Chapter Fourteen
Talia had grown up in a family where the cup was always half full.
When her grandfather’s mole on his nose turned out to be cancerous, it was good they’d caught it early.
When her dad lost his job managing a sporting goods store in Longmont, he’d landed on his feet six months later overseeing inventory for a regional outdoor supplier.
Not once had he complained while scanning job listings, nor had he let his worry leak into the house.
And when Talia had lost her scholarship to the University of Denver due to her injury, no one had treated it like a tragedy.
Instead, it had become a pivot. A reason to pack a bag and spend six months backpacking through Central America, figuring out who she was without anyone telling her where to go.
Which was why Talia hadn’t been too surprised when Vivian called Shakira’s name at the second Sending last night and informed her she was going home. Or that Amy had chosen to stay.
By morning, Vivian had made it official: Amy and Monique were now a pair, two abandoned halves stitched into one very fragile team.
Talia had been entirely positive that their plan would hold.
Isla and Taye had kept their word. Sabine had trusted her. And Marloe and Lucia—with some careful nudging—had sided with them too.
It had all worked out exactly as planned.
But Shakira going home also meant the atmosphere around camp was a little tighter than before, a little more tense. Even the sky above could feel the shift. Dark, ominous-looking clouds had gathered in from the west.
It looked like it was going to rain, but Talia, holding onto that positivity that got her grandpa through one round of chemo, had a feeling it would just blow over.
Or if it did rain, it would be just a quick downpour. Charlize was in the process of cooking breakfast, which consisted of rice and beans. Talia was starving.
“Maybe we should build a little shelter over the fire,” Lucia offered as she frowned up at the sky. She had her hand on her stomach, and a moment ago, Talia had heard it growl. “If it rains, we can at least finish cooking breakfast.”
“With what exactly do you propose we build this shelter?” Charlize asked, looking up from where she was poking at the logs with a long stick.
Sparks leapt up and vanished. She hadn’t said much all morning, which was understandable.
Her alliance with Shakira and Amy had nearly cost them their position in the game.
“Should we just stack a bunch of sticks over the fire and see how long it takes for the whole thing to go up in flames?”
Lucia opened her mouth to argue, but then thought better of it.
Charlize had a point.
Even Talia hadn’t considered that, but mostly because she was thinking with her stomach and not her head.
The last reward challenge was ages ago, and everyone’s morale was disintegrating like a cheap bikini in saltwater.
There were only so many beans and rice a person could endure.
And this was coming from someone who’d enjoyed two reward feasts.
The only people who didn’t seem too bothered by anything were Isla and Taye.
They came strolling up from the shoreline in bikinis.
Isla flicked her wet hair back and walked as if she were in slow motion.
Taye was carrying something in her right hand, though Talia couldn’t see what.
At least not until she was three feet away, lifting up three slick, silver fish with bold black stripes running down their sides.
“We got lucky and caught some fish,” Taye said, grinning.
“Are you serious?” Charlize gasped as her face brightened up.
Even her voice sounded a beat or two more chipper.
“We can add them to the rice and beans and make a fish stew. Three isn’t exactly plenty.
But it will greatly enhance the flavor.” She gestured toward the flat rock that Lucia had found on day one.
All the crushing, cutting, and drying out of salt took place on its surface.
“How did you even manage to catch them? Honestly, I’m impressed.
Connie!” she called. “Did you see what Taye and Isla caught? Fish. Can you even imagine?”
Connie poked her head out of the shelter and gave a double thumbs-up. She was suffering from a head cold and was instructed to lie down by the Outlast Her doctor who had examined her earlier this morning. If it moved to her chest, there was a possibility she’d be sent home.
Taye deposited the fish, then stepped back and gleamed. “We lured them into a rock pool.”
“Are those Sergeant Majors?” Marloe asked, leaning forward to get a better look. “You know they call them that because of the stripes. They look like the bars on a military uniform.”
“How do you know that?” Taye asked, looking surprised.
She slung what looked like a net fashioned out of woven shoelaces and strips torn from a T-shirt over her shoulders.
They didn’t have fishing gear, so whatever Taye and Isla had created was more than impressive.
Even more than Marloe identifying the fish.
Talia’s knowledge of fish extended to dolphins and great white sharks.
She couldn’t tell the difference between a salmon and a mackerel.
“My son loves the sea,” Marloe replied, glancing down at the rainbow bracelets dangling from her wrists. “He can name a hundred and thirty-six species of fish and crustaceans by sight. After a while, the names just kind of stick.”
“How old is he?” Sabine asked, stepping past Talia.
Talia had felt her before she saw her, the way you feel someone slide into a booth beside you or the sun disappear behind a cloud.
It had been happening ever since the kiss in the rock pool.
This strange, magnetic sense of proximity.
It was, quite frankly, intoxicating. It was as if they were tuned to the same frequency.
Talia couldn’t get enough of it. Every moment she and Sabine had alone was like pressing her hand to a live wire.
Electric. Like yesterday afternoon. They’d dodged the camera crew because they’d ended up following Amy and Shakira tanning on the shore.
So then Sabine and Talia had gone in the opposite direction and walked to the watering well.
Sabine had stopped short of the stone steps.
She’d pulled Talia toward her and gently, almost lovingly, caressed her thumb over the corner of Talia’s mouth.
It had turned out Talia had a rice speck on her lip.
Not that she was particularly embarrassed about it.
In fact, she’d barely had time to think anything at all before Sabine pulled her in for a kiss.
“Six,” Marloe said. “He’s possibly a genius. We haven’t had him tested yet. My wife doesn’t want to be that parent who pushes so young. You know the kind that thinks their kid is super smart, but actually, they’re just average. She thinks he’s just got a good memory.”
“You should get him tested,” Sabine said. “That’s quite extraordinary.”
Marloe glowed.
Sabine turned and caught Talia’s eye. For a dizzying second, the beach fell away.
Talia wasn’t even that hungry anymore. The pangs in her stomach were replaced by butterflies, and all she wanted was Sabine to herself.
Which was why she tilted her chin toward the forest and hoped Sabine received the message of let’s sneak off into the jungle and make out.
But Sabine looked distracted. Not uninterested, just momentarily focused elsewhere. She dropped her gaze to the pile of coconut shells at her feet and squatted down to fetch them.
Talia cleared her throat. Though it sounded less like she was trying to get someone’s attention and more like she was at the start of a chest cold. Which didn’t go unnoticed.
“Are you alright?” Isla asked, picking up an empty coconut shell, which she turned upside down.
Bits of dried rice fell onto the sand. “Do you think you’re coming down with something?
” She flicked her eyes to Connie, who was still resting in the shelter.
Only her feet stuck out. Everyone treated her like patient zero.
If anyone else got even so much as a sniffle, there’d be chaos.
“No,” Talia said quickly, shaking her head. “I’m as healthy as an ox. I promise. Just have something stuck in my throat.” She touched her throat in demonstration, and Isla seemed to lose interest immediately. She was about to do it again when Lucia suddenly asked, “Amy, are you alright?”
Talia hadn’t even noticed Amy until right then. Which was surprising, considering the neon pink windbreaker she was wearing. She was like a human highlighter.
“What’s wrong?” Isla asked, also noticing.
Marloe, who’d been sitting on the log beside Amy all along, extended an arm to Amy’s shoulder, but before she could wrap it around them, Amy’s bottom lip trembled.
Then, big fat tears streamed down her cheeks.
She let out the saddest, most miserable retching sound Talia had ever heard, and then buried her crying face in her hands.
“What’s wrong?” Lucia asked, looking deeply concerned.
But Amy didn’t reply. She couldn’t. She was too busy coming apart at the seams with her hiccupping breaths and her shaky shoulders. Talia couldn’t see all of her face, but the parts she could were blotchy. She was either crying because of Shakira or because she missed home.
Whatever the reason, Talia felt for her.
She really did. But at the same time, with everyone clustering around Amy, the perfect moment to slip away had presented itself on a pretty shiny platter.
Talia would be stupid not to take it. So she didn’t wait.
While Charlize crouched in front of Amy, saying, “Oh sweetheart, you both decided to go through with The Sending,” Talia drifted closer to Sabine.
She made sure no one was looking, and then slid her fingers into Sabine’s hand and tugged gently, angling toward the trees.
“I... I just thought I’d be the one to go home,” Amy said through a hitching breath. The words came out uneven and shaky. “I’m just shocked, I guess.”
Sabine squeezed Talia’s hand and released her fingers. Behind them, Charlize offered, “It’s completely understandable to be shocked, Amy.” Talia didn’t answer. She headed for the trees.
She didn’t even have to look back to know that Sabine was following her. Most likely, they wouldn’t even be missed. Did she care? Not one bit.
As soon as the trees swallowed them, Talia paused for a second and checked for any camera crew.
The two camera operators had stayed behind.
Jen was twenty-five and had landed the gig through her cousin.
Marie was thirty-five and had six-year-old triplet girls at home.
Talia didn’t blame them. Filming Amy unraveling made for far better television.
“I think we’re alone,” Talia said.
Sabine stepped in beside her. Light filtered through the canopy in soft, broken pieces and turned her sandy blonde hair gold. Talia imagined her fingers threading through the strands. “I can’t believe you used Amy’s heartbreak to slip away.”
“Really?” Talia asked, nearly laughing out loud.
Sabine smiled. “No. I actually meant that I can believe it.”
Talia tried not to combust into flames. But it was difficult. Whenever Sabine looked at her, really looked at her, it felt like she was standing too close to the sun.
“Do you think Shakira and Amy... you know?” Talia let the question hang in the air and hoped Sabine would catch it like a floating leaf.
Sabine arched an eyebrow. “Are you trying to ask whether or not I think Shakira and Amy were having sex, and that’s why Amy is crying?”
That was exactly what Talia was asking. “Yes! So, you do?” she said.
“I do.” Sabine smiled, and for the first time, there was a naughty glint in her eye.
It looked so out-of-place that Talia was taken aback, but also turned on.
Talia was turned on to the point where she was grabbing Sabine by the waist and steering her toward the nearest tree.
The bark was smooth, and when Sabine’s back touched it, a few leaves trickled down around them.
Talia found it oddly romantic. But then again, sneaking off into a forest, hiding from the camera crew, and talking in hushed whispers was like a scene straight from a rom-com.
She pressed close and brushed her lips against the hollow of Sabine’s neck.
She dropped one hand to Sabine’s ribs and, through the fabric of her shirt, traced lopsided circles.
Then she slid her palm down to rest at the small of her back.
Sabine smelled like the ocean. Her skin was hot and smooth.
Talia could easily lose herself, but for some reason, a question popped into her head and wriggled around.
“If we ended up at the bottom, what would you do?” she asked, barely lifting her mouth from Sabine’s neck. “Would you go through with The Sending?”
Sabine didn’t even take a beat to think about it. “Yes. Wouldn’t you?”
Talia pulled back. Just enough to gauge if Sabine was actually serious.
Was she serious? The answer was yes. She was.
Talia, on the other hand, wasn’t so certain.
Yes, she wanted the million dollars and the title of Ultimate Outlast Her.
But did she want to see Sabine voted out?
Besides, wasn’t there something gallant about leaving together?
Wasn’t there something exhilarating and romantic about standing together and mutually deciding to exit the game?
Together they entered, and together they left.
“Yes,” she said, though it was really just a fib. “I would go through with The Sending.”