- Today has been a bad day.
- I'm just frustrated at the entire thing.
- We're just both upset.
I'm just worried that all of this is getting to him
and that he's like seeing me
in a different light or something.
It feels like the quality of the time we're spending
together has been going down.
I don't know how to make things feel normal again.
- Hello.
Is sound rolling?
Sound is rolling.
(clapping)
(sighing)
Hi there, I'm Aria.
- And I'm Merle.
- And obviously things right now are little hectic
- Coo coo bananas. - A little wild out there.
And so I guess, we wanna do our part to
obviously help with the social distancing practices
going on right now.
The work from home orders and so we wanna limit
the amount of time we're traveling back and forth
between our places and so we are gonna
just lock ourselves up together now.
- [Merle] In my jungle.
- [Aria] So we're gonna do this for at least seven days.
- And then we'll decide if we wanna renew
- Yeah - the subscription.
(laughs)
- [Aria] We're not gonna be completely
alone these seven days though
'cause we have this little kitty here.
- [Merle] Genevieve.
- [Aria] Love Merle loves all animals.
- Yeah. - So she's taking me in too.
(laughs)
I guess one of the reasons why Merle brought me here
is that she's using me as a handyman.
She bought a set of wall mounts for the kitty cat.
(drill roars)
- Oh god.
So we've been dating for a few months and you know
going from seeing each other here and there
and spending about a few days together at most
to 24/7 for a week straight
is gonna be like going from zero to 60.
- [Aria] Here is just this beauty and I
confined in a spot together.
- [Merle] Waking up together.
Eating together.
Working together.
- Making love.
- Not on camera.
- Yeah. But...
- I'm gonna see how many times a day this man
uses the bathroom.
- Ah, I don't use the bathroom.
I don't - What?
(laughs) He uses the cat tray.
(laughs)
- Wow. - Ah, look at that.
- [Merle] You look pretty proud.
- Project is complete.
The kitty cat can hop up here.
Scamper up here, wop wop wop--
- [Merle] What's that I see underneath?
- We don't need to show that.
- We certainly don't need to show that.
(laughing)
I may have miscalculated some of my measurements.
From a certain angle
you can't see it.
- I feel like our relationship's been pretty public.
And there is a lot of pressure that goes with that
with like being a perfect couple.
So, I think this will be a good opportunity
for people to see that we are just human beings
here. - Exactly.
'Cause I think it will get tough this week.
- Oh, I know it will get tough.
- (laughs) I'm hoping it won't.
- People aren't meant to be together
24/7 at all times, nobody.
People that live together see each other less
than him and I already do, 'cause we work together.
(chopping crunch)
We're pickling and we're watching "Twin Peaks".
- Pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle.
It's pretty.
- The first time that Aria and I went out to get
some Thai food together, he said
"Are you sure you want extra, extra spicy?"
And I said, "Yes, I am sure I do."
And sure enough, we the same thing.
Aria was crying, I was totally fine.
- [Aria] I was blown away by this white woman.
(laughs)
- Smells like BO.
But it will taste delicious in just a week's time.
- Day one is pretty much over.
We're gonna just floss and get ready for the night.
So far so good though, right?
- Yeah, today was a good day.
I think it's gonna be hard enough to stay sane
as your own human being, let alone with another person.
But we're gonna do our best.
We'll try to be kind to each other.
And we'll be very honest about how this actually goes.
- This hurts.
- Yeah, I don't like this.
- I don't like it either (mumbles)
(laughing)
- He's in a bit of a (mumbles)
Let's see his (screams)
I got it, I got it.
- Sock wrestling is something that we've done since we
started dating. - ever since we
started dating. - Yeah.
Very simple concept.
You wrestle. - I always win.
- No.
- I've got the height advantage.
My legs are long. - Exactly, exactly.
She has, she's got-- - But he has been trained
by professional fighters. (laughs)
(thud)
(screaming)
(grunts)
- You hit me in the balls.
- No.
Are you okay? I'm so (mumbles)
Oh.
He's a liar, he's a liar.
(chuckles)
- Yeah. (sighs)
We have work to do today.
But sock wrestling was a good way to start the day.
(birds chirping)
- I'm working on this big project right now.
That is the biggest video I've ever done for BuzzFeed.
It's very personal.
It's essentially like a big life-changing revelation type
video that eats at my soul everyday that I edit it
because I have to watch myself crying every single day.
It's very stressful.
And I can't go outside.
(chuckles) - Yeah.
- It's just a (beep) nightmare.
Working from home used to feel like a snow day.
And now it's everyday.
- [Aria] Do you feel like we're more productive?
I don't about you, but I feel like I get distracted
a bit easily.
- Is Jess watching this?
- [Aria] Yeah probably (chuckles)
- I feel very productive.
(laughs)
(food sizzling)
- [Aria] I'm making some vegan tacos.
I'm cooking for this woman
'cause she's working hard on a big project.
- You're a good man.
- [Aria] There they are, there they are.
- Oh my god, it's so good.
(laughs
No.
Dinner. - Dinner, din--
♪ This man is handsome ♪
♪ This man can cook meals ♪
♪ This man is talented ♪
♪ And he is nice to me ♪
- Yeah, I love this lady. - That's my song.
(shaver buzzing)
- I feel like I'm not making any progress.
And yet I've been editing for 10 hours straight.
Imagine watching yourself go through intense therapy
about something extremely personal and then knowing
thousands and possible millions of people will watch it.
And then trying to be a normal person and a good girlfriend.
- [Aria] Well you're doing great.
- I don't feel like I'm doing very good.
- [Aria] Ah, (mumbles) my love.
- [Merle] I feel bad.
- [Aria] No, you're doing great.
(packet crackling)
We're here actually here at a Thai supermarket.
Getting some Asian produce.
Green onions
(chuckles)
- [Merle] Aria's gonna get spring rolls.
- I'm vegan this entire week, I just realized.
- You're welcome.
We're trying to get out of the house by any means necessary.
Just going grocery shopping feels like a luxury
'cause we're not supposed to be walking around
the whole time.
Days are all blurring into one day.
- So it's nice to kind of take a little break
you know in the day, to go out.
Put some pants on, 'cause I'm not wearing pants very often.
- Not ever. He's never wearing pants.
He's constantly has his buns out.
- She likes it though.
- Yeah, they're cute little coconuts.
(laughing)
- [Merle] Rolling on you.
- (chuckles) I didn't know we were rolling.
We're back home now.
Well, back at Merle's now.
I just-- - This will be your home
at this point. (laughs)
- We have work for the rest of the day.
Back to work (clapping)
Back to work.
(water spraying)
- I'm getting us paper towels.
- Okay, sweet man.
Handsome's upset for some reason.
- No.
No, I'm not.
(television blaring)
- We're feeling lonely a little bit.
So we wanted to reach out and see other people in the world.
We're filming a video right now, in case you're wondering.
Aria and I are kind of in closed quarters together
for at least a week.
- Fernando wants me to show my dick next.
- Okay, yeah let's do that.
(mumbles) those followers
(laughs)
- I'll get followers, I'll lose followers too.
"Can we get this is my world from Merle?"
Oh my gosh, yes please Merle. - Yeah.
- All right.
- This is my world.
- I like that, I like that.
We're now on day three of our time together
for a week non-stop.
She's been working on her big project.
And so I guess it's been nice chatting to everyone .
It's been nice trying to get a little break away
from everything.
But I guess it's right back to it just being the two of us
together. - Back to the grind.
- [Aria] Back to the grind.
(calm music)
- I think this project is already difficult.
And the fact that we're stuck inside all the time
is just amplifying it
times like 20.
I'm very cranky right now.
- [Aria] I'm sorry.
- You know what helps? - [Aria] What?
- Having a camera on my face.
(sighs)
- So...
Am I in focus, I can't tell if I'm in focus.
I'm making pasta.
(tapping on counter)
Now cooking dinner.
Just so, she doesn't have to worry about that.
Usually when I'm working on a big project
she takes care of me.
So, I just wanna return the favor.
We haven't been able to do too much today, apart from work.
So hopefully dinner will be a nice kinda like reprieve
for a little moment.
Hope you like it.
(loud chew)
- It's so good.
Oh my god, this is absolutely delicious.
- Really? Ah. - Yeah
this is like - I'm glad.
the perfect stress food.
I'm sorry I've been sleepy and cranky.
- [Aria] It's okay.
- This is so good.
- [Aria] I hope it helps.
- I'm gonna eat this whole thing in five minutes (chuckles)
- [Aria] Are you gonna go back to work?
- No, well, yeah.
But I'm actually gonna stop and enjoy this.
This is so, so yummy.
Thank you, sweet man.
- [Aria] You're welcome.
- This helps a lot.
(moans) Another man falls victim to Ashley Madison.
- No.
- [Merle] What are you doing?
- Messaging my family.
- Okay (mumbles) (laughs)
- My parents are overseas.
They're in Laos, which currently hasn't been too affected
by the pandemic.
But obviously, I'm a little worried about them.
- [Merle] Are you stressing out?
- A little bit.
I think, obviously a lot of us are worried about our
parents, but the fact that my family is so far away
makes it more stressful.
(mumbles)
You can go back to work, you don't have to worry about me.
You put this away. - You're telling me to
stop filming you?
- Yeah, yeah. Yeah don't. - Okay, okay, okay.
- Well so far it's been a
it's been a bit of a bad morning.
I don't even know how to vlog about it.
But, I guess for the sake of transparency
I guess this morning I wasn't in the best mood.
She wanted to take a break from her work and hang out
a little bit.
And she said that my reaction, I kinda brushed her off.
I guess when it comes to this project, I'm frustrated
'cause I see how draining it is for her
and I wanna support her through it.
And I just want her to get it done.
I don't know, I guess being in a bad mood and me...
In my eyes, wanting her to get focused on her work
I kinda brushed her off and obviously she was hurt by that.
And I mean I just...
I don't know, I'm just frustrated at the entire thing.
I don't know.
I don't know if you wanna vlog for the video?
- Okay.
I was working on my project and I tried to
go over to where Aria was sitting on the couch and like
be a little affectionate with him and
be kinda playful.
'Cause I feel like I've been just so serious and so
involved with this work.
And he just completely iced me out.
I feel like he never, ever, ever, ever does that.
I feel like I'm kind of stuck between a rock
and a hard place because I'm working non-stop
on this project and Aria's doing everything right now
he can, he's cooking, he's cleaning and I feel guilty
that he's doing all these things.
But then like I don't have the energy to be a good
girlfriend at this moment.
I'm just worried that all of this is getting to him
and that he's like seeing me in a different light
or something.
I'm feeling like equal part guilty and sad.
We're just both upset.
We both have reasons to be upset.
That's the worst part, is we both have a right
side of this argument.
A part of me wanted to just kind of not vlog today
so we don't have to show that we're having this issue
or that we're going through this right now.
But, that would be dishonest.
You felt like I didn't show affection when for me
I've been showing affection in my way for the past few days
by cooking
and cleaning.
These are things you do for me too.
So, I get that you do appreciate it.
- I honestly earlier today just needed you
to be there to listen.
Instead of to be there to do things.
I didn't need you to be there to be my cook or to be
the maid, I needed you just to be there to be you
listening to me.
You feel like you are doing everything you can
to be supportive.
I feel like I don't have a whole lot to give back at this
moment and the difference-- - I'm not asking you to.
- I know. No, I know.
And I know, and that always makes me feel worse.
I'm sorry I was being snappy.
- I mean, I'm sorry that I guess I wasn't...
I was assuming what you needed
and I thought what you needed was to get this project done
away with, and maybe I was being selfish too.
And why this project (mumbles) it makes me stress
to see you stressed.
It's on my mind like she needs to get this (muted)
project done.
And so I didn't want you to take a break and hug
and hang out. - Let's talk about
adding pressure to the circumstances.
(laughing)
- You can't have a hug until you finish the project.
Ultimately I do believe that it is unnatural
and unfair
to place any two people or more together for 24/7.
And expect things to go smoothly.
I think if you hadn't been here all the time
there wouldn't been this much pressure on me all the time
to try to do my job and be your girlfriend.
And there wouldn't have been this much pressure on you
to try to fix it.
I think the longer we've been dating too
we spend more time together anyway.
And I think it's important that we start
to value our time together.
It's harder to do that when we're together
every single second of everyday.
So, it feels like the quality of the time we're spending
together has been going down.
Because we're just trying to do things to stay sane.
So, I think we need to try to up the quality of the time
we're spending together even in these circumstances.
Since it's the weekend tomorrow, I feel like I can't
remember the last time I took a weekend day.
I'm gonna just do no work tomorrow, put it aside for now.
For one day. - Are you sure?
I think it's important.
It's more important to me than the project
to be honest with you, so I want to prioritize you.
You deserve it and you've been putting up with a lot.
Tomorrow we'll try to figure out how we can bring a little
bit of normalcy back into our life.
- Yeah. Come here you sweet (mumbles) sexy lady.
(loud sigh)
(loud kiss)
I love you. - I love you.
- Gosh I love this woman (loud kiss)
It's okay everyone, we're fine now.
- (giggles) Yeah. Yeah.
(laughs) - likes to be tickled.
- [Aria] Oh no, no, no. (thud)
- [Merle] Oh my god.
(frying sizzle)
- [Aria] I just attacked this woman
with my lips. - We're already feeling better
we had our cute make-out in the kitchen.
- I wouldn't call it cute, I would call it
- Hot. - HR inappropriate.
- Today's the weekend so I'm gonna put my work aside
for the day.
We're gonna spend more quality time together.
Kinda go back to the way we used to be
when we could leave the apartment.
- Huh ah, she just blew in my ear.
Whoop, that's zoomed in.
- [Merle] I'm making a tofu scramble.
- [Aria] Yes, she's not just making onions.
(laughs)
Moment of delicious tofu scramble.
(mumbles)
Absolutely.
It's good.
- Pop into the roasted tomatoes
(loud kiss)
(clank)
- There's was like a big table up
there by the kitchen.
Things just started piling up on it
and it made the space feel very cramped.
So, one of the things we decided to do today
was just pack up the table.
- In the spirit of being inside all the time.
I feel like it's a nice opportunity to optimize space.
- [Aria] Feels like you can breathe more here.
Hopefully that will make things feel less cramped.
- [Merle] Today was a very productive day.
We spent more quality time.
- [Aria] We were moving stuff around.
- [Merle] Feels way more open and less claustrophobic.
Got a good workout.
Had a good healthy meal
(skipping rope whooshing)
- So, I feel like we were using a lot of screens.
We were looking at a lot of screens
whether it was like-- - Says the lady that
was editing her project every night this week.
- Okay (chuckles)
So, in order to like kind of plug back into real life
we wanna try to limit the amount of screen time
we have after dinner.
When you're inside all the time, I feel like it's easier
to just like get warped into the outdoor world
for your phone.
So we wanna like enjoy the moment we're in with each other
in real life.
We're going to try to tune back into ourselves more
by meditating every night.
- Every night, my god that's terrifying.
(laughs)
- (mumbles) Buddhist.
(laughs)
(sweet music)
- Our pickles are done.
No, this is my underwear (laughs)
- [Merle] The coconut nest.
- No.
(laughs)
The week is done, the week is done.
- That was easy.
- It was highs and lows.
It was stressful.
But I think we learnt a lot of things along the way.
Being in a situation like this, is difficult for any
pair of people, whether you're dating or not.
- It's like an incubator for a relationship.
- For a new couple, this is kind of an accelerant.
- All of the things that you struggle with are gonna come
forward and be amplified and all of the things
that are (mumbles) you guys will come forward
and be amplified.
So I think it's good to just expect that
and be patient but also be grateful for the
good things you have.
- I think when you have 24/7 with someone, you think
oh now we have all this time together.
You don't really think - Okay.
- you need to focus on the little things.
- Quantity of time is about quality time.
- Just being with someone doesn't mean you're giving them
quality time.
- And learn how to ask for what you need.
It was a big learning experience
but I feel like it's made us stronger.
I feel like it's made our bond stronger
instead of dividing us.
All you have to do is communicate.
- [Aria] Yummy?
(sighs)
- It's so good.
- So I guess the question is, do I stay a little past the
seven days now?
- No.
- Ah. - Yes.
(laughs)
- That's it from us, I think.
Oh, I think (mumbles)
I think this woman
- Wow. - needs--
(laughs)
- I'm not wearing socks.
(playful music)