Love Elimination (12 page)

‘Please, Anna. It’s not that dire. The café can wait. This is my career and you trying to leave is jeopardising it.’

Anna closed her eyes, as if it would block the truth of her sister’s words. Her whole body itched to go home. She felt trapped. It might not have been so bad if it was just spending time in the villa, the occasional filmed group date and chatting with the other women as she cooked. But the villa was a cesspit of female jealousy and cattiness, and filming was a bigger invasion of privacy than she could’ve imagined.

‘So what do you expect me to do? Pretend to fall in love with Luke Westwood?’ Anna exclaimed. ‘You know I can’t act! I couldn’t even get myself cast as a tree in Year 4. They had to create a backstage position. Do you remember that?’

‘So don’t act,’ Kate said. ‘But you
have
to relax and let yourself have fun. These dates are exciting! They’re great! We had teams of people thinking up the absolute coolest things you could do in Queensland. Teams, Anna! How often does this kind of all-expenses-paid-for experience come along?’

‘None of this is new, Kate. They’re all the same arguments I’ve heard from you before.’

‘Then maybe you should listen to them! You’re infuriating!’

Rustling from behind the palm trees gave Anna an excuse to look away. Even with the lateness of the hour, it wasn’t truly dark. The moon and stars shone bright and their light danced across the ocean’s surface. A soft swell lapped against the shore. There were worse places to be trapped. But that didn’t change the feeling in the bottom of her stomach.

‘Please, Anna. Please do this for me. Just stay.’

Anna looked at her sister. Her shoulders were hunched and her head was tilted, as if her neck was too tired to hold it up any longer.

‘This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done,’ Kate continued gently. She’d seen the cracks in Anna’s resolve. ‘I let you move in with me—and you know I love living together, but you owe me and I’m calling it in.
Love Elimination
needs to be a success. As much as you hate it, you are popular. Your Instagram account has grown by thousands of followers this week. Ben’s Twitter account for you is even bigger. So I need you. The show needs you. Everyone wants you to win. Please, I will never ask anything of you again.’

Everyone wanted her to win? It was one date. The first date. They hadn’t been given anyone else to root for yet. That was Kate’s job: to cast someone as the favourite. Anna felt tears pooling behind her eyelids all over again. It was too much. The intensity of the whole experience weighed down on her.

‘Kate, I can’t do this.’ She felt defeated already and they’d barely begun filming. The cameras were always there—even when they weren’t on a date they were shooting a ‘who got the date’ or ‘when do you think the date will be’ scene, or doing interviews about whatever they’d just shot or what was about to happen. In between filming was almost as bad with the boredom and the politics of the villa. The only source of entertainment was drinking, since they had constant access to a bar and were plied with drinks whenever the cameras were around.

‘You
can
do this. I just need this one thing from you. It’s my career. My dream.’ Kate grabbed Anna’s hand. ‘Please.’

The lines in Anna’s forehead deepened. Her whole body hurt at the thought of staying on the show any longer. But Kate was her sister and the only family she had left. The only family she acknowledged. That had to mean something. It didn’t mean she had to stop trying to get evicted. The audience was fickle. They’d change alliances the more screen time the other contestants received. She could lower her vote and increase her chances of being sent home. And Kate and the other producers would change their mind in a week’s time, maybe two, once they saw how unpopular she was. Or Luke would.

‘Okay. But no more borrowing my clothes all the time. It’s high time you invested in your own wardrobe.’ Anna tried to ease the tightness in her stomach with teasing; Kate wouldn’t be seen wearing her sister’s op shop clothes if she was running a fever and hallucinating.

‘Urgh. If I must.’ Kate smiled.

‘Okay,’ Anna said. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘You’ll stop all attempts to leave or get kicked off the show?’

Anna crossed her fingers behind her back. ‘Yes.’

‘Okay then.’

They stared at each other for a minute before Kate stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around her sister. She smelled like flowers. Daisies.

‘Thank you,’ Kate breathed the words into Anna’s ear and squeezed her tight. Then she pulled back. ‘I better get back before they come looking for me.’

Kate released her grip on Anna’s shoulders and hurried away. Anna pressed a hand to her heart and looked out to the horizon. It really was a beautiful night. She reached down and slipped off her shoes, leaving them in the sand as she waded into the water. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and letting the sweet air fill her lungs.

* * *

Luke ducked behind a particularly wide palm tree. The producer stomped past him, leaving Anna alone on the beach. She was standing in the water. Luke felt himself moving towards her before his brain made the decision. The sound of the waves and the sight of her standing there, like a statue in an island shrine, compelled him.

‘Hi.’ He kept his voice quiet and smooth. She still jumped and the tension returned to her body. She spun around and drops of water splashed onto his bare feet. It was surprisingly cool, despite the hot day and warm night. Luke wished she would just let herself relax like she did when she thought she was alone. ‘Calm down. It’s just me.’

‘Luke! Shit, what are you doing out here?’

‘I was just going for a walk before bed. Stretch out the legs,’ he lied—he had seen the women walk past his pool house.

‘Oh. How much did you overhear?’

‘Everything.’

Of all the women, Anna was the most interesting. The most entertaining. And she was the only one who wasn’t interested in him. As much as he knew that was a good thing—he didn’t want a relationship—his ego took a ruthless battering.

‘I still want to go home.’ She turned back to the ocean and he could see the glint of the moonlight reflected in the corners of her eyes.

‘You lied to your sister? You’re going to keep trying to get evicted?’ he asked, watching the way her body swayed gently as the water lapped in small waves over her toes.

‘Yes.’

Luke dragged a hand through his hair as she continued to stare out, away from him. It was an Australian habit, the refusal to look into another person’s eyes. After years of travel and living overseas, it also became one of his biggest pet peeves. He wanted to take her chin in his fingers and turn her head towards his. Perhaps tilting it towards his lips. He wondered what she would do. Would she part them, anticipating his kiss? Would he kiss her?

‘How can you even think about leaving? What about the spark between us?’ he teased.

‘Pretend the spark has died.’ She grinned at him.

‘What about the social media stuff?’

‘My café is just a hollowed-out shop at the moment. It’s not ready for customers, so what use is good PR?’

Taking her answer as a cue to stop asking questions, Luke joined her in the water. The first cool wave washed goose bumps over his bare feet. With each subsequent wave, the water warmed.

‘Do you want to go for a swim with me?’ It wasn’t quite teasing. A large part of him wanted to watch her slip out of that cocktail dress and into the water. He wanted to know whether she’d opt for wet underwear or whether she’d prefer skinny dipping under the bright light of the Milky Way above them.

‘What? No!’

He chuckled. ‘Okay, another time.’

This time she stepped towards him, putting her face close to his. ‘Seriously, Luke. Stop playing around. What am I doing here? When are you going to send me home? I don’t want to be here.’

‘I know,’ he replied and an idea occurred to him. A way to avoid getting stuck with one of the other women. A way for him and his father to get through this sham with their reputations intact. Without letting it simmer in his mind, he blurted it out: ‘What if you agreed to stay? And we just dated—had fun, relaxed—like your sister said?’

‘Why? You have eight other girls to have fun with. You don’t need me.’

‘I like you.’ He held up his hands as he saw Anna’s reaction. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not falling in love with you. But you’re the one person I don’t have to worry about hurting.’

‘You don’t need me. Just pick someone else who’s happy to date casually.’

‘They all want a fairytale ending, Anna. I need you!’

Anna scoffed but Luke continued speaking with greater urgency. ‘Listen, I don’t want to be here either. I’m just repaying a favour. My life doesn’t have room for a wife and two-point-five kids.’ He kept a distance between them, letting her think it over. ‘There’s a $50,000 budget for a wedding ring at the end of the season. So what if you just rode it out? Then I have one less heart to break.’

Only because he was watching her face so closely did he see her muscles twitch at the mention of the ring.

‘I’m not getting engaged to you!’ she gasped a second later.

Luke laughed again, enjoying the mask of horror on her face. ‘Calm down, I’m not asking you to marry me. Just hang around. The producers will organise some epic dates. And then I don’t have to go and make some other poor innocent fall in love with me.’

‘That’s sad, really. But what’s in it for me? I’m still stuck here.’

‘You get the ring, which you can sell for a small fortune as soon as the show is over.’

‘Not good enough.’

No, of course she wouldn’t fall for that. The woman shied away from every hint of romance or flirting, of which a ring is the ultimate symbol.

‘Think about it, Anna.’ Luke couldn’t resist.

‘No!’

‘Fine, then I’ll have to go with an IOU until I find a way to repay the debt.’ Before she could interrupt, he powered on: ‘Trust me. I’ve got a lot to give. I’m pretty resourceful, you know. I can help you and your café when the time comes.’

She didn’t look entirely appeased. Of course not. The only thing the woman appeared willing to accept was an eviction.

‘The producers don’t want to send you home just yet, Anna. I don’t want to send you home. And you just promised your sister that you wouldn’t get yourself evicted—although you already kind of broke that promise by begging me to send you home tonight.’

Anna let out a puff of air. ‘There’s no way I can convince you, is there?’

‘No.’

‘Why me? Why did you take me on the first single date and why do you want me around?’

Luke thought for a second. ‘Because you’re interesting, gorgeous, and not desperate to tack my name to the end of yours.’

Anna smiled and her beauty made him want to reach out and run his hands through her hair and over her body.

‘So we start tomorrow. Lots of flirting and fun. Okay?’ he said.

‘I’m not agreeing to this.’

‘You aren’t ruthlessly turning me down again, either,’ he pointed out. ‘Now, while we’re thinking things, we may as well talk about that swim …’

Her eyes widened. ‘No!’ Anna tossed her hair over her shoulder and strode back to her shoes, stumbling over them in the dark and dropping onto the sand. With a less than graceful motion, she swept the shoes into her hand, the sand off her arse, and her body down the beach and away from Luke.

‘I’m not sticking around until the end,’ she called softly over her shoulder. ‘Just a few more dates. Epic dates. And then you need to let me go.’

With that, she strode away. He watched her, noticing the way she swayed as she walked. Kind of like she was drunk. Luke chuckled again. At least he would have
some
fun during the show. The company of the crew and his own lonely self had become extremely tiresome. Anna could even distract him from the distinct lack of snow in tropical North Queensland, or from how little he was missing his old life.

Ah crap
. Anna’s pulse rushed and stammered in her veins. Her vision blurred and she realised her mistake: forgetting to breathe. She drew in a quick breath and choked on the sudden inhalation. Her irrational mind suddenly regretted baking and then eating that rhubarb tart the night before.

‘Please tell me this is not what I think it is …’ Hadie muttered, sidling up to Anna. They glanced around the three mirrored walls behind ten silver poles that reached from the wooden floor to the ceiling more than four metres above them. The fourth wall was emblazoned with a giant image of a woman hanging upside down by the underside of her knee.

‘If we get an instructor who looks like that, Luke will take one look and send us all home.’ Anna nodded at the woman’s abs.

‘You think he’s going to judge us on our looks? On our bodies?’ Hadie sounded worried.

Anna didn’t get a chance to answer. The producers were making each of the contestants rip their clothes off and dump them outside of the shot. They had lacy panties and bras for the contestants wearing daggy, grandma underwear to put on. Anna watched as a cameraperson rushed over to whisper in Yvette’s ear. Without even an attempt at subtlety, Yvette pushed her breasts higher in her push-up bra. Anna shuddered. Luckily, Anna’s athletic-looking underwear passed the test. Despite wearing the same brand, Hadie’s did not; they didn’t fit the ‘yummy mummy’ box. Or maybe it was just because Hadie didn’t have a sister for a producer.

After shivering in front of the cameras for a sufficient amount of time, Luke was allowed to emerge from the reception area behind them. Anna spun towards him and found his eyes focused on her body. Goose bumps erupted on her skin. A grin stretched across his face.

He leaned over and strained to reach his toes. All the female eyes went to the reflection of his arse in the mirror. But when the instructor walked in, Luke’s arse had some competition.

‘Welcome. My name is Adam and this is Pole Perfect. Grab a mat, cloth and water bottle and we’ll get started.’

* * *

Pole dancing was hard. Like, impossible. Just keeping her hand around the steel surface was a major trial. Adam spent ten minutes running from pole to pole applying something called ‘dry hands’ to each woman and her pole. Even after it dried into a white powder on her hands, Anna couldn’t figure out how to keep her body attached to the pole. It looked effortless when Adam demonstrated, but the only people able to actually look graceful were Luke (no surprises there) and Jessica, who, it transpired, took pole-dancing classes back home. Anna couldn’t imagine anyone willingly causing themself so much pain. She’d already stripped two layers of skin from the top of her feet trying to climb the pole. Plus she’d pulled a muscle in her arm and spotted a bruise forming on the soft skin above her knee.