Chapter Twenty
It turned out Vivian was right. Everyone loved the next group date.
It was a treat-yourself spa date. Even Birdie herself loved a good spa.
In Portland, she made a bimonthly trip to Willow it would be humiliating.
“So, what’s the weirdest treatment you’ve ever had?” Bianca asked, glancing around the circle. “I once had a facial where they rubbed caviar on my face. It smelled like low tide.”
“Thai face slapping,” Lyra said immediately. “I went to this place in Bangkok, and the massage therapist literally slapped my cheeks for like thirty minutes.”
“That sounds like torture.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that,” Alexis said. “It’s apparently great for circulation.”
Lyra smoothed a hand across her forehead. “And wrinkles.”
“I once did one of those fish pedicures where the fish eat the dead skin off your feet. But then, like months later, I read this article about a woman who lost her legs doing that because of some bacteria. Never again,” Louise said, shaking her head.
Birdie didn’t join the conversation. She was too busy sliding her toes forward under the mud.
Her mind was too preoccupied, praying that she’d land on Alexis’s calf, and not say, Bianca’s shin, since the Olympian was sitting right beside Alexis… in Birdie’s rightful spot.
She inched her foot forward slowly and surely, watching the mud’s surface in case any bubbles popped up. She was so close, and then she was right there, one breath away.
But then Louise said, “I know this might be perceived as rude, but I’m going to change the conversation. I think it’s time we address the elephant in the room.” And Birdie’s entire body seized.
The elephant in the room. What elephant? Her toes jerked back like they’d touched an electric fence, and a rush of panic suddenly fizzed in her throat.
Fuck! Louise had clocked them. She knew.
That was why she had asked Birdie if she’d kissed Alexis the other day.
She was testing her, and now, she was going to say it out loud in front of everyone, here in the mud, in this gorgeous room, and then Birdie—and possibly Alexis too—would have no choice but to sink under the surface and die.
Birdie sucked in a breath. “What are you talking about?” She didn’t dare look in Alexis’s direction in case she gave something away.
Although the shrillness of her voice wasn’t exactly convincing.
But Louise didn’t answer her. She just flicked her gaze toward Alexis and smiled.
Not that there was anything accusatory on her face, which Birdie found both interesting and weird.
If she’d found out that one of the other contestants was sleeping with the bachelorette behind everyone’s back, she herself would be pissed.
“Last season of The Sapphic Match,” Louise said. “Alexis, I know you’ve probably been asked this a million times, and I’m sure you’ve mentioned it in an interview somewhere, but I really just want to know, what were you thinking?”
Birdie’s jaw fell open so wide she could probably catch a fly. It wasn’t the question she had expected, but damn, it was nearly as surprising. She shut her mouth just as quickly and looked at Alexis. The bachelorette’s expression was calm, cool, and unreadable.
She gave a tight-lipped smile and said, “I wasn’t thinking.”
Bianca nodded as if she understood perfectly, and Lyra looked angry at Louise for even bringing it up.
The question was answered. Done. Birdie expected the conversation to move on.
But it became clear Louise had a death wish.
She wasn’t just poking the bear; she was readying it for a wrestling match.
“If you could go back to last year, would you do it all over again?”
Alexis’s gaze flicked to Birdie for the briefest second before she focused back on Louise. “Yes, I would,” she said. “I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d do it all over again.”
“Really?” Louise asked, sounding every bit as surprised as Birdie felt.
“Yes,” Alexis said matter-of-factly. She ran her hand over her shoulder and left a streak of mud across the side of her neck.
“If I hadn’t done what I did, I wouldn’t be here.
I wouldn’t have met any of you and gotten this experience.
I wouldn’t have learned what I needed to learn or even become the person I am today. So, no, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Louise smiled, seemingly satisfied with Alexis’s answer. Birdie, not so much. Alexis hadn’t been this calm the last time the conversation had come up. So, what had changed? Why was she suddenly accepting her past behavior?
“Okay, new topic. What’s everyone’s guilty pleasure TV show? Mine’s Love Island,” Bianca said.