‘No,’ I protested. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t go on this single date with Dylan. That’s not fair to anyone!’
‘I agree!’ Jess D said, folding her arms over her chest. ‘She’s not even part of the competition!’
‘Exactly,’ I said. I could feel panic rising up in my throat, and I tried to pretend it was because the cameras were on me, but he’d looked at me, oh God, he’dlookedat me, and he wasn’t supposed to look at me like that. ‘I was only one point in front of Parisa. She should go on the single date.’
Z touched his finger to his earpiece and listened for a second. ‘Unfortunately, rules are rules!’ he announced. ‘The winner of today’s group date challenge goes on the single date, and that’s you, Cece!’
I was going to kill Murray. And every producer that could have been in Z’s earpiece, just to be safe. They were probably rubbing their hands together at all the drama me winning this date was going to cause.Think of the promos!they’d be cackling.This is going to be ratings gold!
‘Dylan—’ I said, but a PA was already shepherding him away.
‘That’s a wrap!’ Steve the director announced. ‘Juliets, you’ll be recording in-the-moments for a little while, so if you need to go to the bathroom or get your make-up touched up, now’s your chance. Wardrobe, take Cece and get her ready for the date shoot.’
‘Is she back in the competition now?’ Lily Fireball demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
‘We’re just friends,’ I tried to say, but the words came out weak and quiet, like I’d barely said them at all.
What would I say if Dylan asked me to move back into the Juliet Villa? What would I do?
I tried to imagine it as I was led back to wardrobe and they held dress after dress up to me and shook their heads, saying, ‘No, this one isn’t quite the right vibe, neither is this one.’Cece, we’ve got so close these past few weeks, he’d say, his fingers lacing through mine.I made such a big mistake eliminating you. Will you be part of the competition again? Please?
Of course, I’d say, and he’d smile, and then he’d kiss me, and I’d wrap myself around him…
And then I’d watch as he took Parisa on a single date, and Kumiko, and Amanda. He’d lace their fingers through his as they walked away from the Villa, and I’d have to watch them go.
There’d be the Necklace Ceremonies too. I’d make it through a few, of course. I’d outlast Lily Fireball, which would probably be turned into some underdog’s revenge storyline.Cece, I want to know if your heart is the other half of mine, Dylan would say,will you take this necklace and commit to finding out with me?
Yes, I’d say,of course, yes,and his fingers would brush against the back of my neck as he fastened the necklace, and I’d feel that brush everywhere.
Maybe I’d even do what I’d wanted to from the beginning, which was to go deep in the competition to maximise my sponcon chances. I might even make it to the end.
But Brett hadn’t picked Mary-Ellen.
I’m sorry, Cece, Dylan would say to me.You’re so special to me. What we have is special. Our friendship has meant the world to me. But it’s not love. Your heart isn’t the other half of mine.
‘Don’t cry,’ the make-up artist said to me, blotting my tears away roughly with a sponge. ‘This mascara isn’t waterproof.’
I took in a long, shaking breath, let it out slowly and prayed to Jenifer that all that pandemic yoga had given me the baseline strength I needed to be able to do this.
‘No,’ I said, as the wardrobe people presented me with a stunning princess gown. ‘Not that. Not fancy. This isn’t a date. Just give me jeans.’
It was a fight. Both sides had to give ground. Wardrobe even got Murray involved, but after I gave an impassioned speech for five minutes without drawing breath about how Dylan and I were just friends, and how Murray and production had agreed to tell that story, so our date needed to have a different aesthetic, he threw up his hands, said, ‘I tried to throw you a bone, but if you want to throw it back again, that’s your own problem,’ and walked away. The dark smears under his eyes had gone from shadows to sunken craters.
So when two PAs escorted me out into the garden, Saurav walking backwards with his camera in front of us, I was wearing a fuzzy cardigan over a casual floral-print romper. I was wearing it with heels, of course – this wasMarry Me, Juliet– but they were coming off the second I sat down.
Because Dylan and I were just friends, and you kicked your heels off the second you sat down with friends.
The way he’d looked at me hadn’t been the way you looked at a friend.
He’d lied. He wasn’t afraid of getting his heart broken. I knew that. But he said he was so he could spend this date with me.
What if he asked me to re-enter the competition, and I said yes, and I won?Cece, your heart is the other half of mine, he’d say.You’re the most special person in the world to me. I love you. I’m yours.
Marry Me, Julietcouples didn’t always last a long time. Look at Brett and CJ.
But Dylan and I would last. We’d snuggle up on the couch and hide away from the world together. When the pandemic ended, we’d go out in the world together, and try to avoid the paparazzi together, and we’d buy all the women’s magazines that claimed to have the scoop on our relationship together, and try to make a timeline of all the weird things they’d said we’d done and all the break-ups we’d supposedly had together, and when the network was like,Hey, you’re getting married anyway, want to have a TV wedding?we’d say,LOL, no,together, and maybe we’d even adopt some children together, and—
‘Oh, hey, Cece!’ Dylan said brightly, reclining on one elbow on a picnic blanket, like he was sprawled on a couch watching football on a Sunday afternoon. ‘I got stuck into the cheese already. I hope you don’t mind. You know how I feel about cheese.’
