Chapter Twenty
Talia didn’t mind rain when she was curled into the corner of her cushy leather sofa under the tan sweater knit blanket her sister had gifted her from Crate she was sulking.
She sat on the edge of the shelter platform with her elbows on her knees. There was still mud caked in the creases behind her knees, packed into the folds at her ankles and elbows, and between her fingers. She picked at a spot on her shin with a fingernail and scowled at the ground.
Sabine sat down beside her. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it stopped raining.”
Talia barely lifted her chin.
“Everyone else is enjoying the sun.” She pointed toward the beach, but Talia didn’t even have to look up to know that Monique and Amy were waist-deep in the sea, Isla was lying flat on her back on the sand with her T-shirt covering her face, and Marloe and Lucia, well, who the hell knew where they were. Even the camera crew was out of sight.
“Are you mad at me?”
Of course, Talia was mad. They had a chance to be alone together tonight once the camera crew packed it in, but Sabine had just given it away like free food at a buffet.
She wasn’t mad. She was livid. And disappointed.
And also guilty for feeling that way when Sabine had actually done the most selfless thing in the game.
But still, Talia couldn’t unsee the hotel room with a comfy king-size bed. And a glorious shower.
When Talia said nothing, Sabine reached over and smoothed her palm over Talia’s knee, which was entirely surprising. Up until now, PDA had been strictly forbidden. At any moment someone could walk back into camp and see them.
“I did it for our game,” Sabine said. She didn’t move her hand. Instead, her thumb pressed gently into Talia’s kneecap. “We need to keep Connie and Charlize on our side. Giving them the reward was our way of saying we trust them, and we want to keep working with them.”
“They already know that,” Talia muttered. “They sided with us last vote.”
Sabine sighed. “In this game, nothing is set.”
“We have an advantage,” Talia said, eyeing her rucksack. The envelope was safely hidden between a pair of bikini bottoms and the basketball shorts she slept in every night.
“It only works if we’re not at the bottom,” Sabine pointed out.
This was true. Still, Talia stood up and walked toward the tree where she’d hung her clothes from earlier.
Her top was damp and smelled like mud. She shook it out and watched flecks of dried sludge flake onto the sand.
Maybe it wasn’t so much that Sabine had given away the reward that stung, but that she’d made the call without her. They were a pair. A team.
Sabine followed her. “I should’ve talked to you about it first,” she said, reading Talia’s thoughts like a book. “But it was a last-minute thing, and I knew you’d understand.”
That was it. Before Talia could think twice, she grabbed Sabine around the midsection and pressed her face to Sabine’s shoulder. There was a second where Talia expected Sabine to push her away, but she didn’t. Instead, she closed her arms around her and held the doctor tight.
Talia did understand. Just like she understood that Sabine wouldn’t have done anything for the sake of doing it without running through every possible scenario first. Talia was sulking for nothing. She should be embarrassed. In fact, she was embarrassed.
“You said you trust me, right?” Sabine whispered into Talia’s hair.
Talia nodded, her cheek rubbing pleasantly against Sabine’s top. “I do.”
“Well, then I need you to believe me when I say that this was the best thing for our game.” She kissed Talia’s eyelids and then the tip of her nose. “For us. I want us to get to the end. I want us to be there together.”
“Knock-knock.” A voice rang out.
Sabine pulled away so fast that Talia almost lost her balance and tumbled forward. Isla walked back into the camp, gripping a sneaker in each hand. She clapped them together again until dried mud sprayed through the air.
“What are you two fools doing?” she asked, then pulled a face just as Talia opened her mouth to retort.
“I’m just kidding,” Isla said quickly. “Though I do think it was very stupid of you to give your reward away. You two could be sitting in satin gowns, sipping champagne, staring out at the ocean from a balcony. I’d give my right leg to be there with Taye.
Oh, wait, that’s right... you voted Taye off.
How silly am I to forget such a thing?” She looked at Talia like she was imagining throwing daggers at her face.
Talia didn’t say anything to her except, “I’m going to the beach.”
Sabine followed.