He looked uncertain.
‘Mate, you’ve got enough on your plate to worry about,’ I said. ‘You just focus on being the Romeo, all right? Leave the storytelling to me.’
He let out a long breath. ‘Okay. Okay.’
I kept my eyes on his fingers. The tapping slowed. Slowed.
Stopped.
‘We’re about to send you out into the First Night Party,’ I said. ‘The women are going to come at you hard, and there’llbe some fighting over who gets to talk to you, but that’s not your problem. You just focus on having chats. Can you do that?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I can do that.’
‘Excellent. Now I’ve just got one last question, before you head out there.’
He nodded.
‘We’ve had news that some stricter pandemic restrictions have come in. They’re not going to affect us too badly, except in one area: no one is allowed to leave the set for the next six weeks. That includes the women you eliminate.’
He blinked. ‘Okay.’
‘It’s not going to change how things work for you. You’ll only be dealing with the women who are still in the game. But it’s posed a bit of a logistical issue, accommodation-wise.’
‘All right.’
‘Our best solution is to put the eliminated women in the house at the bottom of the hill, which was going to be your Romeo Residence,’ I said. ‘We’ll call it the Nunnery or the Convent or something. But that leaves you without somewhere to stay, so… Dylan, as a professional sailor – how do you feel about living on a boat?’
I was so busy coordinating the removal of Romeo-Dylan’s things from the newly-christened Convent over to the boat on the lake that I missed the formal beginning of the First Night Party. Z had already announced Romeo-Dylan’s entrance and run through most of his introductory spiel when I slipped in behind the cameras. ‘How’s Dylan going?’ I whispered to Saurav.
‘He’s nailing it,’ Saurav murmured back. ‘About two thirds of the women are in full swoon mode.’
I nodded in acknowledgment. Romeo-Dylan might be nervous, but it was comforting to know that he could deliver me a full romantic hero performance without me having toreallyaggressively puppeteer him.
I caught sight of Cece, surreptitiously wiping sweaty fingers on the skirt of her dress. Ihadto remember to give her a pep talk. I didn’t want to lose one of my wifeys to nerves this early.
‘What do you like, though?’ Lily called out to Romeo-Dylan across the sea of Juliets. ‘Blondes? Brunettes? Redheads? Fireballs?’
I was clearly in no danger of losing my villain to nerves. My eye started twitching as Romeo-Dylan’s fingers started tapping again.
‘I think what Lily Fireball is very subtly trying to ask,’ Z said, ‘is: what’s your type, Dylan? What do you look for in a potential Juliet?’
Romeo-Dylan put his hand in his pocket. ‘Physically, I wouldn’t say I have a type.’
His eyes flickered over to me. I gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.
‘But I like strong women,’ he finished. ‘Tough women. Women who like a challenge and who don’t back down.’
So much had gone wrong for me today, but Romeo-Dylan was going right. He was well-spoken and telegenic. The women liked him. And best of all, the man could take direction.
Instinctively, I looked at Lily. It was so deeply baked into me, that reflex: have a thought, share it with Lily.
But her gaze was fixed calculatingly on Romeo-Dylan. ‘Well, you’re going to love me, then!’ she declared. ‘Shall we go for a chat?’
The enormous yellow train of her dress billowed behind her, knocking over a pot plant as she towed Romeo-Dylan away. ‘Lily Fireball moves fast!’ Z exclaimed.
‘You right, mate?’ Saurav asked me quietly.
‘Yeah,’ I lied. ‘I’m fine.’
