At least, that's what Turner thought, which made it weird when she rested her head on his shoulder on the bumpy ride.

Embarrassed, a moment later, she pulled her head back up.

"Stupid," she chastised herself. "I can't believe I would do that, get lost in the moment like that."

Turner shot her a questioning glance, but once he saw her red face, his face changed from confused to comforting.

"It's nothing," she reassured, with a slight smile returning to her face. "I just, I don't know."

The rest of the ride, they didn't really say much to each other. The guide was talking enough to not make it an uncomfortable silence, but the mood between the two of them had definitely shifted. Charlotte was cursing at herself, even though it hadn't really been that big of a deal. Turner was baffled more than anything, not really knowing what on Earth had just happened.

Nothing much more happened while they were out on their date. After the rest of the uneventful safari ride, Charlotte suggested they just go home, and Turner went along with it. They arrived back at the hotel, but unlike Emma's date, they weren't talking happily and carrying on, things were uncomfortably tense.

They got up to Turner's room, and Charlotte started to get some of her lively temperament back. She was asking him all sorts of questions, questions that one would typically ask on a first date. Turner answered in earnest, asking similar questions back to her, just trying to get to know the other person. If she was gonna be tied to him forever, he might as well have at least some of an idea of who she was.

"...anyways, yeah, I wouldn't say I'm a closet lesbian, but not really anyone knows about it aside from a couple people, and I guess the thousands or millions or whatever I told it to during the introduction," Charlotte explained.

"Well, then this seems like a terrible place for you to be," Turner lightheartedly said.

"Yeah, but I'd guess that's part of the reason that they put me here," Charlotte said realistically. "They want me to struggle with this in the season, to create drama. Oh well, I've been enjoying spending time with most of the people here, so it's not the worst situation to be in."

"Dammit, Charlotte, how do you keep your head high like this?" Turner asked. "I'm having difficulty keeping my head up, and I'm not the one being transformed against my will."

"I mean, just find the good in it," Charlotte noted. "Part of this might be due to what's happened to me, but I've been able to meet amazing people around here."

The two of them had some supper, but it was nothing fancy, just whatever the two of them were craving at the moment, and as the night wore on with the two of them just talking, the issue of sleeping came up.

"I assume I have to sleep in the bed?" Charlotte rhetorically asked.

"Yeah, that's the rule," Turner sullenly responded. "I don't agree with it, but I don't really agree with anything that happens here."

"Well, it'll be fine," Charlotte nonchalantly said. "I think I can trust you to be a gentleman about it tonight, Becca's told me a few things."

"You really have gotten the scoop from her," Turner joked.

"Maybe I have, but it might come in handy one day," Charlotte slyly responded.

He was too tired to look for any hidden meanings in that statement, just chalking it up to her energetic side. She got changed in the bathroom, changing out of her blue dress and into a pair of sweatpants and an oversized tee shirt.

"That's weird", Charlotte thought. "I didn't bring any clothes here, how the fuck did my pajamas get here?"

As Charlotte opened the door, Turner was laying on top of the blankets, staring into space on the ceiling. The quiet chittering of the bugs outside was the only noise that was present, a lot more quaint and peaceful compared to the rest of the date which had been accompanied by loud animal noises, the roar of a loud engine, and just talking. It was charming, a bit. The tranquil environment was different for Charlotte. She'd always been a go-getter, and to just step back and take a moment with someone she had gotten close with was nice to do.

After that, they simply said their goodnights to each other, and fell asleep on opposite sides of the bed. Turner was more content with this as opposed to Emma, because he knew that Kendra wasn't actively working against them and was going to get them in a sticky situation.