90 Day Fiance S12 E 1 In My Getting Married Era

I'm back with a whole new season of 90 Day Fiance to recap! 

Production note: You may hear cats. You may hear the white noise of a fan. You may also hear two teenagers farting around above my office. I regret nothing.

We meet all new couples:

Marissa from Kleinfeld Bridal has a very important job and Edward from the D.R. has a very important (?) procedure.

Rashit is sad about leaving Turkey and Mallory is pretty sure he's not ready for Alabama. In fairness, is anybody ever ready for Alabama?

Aisha knows her direct like to God will get Maxwell to the US.

Shea is already basically admitting that he's messing around on his Phillipino fiance, depending on your "perspective."

Catie can't stop making out with random strangers and I think we're about to watch Josh get his heart broken. 

If you are experiencing relationship abuse, call 1-800-799-SAFE or visit the National Domestiv Violence Hotline website to find a directory of local providers.

Book Club corner: 

For my next readalong, I've chosen Beyond Repair by Charlotte Stein. 

Also: my monthly romance novella comes out Thursday. You can preorder it! 

For more happily ever afters, join me on Storygraph!

Thanks for listening and please click 5 stars on your listening platform.

Drop me a message at authorabbyknox@gmail.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The 90 Day Book Club contains adult language and is meant for entertainment purposes only. Hi everyone and welcome back to the 90 Day Book Club. I'm your host. My name is Jen. I'm a romance writer, a reader, reality TV junkie. At the end of the show, I'll do a little book club corner where I'll tell you about a book I just finished reading. And I'll also talk about one of my books that you can get into. So go grab your favorite beverage. Let's get into it. I'm gonna start with Marissa and Edward. Because honestly, what better place to start? A new season of Nighty Day Fiance, The Mothership, than New York City. Marissa is the COO of Kleinfeld. If you are a TLC watcher, you definitely know what Kleinfeld is. It is the bridal gown store featured on Say Yes to the Dress. There's like, I don't know, 22, 28 seasons of it on TLC. Marissa gets the Miranda Priestley Devil Wears Prada treatment. We see her employees at the bridal shop anticipating her arrival. Everybody's running around. People are pulling dresses. Her adorable assistant is telling someone Marissa's on her way. Are we ready for her VIP appointment? Champagne, robe, charcuterie board. Check, check, check. I want to work somewhere where there's a charcuterie board. We see Marissa walking down the street, and all we see at first is her shoes, her bag, the back of her hair. Really long, blonde extensions. She's talking on her phone as she's walking, saying, I'll be there in 10 minutes. Why is there like no people on the sidewalk in New York City right now? Um it sounds very urgent, and there's this like stirring cinematic music playing. It is very much like the opening of a movie. Marissa is 45 years old and she is accomplished professional. She's very sweet smile, um, very assertive though. Her assistant tells her they have 41 appointments today, four Luxe appointments, and later three platinums. They serve 20,000 brides a year, and this show has been running for I don't know, a hundred years. So I looked it up, and Lux appointments and platinum appointments are different levels of service. I think one is quite a bit longer than the other. I think one is an hour and a half, and the other is a two-hour appointment. Marissa says, even though I work in the bridal industry, my love life is not a fairy tale. She says she's been married for six years, and then um, and then she was divorced. She and her ex-husband have two boys. She says raising two boys with a high-powered career has made finding love difficult until she took a girl's trip to the Dominican Republic. And that's where she met Edward. She says, Edward was working in entertainment at the hotel where she was staying in the DR. But first, all we see are videos of him on her phone of them together. He's very cute. He seems sweet with her and funny. She says, initially, she was attracted to the way he looked. She likes his butt. She likes his lips. She says, he made me feel like a beautiful woman again. She says we had an instant connection, but I didn't see it going anywhere. She says, an executive from New York meets a hotel entertainment worker. It didn't seem like a likely match for us. This thing that she does, where she points out the class differences, is going to come back a little bit later, too. When she arrives at work, we get a little bit more information about Edward while she's chatting with her employees. Marissa says three years after that initial trip to Dominican Republic, she took another trip to Punta Cana with a girlfriend, and then she texted Edward. They show us a text conversation, and I can almost like visualize Edward dropping the phone. OMG, hi, how are you? I lost your number. I looked for you on social media. Sure, Edward. But Marissa says everything happened really quickly after that. We started visiting each other, or she would visit the DR every six to eight weeks after that. People are having a traveling budget that I just do not understand. Um, she said it started to get complicated, so we made it official. He proposed and asked her if he should go down on one knee. And she said, I don't want to have to tell you to do that, so don't worry about it. Oh, that made me a little sad. In one of their home videos, she shows the ring. It's a really nice ring, so he did good there. Um Marissa's talking to Caitlin and Dorothy, her employees at work, and they're asking if she's freaking out. She says he might be more freaked out. She says, I have to teach him everything. And it's his first time on a plane. And apparently, Edward decided that in order to fit in in the US, he needed an adult circumcision. I pause it on Caitlin's face, and the way she is internally telling herself not to react is kind of killing me. Marissa says that Edward has always been interested in getting circumcised. Caitlin says you had to have said something to him. She says, No, I didn't. Dorothy, this older woman from Brooklyn, is cracking me up. She says, When you first saw it, did you say uh Marissa says, No. In Marissa's talking head, she says that maybe Edward felt subconsciously that it would help him fit in better in the US if he was circumcised. She says, Let's just say I'm happy he did it. Hmm. Hmm, okay. So anyway, the surgery went fine. However, a couple days later, when he woke up um with his morning wood, his stitches ripped. I'm so sorry, guys. And he had to get new so new um sutures. I have so many questions about this doctor. But anyway, uh Marissa says the doctor gave him a green light to have his penis working as normal. Her employees get a talking head, and Dorothy says she was suspicious at first. Caitlin says Marissa's very successful. She has a home in Pennsylvania, an apartment in Brooklyn. She is the golden ticket. So they are already suspicious of Edward. But Marissa tells Dorothy and Caitlin that sometimes when he complains about his problems, they're not like her problems. She has executive problems and kid problems. And she just listens to Edward, and she's like, Oh, is a guest at the hotel complaining about something? She says, I don't want to feel like my life is more important than his, but I have more at stake here. Do I need a man in my life to give me financial support? No. Ultimately, if a relationship is bringing me more stress, I don't think I'll move forward. I mean, that is one healthy way to look at it too, but I really don't like this condescending thing and the fact that she keeps bringing up the differences in their socioeconomic class. After work, Edward FaceTimes with her and she says her biggest concern is culture shock. You've never been on a plane. Edward says, I was Googling what to do. Um, she thinks it's cute, but it concerns her that he doesn't have the same life experiences. For example, once when she stayed in Putincana with him, she realized he had never been a hotel guest before. How would you like it if your fiance kept highlighting all of these differences like in this way? I think you I think it would bother me. So on their little FaceTime call, right out on the sidewalk in New York, she says, How is your penis? Uh, he says, Stitches are healed. Edward says he saw his doctor when he was walking down the street in the DR. And his doctor came right out and started asking him about it. And he thought it was funny because people around could hear us and probably thinking we are gay. Okay. My my primary concern is about this doctor being very indiscreet in public about private medical information. So apparently Edward has concerns about Michael, the ex-husband. Marissa says that we're really good at co-parenting the two boys, but she says this quote, a dad that has boys is always going to feel threatened when a new man comes in. And I have to ask why though. Why boys? Why having boys would make you feel threatened? I don't I don't know. Edward is really seems really sweet at this point. He says, I don't want him to feel like I'm trying to steal the love of the kids. Marissa says, if Michael comes in with anger, don't respond to it. And my thought, how about Marissa and Michael go talk about this at family therapy? Because it seems like Michael is a problem and she's enabling it. Let's move on to Mallory and Rashit. Or Raj, as she calls him. Mallory's 29 from Athens, Alabama. We've got a few Alabamians, Alabamians on this season. She's got her short shorts on, her cowboy boots, her cowboy hat. She's taking a taxi to the marina in Turkey, where she pronounces it Turkey. Turkey. I think she's pronouncing it correctly, and I am gonna butcher it, so I'm not going to try too hard. So in her talking head, the producer says, How would you describe yourself? And she says, Um, basic white bitch. She says, Um, my friends and I get into some crazy things for fun. It involves a lot of drinking. But her fiance is named Rosh because she can't say his name correctly. But she does speak some Turkish and she does pronounce the name of the country correctly, which is more than most Americans can do or are willing to try, but she can't say Rashid. I don't know. But she's here in Turkey to accompany Rash Rashid to the US because of exactly the reason you are thinking. She says, I'm not taking any chances of him having any trouble getting into the US. Fair. I mean, girl, at this point I would be like, how about I just move to Turkey? Dealing with trying to get an international fiance in America right now. Mm-mm. Fuck that noise. I'd sooner just leave. She says that Rosh is a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. And she says, let's be real, my fiancee is hot as fuck. I'm not gonna argue with that. No spaghetti arms on that one. Um, so we meet Rashit, he is age 29 from Marmaris, Turkey. He says, and I am captain. So he's a captain of a charter boat. What you guys, what if he was the captain on the charter boat that Biercon chartered for Laura and before the 90 days? But this whole area that he's from is so gorgeous. You've got the sea, you've got the mountains. Sir, you are not ready for northern Alabama. That's all I can say. He is very sad to be leaving Marmaris. I would be too, but he's excited to be with Mallory. He says he loves her heart first, and second, he says, I don't like skin. The producer says, skinny? Skinny. He confirms, yes, I don't like skinny. Uh she is a curvy girl. She is really cute as a button. He says, for me, she is perfect. Did anybody have flashes of love actually just then? To me, you are perfect. So it's been six months since they've seen each other. Um, they met two years ago when she went to Greece for a girls' trip, and she said we had a wild time and ended up meeting Roshit, I guess, on a dating app while she was there. He swiped on her, she swiped on him, and then they met up. She has this really funny video. I don't know if it was a TikTok or whatever, uh, where she posted saying, Some dude I just met up with, if you catch my drift, afterward he French braided my hair. It was and it's really cute. He did a really good job French braiding her hair. Uh, in her talking head, she says, I planned on Rosh being a one-night stand and never planned on hearing from him again. The producer asks, What happened? And she says, I guess he just fell in love with me the minute he laid eyes on me. Uh, okay, so their proposal video is really cute. Uh, he says they both started to cry. In his talking head, he says, I love you so much, Mallory. I I love this guy. They do the little Titanic move on the bow of the boat, and it's super corny but adorable. And he's really sweet with her because she's nervous out on the bow. I think she's got a little bit of um fear of heights. So they sit down and they talk on the dock, and he's getting a little choked up, and he's crying a little bit about leaving his family behind. The producer asks Rushi, what did Mallory tell you about Alabama? He says he's heard about rednecks. He says, What does redneck mean? Mallory says they love NASCAR, they love hunting, they love America. Rasheed said they don't like other countries, they don't like Muslims. Mallory says, Well, there's good rednecks and there's bad rednecks. Rashi said, You have friends who are rednecks? She says, Yeah, really uncomfortably. You'll meet them. Oh boy. So in Mallory's talking head, she says, in the next few days, I'm dreading he's gonna have to say goodbye to his friends and family. And I don't think I prepped him for how life is gonna be in Alabama. She says she has friends who are very conservative and some friends who are super into the deportations. And why are they still your friends, Mallory? Why are you still friends with them? I am already very nervous for him. Moving on to Aisha and Maxwell. You know what? Not a lot of big age gaps this season, and I'm happy about that. I have to admit, one of my toxic traits is I like an age gap in a romance novel. I do not love a huge age gap in real life. That said, when my kids' middle school friends found out that my husband was eight years older than me, they kind of freaked out a little bit. Aisha is from Alabaster, Alabama. Uh, we open on Aisha in church. It is a lot. I'm getting flashbacks of Hazel's church in the Philippines to remember that when Tariq went to the Philippines looking deeply uncomfortable with people shouting and screaming and crying and falling on the ground. That's what my face is doing right now, watching Asia's Pentecostal church. People are dancing, they are shouting, they are flailing, they are speaking in tongues. These pastors are putting people on the floor. You guys, I gotta tell you something. I was going through some things in my early 20s, and I'm not gonna get into it, but I visited some different churches, and I just wanted to see what other churches were like. And I went to a church like this, and I realized early on that there was a lot of audience participation. Just saying the words audience participation makes my butt crawl out of my chair. I hate audience participation with an unholy passion. Do not get me involved. Where I'm sitting in my seat, and I do mean sitting. My gosh, I saw people walking up the center aisle, speaking in tongues, shouting and keening and whatnot, and laughing about nothing. That's probably the craziest thing. People were laughing for no reason, like they were possessed. It felt like something from a horror movie. I'm not saying Aceia's Church is like a horror movie. It's not okay, it's not exactly the same. But this one particular church I was at, it really, really freaked me out. And I was scared, I was so scared. They were going row by row, people were coming forward and they were touching them, and these people were falling on the floor, and I did not understand why. All I knew is I did not want anyone touching me or talking to me in tongues. I did not like this. Something felt very wrong. And once again, not saying anything is wrong at Aisha's church, but something felt wrong to me and that other church that I was at where they were speaking in tongues. And I was out that door before anybody could lay hands on me, and I never looked back. So what we do have here is some laying on of hands and speaking in tongues. Aisha says, This church believes the whole Bible, including that miracle, still happen today. People have been given spiritual gifts, and God has given her many. Okay. She said, I was in the middle of a store and God said, Listen. He said, This will be the next song that comes on the radio. She says, Literally, I was shocked listening to this in-sync song and realized God told me what it was. My pastor told me I have a gift. Okay, so she says, the speaking in tongues that we see her do, it's a language that God understands, but the devil doesn't. So, like writing in code if you're at war. So speak that reminds me, speaking of breaking a code while you're at war. Um I'm reading a book with my kids. Obviously, not a romance book. I'm reading with my kids. It's called The Bletchley Riddle. And it's about code breakers. It's a fictional story about code breakers set in World War II in England, and they describe um, there's like Alan Turing makes an appearance in this book. It's really interesting, anyways. Getting off track. Here we go. So Asia gets up and speaks in front of the church, gives her testimony about how God is bringing her fiance to her. She said she's been waiting since she was 16. Lord, when are you gonna bring me my husband? Here's a thought God doesn't want you to be married at 16, probably. So some time ago, she uh saw a notification that came across her phone that said, Here comes the bride. And she said, Okay, God, I got you. Aisha, are you sure that wasn't your phone getting hacked? She said in February, God said, Get ready. In March, God said, He's not close. She said, I knew I had to widen my search. So within two weeks, we matched with each other online. Maxwell's from Nigeria, he's 28. She said, from jump, he was speaking by language. Maxwell's the male version of me. We both love business, we both love the Lord, and we are both family oriented. Okay, business, family, and the Lord. Got it. She says, God literally created this man for me. How I am I am just fascinated by people who are so so very certain about what God is telling them. Anyways, she says, if this happened to someone else, I would say you're probably getting scammed. Mm-hmm. If I knew someone like that, I would. Say they were getting scammed, Asha. But anyway, she flew to Nigeria with her friend to meet Maxwell and his friend Silas. She says Max had asked her if she could hook his friend up with someone, so she brought her girlfriend along. She is blurred out in the photos, but Silas is not. So that tells me either this friend is not with Silas anymore at the time of this airing, or that she wants nothing to do with the show, or possibly both. She says, I feel like everything is happening the way it's supposed to. Yet Aisha is giving me main character vibes. She is the main character of everything. And you cannot tell her anything. She says, in Africa, on the third night, Silas proposed to my friend, and I thought, you're crazy. So the next night, Maxwell decided to propose. So this trip is supposed to be about Maxwell and Aisha meeting and getting to know each other. But then Silas went in and did a proposal first. I would love to know what those two guys talked about later that night. Was Maxwell, like, dude, why are you stealing my thunder? But back at church, she's asking everyone for prayers because Maxwell goes for his interview soon. She tells us in her talking head, if you have God on your side, what could go wrong? So next we see Aisha at home on the couch sometime later. She's got her Bible open in her lap. She is crying and speaking in tongues. Someone is on the speaker phone, very crackly, very staticky. And then she starts chanting the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood. I can't even say it as many times in a row. It's like a tongue twister, but she says it like 17 times. And it was really starting to like make my toes curl a little bit. Um she's wearing a Jewish prayer shawl. Okay, listen. Go on with speaking in tongues. If you want to speak in tongues, do whatever. Believe whatever. But I I have had it up to here with Christians taking Jewish symbols and traditions as their own. That does not belong to you. Stop it. There's other reasons why evangelicals have a weird attachment to Judaism, and it goes pretty dark. I'm not gonna get into that today, but unfortunately, I understand how these people think. Maybe I'll talk about that someday. Asia gives us an update. Maxwell and Silas went to their interview. Maxwell got to the embassy first, and he came out and sent her a picture of this very sus-looking green piece of paper that says, Your visa has been approved. We will contact when it is ready for pickup. Do not make any travel plan or buy a ticket until you get the visa. Um does anybody else think that that piece of paper does not look official? Um, but then she says she's on the phone with Maxwell and he says, I gotta call you back. I have to go back inside. Next thing she knows, she gets another picture that does look like it's an official piece of paper from the embassy that says visa is denied. And they have a whole checklist of reasons, and the one that's checked is other. And somebody wrote on the line in there petition to be returned to USCW for revocation. I do not understand this. But she says what happened was Maxwell had his interview, then Silas went in for his interview. The people, the staff looked at the photos and saw that it was the four of them together and decided that it looked like fraud. And so the official at the embassy or whatever yelled at them and said, Not only will I file this as fraud, I will ban you from the US. Aisha says, the thought never crossed my mind that he would get denied. Getting banned is beyond words. It prevents him from applying to ever come to the US ever. She says, I do not know how the devil snuck in, gave him a visa in his hand, let him walk out the door with the visa, let him celebrate for 0.2 seconds, and then tell him to come back in and give it back. Okay, here's the thought. He did not have a visa in his hand. He had a very suspicious-looking green note that said he was approved and said, Don't travel till you have the visa. So he didn't actually have the visa. She's telling him, Do not leave that embassy. You talk to whoever you gotta talk to to get back in that building. She went in full Karen mode. She says, apparently there was a security guard outside, and he was going back and forth between Maxwell outside and whoever official was inside the building. And they were going back and forth, and then finally everybody just got tired and agreed to talk to Maxwell. I kind of feel like this is how it is dealing with Acia. Eventually, you get tuckered out and she gets her way. She is like a mom with a kid saying, Get back in there and finish what you're supposed to be doing. She says, I am terrified that one person can say one thing, and that's my life. I would lose the love of my life. Um, but then she says, he calls back and he's been told you're no longer banned, but he's been told we should apply for this spousal visa. The K1 cannot be done now. And then Asia says, That doesn't sit right with me. Spousal visas take longer. Did you ask about the appeal process? He says, I didn't ask him that. She says, I'm gonna talk to an attorney because that's not right. They have definitely messed with the wrong woman. God has not denied me anything in my life. Maxwell and I were destined to be together. Okay, so she's a fascinating character. And I gotta move on to Shay. Shay, Shay. What do I have to say about Shay? He is 54 years old. He is from Paducah, Kentucky, also known as Quilt City, I guess. His fiance is Annabelle from the Philippines, also 54. Um, it looks like we're meeting Shay for the first time at some kind of outdoor barbecue festival, maybe. I don't know what it is, but there's lots of barbecue happening. It looks like it smells amazing. Oh, there is nothing like barbecue in the South, really anywhere. I've had North Carolina, I've had Texas, I've had South Carolina. I've not had barbecue in Kentucky, but it looks pretty fantastic. So Shay is a realtor, an auctioneer. He says, if you live in Paducah, you probably know who I am. We probably met up and had a beer. Everyone around is coming up and saying hi to Shay. This could be editing, but this is a lot more recognition walking down the street than we ever saw with Stigda Artists and Belize. Is that me throwing Shade? Maybe a little bit. He says, It's always five o'clock somewhere, so you're always gonna catch me having some fun. Okay, I think we are gonna be in trouble soon. They roll video recordings of Shay on a boat on a lake drinking beer out of a funnel. Mm-hmm. And then there's a party scene where he's chugging a beer out of a glass, and there's like a wire somehow attached to this glass, and the wire is attached to a phone or some device, some guy, other guys holding. I need to know what that is. So, anyways, at this barbecue outdoor festival thing, we get a little interview with Shay's friend Angie, who says, Women are just drawn to him. He's very flirty, little kiss on the cheeks, hug, that kind of thing. If I were single, I might consider dating him. Guys, Angie is the daughter of Shay's friend. She's quite a bit younger, I think. Not to be mean, but I'm gonna stop you right there, Angie, because what do you mean? Women are naturally drawn to Shay. Right off the bat, he does not look healthy. I'm not talking about his looks, I'm not talking about his size. I don't care what size you are. There's somebody for everybody. I'm talking about his skin, his pallor, the state of him. Something is off the splotchiness. These white patches on the back of his legs. Very clearly has some bad circulation problems. He does not need to be going to the lake and partying. He needs to stop, he needs to eat a green vegetable, drink some water, get an EKG. Production definitely didn't tell Shay's friend to say, I bet Annabelle never had barbecue like this before, as a segue. So how did they meet? I have so many questions. They met through his friend Greg. His friend Greg spends six months a year in Paducah and six months a year with his wife in the Philippines. Why are we not bringing Greg's ex-wife over an espouse of Visa? Fishy. So they introduced Annabelle and Shay over video chat. At first, she pretended not to know English, which was kind of funny. He says, Annabelle is such a sweet, caring person. God knew I needed that. Let's not bring God into this. He says, about 10 or 11 months after they started talking every day, he went to visit her. Uh, at the first night he was there, they were getting ready to go have dinner, and he goes to wash up first, and then Annabelle drops her drawers and comes into the shower with him and starts scrubbing them down. He says, She's going into crevices I didn't know I had. She trimmed my toenails. He lifts up his foot for the camera and his talking head. 'Tays I'm keeping them trimmed just for you. Oh boy. So he proposed after a couple of days, once they met in person. He says it's easy to get comfortable with someone who scrubs your butt cheeks. Hmm, Shay, what you need is a live-in nurse, not a girlfriend. I think he thinks he's getting a full-time nurse, is what I think is happening. Back at the barbecue festival, Greg says, You're gonna have to cut back on the party scene and the drinking when Annabelle gets here. Shay says that whenever Annabelle asks about how much he's been drinking, he tells her about a third. So if he had 12 beers, he'll tell her he had three or four. Good lord. That is so much beer. How do you function? Okay, now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty. He says, sometimes things happen at the lake that get out of hand. But what happens at the lake stays at the lake. He says, why has everybody got to know everything? What don't you want people to know, Shay? So, right here, I do need to say something about Stephanie. There's another woman there with them at the festival, eating barbecue with him. And it's a really sad story because that just came out a couple weeks ago. Sally, this sadly, this poor woman, Stephanie, apparently was killed by her ex. And I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't mention it. She looks like a sweet woman, super upsetting to know that. Really apologize if that's upsetting and triggering to anybody. I'm going to have a number in the show notes, a hotline for anybody who is experiencing domestic violence. Rest in peace, Stephanie. I'm really, really sorry. But she asks him, are you saying you wouldn't give up partying at the lake for Annabelle? He says, Do you think I would? And she says, No, I don't. In Shay's Talking Head, he says, There have been things that have happened since he's been together with Annabelle and that he hasn't told her about. A little bit later, we see him inviting his daughters Allison and Abigail to come over to his house. Look at the clothes that he bought for Annabelle. He's been collecting stuff for her for almost three years. Oh, he also tells us he has an older son named Hunter and a younger child named Madison. We don't meet Hunter or Madison, so I'm really curious what their story is. Allison is a basic nightmare, but Al Abigail seems cool. Allison lives right next door. She says, free rent, free childcare. It's basically the perfect setup. She's there all the time checking up on him. They do everything together. Abigail says, You think it's going to be a problem with Annabelle here and you and Dad doing stuff together? Allison says, Dad and I go to the lake together. We drink together. We watch the game together. She says, I hope Annabelle knows I'm his daughter first and she is not going to come before me. So after Abigail leaves, Shay and Allison have a talk. He says Abigail's climbing your tree about that. Uh yeah, Allison's gonna be a problem. Somebody shows up to the house, and I think it's gonna be my favorite person in the Shay segment, Nicole. Maybe I like her a lot because she's already pissing off Allison before we even see her face. Allison says, Why is she here? I'm sick of her pulling up here like that. So Nicole is ex-wife number two, mother of the youngest child, Madison. Shay says, Anytime we're together, it's not good, it's bad. Well, Nicole shows up to the door and she is cute as a button. She says, Can I talk to you in private? She has gorgeous blue eyes. She has some chaotic energy that I appreciate. Very controlled chaotic energy. Alison says she's always gonna be there ruining everything. Shay says, She's trouble. Nicole has dirt on me and she can't wait to spill it. Mm-hmm. So Nicole asks to see Shay outside to talk privately. And right out the gate, she says, You do know when Annabelle gets here, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna talk to her. For context, we get a talking head with Shay. It said that his marriage to Nicole lasted four weeks. She did things I didn't agree with, and I did things she didn't agree with. He calls her jealous and vindictive. He doesn't want me to be with anyone but her. Nicole says Annabelle needs to know about Angie. Are you having a relationship with Angie? Angie, who we met at the barbecue. Shea says, I'm not in a relationship with Angie or anyone. So he explains that Angie was divorced recently. Didn't she say at the barbecue if I was single and might date him? I'm confused. He says, we might go out to dinner and catch a band on a weekend, but it's just friendship. He says, Is this Nicole's last ditch effort to screw things up with Annabelle? Nicole says, So, in your opinion, flirting with people and telling people things that would obviously upset Annabelle is not cheating. Shay says, Everyone's perception is different. Uh-huh. Um Nicole gets a talking head and she says, he led me on for years. Then we got together, we got married, and it ended quick. He was talking to Annabelle when we were married. She says, if he thinks I'm not gonna tell Annabelle everything, he is wrong. And with the Angie situation, something is not right. She says, I don't want Annabelle to walk down the aisle without her knowing these things about him. She tells Shay, there have been times when you're with me and talking to Annabelle, and you move the phone so she can't see me. That's very unfair for her. Shay says, if we go out and have too many beers, I might say something vulgar or pat on you, but it's not like I want to rip your clothes off or anything. He says, There's no way I'm gonna stray even if I drink too much. Flirting is the extent of it. This is a severe lack of boundaries, is what this is. Nicole is just smiling and listening to him and letting him dig that hole deeper and deeper. He just keeps on going. He says, I'm not gonna like, oh, let's go around the corner and give a kiss or something. It's not gonna happen when she's here. Dude, are you telling on yourself? You are 100% cheating on this girl already, aren't you? Nicole says, Why is it okay that it happens when she's not here? Shay says, Because she's 8,000 miles away. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Nicole says, Shay, I was in bed with you when you were with Annabelle. He is looking around like a kid who just got caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. Nicole says that Annabelle called and she answered the phone, and they were in the same bed. Apparently, they had gone out to a concert or something, and they drank too much, and they were with a bunch of people, and they both passed out in their clothes in the bed. But that was enough to upset Annabelle. I mean, understandably so. But anyway, Shay says, I don't want you coming back here and doing that. There's a no-trespassing sign right there, and I don't want you back here. Does that mean he's gonna call the police on her? Uh Nicole says she's gonna understand who you are by the time I get done. Yes, Nicole. Shay says, There's plenty of people to contradict you on that. Nicole says, There's plenty of people who can also say they've seen me with you and seen the way you act with me. So he asks her to leave, and I think we can see why their marriage ended. In Shay's talking head, he says, I'm scared if Nicole gets to her before I can explain some of this stuff. She may want to head straight back to the Philippines. I'm not gonna let Nicole or anybody else ruin it just because she's jealous. Friend, I don't think Nicole needs to do a damn thing because your reputation is preceding you. Somebody is gonna spill it even if Nicole doesn't. You're gonna ruin it yourself. It's already ruined. Let's end it with Katie and Josh. Katie with a C is 26 years old from Portland, Oregon. We meet her as she's arriving back in the U.S. She's been living what she calls a carefree nomadic lifestyle for the last three years. Apparently, one day a friend suggested pet sitting in exchange for free room and board, I guess. And so she just picked up the next day and did it and put all her stuff into storage. She says, I definitely had a hoe phase. Don't tell my grandma. So she's coming home and has plans to settle down. I don't know if it's deliberately filmed like a Portlandia skit in the beginning, or if it's just the location is Portland, but her whole segment feels like a Portlandia skit. Even her talking head, she's like, Hold on, my boobs itch. Why did they not cut that out? Um, but anyways, her fiance is Josh. Um, he's British. She says he's a bit reserved, he doesn't judge me at all because I have OCD and he understands my quirks. Producer says, Okay, tell me the whole story of how you met. So she says, I was pet sitting in the UK. I checked Tinder and responded to this guy named Dave, and we were hanging out with Dave and some of his friends at the pub, and we were drinking, and um, so I made out with Dave, and then um, and then we met some of his friends, including Josh, and then Dave got kicked. Out. So I made out with one of Dave's other friends and then asked Josh if he wanted to make out. And Josh said, no, because you just made out with two of my friends. And then there's this drunk video. I took a video of me drunk in the bathroom, um, talking about Josh and how he's so cute and she wants to make out with him. And then there was a guy outside being creepy. So Josh agreed to walk me home. Um, we made out on a bench outside, and then he had to go pee in a bush, and I ran away because I was embarrassed, and that's how I met my fiancee. So then after that, he met up with her in Milan for another pet sit. Josh, what do you do for a living that you can just pick up and go to Milan? Anyway, she says he doesn't want to talk about anal on the subway. The producer says, Would you? She says, Yeah, I would definitely talk about anal on the subway. So she's back in Portland with her running friends. They run and then they go drink. I mean, hardcore. She's doing shots after this run. Katie says, I wasn't thinking about marriage, but he proposed on the coast of Turkey. He did the classic trick of saying the photo was on a timer. They were going to take a picture together, but actually it was a video of him proposing. And she says yes, but she says, I want it to look cuter. Um, she said, but she's also worried about the relationship because her OCD causes her to make bad decisions. She says, so so while she's out drinking with her running friends, uh, one of them asks how stressed she is on a scale of one to 10. She says, I'm at a nine. She says, I have been kissing people while drunk again lately. Her friend says, Did you tell Josh? She said, Yeah, I apologize 20 million times. She says, When I get drunk, my OCD causes intrusive thoughts that make me want to make out with random people. And it's been happening more frequently lately. She says, I really just want to feel wanted. In her talking head, she says, I tell him every time I do something out of line, but he says he can't see him marrying her if it continues. She says, I would like to stop wanting to make out, but when I drink, my brain has other plans for me. I would say that's not an OCD problem. That's a drinking problem. I need so much more information. I need to know if she's in therapy. I need to know if she's on medication. But uh a little bit later, we're in her storage locker with a stained twin mattress and a bunch of bins. Some of them are random and some of them are super organized. She's one of them, in one of them, she's got beans, a keyboard, olive oil. She says, Josh is not prepared for living with my chaos. No, he's not. I can see this already. Um, and the biggest reveal here is while she's unpacking. I said I'd take care of getting an apartment. She says, we don't have one yet, and he's coming tomorrow. She says, I could live out of my car for a day or two and I'd be fine. Um, I don't know how she's not like full on panicking at this point. She says, Sometimes I say I'm gonna do stuff and I don't do them to his liking. Sometimes I get consumed by details, and then a big thing falls through the cracks, like finding a roof over your head. Yeah, this girl needs help. She needs to stop drinking. She says she remembers having OCD in preschool. She went to therapy, she was diagnosed in middle school. She said it makes it hard to get big things done. She's always checking the door handles on doors to make sure they're locked. She's always checking the stove to make sure it's turned off. She's always looking at her teeth to make sure they're not chipped. She says, all these things that her OCD makes her do takes time away from focusing on bigger tasks. And by the way, if you hear children screaming in the background, those are my children upstairs just farting around before bed. She says, I'm worried Josh will be less accepting and understanding when he is with me 24-7, and now I get to tell him that we're homeless. Oh, fortunately, she gets a hotel room the day that he arrives, and she's making cake pops in a hotel room. I mean, there's a kitchenette and a countertop, but this is a lot to be doing in a hotel. It's sweet though. Uh, she and her janky decorations from the Dollar Tree. Very cute. But she does tell us at the hotel, I guess it's the next day, she did just sign a lease on an apartment. So that's good news. Um, she says their sex life lately has been dull. They haven't been having enough. So she asked him to get the condoms, so at least he'd be thinking about that. She's walking out of the hotel to go to the airport with cake pops in a cup. And of course, she drops one outside in the parking lot and she picks it up and puts it back in the cup. She says, Josh won't eat that one. How do you know? How do you know Josh isn't going to eat that one? So she explains in the car on the way over there that Josh hates PDA, but she wants to make out for 10 minutes when she sees him. Uh at the airport, she does check the locks on the car kind of a lot. She has a shopping bag full of shit. She's got balloons, a flag, an Uncle Sam hat. This is and the cake pops. This is so much. But it's a really sweet effort. Um, she says, at least he'll spot me, probably. Oh, he'll spot you. She even has on blue eyeliner and red lipstick, bless. Um, so he arrives and it's very cute. You can see that they are both very much into each other, and they kiss and hug, and it's real sweet. And she says, Can we make out for four minutes? And they actually put a timer on the screen, it's 11 seconds. And Josh is talking head, he says, I've never been super hot on PDA. I feel self-conscious. I don't think I'm the only person who's like that. No, you're not. Nobody wants to make out for 10 minutes in the airport. I don't know. Nobody I know. Maybe I'm sheltered. She gives him an Uncle Sam hat, she puts it on him, and she says, This is Uncle Sam's hat. I forgot who he is. He is an icon from the past, or he's fake. I'm not sure. Yeah. Okay. She tells him that she does have a place for them to stay, but tonight, tomorrow, they may have to stay in a hotel. And then she takes out sexy red lingerie for tonight. She brought her lingerie to the airport. Uh, Josh says we are very different, and you're very chaotic and wild and lovely. It just felt like we fit. I guess we find out, and I really hope Josh doesn't get his heart broken watching her make out with people. It's time for Book Club Corner. Um, if you've been following along, you know I just finished reading Rock Hard by Nalini Sang. Um, it was so good. I highly recommend it. Workplace Romance, uh, ex-rugby player set in Australia, and it's a little bit of a slow burn, but I thought the characters are really well drawn, had a very satisfying payoff at the end. I was thinking about the next book that I want to read, and I think I'm only gonna be doing this talking about book club on Saturdays, just to give everybody time who's listening to find me on Story Graph. I will have links in the show notes. And I was thinking about something that lines up with something about this season. So, starting out, I'm going to read a book called Beyond Repair by Charlotte Stein. Charlotte Stein is one of my go-to's, especially her older things. She is just, I can't, I don't even want to spoil it, but oh, she does internal monologue so good. But the reason I picked it is because next week or the week after, we're gonna meet someone who is dating supposedly a movie star from Egypt. Um, and so, but in this book that I'm going to do next for the book club, the main character meets a real movie star, not a real life movie star. In the book, he's a real movie star. In a very unusual circumstance. It's like funny and also sad and strange, and it's a reread for me, so I'm not gonna spoil anything because I already know everything that happens. It's super, super, super hot too. Charlotte, nobody, nobody, nobody writes smut the way that Charlotte Stein writes smut. And I use the word smut in a positive sense. So if you need a book recommendation that relates to something about this current season of 90-day fiance, there it is. Beyond Repair by Charlotte Stein. By the time you hear this, I will be finishing up my next little monthly novella. This one's called Unplanned. It's about a wedding that gets canceled. Um, has nothing to do with 90-day fiance. It's just about um a couple and some overbearing parents, uh small town drama, a little bit of rom-com, um, best friends to lovers. Um it's very sweet and juicy and sad, but also happy ending. If you're interested in any of that, I will have links to that in my show notes. Really, I have a huge back catalog of novellas, a few full-length novels. I have so much in my back catalog that you guys can read on Amazon, Apple, Kobo, lots of different platforms. You can go and grab them. And I try to keep them $3.99 or below. I will also put a link to Beyond Repair by Charlotte Stein. If you're interested in supporting the show, I will have links for that in the show notes. Please click five stars on Apple and Spotify. Help me boost the signal for the show if you like it. Share it, tell your friends. And that's the show. Take care, and I'll see you all soon.