Beside me, Tilda is breathing hard, one hand braced on her knee, the other fisted at her side like she’s restraining the urge to throttle me retroactively.
“That,” she says between breaths, “was a spectacularly stupid choice.”
“Yes,” I say immediately.
She straightens and looks at me, shocked by the lack of argument.
I wipe wet hair back from my forehead. “You were right.”
Her mouth opens. Closes.
“I know that’s upsetting to hear in public,” I add, “but I’m trying to grow.”
A helpless sound escapes her. Not quite a laugh. More like one came close and got denied at the border.
The overhead screen changes to live audience metrics.
A bar markedVIEWER FAVOR SHIFTsurges upward beside our names.
Bron + Tilda.
Dramatic save.
Strong teamwork under pressure.
Engagement spike.
“Oh, hell,” Tilda says.
I glance up and bark out a laugh. “They love us.”
“They love a near-disaster.”
“Same thing on television.”
Our popularity score keeps climbing. Not top of the board, but a significant jump, enough that even from here I can see sponsor staff taking note. The commentators are eating it alive—her precision, my “reckless charisma,” the tension, the recovery, the visible chemistry in conflict.
Tilda looks like she wants to set the metrics on fire.
I, unfortunately, understand the value immediately.
“Useful,” I say.
She turns to me. “Do not.”
“Do not what?”
“Start acting like public affection scores are a substitute for competence.”
I raise a hand over my heart. “After the fish incident? Never.”
That finally does it. The corner of her mouth twitches before she catches it and kills it dead.
But I see it.
And something warm and dangerous moves through me that has absolutely nothing to do with audience points.
The elimination results take another forty minutes to finalize as all pairs run. We cool down in the contestant holding zone with towels, electrolyte packs, and too many cameras. Dax and his partner make it through by sheer stubbornness. Sonya looks murderous but alive. Three pairs don’t finish clean. One gets medically pulled after a nasty beam strike. Two more are on the bubble with terrible times.
