Chapter Nineteen
Valerie woke up with a feeling in her stomach.
And it wasn’t just any feeling; it was the same feeling she’d experienced that very same day two years ago when she’d completely blown the final challenge.
A kind of feeling that made her ribs feel too tight and her internal organs feel like they were dancing the tango to El Choclo.
Her dad used to say that a bad morning intuition was like unseasonably warm winter weather.
If you wake up and the air feels too gentle, don’t trust it.
But what did it mean?
Luckily, she didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Tamera stomped back into camp brandishing an envelope along with the six water bottles she’d gone to refill.
“We’ve got mail, everyone,” she announced, dropping the bottles to the ground with a clank.
“Reward challenge this afternoon. Or at least I think it’s for a reward. The message was a little cryptic.”
Valerie inched to the edge of the shelter for the first time that morning.
Since the sun was hidden behind a bank of clouds, a cool breeze wafted off the ocean, and it looked like it might just rain, she’d decided to sleep in.
But now she was as awake as ever. “What does it say?” she asked, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.
“Do you want me to read it?” Tamera asked, dropping onto an overturned log.
“Of course we want you to read it,” Isla snapped from where she leaned against a tree. She pushed herself off and sat down beside Tamera, yanking the envelope away from her before handing it back. “What a stupid question.”
Tamera wrinkled her nose at Isla, then slipped a paper from the envelope. “Fine,” she said. “Here goes.” Then she cleared her throat. “Two minds must become one spine. Lean into your weaknesses or watch your game decline.”
Two minds. One spine. Valerie tried to focus on what that meant, but her gaze snagged on Adrienne. Usually, she’d take a second to appreciate the way Adrienne’s top lifted when she stretched her arms above her head, but nope, the El Choclo beat in her gut was drowning out everything.
“Today the price of falling is the ultimate cost.” Then Tamera dropped the letter to her lap, and what followed was a silence so thick it pressed down like a blanket.
Nobody moved. Nobody even breathed. Then, right when Valerie opened her mouth to speak, Sienna dropped the rice pot to the ground.
“What the hell does the ultimate cost mean?”
“WELCOME TO THE PENULTIMATE challenge,” Vivian said, standing tall in a stone-colored maxi dress.
She had both hands clasped in front of her, and behind her the ocean was a restless grey wall of water.
The wooden poles—Valerie counted six—rising out beyond the breakers did not go unnoticed.
In fact, Valerie’s feet immediately became incredibly heavy.
She imagined this was how it felt to swim with Doc Martens, and although that image of Stevie should bring a smile to her face, it did the opposite.
Whatever the challenge was, it was going to break them physically, and the last time that had happened, Valerie hallucinated.
What if she quit the challenge again without meaning to?
Could she handle more slander from fans of the show?
Could she walk into a public coffee shop without worrying that someone was going to drop a glass of mango juice on her head?
And an even worse thought... could she crawl back to the Vales with her tail between her legs, begging for her old job back?
Without the prize money, the five acres of land she’d bought would stay overgrown with fireweed, and wild lupine, and the wind would keep howling through the spruces and the crabgrass would continue to bloom out the empty headlights of the rusty 1970s Ford Pinto the previous owner had abandoned there.
“For today’s challenge, relying on your partner is everything. This is called Back-to-Back,” Vivian said.
Suddenly, it all made sense. Two minds, one spine.
For fuck’s sake!
“You and your partner will each climb onto a pole and with your backs pressed together, you’ll sit in the air,” Vivian said.
“The rules are simple. Hold the position for as long as possible.” She paused, and Valerie knew something else was coming, something worse.
But what could be worse than an endurance challenge?
“The first team to fall is out,” Vivian said. “And not just out of the challenge, but out of the game. Both members of that pair will be sent home immediately.”
Valerie pressed a fist to her stomach to keep herself from being sick. Her chances of winning that million dollars had just plummeted.
“One mistake will send you home. Go take your places.” Vivian waved them off like a flock of sheep, but Valerie didn’t move.
It seemed Adrienne was also struggling to get her feet to work.
She leaned in so close that their shoulders touched.
“We’re fucked,” Adrienne muttered. Her breath hit Valerie’s cheek in a way that should’ve made her shudder, would’ve a day ago, but all she could think about was falling off that perch. “Our height difference alone—”
“It’s never bothered us before,” Valerie said under her breath. And it hadn’t. Every kiss had always felt completely natural, as if there wasn’t more than a head difference between them. “Don’t panic.”
But Adrienne was a woman burning at the stake. “How can I not panic when this challenge can cut both of us from the game? We’re completely fucked.”
“We’ll be fine,” Valerie replied, though truthfully, she was panicking. Except her panic was more internal, and it involved squeezing her lungs into a corset-like knot that didn’t leave any room for the absolute rager going on in her stomach. “Let’s just get onto the platforms first.”
Adrienne huffed out a breath, then jogged to the water.
Valerie followed close behind. Once they’d waded out into the surf, they reached their platforms. The water was surprisingly cool today.
But then again, the sun was still hidden behind clouds, almost as if the weather knew how morose the morning was going to be.
Valerie took the first pole and pulled herself up onto the flat wooden top.
This alone was enough to get her nerves going.
Then Adrienne climbed up, and thank goodness for the small handrail that was bolted to the side of each platform.
Without it, there was no way they could get into position.
Slowly, they leaned back. First, the small of Valerie’s back pressed against Adrienne’s lower spine, then Valerie’s shoulder blades tucked into the center of Adrienne’s ribs.
“I think that’s as aligned as we’re going to get,” Valerie said through gritted teeth. Time hadn’t even started, and she was already wondering how they were going to manage this.
Adrienne only whimpered in reply.
Valerie glimpsed Tamera and Sienna on the next structure over. Their backs and heads were aligned in a perfectly straight line. Isla and Safiya, on the other hand, looked slightly off balance, with Safiya leaning a little too far back and Isla taking up most of the weight.
“READY!” Vivian called from the shore. Then she swung her arm in the air like she was starting off a kiddies’ race and declared, “TIME STARTS NOW!”
The burn was immediate. Valerie had done a lot of wall squats in her early twenties after an ACL reconstruction, but not once had the wall moved.
“I could’ve been at North Island in the Seychelles right now, eating grilled passionfruit lobster and getting a massage at La Vie Spa,” Adrienne muttered.
“But then you would’ve missed out on sleeping in our shelter that smells like a wet dog,” Valerie mused.
“Or learning how to cook rice and beans over the fire and peeing in a hole at Moon Pit while avoiding blue crabs.” And then, in a voice so soft that the camera crew floating on SUPs around them couldn’t hear, she added, “And we would never have had our first kiss.”
Adrienne laughed. Valerie felt the vibration ripple straight through Adrienne’s spine and into Valerie’s own ribs. Which would’ve been great, extremely pleasant even, if they weren’t balancing on a circular wooden block no bigger than a dinner plate.
“Steady,” Valerie said, digging her heels into the wood. “No sudden movements.”
“You started it,” Adrienne said, and Valerie could hear the smile in her voice. “And you’re right,” she said softly. “I would’ve missed out on discovering just how fucking great the engineer aboard my parents’ yacht is at kissing.”
What Valerie would give to get off this pole—obviously once they’d won the challenge—and kiss her right here in front of everyone. For the first time since this morning, Valerie’s fear was disappearing, and it had everything to do with Adrienne’s laugh. Maybe they were going to win this after all.
“FIFTEEN MINUTES!”
“Is that it?” Sienna called wearily. She huffed out a breath, and Valerie caught her adjusting her feet on the platform. “It feels like thirty minutes.”
Isla let out a snort. “Last Christmas I spent forty minutes braced like Spiderman inside our walk-in pantry just so our toddlers wouldn’t see my sneakers under the door gap.”
“I don’t think I can do this for that long,” Safiya said grimly. “One of you had better drop in the next five minutes.”
Valerie had no intention of doing so. Her legs felt strong despite the burn. But her legs weren’t the problem. Adrienne was already beginning to shift. The micro-adjustments she was doing traveled straight into Valerie’s back.
“How about we stand up,” Adrienne suggested. “Just for a second. If we push up at the exact same time, we can straighten out our knees and give our thighs a break.”
“Do you remember when you said our height difference is going to fuck us over?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it will if we try to straighten our legs,” Valerie said. “My hips are lower than yours, Adrienne. If we push up, we’ll just slip right past each other.” They’d be like a pair of over-waxed surfboards sliding right off a roof rack.
“TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES!” Vivian declared. Unlike before, when she was standing on the sand, watching them from the shore, the host was sitting on a teak chaise shaded by a navy and white umbrella.
Where had that come from? And to make matters worse, she was sipping an Aperol Spritz.
The sun that was finally peeking through the clouds made the drink glow like liquid neon.
“That’s cruel!” Sienna shouted.
Vivian laughed. “If you want an Aperol, love, you’ll have to come get it.” It was the first reference to the fact that they were married all season, and Valerie was absolutely here for it. Especially if it meant Vivian could convince her wife to jump off her post.
“Ha. Ha,” Sienna said, and although Valerie couldn’t see it, it sounded like an eye roll.
“Listen to your wife, Sienna,” Isla shouted right after.
Valerie was just about to spit out a joke of her own when Adrienne suddenly spluttered, “I can’t hold it anymore, Val. I’ve got a cramp in my quad, and if I don’t get off this platform now, I’m going to rip a muscle.”
Panic snapped through Valerie’s brain like a starter pistol.
Suddenly she could see the dominoes falling: Adrienne giving up, their knees buckling, both of them splashing into the water, then that steep-pitched roof, the wide sun windows, and the wraparound porch of her dream home dissolving into the deep blue waters of the Aegean Sea.
“No,” Valerie snapped so coldly she could almost feel her breath turn icy. She was not going to lose this challenge. Absolutely not.
Adrienne seemed somewhat taken aback because it took her a few good seconds to reply. And when she did, her voice was pleading. “Seriously, Val, I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
Valerie could feel it. Those distinct twitches that happened when a muscle group officially entered the danger zone of complete fatigue.
It was obvious Adrienne had nothing left in her.
“I need that money,” Valerie said. If there were a way she could support them both, she’d do it.
But how could you hold up a person you’re supposed to lean against?
“I gave up everything to be here, Adrienne. I need you to push through.”
“I’ll give you a million dollars,” Adrienne spat through her teeth. “It will be my gift. Seriously. I will give you whatever you need to build your house in Sitka and—”
“I don’t want your money,” Valerie cut in angrily.
The offer hit her like a slap in the face.
She couldn’t believe how casually Adrienne had said it, as though the prize money was no bigger deal than covering dinner or paying for a tank of gas.
Clearly, the game didn’t mean the same thing to her.
For Adrienne, it was probably just a life experience she could laugh about at fancy dinners with her fancy friends.
Remember that reality show I did? The one where I lived on rice and beans?
Everyone would laugh. But for Valerie, it wasn’t just a funny story.
It was a lifeline. She gave up her steady career to be here.
She was doing this for her family. “And I hate that you just offered it up to me like it’s a turkey sandwich on white bread. ”
“Fine,” Adrienne replied. “Then what do you want instead, Val? Because there’s no way my legs are going—”
“I want to win this challenge,” Valerie replied so fiercely that spit traveled out of her mouth and dribbled down her chin. From the production’s point of view, she probably looked unhinged. Feral even.
“I physically can’t hold on any longer,” Adrienne muttered. “I’m sorry.”
Valerie squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable plunge. It was instinctive. Every time she got onto a plane, she closed her eyes during takeoff. If she couldn’t see the disaster coming, maybe her brain could pretend it wasn’t happening.
SPLASH!
Valerie held her breath, waiting for that feeling of falling, for the shock of the cold sea to swallow her whole.
But the impact never came. Her feet were still pressed against the hardwood.
Adrienne was still leaning heavily against her back.
Then Valerie snapped her eyes open just in time to see Sienna’s head pop up like a bobbing apple in a carnival bucket.
She coughed a wet, water-swallowing kind of cough and immediately blurted out, “I’m so sorry, Tamera. I’m sorry, I couldn’t hang on.”
Tamera, who was wiping wet hair from her face, laughed out loud. “Why are you apologizing? It was my legs that gave up.”
“Mine did too.”
“SIENNA AND TAMERA ARE OUT OF THE GAME!” Vivian declared, standing up from her chaise, holding her barely sipped glass of Aperol Spritz. “ISLA AND SAFIYA AND ADRIENNE AND VALERIE ARE SAFE!”