Chapter 3
On Monday morning, Olivia arrived at the Name Your Price studio office with Mansi. She knew Chuck would bring his agent, and having Mansi at her side made her feel both more confident and like they were heading into a divorce mediation.
She’d worn heels and high-waisted pants with a fitted blouse because she knew Chuck would show up looking irresistible in whatever he wore, and she wanted to be on the same level. Sure enough, as she and Mansi marched up one end of the walkway leading to the office, Chuck and his agent came up the other, and the sight of Chuck made her heart bungee-jump through her torso the way it did every time she saw him, even when she was mad. It was as reflexive as blinking. Something in him called out to something in her, and it was hard to ignore.
He was effortless in dark jeans and a tight tee. His sandy hair fell in a perpetually disheveled mop that needed an occasional hand through it to keep it in check. Sunglasses hid his hazel eyes, but Olivia could feel his gaze raking over her with a look like he wanted to bite her lip. He tucked his own bottom lip between his perfect teeth and let it slowly release like rising dough.
“Good morning,” Mansi said when the four of them met at the path’s intersection. She shot out her hand to Chuck’s agent. “Mansi Patel.”
“Cameron Smith,” the agent said. He looked as slick as Mansi in a suit and shiny shoes, but Olivia knew Mansi could eat him for breakfast.
“You brought a lawyer?” Chuck asked, directing his question at Olivia.
“Charles,” Mansi said to him with a curt nod as if they’d just met and they hadn’t taken tequila shots and sung karaoke together on multiple occasions. “You can direct any questions you have for my client to me.”
Olivia bit away the grin trying to bend her lips.
Chuck frowned at her. “Nice to see you too, Manse.”
“Same goes for my client,” Cameron the agent said.
Mansi lifted a brow.
He awkwardly nodded at Olivia. “If she has anything to say to him, I mean.”
Mansi left her perfectly manicured brow arched as if she were not impressed until Cameron cast his eyes down in defeat and headed toward the door. Chuck followed.
“Thank you for coming,” Olivia whispered to Mansi, stifling a laugh as they fell in step behind them.
Mansi gave her a knowing wink.
The studio office was nothing to write home about. A slice of corporate America housed in a standard mirrored building with palms out front and a marble lobby. They followed a receptionist down a hall to a conference room with a glass wall and leather chairs around a long table. Olivia recognized one of the men sitting at the table as TJ Price, the show’s host. One of the others, a dark-haired man with graying flecks at his temples and glasses, must be Parker Stone, the EP who called her. She couldn’t be sure who the other two people were: one woman, one man, in prim suits. Maybe they brought lawyers too.
A round of introductions was made, and Olivia ended up sitting as far from Chuck as possible, with Mansi and Cameron in between them and on the opposite side from the Name Your Price team.
“We’ll cut right to it,” Parker the executive producer said. He used a remote to click on the TV mounted at the end of the room.
The video of Olivia and Chuck’s fight played for everyone to see. Even though she knew countless strangers had viewed it, being forced to watch it in a room full of people made her want to hide under the table. It got to the part where she whipped off her shirt, and she noticed Chuck’s hand that was resting on the table slowly close into a tight fist. The sight stirred something inside her. Perhaps he felt defensive that everyone could see her exposed. Perhaps he just felt turned on.
Parker hit pause on the video and turned to their side of the table with a smile. “You can’t buy passion like that. You two are a ratings gold mine. We want to bring you on the show and take it further.”
“It’s been taken plenty far already,” Olivia muttered.
The woman on the other side of the table, who had in fact been introduced as a lawyer, leaned forward. “Ms. Martin, we are prepared to pay for the rights to the video, which will effectively cease its spread online outside our control.”
“The rights to the footage will most certainly be covered in any agreements made today,” Mansi said like it wasn’t even up for discussion.
“Of course,” the other lawyer said.
“So, what exactly are you asking them to do?” Mansi asked.
Parker cleared his throat and nodded toward the lawyer. She produced a stack of papers that she split in two and slid across the table. Mansi and Cameron each grabbed one. “We’re asking them to agree to come on the show together.”
Olivia fought not to scoff or roll her eyes. She wondered what Chuck was thinking down at the end of the table. She watched Mansi’s eyes scan the document. She didn’t make much effort to try to read it, though she was curious, because reviewing the contract was the whole reason that she’d brought her lawyer friend with her.
“This seems a little out of scope for your show, doesn’t it?” Cameron asked. “I mean, you guys usually do dirty jobs and entertaining relocations. You want them to live together? For a month?”
“ What? ” Olivia blurted. She rocked forward and reached for the contract. Mansi held out a hand to calm her and stop her from tearing it by accident.
Chuck didn’t seem fazed, which made Olivia think he already knew this minor detail.
“No one said anything about living together!” Olivia hissed to Mansi. When she’d decided to come to the meeting and at least hear them out about the offer, she expected maybe a date or two. Certainly not moving in together .
“Mr. Stone,” Mansi said, “I agree with Mr. Smith that this proposal is beyond the scope of your normal show. What makes you think this will be successful, and what’s in it for my client’s benefit?”
“How about a million bucks?” TJ spoke up for the first time. He casually leaned back in his chair with an ankle on his knee and clicked a pen in one hand. He wore a black blazer over a gray tee shirt and smugly smiled like he owned the room.
Olivia blinked in shock. They were actually offering a million dollars? Mansi hadn’t mentioned that, or perhaps it wasn’t on the front page of the contract, and she hadn’t gotten to it yet. Or perhaps she did know and was protecting her friend from having to regret agreeing to spend a month in the same house with her ex because even a million dollars wasn’t enough to say yes.
“Yes, well, that is something to consider,” Mansi quietly said, and flipped the first page of the contract. Her eyes continued to scan.
TJ popped up out of his seat. “Think about it,” he said, and spread his hands like one did when asking others to envision something. “A new direction for Name Your Price . I mean, I love seeing a city girl shovel pig shit, or a shy gamer dragged from his basement to join the dating race, but this . I saw the chemistry you guys had on the street—I felt it, and our viewers will too! We’ve never had a couples segment before. What could be better than a pair of combustible exes trying to live together? The sponsors will be begging for airtime on this episode.”
“You’re actually serious,” Olivia heard herself say. The words slipped out. She was in too much shock to control her mouth.
TJ skipped around the table to her side. He spun her chair and leaned down to her eye level. His were brown but bright. His musky cologne hit her in a rush. “Yes, Olivia.” He stood and kept one hand on her chair and used the other to point down the table. “Why deny the facts? You and Chuck are a beautiful couple, and people love beautiful couples. Putting the two of you on TV is a ratings guarantee.” He clapped his hands together and smiled around the room.
Olivia frowned up at him. “You left out the part where we can’t stand each other.”
He dropped his gaze back to her and leaned in with a rush that made her lean back in surprise. “That’s the point, Olivia! That’s what people will come to see.” He stood back up, and Olivia tried not to get dizzy from all his movement. He looked over at Chuck and winked. “And if the two of you maybe find a little spark of magic, a little temptation to rekindle that flame we saw on the sidewalk, then we’ll tune in for that too.”
Olivia’s face heated. Her brain was screaming disaster at her with the enthusiasm of a drunk football fan. She scrambled for an excuse to escape what was clearly a terrible idea. “I have a full-time job. I can’t just—” she started to say, but stopped when she felt Mansi’s hand gently land on her arm and squeeze.
“Your description of the living arrangements and filming location is vague. Can you elaborate?” she asked.
TJ gestured at Parker to respond. “The house is in Pacific Palisades. We just confirmed it today, after the contracts were printed. It will have all necessary accommodations for a temporary but continuous stay—pool, gym, grocery delivery. You’ll be set up for the full month. The camera crew will come and go, but you’ll have no reason to need to leave.”
“Wait,” Olivia said, gaping at them. “We can’t leave ?”
The Name Your Price team exchanged looks with one another. TJ was the one to finally speak, and he did it with a grin that put an uneasy feeling in Olivia’s gut.
“That’s the object of the game, Olivia. If you and Chuck can figure out how to stand each other in close quarters for one month after that fantastic breakup we witnessed in all its glory, you win the money.”
His words landed, and an invisible bomb exploded in Olivia’s brain. She unstuck her tongue from her dry mouth. “And if we don’t make it?”
TJ casually sat on the table’s edge and grinned. “Game over.”
Game over. She honestly didn’t know if she had it in her.
“And, of course, you’ll be presented with a set of challenges while you’re in the house,” TJ added.
“Challenges?” Olivia asked as Mansi flipped another page of the contract, surely looking for this part.
“Yes,” TJ said. “We’re not going to film you doing nothing all day. This isn’t Keeping Up with the Kardashians .”
Olivia could only imagine what horrors they had in store for them.
It occurred to her that Chuck hadn’t said anything this whole time, which led her to realize that he had already agreed. This whole meeting was happening to convince one person to say yes.
Her.
She leaned forward so that he could see her from the other end of the table. “Can I talk to you outside, please?”
He met her eyes with a flash of guilt and nodded.
They both rose from the table, and he opened the door for her to leave first. She walked out of the conference room and then kept going all the way outside. Not only did she need fresh air, but she also needed to make sure no one in that room could hear them.
They stopped under a shady tree back on the pathway where they’d earlier met. Olivia couldn’t help but notice the flecks of green the backdrop brought out when she looked up into Chuck’s eyes.
“Did you already agree to this?” she asked him.
“No. I can’t without you.”
“But you knew what they were offering.”
He paused and raked a hand through his hair. “Yes.”
She threw her head back and groaned. “ Chuck! How did you let me walk into that? I wouldn’t have even considered it if I’d known they had some elaborate Big Brother–Love Island knockoff planned. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He moved like he was going to squeeze her arms but dropped his hands at the last second. She hated herself for wishing he had touched her. “Listen, Olivia, I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to hear me say that, but I had to take this opportunity. They hunted me down through Cameron, and Parker called me. Before I knew it, they were making me an offer. All I had to do was get you on board.”
“Well, you failed because I am not doing this. You shouldn’t have agreed either.”
“It’s a million dollars , Liv. A million dollars! You try saying no to that.”
Her blood was boiling again. “I don’t have to try because I’m saying no right now! It’s not that hard! No!”
He made a strangled sound of frustration and squeezed his hands in his hair. He dropped his arms with a slap against his thighs. “This doesn’t have to be so hard. I need the money; you need the money. All we have to do is stick it out for one month together.”
Olivia folded her arms and looked away. She hated to admit that he was right. They both needed money: her, for her grandmother’s care, and him, to afford to live in a world with more and more jobs drying up. And a million dollars would do the trick, even if it was split in half and heavily taxed. When she really considered it, she realized she couldn’t say no.
But it was going to be one hell of a challenge.
“Fine,” she said. “But we need rules.”
“Rules?”
“Yes, Chuck.” She stepped closer to him and lowered her voice to a hiss. “We both know that we are basically a lit stick of dynamite together, so we’re going to have to…keep our distance in the house. Otherwise, we’ll just blow up and lose.”
His eyes narrowed as he looked down at her. They were standing close enough that she could smell a hint of mint on his breath. Without her needing to fully spell it out, he knew precisely why they needed to keep their distance. The reason tangibly filled the air between them. “That’s a good point. We can’t risk that. So, what will the rules be?”
Olivia scoffed with a roll of her eyes. “Not now . We have to go back in there and finish this nightmarishly ill-informed decision we are making first. We can talk about it later.”
“Okay!” he agreed at the harsh bite in her voice. “Can I at least get a shake on it so that I know you’re not going to turn on me when we get back in there?”
Olivia let out a mighty sigh, hoping she wasn’t making the biggest mistake of her life. She stuck out her hand. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
A smile twitched his lips upward as he slipped his hand into hers. “Thank you.”
“Well, this looks promising,” Cameron said as he materialized. Mansi was right on his heels.
Olivia dropped her hand with a flush in her cheeks.
“Good news,” Mansi said. She nodded at Cameron. “Inside source says the show is desperate for a ratings boost. That’s why they want a new direction.”
Cameron proudly grinned. The source must have been his.
“What does that mean?” Olivia asked.
“It means we’ve got some leverage,” Mansi answered. “They want you two badly, and they’re probably holding back with their offer.”
“We’ve got room to negotiate,” Cameron added.
Mansi shot him a smile.
“Did you two become a team while we were out here?” Chuck asked.
Cameron clapped him on the shoulder and turned them back toward the building. “We’re all in this together if you say yes, so we should start acting like it.”
Olivia realized she’d asked Mansi to come as a favor, and Cameron was there for his job. She wondered if she should cut in Mansi for a percentage once they reached an agreement. Knowing her, she’d probably refuse the money.
Mansi held Olivia back and gave her a serious look. She spoke with her voice lowered. “Olivia, are you sure you want to do this?”
Olivia looked at her in surprise. “You were the one who encouraged it!”
“I know! I just…Sorry.” Mansi bit her bottom lip, which was painted dark red. “I’m only doing my best-friend duty by giving you one last out.”
“I appreciate that, Manse. But I think I can handle it.”
Mansi nodded.
As they walked back inside, Olivia chewed her lip in thought, wondering if they really could pull it off. She thought of what was riding on it, of Grandma Ruby happily laughing with Violet at Willow Grove. She thought of how absolutely mad Chuck drove her and how she’d wanted to shove him out the window on Saturday morning. She wondered if she could keep one in check for the greater good of the other.
When they returned to the conference table ready to negotiate, she took Cameron’s inside intel to heart and opened the discussion with a bold move.
“I want to make two things clear if we are going to agree to this,” she said. All eyes turned to her. “I want an advance…” She trailed off and glanced at Mansi to make sure she wasn’t out of line. Mansi subtly, if not curiously, nodded.
The female Name Your Price lawyer glanced at Parker, who bobbed his head a fraction. “We can accommodate that, Ms. Martin,” the lawyer said.
“Good,” Olivia said with a rush of relief. She could use the money up front to pay off her Willow Grove debt and keep Grandma Ruby comfortably in her home while she did the show.
“And the other thing?” TJ asked, sounding genuinely intrigued.
Olivia sat up straighter and looked at Parker. “Mr. Walsh and I have agreed on new terms.”
Chuck leaned forward in his chair to cast her a curious look.
She kept her gaze straight ahead on Parker. “We want a million dollars. Each.”
Parker blinked hard once. TJ’s lip curled up. The lawyers remained neutral. Olivia felt Chuck’s gaze bore into her for a hot second before he straightened himself in his seat and calmly looked across the table.
He nodded once and then said, “Each.”