Chapter Twenty-Six #2
Shantae spins the wheel, which I notice now includes the names of the two new contestants but Bill’s name is gone. The Wheel of Fate lands on TC, and when Shantae spins again, it lands on Beth Anne.
“Interesting,” Shantae says obnoxiously.
I feel Madison stiffen beside me, but TC squeezes her shoulder reassuringly before he walks up to the bar.
Beth Anne has already climbed on top of it and is lying down seductively, with her wavy hair splayed everywhere.
The bartender pours a shot of rum and places it on her chest, the shot glass held in place between her ample breasts, now barely covered by a neon purple string bikini.
Madison grabs my hand and squeezes hard.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “It’s just a dumb icebreaker. You have nothing to worry about.”
Then TC puts his hands behind his back and leans forward to take the shot glass out of Beth Anne’s cleavage, using his mouth. He wraps his lips around the glass and throws it back, swallowing the contents. Madison might break my hand.
But before Madison causes permanent nerve damage, TC puts the shot glass on the counter, comes back over to the couch, and kisses her. Despite the ridiculousness of this situation, I melt a little at his romantic gesture. It’s not Jane Austen, but who knows how she would’ve handled body shots.
Next, the Wheel of Fate tasks Scott with doing a shot off the new contestant, Eliana.
She also climbs onto the bar, in her leopard print bikini, and lies down.
The bartender pours booze into the indentation between her clavicle bones, essentially turning her neck into a makeshift shot glass.
Scott leans in and sucks the alcohol out before graciously cleaning up all the alcohol that spilled by licking and sucking her neck as well. Eliana doesn’t seem to mind.
I roll my eyes at myself for letting him have that same effect on me and make a mental note to give the new girl a heads-up when I hear Shantae call my name.
She spins the wheel again and it lands on Javier’s name.
I’m grateful it’s someone I’m friends with and not the new guy, who may be very nice but I’m not ready for bodily alcohol to be consumed by him.
Javier helps me climb up onto the bar, careful not to jostle my still swollen ankle, and I thank him for his chivalry.
He smiles and says that he still owes me one.
Then before I realize what’s happening, the bartender is pouring vodka through the hole cut in my bathing suit and into my belly button.
I gasp at the sensation. Javier smiles at me and whispers, “May I?” I nod, and he leans down and sucks the alcohol off my stomach.
It’s all over so quickly that I don’t even have time to be scandalized, and frankly, I’m just glad I don’t have to be the one drinking vodka at 11:00 a.m.
Javier helps me off the bar and hands me a napkin. He really is a gentleman.
Shantae then calls up the new guy, Chris, and both Madison and Ciara since they’re the only ones left.
They all must’ve done this before because they quickly work out the logistics.
Ciara licks Madison’s neck, then the bartender shakes salt there.
Ciara then licks the salt off Madison before she kneels down in the sand so she’s eye level with Chris’s crotch, where a shot of tequila is balanced inside the waistband of his bathing suit.
Ciara takes the shot glass with her mouth, tips it back, swallows the tequila, and then stands back up and takes a lime wedge from Madison’s mouth.
Scott, TC, and Javier all cheer like this sexy show is for them.
After the body shots, Shantae makes some lame jokes about how “tequila does a body good” and tells us that it’s time to get ready for our one-on-one dates. I nod, still in my own world, numb from the events of this morning.
“Because Chris and Eliana just arrived, they’ll go on their date together. Grace, you’re still alone,” Shantae says matter-of-factly. She just had to remind me.
We start walking off the beach as Blue jogs over to catch up to me. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I say back. “Everything okay?”
He nods discreetly but waits until we’re closer to the shack and away from the others before saying, “Kristina point-blank asked me if it was you who made the complaint. To which I replied, ‘How could it possibly have been Grace? She doesn’t have a phone.’”
I give him a quick hug. “Thanks, Blue.”
“I wouldn’t thank me yet . . .” He plays with his headset nervously, like he did when I first met him. “I think she’s still suspicious of you—hence your one-on-one date.”
“What do you mean?” I’m immediately on high alert. “Do you know what I’m doing?”
“She said it would be ‘good for her personal growth.’” He winces.
“Blue!! What is it?!! It better not be skydiving!”
“I promise you—it’s not skydiving,” Blue says evasively.
“What is it then? Blue, you know I’m deathly afraid of heights. Which I specifically told Kristina.”
“Probably shouldn’t have done that.”
“Oh my God! I will kill you if you don’t tell me.”
“Not if the producers kill you first,” he mutters under his breath, and my heart stops beating. “Just get dressed please.”
“You are so dead!” I scream at Blue from a large field behind the mansion a mere thirty minutes later.
“It’s not my fault! I don’t plan the dates!” he says, backing away from me while quickly texting someone.
“Well, then please tell Kristina and her diabolical producer minions that there’s no way in hell I’m getting in that death basket,” I say, pointing to a freaking hot-air balloon.
“They got you on camera saying you’re scared of heights. So they want America to see you overcoming your fears. Honestly, it’ll be a great moment for you,” he tries to reason.
“Not if I plummet to my death.” I cross my arms over the floral sundress I thought I was wearing to a fake date, not what I’d be buried in.
“Grace,” he chides, like I’m an unruly child.
“Blue,” I mimic him. “You know I have acrophobia, and yet you want me to be hundreds of feet in the air, in a small wooden, flammable basket directly below burning liquid propane . . . alone.”
“You won’t be alone. There’ll be a very qualified balloon operator with you.
And Bruce.” Blue sweeps a hand in the direction of the hot-air balloon operator and the camera operator, both of whom are playing games on their phones.
It doesn’t exactly instill confidence. “You’re not in a couple, Grace.
Which means you have to keep doing things that will make America love you and vote for you.
Or feel bad and vote for you. Which means going on this date and overcoming your fear while looking like a single yet loveable sad sack.
” Then he lowers his voice. “Not to mention Kristina is now out to get you, so you have to play the game if you want to stay on the show.”
I take deep breaths to keep my panic attack at bay. I can’t believe I’m considering risking my life to appease Evil Producer Barbie and to make random strangers in the Bible Belt like me.
“Will you go with me?” I plead.
“I wish I could, sweetie. I have a million things to do before the next challenge, and Kristina will make my life miserable if I don’t get them done.”
I shake my head. I can’t believe I woke up this morning thinking it would be a good day. Andrew is mad at me, Kristina is out to get me, and now I’m going to die.
I look up when I hear people coming; it’s the rest of the contestants. Blue sees the hope in my eyes and quickly dashes it. “They can’t come with you either. They’re just here because Kristina wants a shot of them sending you off.”
The balloon operator climbs into the basket, and with a whoosh of fire, the balloon begins to fill. I jump at the sound and frantically turn to Blue. “Please. Isn’t there anything else I could do? Literally anything?”
“I’ll go with you,” I hear from behind me. Andrew is striding toward us.