missed part one, part two or part three? check em out!

So after the whole debacle of not getting paid for the first season of The Girls Next Door, Holly, Bridget and Kendra became savvier to the whole reality game and quickly started enjoying themselves.  The enormous popularity of the show helped boost Hef’s ego, and he even stopped requiring the girls to sleep with him any longer, much to Holly’s relief.

Because the show kept getting more and more popular, the girls actually began to get to leave the mansion and do some real traveling.  They went on a two-week excursion through Europe, multiple trips to Vegas, and even to Holly’s tiny hometown of Craig, Alaska.  Hey didn’t always tag along on these trips, so the girls got some independence from their oldass jailer and got to finally see the world.  Things were really looking up for ol’ Holls, but, of course, it couldn’t last.  When they were approaching the fifth season of The Girls Next Door, they were told to sign a contract with Alta Loma, which was Playboy’s production company, and were not allowed to have outside counsel look it over.  I mean, this is total bullshit.  This whole book is basically Holly’s “I Slept with and Old Guy and All I got was this Lousy TV Show” burn book filled with petty grievances and complaints, but not letting the women negotiate their own contracts with free agency after they had been on a wildly successful show for four years is way harsh, Tai.

Hef was proving himself to be more of an Elton than a Josh over and over again (okay, no more Clueless references).  As time went on, Kendra became the most noticeably restless of all of the girls.  She often began refusing to film or go on trips with Holly and Bridget for the show.  It was clear that the end of the OG trio was nigh, but Hef had always given Kendra a wider berth and tolerated her tantrums mores than Bridget or Holly.  Hef also dialed up his cruelty to Holly, routinely screaming at her and calling her a See You Next Tuesday with no remorse.  He even embarrassed her in a dominos game, which, sorry but lol.  While that sounds less than terrific, Holly also reveals that she and Hef had begun the IVF process and were checking his sperm to see if it were at all viable.  This makes Holly sound like your friend who dates a horrible douche bag she never stops complaining about and then tell you in the next breath about how they have been looking at apartments together.  I just don’t understand Holly’s end game here.  I know hindsight is 20/20, but did she want to end up with Hef or did she want to become famous and ditch the mansion forever?  I literally have no idea.

Then things really start happening.  Bridget got offered a show on the Travel Channel (it was Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches.  Did you ever watch it?  It was literally just Bridget giggling maniacally and saying “oh wow!” at every palm tree.  Just the one season) and Kendra was preparing to leave as well.  She had secretly been dating NFL player (and future transexual-encounter-haver) Hank Baskett.  As The Girls Next Door started weaving in scenes to film their final exit, Holly felt more and more anxious about truly being the only mistress at the mansion.  At that point, she really felt like Kendra and Bridget had become her family and she didn’t feel like she could do it alone.

While she was debating the next chapter of her life, Holly finally got the opportunity to have a FULL night away from Hef and the mansion all by herself!  Holly had been working on Playmate shoots for Studio West, Playboy’s photo production house, for the past few years.  Her work was even featured on The Girls Next Door and was supposed to be a big part of her new life on Season Six of the show.  Holly got to go to Vegas overnight to work on a shoot and Hef allowed her to have a night by herself for the first time in SEVEN years. That is INSANE for someone who didn’t have kids.  I would go NUTS.  Anyway, after her full day of work, Holly decides to reach out to her “friend” Criss Angel (I mean?  Really?  CRISS?) to see if he will take her out “as friends.”

They ended up having a low-key dinner and going to a nightclub, and Holly enjoyed herself immensely.  For the first time since she was 21, she got to have fun and flirt with someone who wasn’t old enough to be her grandfather.  A lot of firsts that night for our girl!  Holly swears up and down repeatedly that ABSOLUTELY nothing happened between them that first night beyond a kiss on the cheek.  Now Holly has a decision to make: should she stay with Hef and see if life at the mansion one-on-one is different?  Or finally leave her misery behind and head for the bright lights of Vegas?