Chapter Twenty-Six
The next morning I miraculously only feel like shit from sleeping on the ground.
My hangover has dissipated, the swelling in my ankle has gone down, and when I wear the brace the medics dropped off, it doesn’t even hurt to walk.
I smile, starting to feel like myself again. Maybe today will be a good day.
Madison, Ciara, and I decide to eat breakfast in the fancy dining room in the mansion since it’s overcast today.
The solid oak table is longer than the one in my conference room at work, so people file in to sit with us.
Unsurprisingly, TC sits next to Madison.
He’s the only other contestant who’s already awake.
Blue, another production assistant, and a camera operator also take their break to eat with us.
They’ve already been working for hours at this point; I give Blue a sympathetic smile.
When Andrew comes strolling in with a paper takeout bag, I feel my cheeks flush. This is my first time seeing him since we kissed. If I smile at him, will everyone know? Or would avoiding eye contact make me seem even more guilty? I settle for a quick head nod.
Andrew, however, must overthink things less than I do, because he smiles as he sits across the table and slides the bag in my direction. I immediately notice the logo on the front. It’s from one of my favorite vegan restaurants in West Hollywood.
I peek inside. “You got me a vegan breakfast burrito?” I gasp as I tear into the bag for the tofu-y goodness.
The other people at the table turn to look, and Andrew shrugs. “It was on my way.”
Blue side-eyes him. “Don’t you live in Silver Lake?”
Andrew ignores him and takes a sip of his coffee.
Blue discreetly raises his eyebrows at Madison and Ciara, as if they’re all in cahoots. But he’s not that discreet. I shoot him a dirty look that I hope conveys, Cut it out. He just smiles sweetly at me and nonchalantly says, “So I’m friends with your mom now.”
I choke on black bean salsa as I sputter, “What? Why?”
“She somehow got my number and was texting me questions about you.”
“You sound amused, and not annoyed or scared by this,” I respond slowly.
“Yeah, how’d she get your number?” Andrew asks, snapping back into lawyer mode.
Blue shrugs. “She seems like a very persuasive lady. Anyway, she wanted me to give you a message.” He scrolls through his phone until he reads, “Javier is a hottie. Go for him.”
I quickly lift my eyes to Andrew, embarrassed, then to Ciara, wincing, before turning back to Blue, shaking my head. “See? She’s deranged. This is what I’ve had to live with my entire life! Please block her.”
He gives me a guilty look. “She follows me on all my socials. We’re meeting for coffee after we wrap.” I groan loudly, and everyone laughs. “Oh yeah, and she texted me a message about your hot brother.” Blue looks down at his phone: “Matt wants you to know he was right about the glasses.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m starting to appreciate the no-phone rule.”
The camera operator then announces to the table that he swears by my dad’s Power Yoga, which kicks off a conversation about my pseudo-famous family. One of the PAs tells me that, on the first day, he wanted to talk to me about Jesse’s Twitch channel, but he wasn’t sure if we were actually related.
I nod at him. “I get that a lot.” Then I busy myself eating because I don’t have anything to say about video games. I groan in ecstasy as I devour the burrito. It’s been too long since I’ve had good food. When I look up, Andrew is staring at me.
“Sorry,” I say after I swallow.
He just smiles wickedly. “I’m glad you like it.”
I try to hide my grin as I feel my cheeks heat up. God, you kiss a guy one time and now suddenly everything is sexual. I feel heat pooling low in my stomach as we sit there looking at each other.
Until Kristina eviscerates my dirty thoughts when she stampedes into the dining room and yells, “Who made a fucking labor complaint?”
Everyone glances around the room in confusion except Blue, who looks at me with wide eyes. Shit. If he suspects I did it, does Kristina? But when I look back at her, she’s too busy stalking into the next room yelling about “penalty fees” and “legal nightmare.”
Andrew pushes away from the table and stands up, looking directly at me. He strides off after Kristina.
Andrew’s look sends ice through my veins as we all sit there in stunned silence.
While I’m not afraid to admit what I did, I now realize that if the studio finds out it was me, they’ll probably kick me off the show.
And after talking to my coworkers at the lab last night and learning that this crazy idea is actually working, I can’t risk it.
As everyone around me starts gossiping about the complaint, I just keep my head down and avoid eye contact.
Brett, the EP I haven’t seen do any actual work, comes in a few minutes later and tells all the contestants at the table that we have to film a Shantae segment down at the beach before our one-on-one dates.
I guess since Kristina is off putting out the fires I lit, Brett actually has to do something.
“It’s probably new arrivals,” Ciara whispers to me.
We all get up to go get ready, and I hustle off to the shack to change.
Since Beth Anne won the striptease challenge, she’s not at the bottom of the leaderboard anymore, and Bill got sent home, so it’s just me in the shack.
Which is fine. I’m worried that, if I’m around anyone right now, they’ll figure out I’m the anonymous tipster.
I put on my cut-up Speedo because I have no other bathing suits, leave on my ankle brace, and throw on some makeup. I’m almost done when there’s a knock on my door. Please don’t be Kristina. Please don’t be Kristina, I pray as I cross to open the door.
It’s Andrew. And he doesn’t look happy. “I know it was you.”
I open the door for him to come in. He enters with his arms crossed. There doesn’t seem to be any use denying it, and I don’t want to lie to him, so I admit, “I can’t just stand by and watch people be taken advantage of or bullied and manipulated.”
Andrew shakes his head, “Neither can I. Which is why, if you had just come to me, I would’ve handled it. But instead, you went directly to the US Department of Labor. And now I’m in the middle of a serious shit storm.”
“I’m sorry if I caused you more paperwork, but it wasn’t about you,” I say, refusing to back down. “It was about Kristina and the producers and how they think they can just treat people like pawns and not actual human beings.”
“It is about me! This is my job. I’m the one who now has to handle this and try to avoid arbitration,” he says, half shouting in frustration.
“Which is why I couldn’t go to you!” I half shout back, equally frustrated.
“Because you don’t trust that I would do the right thing?”
“Because as long as they sign your paychecks, you work for them. You’re part of the problem!” I say, getting heated.
“Is that really how you see me?”
“You’re a corporate lawyer, Andrew! You’re not being paid to protect the contestants or the crew.
You’re being paid to protect a media conglomerate that knowingly commits labor violations and produces shows where they ply people with alcohol to do compromising things for ratings. How else am I supposed to see you?”
He stands there as my words hang in the air around us. Then he slowly nods once before turning and leaving.
I stand there frozen. Part of me wants to go after him, but what would I say? I don’t regret sticking to my convictions. I was only trying to do the right thing. Why doesn’t he see that?
I sink down to my bedroll. Andrew’s face when he walked out is burned into my brain. While he may have started off angry and frustrated, the look on his face when he left was one of hurt and betrayal.
Maybe I was too harsh in my delivery, but wasn’t everything I said true? I sigh. This is the first time I can remember when being right makes me feel so bad.
I walk to the beach where they’ve set up the next Shantae segment, feeling numb. I replay every moment of my fight with Andrew as I give TC, Javier, and Ciara a half-hearted wave before plopping down next to Madison on the outdoor couch.
She immediately senses my mood. “What’s wrong?”
I say to her quietly, “Andrew and I got into a fight.”
She gives a little gasp of sympathy, then whispers, “It was you who filed the complaint.”
I nod. “And he’s taking it personally,” I say, then quickly add, “Don’t tell anyone it was me.”
“I won’t. I only wish I had thought of it. It’s not fair the way they treat the crew.”
“It’s not fair the way they treat anyone.”
As if on cue, Shantae struts out. Followed by two PAs carrying the damn Wheel of Fate. I roll my eyes. What fresh torture is this?
Everyone quiets down, and I scan the crew for Blue.
I don’t see him anywhere. Is Kristina questioning him?
What if they think it was him? Or he’s forced to tell them it was me?
I don’t realize I’m wringing my hands until Madison grabs one, in a silent reminder to act natural. I give her an appreciative squeeze.
I’m barely paying attention as Shantae announces the arrival of two new contestants.
And before I know it, a beautiful Hispanic woman and a muscular Black man walk out in their bathing suits.
I don’t even catch their names. I’m so busy worrying about Blue getting falsely accused for my actions, and Andrew being mad at me, and Kristina kicking me off the show, and my frogs going extinct, that Madison has to elbow me to bring me back to the present.
Just in time to hear Shantae say, “So, to welcome Eliana and Chris, we’re doing body shots!” I vaguely catch Beth Anne cheering. “And to make it fun, we’ll spin the wheel to see who’s taking a shot off of who!”
When we all move to the tiki bar, I realize I probably won’t be able to avoid drinking. I’m so worried about my place on the show that I might just have to start playing by their rules. Ugh.