Page 90 of Unscripted

I looked around as she went, wondering where Callum was. Instead, I found a very giddy Ella tip-toeing my way.

“Come sit by the pool with me,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows and not stopping to give me a chance to object. The producers would have chirped at me over the speakers to move on to another conversation about the night anyway. Sitting with Ella would be better than anyone else.

By the time I reached her, Ella had already sat down along the edge of the pool, her feet submerged in the water below. Her wine glass from earlier in the night was clutched in her hands. I sat down next to her, taking my shoes off and dipping my own feet into the pool. The cool water felt heavenly after a night in heels.

“Here,” she said, offering me a sip from her glass.

“I have mine,” I said, gesturing to where I had placed my own glass next to me.

“No, really, have some,” she said. There was a glint in her eye that stopped me from objecting again. I reached out and took the goblet from her. Putting it to my lips, I took a sip.

And almost spit it back out.

It was tequila. Straight tequila, filled right up to the rim of the glass.

“Where did you get this?” I exclaimed in a whisper.

Ella laughed, her head tipping back in pure joy.

She looked around, making sure there wasn’t anyone nearby, and then grabbed my mic and hers, wrapping one hand around each of them to mute what she was about to say.

“Ben gave it to me. I guess there’s a tradition that the night of the Chateau Desire matching, the senior producers throw a big party for junior producers in the Hut.”

“No way,” I said, shocked that there was a rager happening at that very moment, just at the end of the driveway.

“Swear it. He was a bit drunk doing my confessional and told me all about it. Even ran out and snuck this back in for me. You have to share it with me, though. After weeks of sticking to one wine a night, I fear a whole glass of this will knock me out.”

As if in confirmation, she let out a perfectly timed hiccup as she dropped our mics, done sharing her confidential information.

“Oh no, I think it already has,” she giggled.

I couldn’t help the laugh that burst out of me. And then Ella was laughing even harder, and we were falling all over ourselves, both at the absurdity of the whole evening and the contraband liquor.

We sat there for a while longer, giggling and sipping from the goblet of tequila. The producers really must have been partying because no one called us out to move along to another conversation or do any more confessionals. In fact, the entire villa had been left pretty much uninterrupted for a while.

Ella and I were laughing, again, about something stupid when a throat cleared behind us.

I turned to find Callum. He was standing there with his hands in his pockets, fighting a smile.

“Ladies,” he said, greeting both of us yet keeping his eyes focused only on me. I stared back, unable to look anywhere but directly at him.

Ella’s head swiveled from Callum to me and back again before she pulled her legs out of the pool and stood up. Considering that the goblet of tequila was now empty, I gave her credit for not immediately tipping over into the water.

Instead, with that built-in grace that had once annoyed me to no end, she simply threw her shoulders back and walked away without a word.

Callum smirked and stepped toward me.

“Having fun?” he asked.

“Quite a bit, actually,” I replied.

He laughed and then bent down to sit next to me on the pool’s edge. He settled himself so close that our arms touched, the warmth of his skin melting into mine.

I suddenly felt rather shy and looked away from him and down at the pool.

“How’s Chi?” he asked.

“Doing her best. She was going to sneak up to bed after her confessional, try to sleep it all away.”