Chapter 16
‘Fuck me. What have they got you wearing?’ Cam says, frowning, as he slides in behind the recycling bin.
Luckily, I already knew about the secret door leading out from the only walk-in cupboard without cameras.
It’s where they will pull Islanders for chats.
I was able to sneak through undetected, due to the sheer uproar caused by Ella getting kicked off the show after only twenty minutes.
I slid along the wall to the blind spot, my heart thudding in my chest. We are hiding behind the bin, and Cam has disabled my microphone for me. ‘We only have a few minutes.’
He has been positively heroic. The way he swooped in and covered me in a blanket, issuing instructions and tut-tutting at the runners.
We are crushed together. Me shivering like a drowned rat.
Him looking all concerned for my mental health and well-being.
I notice dark patches under his eyes. They’ve got that haunted look back again.
The warm blue-green eyes with specks of gold have turned to a cold grey-blue.
His stubble has grown a bit thicker across the jawbone so that the slight dent of the chin is no longer visible, and his hair is sticking out at odd angles.
I’m not the only one who didn’t get enough sleep last night.
‘You okay?’ he asks softly. Our bodies create a warm flow of energy as we huddle together. Like a magnet, I feel drawn to sag against him and feel his safe, strong arms wrap around me. But I can’t. I grab the blanket tightly and stand a little taller.
‘I didn’t know that was going to happen,’ I say. ‘That poor girl. I feel terrible.’
‘It’s Porscha. She obviously chose not to share that with any of us. I’ll bring it up at the next team meeting but honestly…’ He sighs and I feel his breath on my cheek. ‘If any of this gets too much just let me know. I’ll get you out of here.’
He gives me such a concerned look that I instantly melt.
‘It’s okay. Really. I can handle it.’
He half smiles. ‘I’ve put a suitcase of clothes in the dressing room for you.
It was the best I could do at such short notice.
I drew a pineapple on it, so you know which one it is.
I think Porscha may have tampered with your other case.
I imagine the outfits she’s put in will be kinda like what you’re almost wearing now. ’
‘Thank you.’ I am bursting with gratitude. ‘Just one more thing,’ I say, pointing to the backs of my thighs.
Instinctively, he crouches down, and I feel his warm fingers undo each of the buckles on my sandals.
If it weren’t for the fear of Porscha catching us, it would be very erotic.
He has an incredibly gentle touch. I literally can’t breathe as he undoes the buckles around the tops of my thighs and slides the straps softly down my legs as though he were peeling down my stockings.
He straightens up and we share a fond look before he puts a finger to his lips and switches the microphone back on.
He mouths ‘Good luck’ to me and disappears through the kitchen door.
I wait a few seconds and go through the cupboard door into the outdoor kitchen.
All the Islanders are waving Ella off. She is in floods of tears and howling like a neutered cat at the injustice.
She is spitting feathers and vowing to sue LoveIt TV into the, excuse my French, ‘shitting ground’.
When I hear her telling Destiny she can fudge right off, I seize the opportunity to scamper straight through to the ‘Hello Gorgeous’ dressing room and adjoining bathroom.
Again, I am so thankful that I had the virtual tour yesterday from Cam, so I have a vague idea of where I’m going. We also went over and over the blueprints so that I would know the lay of the land before coming in, and the bios of all the contestants so that I would know who I am up against.
After I’ve showered off all the mud, I wrap myself in a towel and go through to get ready.
It’s so hard knowing there’s cameras everywhere.
I spot the case with the pineapple lying under the dressing table in the centre of the room.
I drag it open and exhale with relief as I pull out actual clothes made of cloth.
My hand lands on a stunning dress. I’m sliding it over my head when I hear the clatter of the girls approaching.
They are surprised to see me in here and gather round.
‘That was so savage.’
‘Yeah, like so savage.’
‘One hundred per cent savage.’
‘Girl, you savage.’
I stand up and pull down my dress. ‘You’re all just saying the same thing.’
‘Because, girl, that was totally one hundred per cent savage what you did back there.’
Seriously?
It’s time to make a stand and start how I mean to go on. ‘I didn’t know that was going to happen, did I?’
‘Didn’t you?’
Four sceptical faces peer back at me.
‘Does the bombshell usually have any say in what happens on this show?’ I argue, placing a hand on my hip.
I refuse to be bullied. I came in here for…
Actually, I’m no longer sure what I came in here for, but I know it wasn’t to be heckled by these stunning, jelly-lipped, identikit girls with their all-over tans and superb hair and nail extensions.
‘Are you being funny right now?’ a petite Asian-looking girl I recognise as Amber tuts. ‘You can never tell with the British. Can you, Mimi?’
‘No, honey. You can’t.’
Well, you can, I want to say, but decide to keep quiet. I don’t want my second time on camera to be me being rude. I shake my head and smile. ‘I just meant…’
‘We know what you meant. You came in here to find love just like the rest of us and you’ll do anything to get it,’ says Mimi, quite the forceful blonde. ‘Including being savage.’
No, I definitely won’t. It’s not The Hunger Games.
‘We’ve been told to get ready for a night of fireworks,’ Amber says, leafing through a hanger full of outfits. ‘What’s everyone wearing? Glam? Semi-glam? Mimi, where you at, hun?’
‘I’m going all out to catch my man’s attention,’ says Mimi. ‘He ain’t lookin’ no place else tonight!’
Phew. I’m already yesterday’s news.
The girls start pulling out seats, rummaging round in the wardrobes and flicking switches on hair straighteners, hair tongs and all manner of hair-styling tools.
Out come industrial-size make-up boxes, rolls of brushes and endless pots and pots of make-up.
We have all jostled for seats at the central carousel in the dressing room to apply our ‘looks’ for tonight.
The carousel was custom-built for the show at a cost of twenty grand – Cam told me yesterday – so that we can all get round it and gossip, while the cameras can pick up everyone’s faces and voices clearly.
The mirrors and lights are professional standard and reveal every single flaw.
I try not to flick my eyes to the camera hidden above in the Hello Gorgeous neon sign. It will be recording my every movement.
‘It must be so hard to be the bombshell,’ says Mimi, swishing a big fat brush over her face. ‘I’m glad I’m an original. Amber, can I borrow your blusher?’
‘Heck, yeah,’ Amber says, handing her a paint palette so big you could paint your whole house with it. ‘I’d hate to be the bombshell. Coming in, having to be all that.’
They are making me nervous. I’m not sure how they managed to bond this quick and take an active dislike to me but that’s how it feels. I’m getting distinct negative energy vibes from the lot of them.
‘All I had to do was walk six feet in a pool of mud and slide down to the firepit,’ I joke to ease the tension. ‘Nothing hard about that.’
They look at each other in disbelief. ‘We meant it must be so hard having to look better than the rest of us put together.’
How ridiculous.
‘I doubt I’ll manage that,’ I say, watching them all glam up. ‘I mean, look at you all. You’re all gorgeous.’
Just saying the words reminds me of how I felt when Cam told me I was gorgeous. I melted inside like an ice cream in the hot sun.
‘We are, babe,’ says Mimi, noticeably pleased at the compliment. ‘We so freakin’ are! We are so freakin’ GORGE!’
Bit much.
‘Anyway, beauty is only skin-deep,’ I remind her before she gets carried away with her own reflection.
‘But you could still steal our guys from us,’ says a small blue-haired woman. ‘Is that what you’re planning?’
‘That’s right, Binky. She could,’ says Mimi. ‘I’d watch your man when he’s around Libby. I saw him giving her the eye.’
‘I’m hardly a man-eater. Besides, you’ve only had your men for five minutes. You barely know them. You,’ I say, pointing to the weakest-looking girl at the back. ‘What’s your fella’s name?’
She looks shocked, like she has no idea. ‘It’s Germaine. Or Germanji.’
‘No, Kassy. My one is called Germanji, your one is called Brid,’ says Mimi.
‘It’s not Brid. It’s Brad. He’s Australian,’ says Amber.
‘Is he?’ says Kassy.
‘Not Germanji. I meant Giovanni. That’s right. He’s half Italian and from New York. So, now, who doesn’t know her man?’ Mimi says, her voice full of ‘I told you so’.
The atmosphere has turned on a knife-edge over absolutely nothing.
‘Just because I can’t remember who I’m coupled up with doesn’t mean we don’t share a deep connection,’ Kassy argues back. ‘Besides, I like Marcel. I might be in with a chance now because he obviously didn’t like the look of Libby.’
‘All I know is that I have fantasised my whole life of being on this show. It is my absolute dream to become an influencer, and if being in a couple with Giovanni is the way to make it happen, then that’s what I’ll do.
’ The girls look at Mimi smiling, until she says, ‘So hands off. Everyone back off my man. He’s mine. ’
‘Doesn’t that rather defeat the object of the game?’ I ask.
The girls look at me, nodding, before they pounce on Mimi.
‘Hang on a second, girlfriend,’ says Amber. ‘I am open. So don’t tell me to back off anyone.’
‘I am very open too,’ says Binky. ‘Wide open.’