22. 20.
20.
Sebastian
“Was it you?”
I don’t tread as carefully as I should. My tone is low because it’s weighted with grief and defiance rather than because I’m afraid of being caught.
I don’t let Vera answer. I shoulder my way to the bedroom she shares with the other finalists. Maya and Abby are in the pool. The cameras are on top of them. That’s why I chose this moment to find Vera.
“Was it me what?”
My breathing comes out choppy. I fight the impulse to rake my hand through my hair. I have a solo interview in twenty minutes.
“They have a video… They… Anya called Callie and I…”
I hear the door closing while I cruise the bedroom from one side to the other.
“Sebastian, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You need to calm down and–”
I turn, my finger pointing to her face. “You were the only one who knew about Callie. No one else knew.”
“You think I outed you?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore, Vera.”
“Well, stop being an ass and maybe I can help.” She says, raising her nose up.
My fingers find my eyes and I do my best not to remove them. I held it together the whole day after our conversation with Anya, just at the thought of talking to Callie in private and thinking about a solution. But last night, after my date with Vera, Callie wasn’t anywhere to be found.
I asked a few assistants, and they all said Callie had a family emergency and left early. For a full hour, I blew up her phone, worried something happened with her parents.
I don’t believe that anymore. Callie never answered my calls or replied to my texts, and today people are saying she’s staying out for the rest of the season.
I know right in my bones they made Callie leave. We are not talking about a way to be together. We are through.
She’s done with me.
“Someone filmed Callie and I on the plane. Anya had a video.”
Vera’s hand comes to her mouth as her eyes widen. “Oh, God. How is Callie?”
My mouth opens and closes. I can’t answer because I don’t know.
“She left, Vera. She’s gone.”
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
I’m back pacing, the weight piercing my chest. “She’s gone for the season. She’s not answering my calls. I don’t know what to do.”
“God, Sebastian, sit down, please. You’re making me dizzy.”
I, for an unfathomable reason, obey her. My body sags into one of the single beds, not sure whose. Vera sits in another, right across from me, and that’s the first time I look at her properly.
She has a frown right in the middle of her forehead, eyes shining with obvious concern. I knew it wasn’t Vera. When she knocked on my door, telling me she knew about Callie, it wasn’t to judge. She came to me as a friend. The conversation we had was about how I found Callie, how we became so close.
“From the beginning. What happened?” she asks in a low voice laced with concern.
“We were called yesterday morning to talk to Anya. She had a video of me and Callie in the plane, our conversation making it obvious something was going on between us.”
“What was the camera angle?”
“What?”
Vera rolls her eyes. “Where was the person who filmed it sitting?”
I stop to think about that for the first time. “From behind, but not right behind us. A little to the side…”
“Callie was sitting close to the bathroom. Maybe it was filmed in that direction?”
I raise an eyebrow. “How do you know where she was?”
“Because you were making it obvious! I noticed something was up on our way to London when you changed your seats. Then, on the way back you found a way to be with her again. It was reckless.”
I squeeze my eyes close. I should have never risked so much just to sit with her for an hour. At the time, that one hour felt so important but now the excuses for my behavior fall flat.
I grew up a Riggs. Mother told me people are always watching. Just quietly watching and waiting for one wrong move. One slip.
And I let them feast, eyes and ears on my biggest secret. I let them feast on Callie’s career while I made promises I couldn’t keep.
“We are done now.”
“Sebastian–”
I shake my head, defeated. “Anya didn’t fire her, but let it be clear others would not see this in a good light. She put into words all of Callie’s fears. She’s afraid people are going to see her badly. Like she seduced me or something.”
“She’s not wrong.” I look at her sharply, and she raises her hands. “You know they are going to put it all on Callie, not you. You’ll be the irresistible man who even the crew is falling for. But Callie?”
“I know!” I can’t help feeling frustrated. “I’m well aware of the stakes for her.”
“I don’t think you are.”
“All due respect, Vera, but I can’t take one more lesson about this.”
A lecture right now will not help. And I need something that will help. I need a magical solution that can bring Callie back to me and make the overlords of The Final Rose happy.
“I wasn’t going to lecture you,” she replies with an arched eyebrow. “But all this… everything is about narrative, right?”
The word stings, and I add. “I’m going to choose you, by the way. You’re the fan favorite.”
“Oh,” she squeaks. “I’ve never been someone’s favorite.”
“Congratulations.”
To my surprise, Vera laughs. “You see what I’m telling you? We are the only ones who care about what’s really going on here. They,” she points out, “care about narrative.”
“And that’s why we are in this mess, Vera. Because people won’t care that Callie and I fell–” I hold my tongue and breathe through my nose. “They won’t care about the feelings between Callie and me. They will make this ugly. Callie will be a homewrecker. You twelve will be the victims and I will be the heartthrob.”
“And that’s why we need to change the narrative.”
“Change the narrative?” I ask skeptically, but Vera is smiling.
“Yes. We’re going to play producer, Sebastian Riggs.”
I chuckled for the first time in twenty-four horrible hours. Vera has a lot of faith and sometimes is infectious. I open my mouth to ask how we are going to play this game she proposes, when the bedroom door opens without notice.
I fly off the bed as Maya and Abby arrive. “Hmm, girls, I just came to talk to Vera–” I scramble to find an excuse.
“Thank God you are both here.” Abby closes the door after them.
“We don’t have much time. They are coming for you soon, Sebastian.”
“Coming for me?” I ask, frowning.
The two girls look at Vera in alarm, and I don’t understand what’s happening.
“Abby just heard from Devi,” Maya explains. “Someone blabbed. They know.”
The icy feeling goes down my spine. My dry mouth finds a way to ask. “About what?”
Abby looks at me like I’m insane. “You and Callie!”
I look at Vera, and she lifts a shoulder. “I said I haven’t told Anya. But I had to tell the girls. It was only right for them to know.”
I don’t have time to think that we four are supposedly dating just to fulfill a contract. Maya is talking fast. “The entire crew is on high alert. Adam Cork got the tip before it all blew to the wind. I don’t know if he can do anything about it.”
I falter. Adam Cork? The fucking showrunner knows?
“Sebastian, you don’t get it,” Abby says with a gulp. “Everyone knows.”
“Everyone who?” I ask again, because it can’t be true.
“The entire country. And whoever else watches–”
“I don’t understand.” I shake my head, interrupting her. “The season is not even aired.”
“The good news is that I don’t think they have Callie’s name,” Maya says, ignoring my line of questioning. “Devi said someone from the crew was having an affair with you. He never used Callie’s name. I don’t know if that means Adam Cork is putting a lid on it—"
“Since when are you so close to Devi?” I shake my head. I have no idea why it matters right now, but my brain is scrambled as it is.
“Abby is,” Maya replies like it answers all my questions. “The season will fall before it’s even in the air. They all—”
She never has time to finish, though. Anya bursts into the bedroom, her eyes fixed on me.
“Riggs, with me.”