Page 113 of Unscripted

I must have been a glutton for punishment because despite all of this, despite the end of us being so clearly right in front of me, I still pushed on. If this really was going to be it, then I needed to get everything out. I needed him to know he was the one walking away, not me.

“It wasn’t pretend. Not for me. Not in the end, and not for a while.”

“Well, it was for me.”

And just like that, our relationship splintered and broke apart.

He didn’t want it, and I didn’t have anything left to give.

Neither of us spoke again. We just stood there, staring at each other until Harry knocked on the door letting us know it was time to go to set.

I dabbed at my eyes, wiping away the tears threatening to fall, and followed Callum out of the green room. As we wound through the television studio’s halls, as we walked onto the late-night show’s set, and as I took my seat next to Callum, side by side on an oval couch, I willed my brain to shut down. To go on autopilot. To smile and wave and make the small talk I had been coached to make.

Another few hours. That was all it would be.

Then I could let myself fall apart.

CHATTERBOX

@LateNightShow: OMG CALLUM AND POPPY ON TN’S EPISODE!!! THEY WERE SOOOO CUTE N IN LUV!

@Poppumm123: MOM AND DAD R SO HOTTTT. CALLUM + POPPY 4EVERRR!!

@DailyUKTea: BREAKING NEWS COMING OUT IN THE NEXT HOUR ABOUT BELLA AMORE WINNERS POPPY AND CALLUM . . . THE TEA IS PIPING AND WILL LEAVE FANS STEAMING . . .

@BellaAmourrrrFann11: WAIT WHAT IS GOING ON RN?! THIS CAN’T BE 4 REAL!

50

Iwas a cloud.

I was a cloud, I was on a cloud, I lived in a cloud, and I never wanted to leave.

Those were the winding thoughts drifting through my mind, so blissfully nonsensical, when the pounding on my hotel room door began.

“No,” I said out loud to the empty room.

I had finally, finally been able to crawl into bed—this lovely bed that could rival a cloud—at the very fancy hotel the network had put me up in. My room was gorgeous and decadent, but the best part was the double duvet-covered king-sized bed I was currently cocooned in.

I had no plans to go anywhere, to talk to anyone, or to get out of bed for the foreseeable future.

After we had wrapped last night’s final talk show, Callum and I ended up being driven home together. I’m sure the show’s producers assumed that’s what we would want—driving off into the night together to start our new life.

I was too exhausted to protest and, besides, we still had a cover story to maintain.

So we both climbed into the back of the black sedan, neither one of us saying anything. There was nothing left to say. I was going to my hotel. He was going home. This was it, our final moment together.

When the driver pulled up in front of my hotel, I moved to get out but stopped before I pushed open the door.

I turned back to Callum.

He looked tired, the creases around his eyes more pronounced, as though this whole ordeal had drained the life out of him.

Looking at him, I realized that I did have one more thing to say. One more simple truth to reveal.

“I don’t regret it, what we did. I don’t think I ever will.”

I looked at him for another moment, memorizing his features, taking him in. I’d likely never see him again.