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“Hey.” He pointed at her. “I’ll take no sass from you, missy. I gave you your awesome partner here, and I can take him away.”
She glanced at me with a worried expression before looking back to Evan. “Can you do that?”
Evan pounded his fist on the table as if it were a gavel. “I am all powerful.”Definitely drunk.
“He can’t do that,” I assured her. “And even if he could, he won’t because then he’ll be down one celebrity partner.” My experience on the show so far had been pretty good—thanks to Ali—but there was no way in hell I would do it again.
This time he pointed at me. “You signed a contract. But you’re right. I wouldn’t do that. Our show ratings would plummet if I tore the two lovebirds apart.”
Beside me, Ali paled, and I stiffened. “What the hell are you talking about?” No one knew that Ali and I had been involved prior to meeting on the show, even if a few hours of interaction could be called that. Granted, what we’d done was way more than interact, but that was beside the point.
Damn it.Ali had finally loosened up, and things were happening between us. I didn’t want us to regress.
“There are a few different online polls,” Lacey explained. “People are speculating on which partners are hooking up backstage.”
That was why I’d never had a desire to do anything close to reality television. It inherently came with a side of drama. “You knew about this?” I asked Evan.
He put his hands up. “I just found out about it yesterday.”
Lacey tapped on her phone and pushed it across the table. “Here. You’re ahead of Carlita and Linus by a few points. Yesterday, they had the lead.”
Ali leaned forward to look at Lacey’s phone, but I didn’t want any part of it. I understood celebrities had to give up a certain amount of privacy. If a fan stopped me in the street and asked for an autograph, I had no problem with that. I also didn’t mind if paparazzi took my picture when I was buying groceries or eating dinner or whatever. But they’d crossed the line. My private life wasn’t anyone’s business. I didn’t talk about it in the rare interviews I did for a reason—it was off-limits.
With a sinking feeling in my gut, I realized that if anyone learned the true story, it would make headlines. It was being stranger and more fantastical than fiction.
“Well”—Ali forced a wry grin—“at least Georgia and Walter are at the bottom.”
“Let me see,” Gabe said, and Ali pushed the phone across the table to him. “Jesus. They have three percent, though. Who the hell would think there’s something between them? He could be her grandfather.”
Lacey turned the screen off on her phone and placed it facedown. “They’re probably considering the gold-digger angle. She’s young and pretty. He’s old and rich.”
Ali laughed. “Those people obviously don’t know Georgia… because Gabe is right. She thinks of him like a grandfather.”
“No, they don’t know her,” Leah said quietly. “That’s the thing with being famous or famous adjacent, as I like to call it. It’s like living in a fishbowl sometimes. Our lives are open season.” Gabe quietly wrapped his arm around his fiancée. She flashed an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I’m still getting used to this whole fame thing, and I’m not even the one who’s famous.”
“It has its perks,” Gabe reminded her.
Lacey grinned. “The money is nice.”
Leah scowled. “Lacey!”
The younger girl shrugged unapologetically. “I’m not going to pretend to be upset about not having student loans and a new car. Sorry not sorry.” She sauntered off, presumably to continue herBridgertonmarathon.
“See?” Leah chastised. “You’re turning her into a spoiled brat.”
“Guilty as charged.” Gabe grinned at Ali. “So what do you say, Ali? Are you ready to live the crazy life of a celebrity? You’re halfway there.”
“You know what?” Evan rose from his chair, nearly knocking it over. “As the impartial host, I shouldn’t be privy to this conversation. So I’m going to go top off my wine and maybe pass out on a lounge chair by the pool.”
After Evan had stumbled out of the room, Gabe said, “So how about it, Ali?”
She seemed uncomfortable. “There’s still six weeks of competition and eleven other contestants. It’s too soon to—”
Gabe waved his hand, silencing her. “If I were a betting man, I’d put money on you and my boy Trenton here.”
I’d only recently met Gabe through Liam, so it was flattering that he thought so highly of me. Of course, I respected the hell out of him.
Ali threw back her shoulders. “What if it was just me? Would you still bet the same?”
