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Gia grabbed the phone, sweetly answering, “Hello?”
“Good morning, team! How was your second night in the house?” Troy asked.
Sophie ducked her head, knowing our exchange had been caught on film and probably shown in bits and blurred pieces to the audience.
“Great! Slept like a baby,” Zander said, keeping things light.
“Excellent! Today, we’ve planned something unorthodox for you and a chance for one of you to snag a one-on-one date with the partner of your choosing. Get yourselves over to the pool, and let’s get started!”
Gia hung up, and we stood as one, united as a team against whatever the producers and our host would throw at us.
We filed out and headed along the walkway together, sticking close to one another and looking toward the pool curiously.
Troy was already there, standing on the north side. He motioned for us to stay on the opposite side. There were four cameramen; two pointed at us and two at our host.
Taking his cue from an operator, he cleared his throat and began his introduction. We cheered when he welcomed us, but then, I’m sure, like the others, my face went slack.
“Today, we’ve brought along pieces of the ladies’ pasts. You get to meet their exes, but the catch is, I won’t tell you whose ex they are. They will have a number on their shirt that matches up with your answer cards. Guys, on the table over there, there are clipboards. You can each ask a question for all of our guests that they will individually answer, but nothing that will reveal the name of who they dated. Girls, you may watch from the area our crew set up by the lounge chairs. You’ll be hidden from view so you don’t give away any reactions or secrets. We can’t make it easy on the guys, can we?”
When Troy waved his hand, the five women moved off to the side where they were shielded from us by the potted trees the crew had arranged this morning. Most of them were still staring at him in shock, while the others seemed to deflate as if all their fun-loving energy had been drained from Troy’s big revelation.
“The man with the most correct answers will win a romantic dinner for two with the person of his choice. Gentlemen, this is a chance to get to know the women in this house from another perspective.”
Troy signaled toward the beach, and five men emerged, making their way toward us.
They walked single file, lining up along the longer edge of the rectangular pool to our right and puffing their chests out for the cameras trained on them. After eyeing each of them, I wondered which one looked like someone Sophie might date. I looked over toward the girls, already knowing I couldn’t see them but trying to will my eyes to see through the trees all the same.
“Welcome, gentlemen. Welcome.” Troy said, recapturing my attention. He turned from the exes back toward us. “Housemates, please meet the exes of the women you are dating.” The looks of pity and hostility were equal from the men.
Call me psychic, but I had a powerful feeling that this wouldn’t go well. Audiences were sure to eat this shit up, but this had to be uncomfortable for the women. I knew that if they dragged any of my grand total of four exes here, I’d feel completely out of sorts. Nothing could stall progress quite like glimpsing the past.
Looking at the lads gathered, I sized up my opponents for the day.
They differed in looks as much as our resident guys did, with no discernable similarities in them other than they were male.
Even though I’d promised Aaron I would branch out, I really wanted that date with Sophie. My competitive instinct kicked in, and I was helpless to stop it. When Troy told us to grab a clipboard, I headed to the table and swiped one, ready to get down to it and win this thing.
Troy spoke when we were all holding our clipboards and ready to begin. “Okay, gentlemen. Who would like to begin?”
Daniel lifted a hand and looked over at the exes. “What do you do for work?” Smart. One of the women might have mentioned what their exes did in yesterday’s chats.
One by one, they went down the line. The tall blond guy was a veterinarian. The shorter Black guy next to him worked in a law firm. The middle guy, more dressed for a biker bar than a beach, ran a biker bar. The redhead was in construction. And the Latino beside him was in real estate.
None of that helped, but I took notes on their jobs and appearance. Maybe Kayla had a thing for redheads. We gravitate to what we’re familiar with. That theory took root, and I put her name next to guy number four.
Scribbling furiously on our clipboards, we jotted everything down, and Aaron went next. “What is the best physical feature of a woman?” he asked.
Okay, give the horndog points. That would be a great way to match up pairs.
They went in the same order as before. Eyes, smile, hips, ass, tits. I had to give it to them; every answer was different. Based on who we had in the house, my gut said that the tall blond guy was an ex of Gia’s. The woman’s eyes were an interesting blue-green I’d never seen before.
That was two potential matches.
Who was Sophie’s ex among these guys? She had a brilliant smile, hips I wanted to trace with my tongue, a full, plump ass, and I had personal knowledge of how incredible her tits were.
I raised my hand to go next. “What is the personality quality you look for above all others?” That had to help us connect more of the dots.
Again, going down the line, we had compassion, intelligence, loyalty, kindness, and trust. These were generic answers, but in our chat yesterday, Viv mentioned that an ex cheated on her. I doubted the biker bloke was her ex. Unless he was trying to prove he had changed?
