Chapter 2 Paradise #2
“Six single guys. Six single girls. One villa in paradise, but only one couple can be crowned the King and Queen of Celebrity Love Villa…”
The nauseating music and luridly bright images of thongs, tan thighs, and toned arms painted a picture of the characters from the show, with cheeky looks from the muscled shirtless men, and girls in impossibly small bikinis blowing kisses or giving sassy looks at the camera.
“Tonight… A spicy challenge gets the Villa all worked up, and passions run wild as one Villa member stirs up trouble in paradise…”
“Babes!” The impossibly lovely Tina was now suddenly squealing, “I found a new envelope in the Love Den.”
The other villa members came bounding over to hear her read aloud from the card in her hand.
“Villa members, get ready for your next challenge… Truth or dare!”
When they’d assembled for the task, Kent was up first and chose dare.
Which was to kiss the girl he would most like to bring into his coupledom with Tina for a threesome.
Being Kent, though, he messed up the fun and simply went and kissed Tina.
So the threesome idea quickly petered out, drawing groans from the boys and some soft cooing from the girls. Tina then skipped onto the next card.
“Randall. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Who was better in bed, Debs or Dana?”
Randall smirked, before saying, “Gabi.”
The faces of the villa members were suddenly open-mouthed. All apart from Gabi, who looked like she wanted the ground to eat her up. Gabi’s Villa Hubby, David, loosened his hold on Gabi’s hand and turned to her in disbelief. “Gabi…?”
Randall licked his lips as he watched on, relishing the moment.
“Miss Heaton?”
The hotel manager loomed over my shoulder, bringing me out of my fascinated state.
“Oh! Yes. Is everything okay?”
“Well, I hope so. I actually wanted to ask you the same?”
“Oh, I’m doing… Great! I mean, sure, it’s lovely here.”
He looked at me with big, doting, and doubtful brown eyes on his kind face, seeming unsure of his next words.
“Perhaps we can do something for your stay? We have a cooking class, or you could join the parasailing group tomorrow?”
“Parasailing? I think I’m good, but thanks.”
He lingered there a moment with a look of concern on his face.
“Can I… Sit for a moment?”
“I suppose so.”
Leon, or so his nametag said, stroked his chin and avoided my eyes as he considered his words. Then he sighed and looked sadly out the glass windows at the scene over at the pool.
“You know, most people just come here and all do the same thing. I really hope you don’t mind me saying, but I noticed you eat in your room and try to avoid the other guests.”
Great, just what I need. Pity from the staff now. He looked so fucking earnest about it, too.
“I just want you to have a good time here, truly. Please don’t be afraid to ask if we can do anything.”
“Okay. Well, thanks. I guess it is a bit odd being here on my own, and maybe this isn’t exactly my crowd.”
“Hmm, okay,” he rubbed his chin again, which worried me. If he was about to suggest mountain biking, I might have hit him. “Let me have a think. I mean, if that’s okay?”
“Sure, thank you, Leon. So… How long have you worked here?”
I don’t know why I asked, it just seemed like a polite question.
He was trying to be nice, after all. It just happened that him being nice made me feel even more terrible than I already did.
Maybe I should skip out on all this and just go home?
I could be back in my fuzzy house slippers in around ten hours from now.
“Seven years. I’ve seen some things I can tell you!” Leon responded, his eyes sparkling with the thought. I leaned in with intrigue, perhaps because I really was starved of conversation.
“Like… What?”
“Oh.” Leon looked over both shoulders to make sure no one else was listening, then leaned in, speaking quietly. “Well, here’s one. Do you know the country star, Bernado Paredes?”
I nodded. Everyone knew Bernado. He was a legend, even now in his 60s.
“He stayed here one night and had been drinking at this very same bar, in just his swimming shorts. Suddenly, he got up and went over to that very same pool, and just belly flopped in,” Leon continued, pointing at the hotel pool.
“After a few moments, he hadn’t made any effort to move.
He was just floating face down in the pool.
So, we panicked. Santiago from the staff had to dive in and pull him out.
But when he pulled Bernado out, his trunks stayed in the pool. ”
“No way!”
“So, then Bernado opened his eyes, got up from the floor, went straight back to the bar, and demanded a martini, dirty of course. We were all too embarrassed and, honestly, a little scared of him, to say anything. So there he stayed for the next hour, drinking martinis, at one point even playing pool, completely naked in full view of everyone.”
“Ha! That sounds hilariously awkward, Leon!”
He nodded and laughed. “Happened right over there.”
“I met him once,” I told him.
“You met Bernado too?” Now it was Leon’s turn to lean in.
“I was in New York for a conference and got in a cab, but before I could close the door, another man got in beside me. I was about to tell him to get the hell out, then I saw his face.”
“Bernado,” Leon said, with a knowing nod.
“He just lowered his sunglasses and said in that growl of his, ‘Young lady, I just want to see the bridge if you’re heading to Brooklyn’.”
“And were you?”
“I was heading close enough. So, we ride out over the bridge in the cab, and he’s staring out the window, lost in thought.
Then, still looking out, he said, ‘You know, bridges are like songs, they connect us’.
Then a moment or two later, he said, ‘I think it’s about high time to stop with the boozing and the madness, and get back to connecting’.
He sounded so sincere! And I’m thinking, I’m actually there at the very moment Bernado changes his life.
“On the other side, he says, ‘Thank you for the ride and God bless you,’ and hops out of the cab in the middle of traffic. I watch him walk straight to the nearest bar and go inside.”
A couple who had just entered from the terrace stared at us, laughing loudly, and then slowly backed out again.
“Leon!” Another of the hotel staff had popped his head through the door and called out, “We’ve got a situation in the games room.”
Leon sighed bitterly, quickly plastered on a wide fake but withering smile, and told me he’d better go.