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“Why are you here?” I ask, realizing that for the first time this evening, I actually care about the answer. I pick up my drink, but the glass is empty, courtesy of Ellie.
Her slim shoulders lift and fall. “My best friend made me.”
I can’t help the laugh, both at the unexpected answer and at the parallels between our situations. “And you agreed?”
“Eh. It was sort of…let’s just say I allowed myself to pretend it would be a marketing opportunity.”
“For?”
Raven’s waving her hand behind me. Time’s almost up. I ignore her.
“My business,” she says with plucky pride.
“What kind of business?”
Ellie leans forward. “I’m not allowed to officially endorse any products while on the air.”
“So your plan backfired.”
“Looks like,” she says, spreading her hands like she couldn’t care less. “Why are you here?”
The question’s unexpected, and my answer is a result of both my Jilted “training” and my six years of living in the spotlight: a lie.
“To meet my one true love,” I say with my trademark Gage Barrett smile.
She’s not impressed.
In fact, number twenty-one—no, Ellie—actually wrinkles her nose in distaste, and I have the irrational urge to tell her the truth: I lost a bet, and I?
?m tired of my playboy rep.
She stands before I can say anything, apparently finally noticing the producer attempting to wave her off camera.
“Nice to meet you,” I murmur as she passes.
Ellie No-Last-Name’s only response is a snort.
Ellie
THREE DAYS LATER, MAUI
“Who cares what he’s like, Marj! Are you listening to anything I’m saying? They didn’t vote me off. I’m not coming home.”
Even in my panic, I try to keep my voice to a whisper as I slip out of the room I’ll be sharing with three other girls for…well, as long as we all last in this farce of a television show.
“Um, Ellie,” interrupts a snide voice.
Damn it. One of my roommates has caught me, and it’s not the nice one. Eden is pretty enough in a sharp-featured, I’m gonna drink your blood kind of way, but like most of my fellow contestants, she’s got claws. Hers are particularly sharp.
“Personal calls aren’t allowed, Ellie.”
“It’s for work,” I say quickly. That’s not a total lie. Marjorie is my business partner as well as my best friend. “I’ll be quick.”
Eden narrows her eyes, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if she pulled a whistle out of her pocket and blew it to report me.
“Leave her alone, Eden. Surely you have something better to do—hone your talons or something?”
I smile at the sound of Paisley’s voice coming from inside our room. A spunky redhead, Paisley’s the closest thing to a friend I’ve made in this creepy harem situation. The fact that she and I were assigned to the same room is just about the only thing that’s keeping me from drowning myself in the Pacific.
