Ten Days Before Marta Chooses
- comedy
- modern-fantasy
- neighbors
- office
- romance
- slow-burn
- streaming
Marta Pires hired you to save her Lisbon forecasting salon, not to date her on camera. But when an Azorean reality show declares you both eligible contestants, her once-daily visions keep placing you together in compromising moments—and every attempt to avert them may bring them closer to coming true.
The launch bumps once against the rubber fenders, and a deckhand loops the bowline around an iron ring sunk into wet black basalt. Above the quay, hydrangeas toss in the Atlantic wind. Casa da Bruma waits higher on the slope—all dark stone, cedar balconies, and bright windows—while two shoulder-mounted cameras record the contestants stepping ashore.
Marta Pires lands beside you with one hand on her white hair and the other protecting a slim leather forecast case from the spray. She has just straightened her cream jacket when field director Celeste Ramires raises a hand.
“One correction before cottage assignments. Linha Clara did not send us a reader and a member of staff.” Celeste turns toward the nearest camera. “It sent us two eligible participants. Marta’s assistant will vote, pair, date, and face the final quay decision under the same rules as everyone else.”
Rui lets out a delighted laugh. Joana’s eyebrows rise. Across the stones, Clara looks from Marta to you and notices, with immediate interest, how neither of you had been warned.
Marta goes perfectly still.
The world catches behind her eyes: a green glass bottle rolling across tile; rainwater dripping from your sleeve; the cramped wine pantry; her body pressed against yours between cedar shelves. Her fist is tangled in the front of your shirt. Someone is breathing too quickly. The image breaks before she can see who moved first.
She returns to the quay with color climbing into her face and finds one camera already tightening its frame.
“That was not a romantic reaction,” she says, too quickly. Then, lowering her voice without quite managing to make it private: “You will remain on the operational side of this arrangement. Whatever Celeste has put in the contract, you and I are perfectly capable of behaving like employer and employee.”
A gust drives cold spray over the quay. Marta flinches back from it—and, remembering something only she has seen, abruptly checks the distance between you.
“And stay out of the wine pantry.”
[PRODUCTION SLATE]
Day: 1 | Time: Late morning
Cameras: Live
Format: Arrival and cottage assignment
Forecast: Soaked together in the wine pantry; Flicker
Marta: Strained | Defensive professional distance
Pairings: None
Open threads: The surprise eligibility clause; Marta’s warning; first-impression placements
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Your Boss's Ten-Day Dating Show
Ten days on a private Azorean islet. Live cameras. One producer who reads the future badly.
Then the field director says your name into the microphone and calls you a contestant.
Marta Pires is your employer. She is also the woman whose salon would have closed in a month without you, and she knows it, and she would rather chew glass than say it on camera.
Her first vision lands before anyone has found a cottage. The wine pantry. Both of you soaked. Her hand fisted in your shirt.