Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
RHETT
I tried my best to talk her into it. We stayed in the bathroom far too long, and then Lainey knocked on the door because she needed to touch up her makeup. She should be finished by sometime tomorrow.
We went through dinner with everyone, sat at the table, and listened to lots of small talk, but all I could think about was my plan; if we could just convince the viewers that we were falling in love, they would keep us around for longer.
Sure, I should want to win based on my own talents, but I know myself, and I know how other people react to me. I'm a nice guy, but sometimes you can't see it. I seem like a grump, a grouch, a pessimist. Sometimes I feel that those things are true, but I know there's a different man inside of me somewhere. He's just a little too scared to come out and show his face.
Either way, I can't think about that right now. All I can think about is how this plan would work if Savannah would just agree to it. Sure, I could make some kind of bold move for the cameras, but she's liable to punch me right in the nose if I try to hold her hand or sneak a kiss on her cheek. She's having none of it.
I get the feeling that Savannah is a romantic at heart. She wants that big grand love and doesn't want to pretend with me on national television. I can see her point, but I know that $200,000 would be a nice amount to see in my bank account. In the end, only one of us can win, so maybe she doesn't want to give me a leg up by participating in this charade.
"I'm exhausted," she says, which makes me laugh. "What are you laughing at?"
"You're always tired. Maybe you should get your blood checked."
We're walking upstairs to the bedroom. Maggie is already lying down and snoring by the time we get there. I think she's narcoleptic, but I would never say anything. She's a sweet woman, but she sleeps like a rock, and she snores like a freight train.
"Let's not wake her," Savannah whispers.
"I don't think that's possible," I whisper back.
The producers disconnect us for five minutes so we can change into our sleep clothes. I am in a pair of shorts and a white T-shirt, and Savannah is in a pajama set with shorts and a little top. I try not to glance at her legs. They're very nice, but she's made it supremely clear that she does not want to be my fake girlfriend. We both slide into our beds, pulling the covers up, and she turns out the lamp, and then it's just darkness. I've never understood how people can go to sleep like this.
When I go to bed, it's a whole routine. First, I stay up as late as possible until I’m about to fall over. Then I turn on the TV and lie down in my bed. And at some point, I pass out. When I wake up in the morning, the TV is still running. I turn it off and go on about my day.
But apparently, there are people just like this who turn off the light, lie down, and go to sleep. It seems like magic. But Savannah's not falling asleep for some reason, even though she said she was tired. The moonlight is shining into the room, casting a long line across our beds and the hardwood floor. I can see her staring at the ceiling.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I guess I wasn't as tired as I thought." Her voice sounds different. Sad. Is she crying?
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. I guess I'm thinking about my sister and what she's doing. We've never been apart this long."
"It's great that you have such a wonderful relationship with her. I wish I had that with my siblings.”
"You don't?" she says, turning her head. "I didn't even know you had siblings."
"Yeah, I've got two brothers. We're not close."
"Why not?"
"I guess because I'm the black sheep of the family," I say, staring back up at the ceiling. "They're all attorneys and doctors in my family. They wanted me to follow suit, and I didn't, so here we are."
"Surely they're still very proud of you. I mean, you're working with celebrities on yachts."
"Yeah, my mom thinks I should own the yacht, not cook for people on it."
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's hard not to have a supportive family."
“It's definitely difficult.”
I realize I’m on national television, so I don’t want to say much more, but I’m glad I got to share at least that much with her. I don't share much with anybody.
"I know how hard it can be not to have people cheering you on. The only person that cheers me on is Sadie. My mom never could do that in my life, really. She was a mess."
"How long ago did she pass away?"
"Oh, it's been a while now. She died when Sadie was twelve, so about eight years ago. But even before that, she wasn't a great mom. She had her own demons.”
“That's hard to imagine."
"Why?"
"Well, I mean, you seem so put together. Nice and proper and modest."
"I do?" Savannah says, laughing. "I never realized that about myself, but yeah, my mom was pretty screwed up. Addiction will do that to a person. She had mental health issues that made it more complicated. She never should have had children."
"I'm sorry you had to grow up that way."
"Well, it made me who I am, and I guess I like myself pretty well. I just wish I was richer."
I laugh. "Well, for what it's worth, I think you're doing really well in the competition. Getting to work with you, I can see how hard you work at this, and I think you'll start winning some competitions."
"Yeah? I don't know. I'm not sure that I will. I'm not really much for competition. I kind of like everybody to just work together and get along."
"Well, it's not exactly interesting television," I say.
We lay there for a few more minutes, just staring up. Finally, Savannah sighs.
"This is pretty boring. Want to go for a run?"
She laughs. "How in the world are we going to run while we're wearing these chains?"
"We'll figure it out."
We quietly make our way down into the courtyard. The lights are dimmed at night, so it doesn't keep everyone in the neighborhood awake to see the lights that normally illuminate it. That's fine with me. I like running in the dark.
Of course, I've never taken a run with another person chained to me. Surprisingly, Savannah couldn't sleep either. There's just something about being chained to another person and worrying about the upcoming main challenge later this week that keeps you from getting a restful night of slumber.
"So how are we going to do this?” Savannah asks, breaking me out of my chain of thought as we enter the courtyard grassy area. It's fake grass, bright and green. Perhaps if you saw it in somebody's yard, you would think it was real, but out here, you can tell. It's not a big area. I just usually run back and forth until I tire myself out.
"I'm not sure. Obviously, we’re not going to be able to swing both of our arms very well,” I say, laughing.
“I’m not much of a runner, so I hope we don't have to go fast," Savannah says. She's wearing a short-sleeved pajama shirt and shorts. It's kind of cute. I'm trying not to notice. I'm also wearing a T-shirt and shorts, but I've also put on my running jacket after catching a producer in the hallway and asking to be unchained for a moment so I could slide it on. It's not cold outside, but sometimes, these early summer nights can have a little bit of a cold snap, which seems to be what's happening tonight. Plus, I like to sweat a little extra to burn calories.
I don’t really need to lose weight, but on a frame as big as mine, putting on weight would be very easy.
"We'll just take it slow," I say. I start stretching my quads and my calves. Savannah notices what I'm doing and does the same. She bends over and touches her toes like we're in an aerobics class, and I try not to steal a look. But still, I'm a guy. I can't help it.
"Were you just looking at my butt?" she says, catching me in the act.
"Absolutely not. I was making sure that you were doing proper stretching form," I lie. I can't really see her rear end very well anyway, given that we're chained together, but I got a good enough look that I know it's not a bad visual.
"Yeah, sure you were," she says, eyeing me carefully and stifling a smile. "It's a little bit cooler out here than I thought it would be."
"I suppose it is. I wish the days were as cool."
“Me too. It's pretty hot. I don't come out here much during the day because of being a redhead and fair-skinned. We're not exactly known for our tanning capabilities."
"Well, you can't have everything," I say, wishing I could put the words back into my mouth. Telling her that she has everything else except for the ability to tan is why the viewers at home think that we have some sort of romance going on, or perhaps they think that I'm just some love-struck fool and Savannah has no interest in me. Maybe that's true, but I don't think too hard about it.
"I guess we should get started," I say. We start with a light jog, trying to get the right rhythm between us, a chain hanging between us.
We can swing our arms just a bit, but not as much as one would during a normal jog. We go back and forth a few times before Savannah says she needs to take a break.
"I guess my lungs aren’t as healthy as I thought they were. I've got a touch of asthma."
"Oh, I didn't know that," I say. "I'm sorry. Do you not want to do any more of this? It's totally fine if you can't do this."
"No, it's okay. I exercise regularly. Well, at least when I have time, but I don't do a lot of cardio, and I can certainly tell,” she says, holding a hand to her chest. "Maybe we could just take a little break?”
"Of course." I see her rubbing her arms, and I can visibly see the goosebumps. "Are you cold?" I ask her as we walk over to sit on the outdoor sofa in the corner of the courtyard.
It's a big sectional piece that fits many people, and most of the contestants sit out there all day chatting, some of them smoking.
"Just a bit. It's fine."
"No, it’s not,” I say, stopping. I turn my jacket inside out and slide one sleeve across the chain and onto her shoulders. "Here, let me help you," I say, pulling her arm into the other sleeve. She looks at me and smiles.
"Wow, that was quite a smooth move, Rhett Jennings," she says, laughing. “Have you been chained to women before?”
"Listen, I might be a jerk a lot of the time, but I'm never going to let a woman feel cold while I wear a jacket."
“Careful. You might just ruin my image of you as the evil villain.”
I stifle a smile. Why do I feel like this woman sees me? I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel more myself when she’s around.
We sit down on the sofa and lean back, our arms pulled apart by the chain. "I like it out here when it's a little bit darker. During the day, you've got the bright sunshine, and in the evening, they've got these lights on that are like being on a baseball diamond for a night game."
"Yeah, it is kind of nice out here without such bright lights, and you can see the stars," she says, looking up. Even though some light obscures our view, we can still see the black night sky overhead. It's a clear night, and there's a smattering of twinkling stars above us.
"Do you like to stargaze?" I ask.
"I don't ever really get much of a chance to do that. I go to work so early in the morning that I'm exhausted by early evening. So, there’s not much reason to go out and stare at the stars. Besides, I think that's kind of a thing couples do, and I didn't have the type of boyfriend who would've been interested in stargazing."
"Yeah, I can see that," I say, grunting. "Connor doesn't seem like the type to do anything overly romantic."
"Believe it or not, he was pretty romantic initially, but I think it was just a fake-out to get me to date him. I turned him down the first few times he asked me out, and he didn't like that at all."
I laugh. "I wish I could have been there for that. I would love to see you turn Connor down."
She giggles and then looks back up at the stars. "It really is beautiful tonight. I remember once in high school, I went out with this guy, and he wanted to impress me on our first date. So we went out to a fancy dinner, and then he took me out to the golf course in the neighborhood where he lived. I certainly had never even been on a golf course. I didn't grow up that way. My mom barely could afford a one-bedroom apartment in the seediest part of town. Anyway, he had a blanket, and we went out on the golf course, laid down, and looked up at the stars."
"And did you enjoy that?" I ask, smiling over at her.
"I did. He was the biggest nerd in our high school, and nobody else would go out with him, but his parents were rich, so he had everything at his disposal. I only went out with him one time. He talked the entire time about mathematical equations and explained every star in the sky and all of the constellations."
I chuckle. "That sounds super romantic."
"Yeah, it really wasn't," she says, looking over at me. "But I learned a lot about stars that night. Like, I know that one over there is the Big Dipper. I'm sure everybody knows that. And I think that up there isn't really a star. I think that's actually Jupiter or Saturn, or… maybe I don't remember as much as I thought I did."
I laugh out loud. Savannah is actually pretty funny if you give her a chance. "Yeah, I don't think you should teach astronomy classes anytime soon."
"Oh, yeah? Well, maybe you should teach me something about stars. What do you know?"
"They're twinkly," I say. Savannah laughs loudly.
"You know, this hasn't been so bad."
"What hasn't?" I ask.
"Being chained to you. Honestly, I thought it would be a nightmare of epic proportions."
"Yeah, I thought the same thing about you, but I think we've done very well in not murdering each other… yet."
"I think so. I'm going to consider that a win."
Honestly, I can't tell her how much I've enjoyed this. I'm not exactly a people person. I don't open up well to others. I don't have a large circle of friends. I've always been a loner, all about business.
And being forced to have these small talk chats with someone seemed like it would be horrible. But with Savannah, it's been easy. I see why people like her, and I feel kind of bad about being such a jerk during our days at pastry chef school.
"Can I say something?"
"Well, I really can't get away from you, given that I'm chained to you right now," she says.
"I want to apologize."
“Rhett Jennings is about to apologize to me for something. Hang on, let me get settled." She sits up straight and turns her body toward mine, looking very interested in whatever it is I'm about to say.
Honestly, I don't know what I'm about to say, but for some reason, I love it when she says my full name. I sit up and face her. "I was horrible to you during school, and I just want to apologize for that. I didn't know you well, and I didn't make any kind of effort to get to know you better. I just judged you on surface-level stuff, so I just wanted to apologize.”
She smiles slightly and nods her head. "Thank you. You actually don't know how much I appreciate that. I never understood why you didn't like me, and unfortunately, I'm one of those people who cares if other people like me."
"Yeah, well, I'm one of those people who doesn't care if other people like me, as you can probably tell."
She reaches over and touches my knee, which shocks me and sends a bolt of electricity up my body. "Well, for what it's worth, I think you're actually a pretty nice guy sometimes.”
She pulls her hand back, and I instantly feel a void. Should I ask her to put it back on my knee? Would that be weird? Would that get me arrested? I decide not to say anything. "Don't tell anybody I'm a nice guy. It'll ruin my reputation."
She laughs, and then I feel this moment of chemistry between us. The smile goes away on her face, and suddenly, I can feel us leaning toward each other. What's happening? It's like some sort of magnetic attraction. Are we about to kiss? I don't understand. Just as I'm about to find out, the light flips on in the courtyard without warning.
“What's going on out here?"
Connor .
Connor is standing there ruining the moment, as usual.
"Are you trying to blind us?" I yell out.
"I was coming out here to play some pool. I can't sleep. I'm too excited about the upcoming challenge, but it seems like I may have interrupted a romantic interlude."
Savannah's face turns red, but I can’t tell if it’s due to embarrassment or anger.
"You're not interrupting anything, man. Except for us relaxing out here after a run. We're not exactly able to get away from each other."
"Yeah, I bet you'd love to get away from her. I remember that feeling all too well," he says, walking over to the pool table, oblivious to the fact that he actually did just interrupt something. What it was, I have no idea.
"Maybe we should head back upstairs," Savannah says.
"Yeah. Suddenly, the air down here has gotten very limited," I say, standing up.
"Good night, lovebirds," Connor says under his breath as we pass him. I've never wanted to punch somebody square in the nose as much as I want to punch him right now. He has the most punchable face I've ever seen. Instead, I follow Savannah through the kitchen and the foyer and up the stairs, wondering what that moment between us was. We're going to go lay in beds now, right next to each other, chained together, and I don't know if I just missed out on a kiss or if she was about to headbutt me or what was going on. I guess I'll never know.