Love Elimination (7 page)

‘My ankle,’ she whispered into his ear like it was a seduction.

He grimaced, but picked her up and carried her to the closest flat surface. ‘Is it hurt?’

She winced as he smoothed his hands around the ankle she was holding tenderly. ‘You have great hands,’ she crooned.

‘Yvette.’ He had to actively restrain himself from grinding his teeth. ‘Does it still hurt?’

‘Ouch,’ she cried.

‘Okay. Let’s get you to medical.’ He sighed. ‘Can you walk?’

She smiled up at him. ‘I’d rather be in your arms.’

And he would rather be on the slopes. Why hadn’t he argued harder with his father? There had to be another way to pay him back, to thank him for swooping in when he was injured. For being the only person who supported him, with no investment in his snowboarding career. One that didn’t involve cameras in his face or women eying off his alleged fortune. Retirement was supposed to mean an end to both. Now he was right back to where he’d been at the height of his fame—with a gold digger in his arms and a herd of women on the sidelines, just desperate to take her place.

* * *

Anna’s stomach ached from the fits of laughter caused by Hadie’s and Rachel’s antics. The point came when she had to take a break, joining Liu Kun and Christina at the tricks area, while Hadie and Rachel continued to pelt each other with dodge balls. All the women were relaxing—showing off their fun sides for Luke Westwood. They would be all smiles if not for Luke’s constant disappearing to check on Yvette, who’d successfully stolen the spotlight for the day without even being in the room. Not that Anna cared, but the rest of the cast were sneaking glares towards the entrance to the building.

‘She must be really hurt,’ Liu Kun said, bouncing closer to Anna, who was sitting cross legged in the middle of the trampoline.

‘Her foot had better be broken,’ Christina cut in. ‘For all the attention she’s getting.’

‘Do you think she’d leave if it was?’ Anna bit her lip. What if Yvette had to quit the show due to injury? They probably wouldn’t have an eviction and her own departure would be delayed.

‘Yvette could break every bone in her body and she would still stay.’ Christina continued to eyeball the door.

‘How long do you think it’s been? An hour?’ Liu Kun said.

‘Maybe. Or longer. They better extend the date or only half of us will get a chance to speak to Luke,’ Christina replied.

Anna stood. This conversation was toxic. Thanks to Christina, it was the exact kind of bitching that the producers loved. It would be making it onto the episode for sure and Anna didn’t want to be any part of it. She should have gotten out sooner and made her way to one of the other groups. Which she would now, except that all the bouncing meant that Anna needed to pee.

She spotted Kate and the director at the front of the room and weaved her way around the trampolines towards them. A camera followed her. It made her skin crawl being watched like that all the time. Did they think she’d do something television-worthy on her way to speak to Kate?

‘—definitely faking,’ Kate was saying. Anna automatically slowed her approach. ‘Shall I leak it to the other contestants?’

The director paused. Neither noticed that they’d already leaked information to a contestant, with Anna standing only a few metres away. It wasn’t hard to figure out who or what they were talking about. Yvette was faking? Did the producers put her up to it?

‘Yes. Whisper in Rachel’s ear. If she doesn’t tell the others within fifteen minutes, try Brooke or Tamsen. Make sure to get some angry interviews.’

Kate turned and they finally realised she was standing there.

‘Anna! What are you doing here?’

She stammered out her explanation. She followed her sister’s directions out the front door and into the lobby. Anna froze.

Yvette and Luke sat against the wall. A single camera pointed at them from the other side of the room—almost giving them privacy by
Love Elimination
’s standards. Anna didn’t move as she watched Yvette, who leaned in to Luke and pressed her lips against his. It only lasted a second but Anna felt time drag. Her heart clenched at the sight. What was Luke Westwood doing kissing one of the contestants on the first date? Any one of them could have walked in on him and Yvette—someone who genuinely hoped to fall in love with him. What an arsehole. Or a producers’ puppet. Either way, Anna’s assumptions about the man were confirmed.

The couple broke apart and Anna took her chance to rush past, following the illuminated toilet signs. ‘Hold on there. The shot was interrupted,’ Anna heard the cameraman say as she retreated down the corridor. ‘Yvette, we’re going to need you to do that again. Pretend it was the first time. Three, two, one, ACTION.’

* * *

‘One final interview: Anna, Christina, Rachel and Yvette.’ Joe called the names from a list and the producers ushered the women in the right direction. Anna’s palms grew sweaty as they were led to a set around the side of the building. For a moment, it looked like she might escape without speaking to the cameras: the rest of the contestants were piling onto the minibus as the four of them were lined up against the brick wall of the building.

At least it was Kate doing the interview. She shot a quick smile at Anna.

‘What did you think of the group date, Anna?’ Kate asked.

‘It was fun. It was great to do something athletic with Luke, to show him a different side to us from the cocktail dresses of the first night,’ she replied.

Kate nodded. ‘And Christina—did you feel like you got enough time with Luke?’

‘No.’

The corners of Kate’s mouth flickered upwards at the answer. It was obviously the one she wanted. ‘And why is that?’

‘He spent a lot of time with just one person,’ Christina said. The younger woman frowned and shot a glance at Yvette.

But Kate kept pushing. Clearly vague slights at another contestant were not good enough for
Love Elimination
. ‘Who do you feel took up Luke’s attention today?’

Christina turned to glare at the woman in question. ‘Yvette.’

‘Can you say that to the camera, please, Christina?’ Kate pointed at the camera directly opposite them. ‘Say: “Yvette took up all of Luke’s time today. No one else got to talk to him.”’

After a moment’s hesitation, Christina did as she was instructed.

‘Again, please, Christina,’ Kate said.

Christina tried a second time. Her words were more fluent, but still it wasn’t good enough. Kate made her repeat it a third time and Anna suddenly realised what she was doing. Christina sounded frustrated at having to keep trying. Without the context, it would probably sound like Christina was angry at Yvette—ten times more so than her first attempt.

‘How did Yvette monopolise Luke? Rachel?’

‘She faked an injury,’ Rachel said. Whether she was being frank as Anna had come to expect from the fiery redhead or she was playing to what Kate wanted, Anna wasn’t sure.

‘What do you have to say to that, Yvette?’

‘I’m doing whatever it takes to get to know Luke,’ Yvette said sweetly. ‘I’m not here to make friends. I want to fall in love.’

‘Is there anything else you want to add, Anna? About Yvette’s behaviour today?’

Anna frowned at her sister. ‘No.’

No—she most certainly did not want to be filmed telling the rest of the cast about the first kiss of the season, to then be broadcast to the entire nation. Was her sister insane? Anna wouldn’t be manipulated into becoming one of their pawns.

‘Okay, thank you, ladies.’ Kate dismissed them with a wave of her hand. ‘That’s all for today.’

They were silent as the crew stripped them of their microphones and directed them to the bus. Hadie and a few others were already chatting in the backseat, unaware of the tension between the contestants who had been interviewed.

‘What’s going on?’ Liu Kun asked. Anna slumped into the empty seat next to her and Rachel took the one opposite her.

‘Yvette here faked her injury to get more time with Luke,’ Rachel said.

‘You weren’t going to make it past the next eviction anyway,’ Yvette said as the bus door closed—with the crew and their cameras on the other side. She stood at the top of the aisle, using the space like a stage. The woman wasn’t nervous or bashful in the slightest. In a way, Anna admired that. Even if she didn’t like Yvette, the woman was unapologetic in who she was and what she wanted.

‘Luke didn’t even notice you, Rachel. You all need to step it up,’ she continued. ‘I’m not going to stop trying just because you aren’t willing to do what it takes to win the billionaire. You can cast me as the villain on the show, you can hate me all you want, but I’m going to be the last woman standing in the finale.’

‘There’ll be a single date today,’ one of the women told the room. Anna didn’t bother looking up from her crossword to check who it was. ‘For sure.’

‘Did you consult your crystal ball?’ Yvette, who Anna now thought of as Queen Bitch, asked with a nasal tone. Two cameras zoomed in on her face. Another scanned the reactions of the other women. Anna had found herself the perfect position: right next to the camera. She was so close to the tripod, there was no way it could get a good shot of her.

‘Not a crystal ball. The stars have aligned.’ Rachel winked at the camera, while Yvette rolled her eyes at another.

‘Someone needs to come in and tell us what’s going on.’

‘So this is what reality television is like. A whole bunch of waiting.’

‘They’re never going to tell us. It’ll be all suspense.’

‘Maybe we should take charge … revolt,’ Anna muttered to Hadie, who hid a grin. ‘Organise our own dates and we can just tell Luke and the crew what’s going to happen.’

‘Hold on one moment,’ Joe called and everyone in the room stopped. ‘Anna, can I get you to say that again? But this time I need you to look up at Camera 3 and speak a bit louder, and more clearly.’ He nodded, as if he needed to affirm his own instruction. ‘Action!’

‘Wait, what did I say?’ Anna struggled to stifle her panic. A crew member repeated her own words back to her a couple of times until she learned them by heart. The whole thing was utterly ridiculous. Even their positioning was fake. The couches had been pushed into a shape where they would fit the eleven remaining women while giving the cameras access to every angle. Four of the women had been swapped around until there was a pleasant balance of clothing colours. Two other contestants had been rearranged so that their poses suited the tableau. Each time Joe spoke or the camera stopped rolling, Liu Kun subtly shifted herself closer to a normal sitting position—as opposed to the ridiculous position the crew had twisted her into so that it looked like she’d been doing yoga while the other women sat around and chatted.

‘We should lead a revolt!’ Anna said to the ceiling, trying desperately to exude the enthusiasm they needed to move past this scene. ‘Let’s take charge and run the dates ourselves. Someone just needs to let Luke Westwood know.’

The director and crew sighed audibly, probably ruining the shot once again. Not that it mattered. At least half of the group were laughing at Anna’s forced delivery.

‘Thank you, Anna. Please go back to general chatter about what will happen today,’ he instructed.

If someone had joined the show to write a tell-all, behind-the-scenes exposé, Anna sincerely hoped they had a back-up plan. She’d had more interesting shifts cleaning raw meat from the slicer for three hours straight. She couldn’t even tell how long this unique form of torture stretched on—they’d taken away her watch. The walls bore stunning pieces of art, but not a single clock. The production crew had gone out of their way to keep the contestants in the
Love Elimination
bubble.

Finally Mason Lockier made his entrance, his greetings and flirting prolonged as usual. He made time to comment on every single contestant, teasing and drawing out anything interesting about them. He had to try a lot harder with some than others. While there were eleven contestants in the room, there were only about seven or eight personalities.

By the time she’d listened to the ten other witty, funny, cute, sexy or whatever characters the women had assumed for the show, Anna was done. Her patience was at an end. And then Kate slid into the room and stood behind the camera, twisting her rings around her fingers.

‘Now, it’s high time I have a chat to everyone’s favourite contestant!’ Mason announced. ‘Anna.’

‘I’m your favourite, Mason? Are you even allowed to pick favourites?’ she teased, hoping to defuse the sudden hatred she could feel emanating from some of her fellow contestants. It did nothing to prevent the death stares that Yvette, Tallulah and Brooke shot across the room.

‘Not me. Australia loves you, my dear.’

‘Me?’

This time the glares didn’t just come from Yvette and her friends, who Anna had mentally labelled the ‘mean girls’, knowing full well she was buying into a stupid cliché; they were the contestants who were nice to everyone’s faces and bitched behind their backs. But now only Hadie looked at her without hatred.

There were no dropped jaws or wide-eyed stares from the crew. Either the moment was scripted, or Mason had permission to reveal the information. But that didn’t mean Anna believed it to be true for a single second.

‘Yes. You! Thanks to your brilliant modesty and even better campaign manager.’

‘What?’

It was like being filmed in the middle of a pop quiz for a topic she wasn’t studying. Her eyes met Kate’s, but her sister just shook her head and jerked her head in the direction of Mason until Anna looked away. Any of the women could have caught their exchange, but they seemed to be alternating between trying to read Anna’s expression for details and visibly willing her dead.

‘Don’t play daft with me now, Anna.’

‘What do you mean, my campaign manager?’

The cameras were all on her. Kate was looking at her with her arms pressed to her sides, her hands flattened and tense against her pencil skirt. Yvette and Tallulah were not so quietly whispering to each other, scheming how they’d stab her with their stilettos later that day.