Chapter Twenty-One
Sabine had watched enough Survivor to know that no one was ever comfortable in the game. And if you thought you were—if you thought the vote was easy, if you thought your alliance was solid—you were probably screwed.
But here she sat on one of the rough stumps in the middle of the clearing, feeling somewhat pleased with how things were panning out.
Talia was to her left and Marloe was to her right.
The coconut oil lamps flickered in the evening light while cicadas chirped loudly around them.
Connie and Charlize owed them. They’d even said so themselves when they’d gotten back from the reward.
“It was glorious,” Charlize had said, practically bouncing.
She was sixty going on thirty, with her gleaming silver hair hanging in loose ringlets over her shoulders.
“The hotel was gorgeous. An enormous bed with a mattress so soft I didn’t think I’d be able to get up in the morning.
And the balcony had this huge rope hammock stretched across it.
You could sit in it and stare straight down at the water. ”
“We saw so many fish,” Connie added. Her red hair was all glossy and alive after a proper shampoo and conditioning. “And the food was divine. There was crispy pork belly and fresh spring rolls, and mango sticky rice for dessert.”
“Who cares about the food,” Charlize had said, giggling. “I took a thirty-minute shower. I was sure they were going to cut the water off.”
Connie had laughed loudly and then gripped Sabine’s wrists as if she never wanted to let go. “We can’t thank you two enough. Whatever vote you want tonight, we’re in.”
It was exactly what Sabine had wanted to hear. She’d also confirmed with Monique and Amy yesterday morning, and they had agreed that Marloe and Lucia were going to The Sending.
“Marloe,” Vivian said, glancing at her. Tonight, she wore an ivory halter-neck dress that made her cheekbones look sculpted.
Thin leather sandals wrapped around her ankles with a short heel pressing into the flattened earth, and her calves were toned and flawless.
“How did it feel when Sabine gave the reward to Connie and Charlize?” she asked.
“As another pair who haven’t won a reward yet, how did that land for you? ”
Marloe rubbed her palms against her shorts before folding her hands together. Sabine didn’t look at her, but she also didn’t not look at her.
“Well, Vivian, to be honest, it came so out of nowhere that I didn’t think anything of it at first. You don’t usually see people give up things on this island.
Especially not something like that.” She let out a small laugh that wasn’t funny and pulled at the rainbow bracelet on her wrist before snapping it back against her skin.
“But I guess I think it was generous of them.”
“Generous,” Vivian repeated, nodding slowly before she turned her focus on Sabine. “Was generosity the goal?”
There it was. Sabine had expected this type of question, so her answer came easily. “Yes. If we’d been able to give the reward to two pairs, they would’ve been one of them. But there wasn’t the option,” she said, smooth as water.
Isla coughed like she’d inhaled sand.
Vivian’s eyes snapped to her. “Is there something you’d like to add, Isla?”
Isla shrugged. Her long legs were stretched out between the stumps. They were thin and tanned with a few greening bruises along her right shin. “I just think it’s interesting, that’s all.”
“Interesting how?” Vivian pressed.
“How people frame things,” Isla said, sounding unbothered.
Bored even. Like a Roman noblewoman stretched out on a marble chaise with servants flicking grapes into her mouth.
Sabine found her grating. More so tonight than ever before.
The plan was perfect. It was already in motion.
And besides, Isla wasn’t even voting tonight.
Surely she shouldn’t be allowed an opinion.
“Generosity. Strategy. Sometimes they’re the same thing,” she added.
“What do you think, Talia?” Vivian asked.
Talia hadn’t said much all evening. Not on their way to The Sending.
And even less when they’d arrived. Sabine glimpsed her out of the corner of her eye.
She wasn’t smiling. Her face was as impassive and unreadable as it had ever been.
Sabine knew that the envelope was burning a hole in Talia’s rucksack.
She knew Talia couldn’t wait to get rid of it.
She knew Talia was nervous about tonight’s vote, even though Sabine had done all she could to put her mind at ease.
She’d even snuck in a quick kiss on the mouth as they’d packed their bags.
But then again, the kiss was less for Talia and more for Sabine.
Talia’s lips were like a reset button. When Sabine was stressed, Talia’s lips smoothed the edges.
When she was tense, they eased the knot in her chest. When she felt herself overthinking, Talia’s lips pressed pause like a TV remote.
She hadn’t realized how much she needed Talia’s lips to get her through this game until today.
Talia lifted her chin an inch. “I think that giving something away doesn’t always mean you expect anything back,” she said evenly.
“But you do expect something back,” Isla said in a way that would warrant a smack if Sabine weren’t beyond such things. As a doctor, she’d taken the Hippocratic Oath promising to do no harm, and yet here she was wishing she could thwack Isla.
“And what do you think we expect from them?” Talia asked, though Sabine really just needed her to be the better person and keep quiet. The less that was said, the better.
“You expect them to vote with you,” Isla taunted.
Talia didn’t reply, and Sabine was grateful.
It wasn’t like it was some big secret. Marloe and Lucia knew they were on the chopping block.
Tension had been simmering all day at camp, and Sabine had spent a considerable amount of energy trying to make sure the two didn’t somehow convince the others to flip.
Fortunately, by the time they’d packed their bags, she was completely convinced everything was perfectly fine, perfectly under control.
Until this very second.
“Is that what’s happening tonight?” Vivian asked, leaning a little forward. “Are you, Connie and Charlize, voting with Sabine and Talia?”
Connie smiled. “I guess we’ll have to find out.”
“Well then,” Vivian said, inhaling so deeply her shoulders inched up to her ears. “Let’s vote. Sabine and Talia, you two are up first.”
Sabine and Talia rose at exactly the same time.
Same leg. Same step. Same foot landing on the platform.
They were two halves of the same heartbeat.
Two bones of a leg. As they reached the stand, Talia’s eyes found Sabine’s, and for a quick second, Sabine’s chest flipped on itself.
Two weeks ago, they’d very briefly and somewhat illegally met at the villa.
Talia had been less tanned then. Her hair had been sleeker and shinier, and the freckles across her nose had been so faint they were nothing more than an afterthought.
Sabine imagined she’d changed too. When she touched her ribs, they felt a little more pronounced.
Her hair, she assumed, was lighter, sun-bleached, and the skin across her shoulders and legs the darkest it had ever been.
But hers also went a little deeper than just skin.
It extended all the way to her heart.
Over the years, she’d built a wall brick by brick of mortar mixed with logic and self-control.
But now that wall felt thinner. Less solid.
It didn’t need a sledgehammer to break through.
Just a finger. A poke. A well-manicured, gentle finger pressing in the wrong spot.
Or was it the right spot? Talia had done that.
Was still doing it. Poking holes in everything Sabine thought was important.
This game included. Yes, Sabine still wanted to win, but getting to the end also mattered for a different reason.
Time with Talia. Time to get to know her, to kiss her, to spend time in this salty, sweaty bubble eating rice and beans and contending with Amy’s snoring while they fought for their lives in every challenge.
She didn’t want to say goodbye to Talia any more than she wanted Isla to win.
“You ready?” Talia asked softly.
Sabine nodded and picked up a stone. She dropped it in the cup with the lilac trimming.
The sound was dull. Final. Sabine was convinced that tonight, Marloe and Lucia would go to The Sending, and Talia would play the advantage card and send both home.
The restraints Talia had put around herself ever since she’d sneakily taken the envelope would finally be broken free, and Sabine imagined them sneaking off into the forest tonight after everyone was asleep.
She pictured lips on lips. Fingers touching skin. Bodies pressed together. She could hardly wait.
When they reached their seats, Connie and Charlize stood up for their turn.
But Sabine barely paid them attention. Or Lucia and Marloe, who went next.
Or even Monique and Amy, who took about five seconds longer than they should’ve to cast their vote.
Sabine’s eyes were on Talia, and if the camera picked up on it, well, then so be it.
“Let’s count the votes,” Vivian said, stepping back onto the platform. She reached for the first cup just as Talia turned to Sabine.
Sabine winked.
Talia smiled back softly, though it didn’t reach her eyes, not completely.
Which sent a pang through Sabine’s chest. She wanted to reach out and entangle her fingers with Talia’s.
She wanted to still Talia’s bopping knee.
She wanted to promise her that everything was going to be fine, that in just a few hours they’d be pressed up against a tree laughing about the chirp of a bird Talia had mistaken for something dangerous.
“That’s three stones for Sabine and Talia.”
Wait, what?